Q&A Home > S > St. Mary Was the pregnancy of the Virgin Mary of the Holy Spirit or was the Lord Jesus Christ "an actual child" similar in nature to us? The Holy Gospel of St. Matthew 18:25 very specifically answers this question. An angel, a messenger of the Lord, dispels St. Joseph's reasoning that St. Mary had violated the Mosaic Law and become pregnant by another man. The angel confirms that St. Mary had become pregnant of the Holy Spirit. Being born of a virgin proves the Lord Jesus’s Divinity. The only adequate means of confirming this miraculous act had to be supernatural. That is why God chose a dream as a means of confirming the miraculous conception of our Lord Jesus Christ. Although St. Joseph is called "the husband" of St. Mary, actually they were only "betrothed" but they never married. This is why the Church refers to St. Joseph as the "betrothed." It points out St. Mary's ever-virginity. The conception of the Lord Jesus fulfills what the Holy Book of Isaiah 7:14 in the Old Testament it is written, "A virgin will conceive and bear a Son." He who is conceived in her is not a new Person coming into existence but the Eternal Son of God, using her womb as a throne. The virginal conception, through the Holy Spirit and the Name of the Incarnate Son, Immanuel, God with us, are clear declarations of the Lord Jesus' Divinity. Furthermore, St. Joseph never knew St. Mary even after the birth of the Lord Christ. Firstborn simply implies, "born first." It does not imply the birth of others. Thus the Lord Jesus’s Divinity and St. Mary's virginity is further emphasised. Other references to this point include Holy Gospel of St. Luke 2:1-7, Holy Gospel of St. Matthew 2:12,13,19,22, and Holy Gospel of St. Matthew 27:19.
Was the Lord Jesus Christ an actual child with a similar nature to ours? Yes, He was. We believe that He is a perfect Man and a perfect God. His human nature is exactly like ours with the exception that He was born without the original sin. But as God, He came as a Child bringing Glory to the Father in Heaven. The Holy Gospel of St. Matthew 5:17 tells of His righteousness, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." The Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law in His Person, words, and actions. He performed God's will in its fullness. He transgressed none of the precepts of the Law, He declared the perfect fulfillment of the Law that He would deliver unto the people, and He granted righteousness, the goal of the Law, to us. He fulfills what the prophets foretold in the Old Testament about Him.
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