Theological Term of the Week: Virgin Birth

virgin birth
The miraculous conception of Jesus without the participation of any human father, but by a work of the Holy Spirit, so that his mother Mary remained a virgin at the time of Jesus’ birth; a better term is virginal conception, since it is Jesus’s conception that is unique in history.1

• From scripture: 

  Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:18-21 ESV)

• From The Heidelberg Catechism: 

  Question 35. What is the meaning of these words “He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary”?

  Answer: That God’s eternal Son, who is, and continues true and eternal God, took upon him the very nature of man, of the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary, by the operation of the Holy Ghost; that he might also be the true seed of David, like unto his brethren in all things, sin excepted.

• From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham, on the significance of the virginal conception: 

  1. There are two sides to the virginal conception—Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary but conceived by the Holy Spirit. There are a normal gestation and birth but also a dimension beyond our knowledge, an act of God as Creator. Biological questions will produce only biological answers.

  2. The virginal conception comes in the context of the incarnation and is to be seen in connection with the resurrection. Both events are like bookends enclosing the events recorded in the Gospels and pointing to the sovereign creative power of God. Christ’s birth is not something under human power. It is the union of God and man achieved entirely by God. 

  3. Christ’s birth displays his true humanity—he was born of a human mother after a normal period of gestation. The docetists, in the process of opposing the full humanity of Christ, denied the virgin birth.

  4. It indicates that human capacity is disqualified and that salvation is from the Lord. The initiative is God’s. Mary is believingly receptive (Luke 1:37). She is a picture and pattern of God’s grace in regeneration and faith.

  5. The virginal conception is a new creation—a renovation of the old (Luke 1:34-35). As in the original creation and the resurrection, we understand by the Holy Spirit in faith, not by a process of human logic and argumentation, even though it can be logicall defended.

Learn more:

1. David Mathis: The Virgin Birth
2. Al Mohler: Must Christians Believe in the Virgin Birth?
3. Kevin DeYoung: Is the Virgin Birth Essential?
4. John MacArthur: Foundations of the Virgin Birth and Fallacies About the Virgin Birth (audio)

Related terms: 

• deity of Christ
• humanity of Christ
• incarnation
• resurrecton of Jesus

Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ

1Systematic Theology by Robert Letham, page 481

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Theological Term of the Week: Visible Church

visible church
“All those who profess faith in Christ and give evidence of their faith with their lives”;1 “all those who profess the true religion, together with their children.”2 

• From scripture: 

  To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours … . (1 Corinthians 1:2 ESV) 

• From Keach’s Catechism: 

  Question 105: What is the visible church?
  Answer: The visible church is the organized society of professing believers, in all ages and places, wherein the Gospel is truly preached and the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper rightly administered. (Acts 2:42; 20:7; Acts 7:38; Eph. 4:11,12)

• From the Westminster Larger Catechism: 

  Question 61: Are all they saved who hear the gospel, and live in the church?
  Answer: All that hear the gospel, and live in the visible church, are not saved; but they only who are true members of the church invisible.

  Question 62: What is the visible church?
  Answer: The visible church is a society made up of all such as in all ages and places of the world do profess the true religion, and of their children.

  Question 63: What are the special privileges of the visible church?
  Answer: The visible church has the privilege of being under God’s special care and government; of being protected and preserved in all ages, not withstanding the opposition of all enemies; and of enjoying the communion of saints, the ordinary means of salvation, and offers of grace by Christ to all the members of it in the ministry of the gospel, testifying, that whosoever believes in him shall be saved, and excluding none that will come unto him.

• From Concise Theology by J. I. Packer: 

  There is a distinction to be drawn between the church as we humans see it and as God alone can see it. This is the historic distinction between the “visible church” and the “invisible church.” Invisible means, not that we can see no sign of its presence, but that we cannot know (as God, the heart-reader, knows, 2 Tim. 2:19) which of those baptized, professing members of the church as an organized institution are inwardly regenerate and thus belong to the church as a spiritual fellowship of sinners loving their Savior. Jesus taught that in the organized church there would always be people who thought they were Christians and passed as Christians, some indeed becoming ministers, but who were not renewed in heart and would therefore be exposed and rejected at the Judgment (Matt. 7: 15-27; 13:24-30, 36-43, 47-50; 25:1-46). The “visible-invisible” distinction is drawn to take account of this. It is not that there are two churches, but that the visible community regularly contains imitation Christians whom God knows not to be real (and who could know this for themselves if they would, 2 Cor 13:5).

Learn more:

1. Brian Schwertley: The Visible Vs. The Invisible Church
2. John Calvin: Distinction Between the Visible and Invisible Chruch
3. James Bannerman: The Church in Its Twofold Character as Visible and Invisible

Related terms: 

• credobaptism
• invisible church 
• paedobaptism 
• saints

Filed under Ecclesiology

1From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. (This is a credobaptist definition.)

2From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham. (This is a paedobaptist definition.)

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Theological Term of the Week: Vocation

vocation
A calling from God to a task or a relationship. The doctrine of vocation is the principle that the work people do and the relationships they have are assignments from God. He providentially cares for his creation through the relationships he places people in and the work he gives to them to do. Every honest task, no matter how mundane, and every legitimate human relationship (household, workplace, church, community, etc.) has meaning because it is a calling from God and serves his purposes.

• From scripture: 

  Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him (1 Corinthians 7:17 ESV).

  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27–28 ESV)

• From Living for God’s Glory by Joel Beeke:1 

  Reformed teachings regarding work can be summarized in the following points: 

  1. God works, and we are called to bear His image.
  2. God derives satisfaction from His work.
  3. God provides for us through our work. 
  4. God has commanded man to work, and to work within the framework of His commands.
  5. God holds us accountable for our work and expects to be acknowledged through it. 
  6. God provides particular gifts designed to meet particular needs in the advancement of His kingdom.
  7. The fall radically affected our work. Work becomes toil; thorns and thistles frustrate our efforts; fallen man seeks to glorify himself rather than his Creator through work.
  8. Work is an individual as well as a social activity.
  9. God takes pleasure in beauty, and the Scriptures do not focus simply on the functional and utilitarian aspects of work.
  10. Christ worked as part of His active obedience, and the believer’s work through Christ is part of obedience.

Learn more:

1. Gene Edward Veith: The Protestent Work Ethic, How Vocation Transformed Society, Authority in Vocation
2. John MacArthur: A Theology of Work
3. Brian G. Hedges: Do You Think Biblically About Your Work?
4. Bob Thune: A Theology of Work (pdf)
5. Jerram Barrs: Work: A Holy Calling (pdf)

Related terms: 

• cultural mandate
• image of God
• providence

Filed under Anthropology

1The chapter from which this is taken is written by Ray Pennings.

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