Text: “But as he [Joseph] 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” (Matthew 1:20 ESV).

Why it matters: Why does understanding the accuracy of Jesus’ incarnation matter? Why does Matthew write of Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary? Why does he labor the fact that Joseph and Mary had not consummated their engagement and future marriage? Because it goes to the very heart of Jesus as the Christ. Christ simply means “Anointed One” or “Messiah.” Jesus took on flesh, but his incarnation was by way of God, not by Joseph. In other words, the human bloodline of sin was broken by divine fiat. This is fundamental to an accurate understanding of Christianity.

Remembering an old deacon’s prayers: When I was courting my wife and attending her church, I was brought into the fold by that congregation in a way I have ever since tried to emulate. That church body knew how to love folks, and they did it. I have never forgotten how I was loved there and I have tried to replicate that in my ministry now in our church. There was an old deacon at my wife’s home church who, when he prayed, always said much the same thing. It went something like this: “Lord Jesus, we come to you in thanksgiving for doing what we could never do for ourselves. By breaking the sin chain of Adam, we now have access to God …”

Folks, that was by a country man who never had a college education, but he had bull’s-eye theology when it came to Christology. He understood that God the Son’s conception via the Holy Spirit was the last Adam (Jesus) coming to do what the first Adam in Genesis failed to do—namely, obey perfectly the will of God. The gospel hinges on the perfect substitutionary atonement and righteousness of the God-man, Jesus, the Christ. He is the anointed one. He is the messiah.

This is why Matthew 1:20 is fundamental. This is why Christmas is to be celebrated. It’s because God has come to reclaim a cosmos that is now east of Eden due to the fall of man in Genesis 3. Christ has come “to his make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found,” as Watts penned. This is why Joseph was told that the Son in Mary’s womb was from the Holy Spirit–to show him (Joseph), to show the world, that God was keeping his covenantal promise to crush the head of the serpent by way of the seed of the woman, and that seed was Christ. Merry Christmas.