The Incarnation and a Stem Cell

Given the season I think it would be appropriate for me to combine my scientific and biblical knowledge to explain from my very own personal perspective the miracle of the Incarnation, when The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:14).  Some have theorized that the Holy Spirit some how impregnated one of Mary’s ova causing it to spring forth as the baby Jesus after a nine month period of gestation. That would have made Him 50% divine and 50% human; a demigod like those false gods worshiped by the Greeks and Romans of that time in history. The Scripture teaches us that He was 100% divine and 100% human at one and the same time. Had Jesus acquired 50% of His DNA from Mary He would not have been sinless; that is the reason for the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. But Romans 5:12 tells us that sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.  Mary herself, in singing her "Magnificat" referred to God as her Savior and in essence admitted that she like all humans was a sinner. A sinless person does not need a Savior. The apostle Paul explained that Jesus, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:6-7)

The first phase of “human likeness” is a stem cell that has acquired 50% of its DNA from the mother’s egg and 50% from the father’s sperm. At that singular stage of conception God provides that human with a soul. In the book of Hebrews we read these words attributed to Christ; Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:  “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. (Hebrews 10:5) His body would eventually replace all of the animal sacrifices offered up to that point in time. He was to be The Lamb of God whose sacrifice would take away the sin of all who received Him by faith as Lord and Savior.

Mary, while having a visitation from the angel Gabriel was told, The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. The Holy Spirit later placed a fully DNA complimented stem cell (the smallest form of a human body) in the womb of Mary and the spirit of Christ entered that cell making Him both totally divine and human simultaneously. That event had been predicted in the 7^th Century BC by the prophet Jeremiah who wrote The LORD will create a new thing on earth— the woman will protect the man.” (Jeremiah 31:22) The new thing was a highly unique way that this human being came to be. Never before had any human ever walked the earth that had come from a uniquely created stem cell. Adam was made from dust, Eve from a part of Adam and all other humans from the combination of eggs and sperm. The new thing was the stem cell that Jesus acknowledged was “prepared for me.” No physical tissue possessed in the body of Christ had come from his mother Mary. Jesus Christ is truly one of a kind. Utterly human and totally divine at one and the same time.

Finally we read in Galatians 4:4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. The Greek word for born is ginomai and means “made from nothing” and the Greek word ek means “out of.” Thus we are told that the baby Jesus issued forth out of a woman having initially been made into a stem cell by God from nothing. That is my very own scientific and theological perspective concerning the miracle of the Incarnation and the bona fide reason for the season.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Integrity: The Gospel According to Us

It has been said that the only gospel some folks will ever read is that message of Christ which they see manifesting in us; in professing Christians. The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Corinth put it this way, You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). In another place Paul put it this way; Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18) That progressive transformation into Christ like believers comes about through the study and application of God’s Holy Word.

King Solomon, the wisest human ever to live, gave believers this advice: Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name, in the sight of God and man. (Proverbs 3:3-4) The binding of our faith around our necks is the outward expression of our faith that serves as a witness to those with whom we impact socially in the acts of daily living. It’s more than just a cross on a gold chain hanging down our necks, it’s the “golden rule” and the love that Christ displayed on that cross, lived out in our lives on a daily basis. The binding of the faith in our hearts is emblematic of the genuine, invisible relationship we have with the triune God of creation and our salvation. Without that heart bound, vertically oriented faith in God, whatever we profess openly with words, deeds or symbols (such as a cross hanging around the neck), the horizontal relationship we display to others becomes a sham.

Integrity means wholeness and is synonymous with uprightness, honesty, reliability, honor and consistency. The English word comes from the Latin expression integritas. That is also the root of the English word “integer” meaning a whole number (I.e. one) as opposed to a fraction (I.e. one fourth). To have integrity then is to first of all be a whole person. The greatest example of that wholeness or completeness was found in the Lord Jesus Christ during His 33 years on earth. Dr Luke said of Him, And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52) In other words He developed human intelligence, physical well being, and spiritual excellence and He acquired a cadre of close friends. Jesus was the epitome of balance and wholeness, the elements of integrity, and we should strive to be likewise.