Wednesday, December 15, 2021
The battle to protect the life of an unborn child has become rather nasty. Recently, a television host made this outrageous statement about the Supreme Court decision to uphold a Mississippi abortion law.
“Do any of you men have any eggs or the possibility of carrying a fetus? How dare you talk about what a fetus wants! You have no idea.”
I do not intend to engage in debate about the total stupidity of this statement that in its substance actually discredits abortion. However, it is true that men are not capable of carrying a baby. However, it does not mean that men are not capable of knowing what its like to give birth to new life.
I had the wonderful experience of watching my wife go through three pregnancies. I watched as my daughter and my two daughters-in-law carried a total of eleven children. I marvel at the wonder of conception and birth, as God uniquely creates from His infinite mind the precious babies that we love and cherish. But I do not claim in any way to know what it is like to carry life inside of me. I can only observe the expressions on the mother’s face as she feels the baby move, yet that is only a glimpse of the awe they must be feeling in their hearts. As a man, we cannot know what it is like to give birth to a new life. Or can we?
Luke 1:35 “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon 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 angel’s statement to Mary declares the details of the miraculous birth of Jesus – God Himself in the flesh. But Mary is not the only one who gets to experience that. His statements are true for all of us who experience the spiritual birth of Jesus Christ in our lives. Mary understood the problem of sin and her unworthiness to bear the Holy One. She also understood her physical limitations to be pregnant, for she had not been in an intimate relationship with a man. We are also unworthy and unable to physically bear the likeness of Christ. Our sin has kept us from an intimate relationship with God that would produce any physical seed capable of birthing good works. But God has an answer for Mary and for us – The Holy Spirit will come upon us and the power of the Most High will overshadow our sinfulness so that the Holy One can be born within us.
When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 He said, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Paul says it this way in Titus 3:5-7, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” The Apostle John describes it this way, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
The same power of the Holy Spirit that came upon Mary and created the physical life of Jesus Christ in her womb is the power that each of us experiences when by faith we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. The power of the Most High overshadows all of our sin, and the Holy Spirit creates in us the spiritual life of Jesus. Paul calls this an explained mystery in Colossians 1, where he says, “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Jesus Christ has been birthed in us, and that experience is to be more precious to us than any physical birth.
So the next time a woman says to you men that you don’t know what it’s like to give birth, use it as an opportunity to witness. Tell her that you have given birth, and that the wonder of spiritual birth far exceeds the wonder of natural birth.
Pastor John
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