Joined in Birth, Life, and Suffering

On the 2nd Article of the Apostles’ Creed

In our last entry we began to look into the second Article of the Apostles’ Creed, the article about our Lord Jesus Christ. As a refresher, here is that Article as presented in the first Office of Instruction in our Prayer Book (page 284). In this article we say that we believe:

in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

Last time we began the second Article by talking about what it means for Jesus to be God’s only Son, what his name tells us about him, and what it means for him to be our Lord. Today we will talk about the Incarnation of our Lord, beginning with his conception by the Holy Ghost, and his birth by the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Office of Instruction tells us that the chief thing we are to learn from the second article of the Creed is to believe in “God the Son, who hath redeemed me, and all mankind.”^[1] Our Lord’s divine conception and human birth are crucial to this redemption.

To begin, we see that the two clauses of the Creed that refer to his conception and birth are basic summaries of the Christmas story as presented in Scripture. Matthew 1:18 tells us that before Joseph and Mary were married, “she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” Joseph is understandably troubled by her pregnancy, but in verses 20 and 21, an angel appears to him saying:

Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

In Luke 1:35, the angel Gabriel gives a bit more of an explanation to Mary herself, saying: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God.”

Yet, despite this greater explanation, we still aren’t given much in the way of details. Over the centuries, there have been some really odd devotional speculations about what it means that the Holy Ghost came upon the Blessed Virgin Mary, that God’s power overshadowed her, and what the implications may be for how we view both God and our Lord’s mother. St. John Chrysostom rightly discouraged such speculation, urging us to keep to the text. After all, he says, if even natural birth is mysterious to us, surely the supernatural birth of our Lord ought to remain a mystery!^[2]

Nevertheless, it is of utmost importance to our faith that we recognize that Jesus was conceived without a human father. His miraculous conception speaks to the union of his Divine and Human natures. Article 2 of our Thirty-Nine Articles of religion tells us that God the Son:

took Man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, Very God, and very Man.

Our Lord Jesus is “unique in history,” so it makes sense that he would also have a unique birth.^[3] Indeed, our Lord’s uniqueness is very much a new start for mankind, as God takes on flesh. St. Paul calls him the “Last Adam” (1 Cor. 5:45). In his excellent commentary on Article 2, W.H. Griffith-Thomas writes, “The first Adam had failed, and a new race was necessary, of which Jesus Christ was the new Head. This necessitated a fresh creation, and the Virgin Birth meant this.”^[4]

In other words, Jesus’ conception by the Holy Ghost and birth of the Virgin Mary has implications for our own redemption. Things could not go on the way they had been going if humanity was to be redeemed and reconciled with God. St. Augustine puts it this way: “The first sinner, the first transgressor, begot sinners liable to death. To heal them, the Savior came from the Virgin; because he didn’t come to you the way you came.”^[5]

While Jesus shares a true Human nature with us, he is nevertheless unique both in his sinlessness and in having a true Divine nature as well. Had that not been the case, he could not redeem us. As the only person who is both fully God and fully man, our Lord Jesus is the only person who could represent both God and man in the covenant of redemption.

In particular, his true humanity is necessary for the redemption of humanity. As St. Gregory Nanzianzen wrote in the 4^th century, “that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.”^[6] Our Lord’s birth from the Virgin Mary means that he is human just as we are. That perfect humanity joined to his perfect divinity is necessary if we humans can be saved. Bishop Harold Browne, in his classic commentary on the Articles of Religion, explains it well:

As the nature of his Godhead was not changed (God not being capable of change) by union with His manhood; so also the nature of His manhood was not changed by being taken into His Godhead, farther than it was thereby exalted, ennobled, glorified. For the object of God’s taking flesh was that He might take to Himself a nature like our own, in which He might be tempted with our temptations, liable to our sorrows and infirmities, and subject to our sufferings and death. The properties therefore of His human nature were not sunk nor absorbed in His Divine nature, any more than His Divine nature was altered or corrupted by His human nature.^[7]

Neither Christ’s human nature nor his divine nature is changed by being joined in his person. His divinity is not corrupted by his humanity. His humanity is not swallowed by his divinity. No, he is both true God and true Man. He is just like the Father in his divine essence and just like us in his human essence.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes that Christ being just like us is essential to his role as our eternal high priest.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Because Jesus’ humanity is just like ours, he sympathizes with us. Indeed, as our ultimate Prophet, he speaks for God to us. As our Great High Priest, he speaks to God for us. As our Messianic King, he sits upon the throne of grace, giving us grace to aid us in our struggles, and mercy when we fail. According to the Scriptures, his sympathy, grace, and mercy mean that we, his people, ought to come boldly before him. We have perfect access to his royal throne. We have perfect access to his priestly altar. We have perfect access to his prophetic pulpit. For he is one of us.

The Sacraments are, of course, a sign of this union between the Incarnate Lord and us as his people. We’ll talk more about the Sacrament of Communion in the next entry when we look at Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection. But for now, note that baptism, the Sacrament of our New Birth, is foreshadowed in our Lord’s conception and birth. St. Leo the Great writes:

Each one is a partaker of this spiritual origin in regeneration. To every one, when he is reborn, the water of baptism is like the Virgin’s womb, for the same Holy Spirit fills the font, who filled the Virgin, that the sin, which that sacred conception overthrew, may be taken away by this mystical washing.^[8]

Just as our Lord was physically conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, so we are spiritually conceived by the Holy Ghost, in the ministry of Church. This is signified and sealed in our baptism. This sacramental sign of our new birth in Christ is foreshadowed by his own birth.

Moving on to the next clause, he “suffered under Pontius Pilate,” it is interesting that the Creed goes straight from the Lord’s birth to his suffering under Pontius Pilate. It doesn’t mention anything about the Lord’s three years of teaching and ministering among his people. It doesn’t mention his thirty years prior living among his family in Nazareth. On the one hand, remember that the Creed is not meant to be a complete catechism. It is a summary of the story of our redemption, but it is not the whole story. As Albert Mohler says, “All Christians believe more than is contained in the Apostles’ Creed, but none can believe less.”^[9]

Additionally, the Apostles’ Creed is our baptismal Creed, our introduction to the faith. As such, it presupposes you are reciting it within the liturgical and communal life of the Church, where you will be hearing and reading that fuller biblical story. On Sundays and Holidays in our celebration of Holy Communion, we are getting the major events and teachings of the Gospels and the Epistles. On weekdays in the Daily Offices, we are reading the majority of the Bible in a more systematic and comprehensive manner. So, make sure to be faithful in coming to Church and in daily prayer and bible reading; such faithfulness is necessary to grow in your faith and internalize the story of Jesus.

Nevertheless, when we think about our Lord’s incarnation, and the union of his human and divine natures, it should remind us that “All Jesus does as a human being he also does as God. His human deeds and words are saving because they are the words and deeds of God the Son.”^[10]

While God himself does not suffer, in Jesus’ sufferings, God the Son did. Theologically and liturgically, we often call Jesus’ sufferings his “passion.” Remember the line in the Great Litany: “By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat; by thy Cross and Passion… Good Lord, deliver us.”^[11] Indeed, the Lord Jesus does deliver us by his suffering, as well as by the other aspects of his life, death, and resurrection. In answer to the question of why Jesus suffered, our Provincial Catechism, To Be a Christian, says:

Jesus suffered as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could have peace with God, as prophesied in the Old Testament: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”^[12]

The last bit is a quotation from Isaiah 53, one of the greatest prophecies in the Old Testament about the Lord’s suffering and death on the cross. But, really, much of the sacrificial language and the sacrificial system in the Old Testament are pictures of the Lord’s suffering and death. In his book, Methods of Bible Studies, W. H. Griffith-Thomas refers to the Old Testament as “a book of unexplained ceremonies,” but goes on to note that “Jesus the Priest explains (in His Death) the ceremonies.”^[13] That is, Jesus’ sufferings provide a key connection to his Priesthood and to fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus’ sufferings are a key part of our redemption.

Among Jesus’ sufferings were the various temptations and other challenges that all human beings go through. This is part of his true humanity and part of why he can indeed sympathize with us, as the book of Hebrews says.^[14] The key difference is that we suffer with, for, and often because of our sins; he suffered despite his sinlessness. Indeed, he suffered for our sins rather than his own. Since he sympathizes with our sufferings, we can persevere in ours. We can have the hope that Jesus gives because he is with us, because he has been there before us. God himself knows firsthand what it’s like to go through suffering, because in the man Jesus Christ, God experienced such suffering. Indeed, our Lord uses our suffering to help us grow and to help us know him better.^[15]

The Creed specifically mentions his suffering “under Pontius Pilate.” On the one hand, this is placing our Lord’s sufferings within a particular time and place. That is, it is demonstrating our Lord’s incarnation, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension are true historical events. If anyone tries to mythologize the Gospel story or tell you that its moral truth is what matters rather than whether it is historically true, they are gravely mistaken. If the events of Jesus’ life never happened, if Jesus is just a myth, we should all go home and find something better to do with our own lives!

However, the other reason the Creed mentions Pontius Pilate is to emphasize the sufferings are related to the crucifixion. We’ll talk more about that in the next entry, when we look at Jesus crucifixion, death, and burial. For now, remember that Jesus was indeed born to die. He became incarnate to become that sacrifice for our sins. If you ever see an Eastern Icon of the Nativity, notice that Jesus’ swaddling clothes look a lot like a burial shroud, and the manger cave looks a lot like a tomb. This is intentional symbolism.

You see, the plan of the Incarnation is the plan of Redemption. Jesus became the second Adam, one of us, but without sin. He became the first of a new redeemed humanity, becoming one of us, so that we could become like him. He joined himself to us, even to the point of joining our sufferings, so that he could take our sufferings upon himself. He loved us even to the point of becoming a sin offering for us. As St. Paul saith, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

1. BCP 1928, 284. ↑
2. John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew, “Homily 4.3,” quoted in ACCS.NT.1a, 12. ↑
3. W.H. Griffith Thomas, Principles of Theology, Article 2, “The Virgin Birth.” Downloaded from https://newscriptorium.com/assets/books/anglican/39-articles/printheola01-3.htm#Article_%C2%A0II 07/24/2025. ↑
4. Ibid. ↑
5. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 153.14, quoted in ACCS.NT.3, 19. ↑
6. Gregory Nazianzen, “To Cledonius the Priest Against Apollinarius,” NPNF2.7, 440. ↑
7. Harold E. Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles: Historical and Doctrinal, Article 2, Section II. Downloaded from https://newscriptorium.com/assets/books/anglican/39-articles/browne39-01-05.htm on 07/24/2025. ↑
8. Leo the Great, Sermon 24.3, quoted in ACCS.NT.3, 18. ↑
9. Albert Mohler, The Apostles’ Creed, xvi. Quoted in Matthew Crocker, “Why You Should Study the Apostles’ Creed,” The Gospel Coalition: Canadian Edition, November 30, 2021. Downloaded from https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-you-should-study-the-apostles-creed/ on 07/24/2025. ↑
10. The Anglican Church in North America. To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism. Edited by J.I. Packer and Joel Scandrett. Wheaton: Crossway (2020), 40. ↑
11. BCP 1928, 55. ↑
12. To Be a Christian, 40-41. ↑
13. W.H. Griffith-Thomas, Methods of Bible Study, Dallas: Gideon House Books (2016), 20. Originally published in 1911. ↑
14. To Be a Christian, 41. ↑
15. Ibid. ↑