Q. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her, yet without sin.
Commentary
Having confessed that the Son of God became man, the catechism explains how. He became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. Christ did not merely appear to be human, nor did He take a body while lacking a human mind and will. He assumed a complete human nature, body and soul together, like ours in every respect except sin. His was a real body that grew, hungered, wearied, and bled, and a real human soul that thought, willed, and felt. We see the body in His weariness and death, and we see the soul in His words, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). Whatever belongs to true humanity, apart from sin, belonged to Him.
The catechism then names the manner of His coming, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her. He entered our race by the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, so that Mary was truly His mother and yet He had no human father. The angel’s word to her was, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy” (Luke 1:35). By this virgin conception the eternal Son took our nature and was truly born, sharing in flesh and blood with those He came to save (Hebrews 2:14).
He was born yet without sin. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, His human nature was free from the corruption that infects every other child of Adam. He inherited no guilt, no original sin, no inward bent toward evil. This sinlessness is no minor detail but the ground of our salvation. A Redeemer who shared our guilt could not bear ours; only one who was “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26), “in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), could stand in our place. The spotless humanity of Christ is the reason He can be both our sympathizing high priest and our acceptable sacrifice.
Scripture Proofs
“Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me’” (Matthew 26:38).
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31).
“And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God’” (Luke 1:35).
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27).
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
“For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
8.2: The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father’s glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made, did, when the fullness of time was complete, take upon Him man’s nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities of it, yet without sin; being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her: and the power of the Most High overshadowing her; and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures; so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.