“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:3,5–8.
That the regenerated do not become perfect in this life, but must fight unto death against the flesh, the world, and sin, read: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after,” etc. Phil. 3:12; 1:30; Col. 1:29; Rev. 2:10.
“I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Cor. 9:27.
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led by the Spirit,” etc. Gal. 5:17,18; 1 Pet. 2:11; Rom. 7:18,23; Jas. 3:2.
ARTICLE XIV.
Of the incarnation of the eternal and only begotten Son of God. We confess: That the exalted and true God faithfully kept and fulfilled his exceeding great and precious promises, which he had made in the beginning concerning his Son, who had been foreordained to this end before the foundation of the world, but in these last times was manifest for our sakes.
This glorious and cheering promise was originally given to fallen Adam and Eve, and was afterwards renewed in their seed, as in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses and David. Of him did all the prophets prophesy, and on him did all the pious fathers hope with a firm confidence (as though they had seen him), that Shiloh would come from Judah, and that this beautiful star would arise out of Jacob. This truly and really took place as follows: When everything was in tranquillity, when the royal sceptre had departed from Judah, and the seed of Jacob was under tribute to the heathen; then the gracious God remembered his holy covenant, and sent his true, real Word or Son out of heaven, from his royal throne; having to this end foreordained and elected the righteous Joseph, of the house and generation of David, whose espoused wife was Mary, whom God had blessed and chosen for this purpose above all other women.
To this Joseph and Mary the Holy Ghost points from generation to generation, as well as to the town of Bethlehem, out of which this Light long before promised was to arise and come forth; in order that all the pious who waited and hoped for this salvation, might have a certain consolation and knowledge from which tribe, city and place they were to expect this Savior of the world.
Thus Mary received the message through the angel of God, and believed it, being overshadowed by the power of the Highest, and conceived of the Holy Ghost the true, real Word, which was in the beginning with God, and by which all things were created. The same, through the effectual power of the Almighty God, became flesh or man in her, and was born of her, the Son of the Most High God, whom she had before conceived of the Holy Ghost.
Thus the eternal and only begotten Son of the living God became a visible man subject to suffering. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, and brought up at Nazareth under the care of his [imputed] father and his mother. He hungered, thirsted, was wearied with walking, sighed and wept, and increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man; so that the eternal, only begotten Son of the living God, in the time of his incarnation, did not continue like his heavenly Father in an invisible, impassive, immortal, and spiritual form, but for our sakes, humbled himself into a visible, passive, mortal, and servile form, became like unto us men in all things, except sin; in order thereby to heal us from the poisonous bite of the serpent, and from everlasting torment.