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
A theological paradox is a Biblical statement that seems contradictory, or opposed to rational thought, and yet is eternally true. For many, the doctrine of the incarnation is a paradox: how can God become man and live in one person? The Christmas season is full of paradoxes, Puritan pastor and theologian, Thomas Watson reveals the paradoxes of Christmas:
He was poor, that he might make us rich.
He was born of a virgin that we might be born of God.
He took our flesh, that he might give us His Spirit.
He lay in the manger, that we may lie in paradise.
He came down from heaven, that he might bring us to heaven….
That the ancient of Days should be born.
that he who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle….
that he who rules the stars should suck the breast;
that a virgin should conceive;
that Christ should be made of a woman, and of that woman which himself made,
that the branch should bear the vine,
that the mother should be younger than the child she bare,
and the child in the womb bigger than the mother;
that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God
Christ taking flesh is a mystery we shall never fully understand till we come to heaven.
If our hearts be not rocks, this love of Christ should affect us . Behold love that passeth knowledge! (Eph 3:19).
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity (Banner of Truth), 196, 198.
HT: reformation21