When the Lord Jesus was conceived, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in a virgin (Matt. 1:20). His conception was divine, for it was of the Holy Spirit, that is, of God. His wonderful conception was a conception of God in man. This conception involved both divinity and humanity.
Unlike the Lord Jesus, we all were conceived of our father with our mother. What was involved in our conception was merely and solely humanity. But the conception of the Lord Jesus was the conception of God in a human virgin, a conception that involved both divinity and humanity. Therefore, the Lord Jesus was born as a man with two natures: the human nature and the divine nature. This gives us the basis to say that He was a God-man. He was born of God in man. From God He received the divine element, and from Mary He received the human element. These two elements—divinity and humanity—constitute Jesus a God-man.
At the age of thirty the Lord Jesus was baptized. Immediately after He came out of the water, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I delight” (Matt. 3:17). At the same time the Spirit of God descended as a dove and came upon Him (Matt. 3:16). Was the Lord not born of the Spirit? Was the Spirit not one of the essences of His being? Before the Lord Jesus was baptized, did He not already have the Holy Spirit within Him? The answer to all these questions is yes. The Lord had been born of the Spirit, the Spirit was one of the essences of His being, and He did have the Holy Spirit within Him. Because He had been conceived of the Holy Spirit in a virgin, His being was constituted of two essences, divinity and humanity. Why then, since He already had the Holy Spirit within Him, was it necessary for the Holy Spirit to descend upon Him? This is a crucial question.
In chapter three of Matthew we see that the Spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus as a clear, distinct unit. However, it cannot reasonably be denied that the Lord Jesus already had the Holy Spirit within Him. Matthew 1:20 says that “that which is begotten” in Mary “is of the Holy Spirit.” Not only was the Holy Spirit within the Lord Jesus; the Spirit was one of the essences of His being. Therefore, we need a way to reconcile two important facts: first, that the Lord Jesus had the Holy Spirit within Him as one of His essences; second, that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him after He was baptized. Since the Holy Spirit was already a part of His being, why was it that the Spirit of God descended upon Him?
Throughout the history of Christianity there has been a shortage of the proper understanding of the Trinity. In the art gallery of the Vatican there is a painting that is supposed to portray the Trinity. In this painting an old man with a beard signifies God the Father; a young man signifies the Son; and a dove soaring in the air signifies the Holy Spirit. That painting may be based on the concept of the Trinity expressed in the Nicene Creed. This understanding is partially right, for to some extent it may have been based on Matthew chapter three. In this chapter we have the Son standing, the Father speaking from the heavens, and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove. These three—the Son, the Father, and the Spirit— as presented in Matthew 3, are not only distinct but seem to be at some distance from one another.
As we consider the Trinity as depicted in Matthew 3, we need to realize what is said concerning the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus in Matthew 1. We have emphasized the fact that Matthew 1:20 tells us that the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Matthew 1 is a balance to Matthew 3. If we had only the revelation of the Trinity in Matthew 3, we may think that the Trinity is a matter of tritheism, of three Gods: one in the heavens, one on the earth, and one in the air. However, chapter three of Matthew comes out of chapter one. In Matthew 1 the emphasis is not on the three but on the one. Hence, when we put chapters one and three of Matthew together, we see that God is triune, three-one.
Actually, it is not possible for us fully to reconcile the two aspects of the Trinity, the aspect of the one in Matthew 1 and the aspect of the three in Matthew 3. The reason we cannot reconcile these aspects is that the Trinity is a mystery. If we could understand the Triune God fully, He would no longer be a mystery. Furthermore, in the words of Martin Luther, if we could fully understand the Triune God, this would mean that we are the teachers of God.
Today some falsely accuse us of teaching heresy concerning the Trinity. If someone accuses you in this way, you may want to ask him how he would reconcile the revelation concerning the Triune God in chapters one and three of the Gospel of Matthew.
The crucial point for us to see regarding Matthew 1 and 3 is that when the Holy Spirit descended as a dove upon the Lord Jesus, He was already human and divine. He already had the divine nature and the human nature, for the Holy Spirit was one of the essences of His being.