Incarnation and humiliation Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary Earlier forms of the creed seem to have read: “Born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary.” The primary affirmation of this article is that the Son of God, the Word, had become man or, as John's Gospel put it, “flesh” (John 1:14). Preexistence and Incarnation presuppose each other in the Christian view..