THE VIRGIN BIRTH

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“Now the birth of Jesus was as follows:  After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, and before they came together, she was found with child by the Holy Spirit.”  (Matthew 1:18)

Jesus’ virgin birth isn’t a myth or merely a random fact from the Gospels.  It is a special honor bestowed upon a name that Jesus loved to be called, the “Son of God.”  It is full of significance in knowing that Jesus was BOTH human and divine (incarnation) at the same time and He will be forevermore.

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From Scripture, it is certainly clear that Jesus’ birth was the result of the Holy Spirit working within Mary’s body.  In some miraculous way, the ovum in the womb of Mary was impregnated with life apart from a human father.  God simply put the spark of life it her and, one by one, the cells began to multiply.

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God was the father of the humanity of Jesus.  The deity of Jesus was never an issue.  He is called the Son of God because in His human nature He IS the Son of God as Joseph was not involved. God brought about virtually a second creation, a second man, without the original sin from the male line of Adam. 

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Linking to the family tree of Mary made Him a descendant of David and Abraham, which also fulfilled various promises that God had made to them.

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Jesus was born with no sin.  He had no inherited sin nature from Adam.  The virgin birth bypassed the transmission of the sin nature and allowed the eternal God to become a perfect man as ONLY a sinless man could save humanity from God’s wrath.

In Jesus’ humanity, He is subject to the Father because the Father is greater than His humanity.  But in His deity, Jesus is coequal with God the Father because He is of one essence with Him.

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The doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus is important for several reasons:

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• It showed God’s initiative in redeeming mankind in the fact that our redemption was not initiated by man, as we in our sinfulness cannot save ourselves.

• It highlighted the miraculous impregnation of Mary by God Himself. Only a perfect man could save mankind from the first perfect man’s (Adam) sin.

• It shows the uniqueness of Jesus as no other man in history was ever conceived from a virgin.  No other man is both human and divine at the same time.

• It fulfills Scripture, especially the Prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 where he proclaimed that the Savior would be born of a virgin.

Additional References: Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:35