Virgin Birth of Christ Part 2

Why the virgin birth of Christ? Part 2

In a previous post I asked the question, “Why did God choose that Jesus would be born of a virgin?” In this post I will answer that question.

Almost every list of essential doctrines for the Christian faith I have seen includes “the virgin birth of Jesus”, or “the deity of Christ”, along with the inspiration of the Bible, and others. Of course these lists vary, one of which I saw unbelievably did not include the bodily resurrection of Jesus which was at the heart of the Apostles preaching.

Just to be clear, these “essential doctrines” I would frame as ones Christians should embrace, they are not all necessary for sinners to believe in order to become Christians. Those 1st Century thousands who were saved in the first weeks after Pentecost had very little theological understanding. What they knew was what they had heard from eye witnesses of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, who claimed to be God.

The deity of Jesus stands or falls upon his birth to a virgin girl without having a human father. Had Jesus been the son of Joseph and Mary he would have been just like all other men, inherently sinful. But he was not like other men in that he uniquely had no human father.

I will not labor here to show the prophetic texts concerning his birth nor the gospel records of his birth and the events leading up to it. I will assume that all who read this post gladly accept the biblical record that Jesus was born of a virgin girl, Mary, who had not been with a man. The focus is why birth by a virgin?

1. There was no other way for God to interject himself into the human race. The creative act of God causing the virgin to conceive and bear a son naturally and supernaturally made the child the unique Son of God. He was Mary’s son and God’s son. He was not Joseph’s son. So, part of the plan was Immanuel “God with us”
2. There was no other way for Jesus to be a perfect sacrifice. When Adam sinned in the garden he died spiritually and eventually physically. Therefore the Bible says “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” And “by one man’s offence death reigned”. Every descendent of Adam was born with a built in propensity to sin. He was by nature a liar, dishonest, disobedient, and capable of every sinful act. Jesus was not Adam’s descendent; He descended from God his father. He could not sin because while he was fully human he was also fully God. (God with us)
3. To become a perfect sacrifice he had to be not only sinless, but pure in every way. The physical body of Jesus was uniquely prepared by God. Hebrews 10 makes this clear. “ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me”.(verse 5) And then also in that same chapter we learn that only the sacrifice of a body would be sufficient to once for all time take away sin. “Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them ” (which are offered according to the law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”.(verses 8-10)
4. In this unique body, prepared by God, with no human father, Jesus was at once “the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world”, the great high priest who is able to make one offering for the sins of the worlds people of every age never to be repeated again. His was the body foretold by the prophets and according to their word not one bone was broken in the punishment of the crucifixion. On the cross Jesus declared “It is finished” and the anger of a Holy God against sin had been completely exhausted and his justice fully satisfied. Now by the blood of Jesus God can declare a sinner, who puts his faith in Jesus, righteous and do so without compromising his holiness and justice.

In the same way, we who are saved are the body of Christ. Because of His perfect sacrifice of a perfect body and the cleansing of His blood, we too are “blameless”, “perfected”, “without spot or wrinkle” in the sight of God. We are loved just as God loved the Lord Jesus and He sees us as if we had never sinned and as if we had perfectly obeyed.

It is not possible to overhaul, or to repair a sinner so that he meets God’s standard. No, there must be a new birth. There must be a new man whose desire is to please God. He is a man upon whose heart is written the law of God. It is that inner man who serves God. The sinner is dead in his or her sins and the perfect object lesson is seen in baptism. The old man goes into death with Christ and the new man is resurrected to serve and love the Lord Jesus and to glorify the Father through Him.

The universal body of believers is called “the bride of Christ”. She is a pure, perfect, chaste bride, whose will is to please the bridegroom. It is God’s purpose to present to Himself one day a perfect people made pure by the body and blood of Jesus who in His perfect doing and dying, perfect living and loving, offered Himself a perfect sacrifice once forever for the sins of every man and woman and sat down on the right hand of God.

At the resurrection, our mortal bodies will be changed, mortality will be swallowed up in immortality and our bodies will not have one microscopic hint of sin. We will at last be finally saved completely, freed from the very presence of sin.

None of this would have been possible had Jesus not been conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin girl. In a human body, God fulfilled the law and offered Himself to Himself to put away sin forever. Thanks be to God for the virgin birth of Jesus.

Grace and Peace,
Royce Ogle