Born of a Virgin

“Therefore the LORD Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”  Isaiah 7:14

Why was it necessary for Christ to be born of a virgin, a young woman who had never had sexual relations with a man?  Some people who say they believe in Jesus do not believe that He was born of a virgin.  I find no difficulty at all in believing that Christ’s birth was just exactly how scripture describes it.  If God can make man from the dust of the ground, if He could part the Red Sea to allow the Hebrew people to walk across on dry ground, and if He could save a sinner like me, He could certainly bring forth His Son from the womb of a virgin girl.  To not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus is to not believe in the Son of God and in the Old Testament prophecies of His birth.  The Bible was not given to us to pick and choose what we believe or do not believe.  God’s word is the history (His story) of the fall of man and God’s plan of redemption which was the suffering. death, and resurrection of His sinless Son.

Had Christ not been born of a virgin, but rather by procreation of an earthly father, He would not have been the Son of God.  He would have been the son of Joseph.  God required a sinless sacrifice in order to pay for the sins of the entire world.  To crucify one who had a sin nature could not satisfy God’s requirement for justice.  Those who die without Christ will never have their penalty fully satisfied, even after an eternity separated from God.  Don’t you think that if there was any other way for men and women to be reconciled to our Creator, God would have chosen it rather than allowing His Son to go through agony on the cross, the humiliation of it all, and the injustice of One without sin dying for all of us sinful people?

Some folks believe that Mary, Jesus’ mother, had no sin nature of which to pass on to her Son.  However, she was born to an earthly mother and father from whom she would have inherited a sin nature.  What some fail to see is that Jesus already existed long before He was born in human form.  He was and is God, filled with the divine, sinless nature.  He was in the beginning (Genesis 1:26).  God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.”  Jesus said in Revelation 22:13, “I Am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”.  The sinless, perfect nature of Jesus remained with Him even as He was born into the human race.  “Jesus’ sinlessness rests not on His miraculous birth to a virgin girl, but on the basis of His position with God” (Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary).

Some Bible scholars have noted that the sinful nature is passed down from the father to the children, not from the mother.  She, too, has a sinful nature, which she inherited from her father.  It is a known scientific fact that the sex of a baby is determined by the father, depending on an x or y chromosome.  While it can’t be proven scientifically that the sinful nature is passed down from father to child, the Bible references the “sins of the father” and how they affect the children (Exodus 34:7).  The father was intended by God to be the head of the home, and thus, in that position, he certainly has a greater influence upon the children.  The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:12 that it was by one man (Adam) that “sin entered into the world and death by sin”.  It was Eve who disobeyed first, but it was Adam who was held responsible.  In light of these truths, we can see that because Christ did not have an earthly father, being conceived by the sinless Holy Spirit of God, He could not have inherited a sinful nature even though His mother inherited a sinful nature from her father.  I believe Mary was chosen to be the mother of Christ because she was obedient to the Father.  She said, “Behold the handmaid of the LORD; be it unto me according to Thy word” (Luke 1:38).  God looks upon the heart and chooses whom He will to fulfill His plan of redemption.

Scripture gives us three incredibly truthful themes:  1.  God is sovereign.  He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, to whomever He wants and be perfectly justified in doing so.  2.  Jesus Christ has always existed from the beginning.  It was God’s plan all along to sacrifice Himself in the Person of Jesus to redeem fallen man so that God could call out a people to Himself.  3.  Those who repent of their sin and place their faith in Christ and His work on the cross and that alone are God’s children, the evidence of which is a life committed to live for Christ, putting Him first in all things.  If you can accept these truths and live by them, then you will be alright.