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"...The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
I Timothy 3:15
Jesus’ Virgin Birth
The late Nick Michalinos
From The Baptist Challenge, May 2014
Question: I’m interested in the birth of Jesus. I want some information about the Virgin Birth.
Answer: Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a young lady who lived in the town of Nazareth. She was “A virgin” (Luke 1:27). She had plans to marry a man who lived in the same town named Joseph to whom she was engaged.
It was at this time that the angel Gabriel appeared to her, and declared she was to conceive in her womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31), and this was to be done in a miraculous way without sexual contact with any man (Luke 1:34-35). Her betrothal to Joseph was good in that she could be married, and thus protect her good name when the baby Jesus would be born.
Now, when Joseph discovered his future wife was with child, he sought to privately put her away (Matt. 1:19), but an angel appeared to him in a dream, and told him to go ahead and marry her for her pregnancy was a fulfilled prophecy found in Isaiah 7:14 where we read, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign (miracle): Behold a (the) virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name, Immanuel.”
Joseph then took Mary as his wife, but though they lived together, they did not live together sexually, as husband and wife, until after Jesus was born (Matt. 1:25). The Holy Spirit takes special care to insert this verse with this intimate detail to show us that the unborn Savior could not possibly be sinfully infected by a human father. His Father was God the Father. He was “the Son of the highest” (Luke 1:32); “his only begotten son” (John 3:16).
Since the sin of Adam (Gen. 3), all humans born thereafter, without exception, inherit a sin nature from their parents. Like begets like (Rom. 5:12; Psa. 51:5; 58:3; Eph. 2:3). Since the Word of God teaches our Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), then in some way He must be apart from sinners, that is, He must be born without a sin nature. He must escape the corruptible taint of the sin nature that contaminates the whole human race.
If Jesus were born with a sin nature, He then would then have been no different than any other sinner. He therefore would have died because of His own sin, and He Himself would have been in need of a Savior. However, the wisdom of God resolves this dilemma. The problem is solved by the Virgin conception and birth of our Lord. Through the Virgin Birth, He by-passed the normal means of transference of the sin nature.
Obviously, the answer lies in the fact that the sin nature is passed from the father to the child- and not from the mother to the child. Jesus did not have a human father because God was His father. Mary was the mother of His body, but did not transmit her sin nature to her infant son. Mankind needs a Savior that is of such infinite worth as to provide salvation for all. Only God Himself can meet this need.
Yet, He must die (Rom. 6:23). Can God die? No! God, who is “Spirit” (John 4:24), can clothe Himself in a human body that can die (Heb. 10:5; John 1:14), but it must be a body that is without a sin nature, and thus live sinlessly. Thus, the necessity of the Virgin Birth. Our Lord was sinless, immaculate and impeccable, for “in him was no sin” (1 John 3:5). “He knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), and in this way He was divinely qualified to “taste death for every man (Heb. 2:9), and to believe in Him as our Savior gives us assurance we shall be saved (Acts 16:30-31).