Since Christmas is fast approaching I have decided to take a brief break from the mystery to address something that I believe is a huge stumbling block to many Christian people. I know that sometimes I find myself sitting in church around Christmas and asking myself, can I, a logical and rational person really believe any story that involves a virgin becoming pregnant. It seems much too far-fetched and outlandish to me. So the story I am to believe is that God finds favor with a virgin girl named Mary, the Holy Spirit comes upon her and she finds herself pregnant with the Son of God. As I look into this further I find that this claim is fully necessary, if I am going to believe Jesus was who He said He was.
First, let’s look at prophecy. Read Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” This is the first prophecy of Christ in the Bible.
Who is enmity between?
What will her offspring do to Satan? What will Satan do to Christ?
My point here is that a woman had to be involved, Jesus could not just descend on this world as a fully clothed thirty year old, He had to descend from a woman to fulfill this prophecy. (Just a side note, Jesus in His lifetime fulfilled over 300 prophecies about Himself, many He had no control in fulfilling on His own).
Sin is passed from the seed of the man (Adam) to his offspring. Without confusing the matter entirely, an interesting side study about sin being passed through the seed of the father can be found in Hebrews 7:1-10 with the parallel passage in Genesis 14:18-20. Look at 1 Corinthians 15:21,22, “For since by a man came death….For as in Adam all die.” If Jesus had an earthly father he would have been born of sin, since the father carries the seed of sin. Jesus had to be born of a woman, but not a man, in order that He could be the sinless Son of God.
In Romans 5 Paul is explaining to us that through the sin of one man, Adam death and sinned reigned. The law came to show man how sinful he was. Even if you are a fairly good person, you were born of Adam, a sinful seed, the result being death. However, Christ, being a type of Adam lived a sinless life, since He was not of the seed of Adam, so that all may have life. 5:17-18, “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. “
Let’s look at another prophecy, Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” So it was necessary for Jesus to be born of a virgin to fulfill this prophecy. How cool is that? The virgin birth doesn’t have to be a stumbling block, but a confirmation of who Jesus was, and the power of His life and sacrifice.
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