A Virgin Shall Be with Child

2018-01-20

Fulfilled Prophecy

Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. This was in accordance with Bible prophecy:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

After the sin of Adam, God promised to send a Savior that would be the seed of a woman. By implication, this is a virgin birth, because women do not have seed; men only have seed. There are exceptions beyond the scope of this essay, such as Ishmael being the seed of Hagar (Genesis 16:10), who was not going to be heir of Abraham.

The prophet Isaiah also foretells the coming of Jesus by a virgin birth:

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)

This fulfilled prophecy is discussed in detail elsewhere. The purpose of the rest of this article is to explain why the virgin birth is important, and why Christ had to be born of a virgin.

Death Passed Upon All Men

Adam was created in the image of God (Genesis 5:1), but since he sinned in the Garden of Eden, his children, including Seth, were born in Adam’s sinful image (Genesis 5:3). Every human being since has been born in this image of sinful Adam, in need of grace from the LORD.

Let us read more about this:

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19)

This is an excerpt from the latter portion of Romans 5, which deals with the comparison of Adam to Christ. Let us look at a few points made here:

  1. Adam’s offense caused every one of his descendants to be condemned. Because Adam sinned, every human being born thereafter was also condemned in Adam (Romans 5:18). We were born condemned.
  2. Christ’s righteousness was a free gift to everyone. Now we need to be careful here. This might sound like universalism (everyone is saved no matter what). Here is what is going on here: We all were originally born in Adam. However, not everyone is born in Christ. Everyone who is in Christ received the free gift of justification of life (Romans 5:18).
  3. Adam’s disobedience made everyone a sinner. We were sinners before we had any choice in the matter; Adam’s sin made us sinners (Romans 5:19).
  4. Christ’s obedience will make many righteous. Christ’s obedience contrasts with Adam’s disobedience. Those who are born in Christ shall be made righteous (Romans 5:19).

The reason Christ had to be born of a virgin is because He could not be born into the sinful Adamic race. First, being the Son of God, He could never be sinful, so it would be impossible for Him to be born from Adam. Second, even if Christ could be born into the family of Adam, He would not be able to save us; He would be polluted by the condemnation of Adam and be a sinner (an impossibility we will never entertain).

Jesus Christ, being born of a virgin, started a new lineage of the human race. Adam’s father could be considered God because he was created directly by God (Luke 3:38). The Son of God, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, began a new race, and therefore, when being born again, we are born into an entirely new lineage and family: one that is impossible to be corrupted.

This is why we call our salvation our redemption. We all died in Adam, but Christ (a progenitor of a new human lineage, and therefore a close relative) redeemed us from the fallen Adamic race.

Being born into this new family, we can be sure of our salvation. Without the virgin birth, the new birth would very much be like the old birth.