The Virgin Birth
The central feature of our Heavenly Father’s plan is “the Ransom for all” (the corresponding price), a life for a life, the life of the perfect man Jesus for the life of the perfect man Adam. All God’s works are perfect, and Father Adam was no exception. He was created perfect, in the character of his Creator.
Back in the far reaches of time, long before the world was, God foresaw that sin would contaminate mankind, and provisions were built into His plan to overcome it in the fullness of time. He planned for Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, to redeem us. “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot… foreordained before the foundation of the world, but… manifest in these last times for you”. (1 Peter 1:18-20) “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. (John 1:29)
In order to redeem Adam, and through him all of us, it was vital that the Redeemer be perfect, as Adam, to be a corresponding price. The lamb was to be without blemish or spot. The Scriptures confirm that this was so of our Lord. “We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”. (Hebrews 4:15) “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin”. (1 John 3:5) “For such an high priest… is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens”. (Hebrews 7:26)
These texts leave no doubt as to our Lord’s perfection. He was not contaminated by the fallen race, therefore he could be no part of Adam’s posterity. Yet Jesus was born of a woman, Mary, a member of Adam’s family. Mary was no doubt a very special woman, possessing exceptional virtues and qualities. Let us look at the words of the angel to Mary.
“The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel… said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end”. (Luke 1:26-33)
Mary was indeed highly favored. We can readily appreciate that God would choose the very best among the young women of Israel to be given the privilege of bearing His onlyBegotten Son, and Mary received that honor. Nevertheless the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3:10 that there is none righteous, no, not one. And in Romans 5:12, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
HOW IS IT SO?
Though Mary would have been as perfect as it was possible for a member of the fallen race to be, the fact remains that as a daughter of Adam she could not be perfect in an absolute sense. So that poses the question: “how can something imperfect produce something that is perfect?” Job 14:4 asks, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.”
Yet the Scriptures plainly state that Jesus was sinless and perfect. He had to be so, otherwise he could not have been man’s Redeemer. We fully accept God’s inspired word on the subject, and even if we could not prove how it was accomplished, it would not alter our faith in the matter. But we all have inquiring minds, we like to get to the bottom of things. Some years back there was a science program on television presented by Professor Julius Summer Miller entitled “why is it so?” That is the question we are asking today, or you could say “how is it so?”
Others in the past have endeavored to answer the question. Our Roman Catholic friends answer it with the doctrine of the immaculate conception. They say Mary was the exception to the rule and was in fact immaculate and perfect and could therefore produce a perfect offspring. We must reject this theory as being unscriptural.
Another writer at the end of the last century said that Jesus could be perfect because hereditary traits were only transmitted by the father; the mother nourished the baby in the womb, but did not transmit her inherited weaknesses to it. This seemed a satisfactory and reasonable answer at the time, as it was in line with medical thinking of that day.
But medical science later discovered that hereditary patterns are transmitted equally by both the father and mother. “Some once considered the role of the female like that of the field and the male like that of the seed, new bodies are formed by the united operation of the seed and the field. In reality both parents transmit the hereditary pattern equally, and on the average children resemble their mothers as much as they do their fathers” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974, Vol. 8, page 801, “Heredity”). We have all observed this ourselves. Children as often resemble and have characteristics of their mother as of their father.
It was originally thought that hereditary patterns were in some way transmitted by the blood of the child, hence the term “blood relation” or “blood line.” We refer to an aboriginal as a “half blood” or “full blood;” we hear of someone referred to as a “blue blood” or someone is said to have “bad blood in their veins.” These terms probably came from the understanding that traits are transmitted by the blood.
The Bible tells us that the life is in the blood. Medical science also tells us that the quality of our life is determined by the quality of our blood. Poor quality, impure blood means inferior health, a pure blood stream means superior health. As the Bible says, the life is indeed dependent upon the blood.
But as far as heredity is concerned, this is transmitted by the parents to the children via the genes. Each parent transmits 50% of their genes to the child. This is a very interesting point to think about. A family might have 12 or more children, the children would receive 50% of each parent’s genes, yet each child would be different. It seems this is because each receive a different set, or different combination, of genes. There is an exception where two children receive the same genes, that is in the case of identical twins. There are over 5 billion people on planet earth today and nearly all are different. We can now see how this is accomplished, by the mixing of the father’s genes with the genes of the mother, producing a new being, different from either the father or the mother.
How wonderful are the works of our Heavenly Father, manifest in His human creation. What a dull colorless world it would be if everyone was alike. Surely we can see the hand of an all-wise creator in this remarkable process of the mixing of genes.
As Christians we understand that we are not unalterably stamped in a certain mold at birth by our genes, but rather our genes are responsible only in part for our personality, our character and being. Our upbringing, environment and life’s experiences, and how we react to them, also play a very big part. This is especially true of those that our Heavenly Father is calling to be footstep followers of His dear son. Their life’s experiences are tailor-made as it were, designed to produce change where required. They undergo chiseling and polishing that their characters might be conformed to that of their Master.
Thus our question regarding Jesus’ perfection, “how is it so?” is a legitimate one, and one we have never heard an answer to. But we believe there is a simple and satisfactory answer.
THE VIRGIN BIRTH
Some seem to find it difficult to accept the doctrine of the Virgin Birth, even among those who claim to be Christians. At the time of our Lord’s first advent a virgin birth would be an amazing thing to understand, but less so now. In this day of artificial insemination and test-tube babies, even man possesses the ability to procure a virgin birth. Why should any doubt that Almighty God could do so? Isaiah predicted: “The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel”. (Isaiah 7:14) Matthew records the fulfillment.
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us”. (Matthew 1:18-23)
The Perfect Child
Jesus was the seed or child of Abraham, Judah and David. When we think of a person being the son or descendant of someone, we think of them as being the literal fleshly descendant of that person. Then in order to fulfill the Scriptures does it mean that Jesus was the literal descendant of these three patriarchs? Definitely not. If he was, he could not have been man’s redeemer. “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him”. (Psalms 49:7) If Jesus had literal fleshly ancestors he would fall in this same category, as a descendant of Adam. But he was not descended from Adam. He was the Logos, the Son of God.
In God’s sight the members of the Church are all children, or seed, or Abraham. “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”. (Galatians 3:29) It is quite immaterial whether we are literally of Abraham or not. If we are Christ’s, God grafts us in no matter what our lineage. The Jews gloried that Abraham was their father, but John the Baptist put them straight on this point.
“Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for… God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham”. (Matthew 3:9)
This indicates that to be children of Abraham in God’s sight one does not have to be a literal descendant. Perhaps John is foreshadowing the fact that others were to be selected from the Gentiles to be Abraham’s seed. Jesus himself was the primary seed of Abraham (and Isaac and Jacob) in a different way, as Joseph’s foster son, just as an adopted baby takes the name and relations of his foster parents. As the Son of God, Jesus could not have Abraham or anyone else as a literal fleshly ancestor.
LINEAGE IN MATTHEW AND LUKE
Matthew 1:1-16 gives us the lineage from Abraham right down to Christ. It links in Judah and David who are of the same line, showing Jesus was the descendant of these through his foster father Joseph. Luke 3:23- 38 gives another lineage of Christ right back to Adam. The puzzling part is that the line from David to Christ is different from the Matthew account. In the Matthew account Christ is of the line of David through his son Solomon. In the Luke account he comes through the line of Nathan, David’s other son. In Matthew Joseph is begotten by Jacob; in Luke he is listed as the son of Heli.
Nowhere do the Scriptures explain this matter. Two explanations have been put forward by commentators. One is that Heli is Mary’s father, therefore Joseph’s father-in-law. Brother Russell supports this view and it seems to be the correct understanding. Young’s Concordance suggests Heli is Mary’s father and brother to Jacob, Joseph’s actual father.
It seems plain that Jacob was the real father of Joseph. As Matthew says, “Jacob begat Joseph.” This puts the matter beyond doubt, whereas the Luke account simply says he was the “son” of Heli. As we have seen this does not necessarily mean a son by literal descent. We might ask,-if Luke’s account gives Mary’s lineage, why do the Scriptures present it as Joseph’s? We are not told the reason but it could be that lineage is never taken in the Bible from the female side.
THE CENTRAL QUESTION
Let us return to our earlier question: “how is Jesus sinless and perfect having a human mother?” We have said Jesus is not descended literally from anyone on earth, that Abraham, Judah and David are not his blood relations. But we have seen that 50% of the genes come from the mother. In view of this would not Jesus indeed be a blood relation of these patriarchs through Mary?
There is a very simple explanation. We suggest that as Joseph was his foster father, so Mary was his foster mother. Mary was certainly his mother in the sense that she bore him, but not in the full sense, not a blood relation. Is it possible today for a woman to bear a son that is not her own and bears no relationship to her? Yes; it is.
To understand that Jesus was not related to his mother, look at the procedure man has adopted to procure a test tube baby. As the name suggests, the sperm from the father and an egg from the mother are combined in a test tube, and after two or three days when the tiny life has started to grow the embryo is implanted in the mother’s womb. If things go well, in due time a baby results. In this case the father and mother are the true parents.
But the embryo could be implanted in an unrelated woman, in which case the baby born to the woman would not be related either to herself or her husband. If the woman who bore the child had hereditary weaknesses or defective genes, it would not matter in the least, since none of her hereditary patterns would be passed onto the child. All she provided were the nutrients from her bloodstream to nurture the tiny babe in her womb for nine months. None of her genes would have passed to the child.
In a similar way Jesus could be born of a woman, a member of the fallen race, and yet still be sinless and perfect. In this case the child born to Mary had but one true parent, his Heavenly Father. So he possessed no imperfections or weaknesses.
Others who have written on the subject in the past, though not saying so directly, seem to suppose that Mary’s baby started just as all other babies by the male sperm uniting with an egg from Mary, the only difference being that God through His holy Spirit provided the sperm. We are suggesting that God implanted an embryo in Mary’s womb, a tiny complete life in itself, that did not involve an egg from Mary. Thus the child inherited none of Mary’s weaknesses or blemishes.
Bear in mind that God was not producing a new life, but as the scripture says, He was making the Logos into flesh. One day we hope to receive a change to the spirit nature. With Jesus it was the reverse. He received a change from the spirit to the flesh.
With a normal baby, and normal processes, a child receives 50% of the father’s genes and 50% of the mother’s, producing an entirely new life, different from either parent. It seems certain God would not have used this procedure, as the resulting baby would be a new being, rather than the Logos made flesh.
We suggest the life properties of the Logos were condensed into a tiny embryo. The resulting child was the Logos made flesh, not tainted with any sinful human traits. Of course it is not a matter we can prove from the Scriptures. It is a case we can reason out, and this seems to be the only reasonable and logical explanation.
How grateful we are that the Heavenly Father’s only begotten son was made flesh to redeem us and the whole world. May that day come quickly when all mankind will know of the wonderful provision that has been made for them.
– Greig Tosh, Australia