THE VIRGIN BIRTH

Jesus was physically born without a sin nature. Let's examine the importance of the virgin birth and just how that biological process happened.

When Adam and Eve were created by God, they were trichotomous beings. They had a body, soul, and spirit. When they decided to disobey God’s command not to eat from the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil, they died spiritually and acquired a sin nature. As the Federal Head, Adam represented the entire human race. We are all considered to be seminally in Adam. “Seminal presence in Adam means we were all present with Adam because we are all genetically derived from him; we are his seed. Therefore, the entire human race was present when Adam sinned, which resulted in depravity of the nature of mankind. We all share Adam’s corrupt nature.”

So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin (Romans 7:14-25).

Adam and Eve each decided that they wanted to sin, but there was a difference in their sin.

And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result (I Timothy 2:14).

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it” (Genesis 3:6-13).

Where did Eve get the forbidden fruit? [the tree] Where did Adam get the fruit from? [the hand of the woman—not from the tree!] Why did Satan attack Eve instead of Adam? [Satan needed her to sin first in order to cause the human race as a whole to be condemned. If Adam had sinned first and then told Eve to “eat,” out of obedience to the husband (which God placed in authority over her to protect her) she would not have been found guilty.]

Ignorance is no excuse as far as the NEED for salvation is concerned, but it made a difference in the MEANS of salvation. Because Adam committed this original sin fully aware of what he was doing, not under deception like Eve, the sin nature is passed down through the male chromosomes to the genetic code of each person, while the childbearing falls on the females.

Our sin nature is present in all the cells of our bodies. When we were born physically, we were dichotomous beings with a body and soul under condemnation from Adam’s original sin imputed to our genetically acquired OSN. At our spiritual birth, we gained our spirit (it was reborn or regenerated) which enables us to comprehend spiritual phenomenon. Our soul gives us the ability to comprehend physical phenomenon. We can have fellowship with God because we now also possess Christ’s absolute righteousness. WE are NOT righteous. We possess CHRIST’s perfect righteousness. At the new birth, our second birth, God imputed Christ’s +R to us. IMPUTATION is “the judicial act of debiting or crediting someone’s account. The condemnation of Adam’s original sin is given to each person at birth. God’s eternal life is credited to each person at the moment of faith in Jesus Christ.” We now have a body, soul, and spirit, and are trichotomous beings. Adam was created trichotomous; Jesus was born trichotomous. Adam chose to commit that first original sin and acquired a sin nature. Christ chose not to sin so did not acquire a sin nature.

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned (Romans 5:12).

Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life (I Corinthians 15:22).

So, if there is Only 1 Birth—Physical = 2 Deaths—Physical & Eternal Death Forever. If there are 2 Births—Physical & Spiritual = Only 1 Death—Physical, with the exception of the Rapture Generation. When we die or are taken up in The Rapture, our soul and spirit will leave our bodies which will return to dust, and we will be free of our sin nature and enjoy eternal life forever.

For God the Son to become the perfect sacrifice as a substitute for mankind, He needed to become fully man while continuing as fully God. Because deity cannot come under the limitations of humanity, humanity needed to be added to deity, but without sin or the sin nature. Thus, the virgin birth was necessary. This did not diminish His deity or equality with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in any way and is often referred to as “the hypostatic union of Christ.”

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14).

“THE HYPOSTATIC UNION refers to the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ. These natures are inseparably united without loss or mixture of separate identity, without loss or transfer of properties or attributes, the union being personal and eternal. Jesus is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.” As the uniquely born God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ is different from the Father and the Holy Spirit because He is man; different from all other men because He is God. He provides peace between man and God because He has removed the barrier of sin and reconciled man to God.

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us (Romans 5:1).

Not only did God find a way for His Son to be born free of both the sin nature and the condemnation from Adam’s original sin, but Jesus then lived His life without committing any personal sins.

Now, let’s examine the virgin birth:

This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through His prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” (Isaiah 7:14) When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25).

In verse 18, we are told that God the Holy Spirit miraculously formed the embryo in Mary’s womb. In verse 22 & 23, we see the angel reminding Joseph of prophecy, pointing him to recognize that this is the fulfillment of that prophecy. It’s important to note that Mary is not the “mother of God.” Mary was the mother of Christ’s humanity only!

Remember biology/genetics class? Here's a review:

Every cell in our body contains 46 chromosomes, and every chromosome carries the sin nature.

• Our cells are constantly being replenished with new cells by a process of division called mitosis, resulting in one cell becoming two cells, which are an exact copy of the cell they came from. All ending up with the full 46 chromosomes.

• The cell division producing our reproductive cells—the male sperm and the female ovum—happen through a specialized double process called meiosis. The new cells end up with only half the number of original chromosomes—23 instead of 46. These male and female reproductive cells are then prepared for fertilization and combine to result in cells with a complete set of 46 chromosomes. This gives the child characteristics from both the father and the mother.

• For the male, spermatogenesis starts when one immature reproductive cell (46 chromosomes) divides into two mature sperm cells (23 chromosomes). 1 cell = 4 sperm.

• In the female, the two-steps of meiosis yield only 1 egg cell from the original cell instead of 4, and a unique additional process occurs. On a monthly basis, this single egg is produced through oogenesis. In both stages of meiosis, unneeded cell matter is thrown off—including the contamination of the sin nature—into small, nonfunctional polar bodies that quickly disintegrate. All contamination crosses over into the polar bodies, leaving one large, uncontaminated ovum ready for fertilization.

• That one cell is the only pure cell in the human body.

• If the ovum is fertilized by the sperm, it then becomes contaminated. Through genetic transmission each child is born with a sin nature.

So, normally ½ of the genetic code comes from the father and ½ from the mother, with 23 chromosomes from each parent making up the full 46 chromosomes needed. In this special case, the Holy Spirit provided 23 of the chromosomes necessary for Christ’s body, so that all 46 were untainted by Adam’s Original Sin.

I find it fascinating to see in human biology and genetics just how God designed the way to fulfill His promise that Christ, “the Seed of the woman” (Genesis 3:15), would become the Savior. He made a way for Jesus to come down to earth and be born perfect, uncontaminated by our sin nature, fully qualified to go to the cross as our Substitute. The more I study, the more tangible and trustworthy His truths are!

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent His own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit (Romans 8:1-8).

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only uniquely-born Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

Adam’s choice to disobey and eat from the tree gave us sin and eternal death. The LJC’s choice to obey and hang on the tree gave us redemption and eternal life.

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like His own, using the same power with which He will bring everything under His control (Philippians 3:20-21).

{videos of polar body extrusion} https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iOng7Zs7vCg&feature=youtu.be

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kMqLjxz2-WY&feature=youtu.be

ENDNOTES:

The Virgin Birth, R.B. Thieme, Jr. (1973)

The Origin of Human Life, R.B. Thieme, Jr. (1994, 2nd edition); pages 5, 22; Glossary

The Integrity of God, R.B. Thieme, Jr. (1998); pages 48—53

Nutshell Notes—Thieme’s Lessons (Tapes & Pubs Ministry)

Topics: HYPOSTATIC UNION (God-Man); OLD SIN NATURE: Identification in Scripture; OSN (Means of Passing On); SANCTIFICATION; SIN: Comparison

The Bible, New Living Translation (NLT)