"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Isa:7:14)
"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." (Mat:1:23)
The miracle of the virgin birth was prophesied in old testement times, and was said be the sign of the coming of Messiah.
Today, we celebrate this event on the Christmas holiday. Yet, for all of the publicity the birth of Jesus Christ has
recieved, very few christians or scholars understand the mechanics of that blessed event.
But before we dive right in to the particulars, we must first establish the origin of sin in the human race, for reasons
you will understand shortly.
This subject carries us back to the very beginning, the Garden of Eden, and the fall of man
from grace. You can study the Garden in detail under that heading on the homepage, so I will not repeat the entire
story of Adam and his wife here, but go directly to the fact that Adam's sin was one of cognizance, for he was not
decieved, and that distinction won him the dubious title as the originator of sin in the human race.
"And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (1Tim:2:14)
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1Cor:15:22)
So what is this mysterious phenomena, "...in Adam all die.."? What does that mean? God does not give us information that
is not "knowable", although some principles require investigation far more extensive than others. In this case, the answer
to the problem of "death" is found in the sciences of biology and medicine. Adam transmited the "sin nature"
in his semen to the ovum in Eve's womb, and the result was the contamination of every cell in the bodies of their offspring.
That same process has carried down the generations to this very day. Every human being born on this planet inherits the old
sin nature from our ancestor, Adam! (thanks alot, fella!). This "corruption" is what alienates us from God, and makes necessary
our redemption. At the moment of birth, God imputes spiritual death to us because we have in our bodies the contaminated cells
which bear the mark of sin, and which, as we grow, begin to manifest themselves in our thoughts and actions.
But the ovum is not contaminated before the sperm of a human male enters into it. Initially, it has 46 pure genes and chromasomes,
but 23 of these are eliminated by a dual process called "myosis" and "polar body". After these processes have occured the egg
is fertile and ready to recieve the 23 genes and chromasomes in male semen.
Perhaps you can already see how the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world without sin, which means that the cells in his body
were not contaminated by the sin nature. The egg in Mary's womb was not fertilized by a man, but by God the Holy Spirit, which
is so significant when we know the origin of our fallen status. Ofcourse, Mary was a virgin, which was simply a measure taken
by God to validate the fact (for our sake) that no human being was responsible the baby, Jesus. In fact, when he learned that
his new bride was pregnant, Joseph came very close to rejecting her, for he naturally suspected that she had been with another
man.
"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 Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make
her a public spectacle, was minded to put her away quietly. 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 Spirit. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and
took unto him his wife:" (Mat:1:18-20 & 24)
The birth of Jesus Christ without a sin nature was one of the criteria that the Savior must meet in order to qualify as the
sacred offering, our substitute, who would receive the punishment for the sins of mankind. It was the work of The Holy Spirit,
in fertilizing the ovum in Mary's womb, that is the basis for Jesus being rightly called "The Son of God", and the fact that
his mother was human is the basis for his name; "The Son of Man". These designations come together to form a very critical
body of truth in the biblical doctrine of "The Hypostatic Union". Christ was unique, one of a kind,
for He is Almighty God and homosapien in one Person.