John 1:14 (ESV) — 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The world today is of the opinion that the virgin birth is a fairy tail. The world has determined that the Bible is just an early account of mythology based upon ignorant beliefs. After all, science has discredited and disproved most of the myths portrayed in the Scripture. Everyone knows that evolution is the truth and there really isn’t a creator. How can you believe the Genesis account? No rational human being could possibly believe such a tale.
The same is true when it comes to the virgin birth of Christ. John stated that the Word was God in John 1:1 then in verse 14 this very same word became flesh. He became human. Not only did He become human, but He also was miraculously conceived.
Luke 1:34–35 (ESV) — 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
We have to ask why it is important that Christ does not have a human father. The answer is not that complicated. If Christ had a human father then He would have been in Adam when Adam sinned. If that is the case then He would have been in possession of a sin nature instead of a nature that did not have a predisposition to sin. Simply put Christ would have not been able to live a sinless life had He had a human father. If Christ had sinned then He could not have provided an acceptable offering for the sins of the world. There would be no salvation possible for mankind.
The virgin birth is an essential truth of Scripture. If you can show that Christ has a human father, then there is no truth that He is God and there is no truth in Scripture. Our faith would be in vain with no hope for the future. It is no wonder then that Satan attacks this truth of Scripture as much as he attacks the creation account of Genesis.
The fact that God became flesh means that He has an eternal body. He did not become man for His time on earth and then gave up the body to become God again. He will eternally be a human being. Christ became a total human being.
Luke tells us that He was a baby and grew like any human.
Luke 2:40 (ESV) — 40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
He also tells us that:
Luke 2:52 (ESV) — 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
He also had to be obedient to His parents. To do otherwise would be sin.
Luke 2:51 (ESV) — 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
Jesus experience all the human emotions that we feel. He wept, was tired, hungry and thirsty. In every way He was human, yet without sin. He showed anger and sorrow and experienced everything you or I have experienced. He knows what it is like to be human and is perfectly qualified to understand us as no other being can.
The fact that Christ is fully human does not mean that He is any less God. We have already shown that the preincarnate Christ is truly God and the incarnation does not change that fact. We will look and how it is possible for these two natures to coexist next post.
