THE INCARNATION & VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST
1. The Incarnation Of Christ
1) The biblical view of Christ’s incarnation
- Jesus Christ is
2) The hypostatic union of God and man in Christ’s incarnation
- The Bible declares that He was as much God as if He had never been man and as much man as if he had never been God.
3) The perpetuity of the incarnation
- When the Son of God joined Himself to a body at Bethlehem it was an
2. The Virgin Birth Of Christ
1) The virgin birth fulfilled the
of the Word (Isa 7:14; Gen. 3:15; cf. Gal. 4:4)
2) The virgin birth declares the
of Christ
- The virgin birth makes a bold declaration of purity, but the purity that is declared is not the purity of Mary, rather it is the purity of Jesus.
- The reality is that Mary was a sinner just like you or me. She was sexually pure, but she had a sin nature.
The virgin birth isn’t about her sexual purity; it declares Christ’s sinless nature. It declares that Christ is pure and holy. (Lk 1:25)
If Jesus was not born of a virgin, then he had an earthly father. If he had an earthly father, he had a sin nature just like you and me. (cf. Rom 5:12)
- The reason Jesus has no sin nature is because he is not under the headship of Adam. He doesn’t have a sin nature passed to him from an earthly father.
3) The virgin birth reveals the
of God
1] Revelation
The virgin birth is the vehicle through which God reveals Himself to mankind. (John 1:18, 14:9, Heb 1:1-2)
The virgin birth not only reveals God to man, but it also reveals man’s need of
-The virgin birth shows that humanity needs redeeming and that humanity can’t bring it about for itself. The fact that the human race couldn’t produce its own redeemer implies that its sin and guilt are profound and that its savior must come from outside (i.e. outside of human resources, thinking, strength, work, etc.).
2] Salvation (1 John 4:14)
If we were to paraphrase Gal. 4:4 it would sound something like this – In the nick of time God sent forth His Son to
The virgin birth is absolutely necessary to our salvation
- The virgin birth provides for
- The virgin birth provides for Substitution. (cf. Rom 5:12)
- The virgin birth provides for
- The virgin birth provides for
In the final analysis, if Jesus was not born of a virgin, then we couldn’t be saved.
- If Jesus was not born of a virgin, who was His father? There is no answer that will leave the Gospel intact. The virgin birth explains how Christ could be both God and man, how He was without sin, and that the entire work of salvation is God’s gracious act. If Jesus was not born of a virgin, He had a human father. If Jesus was not born of a virgin, the Bible teaches a lie.
3] Authentication
- One of the things the virgin birth does is highlight the supernatural.
- On one end of Jesus’ life lies his supernatural conception and birth; on the other, his supernatural resurrection and his ascension to God’s right hand.
- Jesus’ authenticity was attested to by the supernatural working of his Father. Jesus is who he says he is and the supernatural authenticates it.
Mark Driscoll:
“If the virgin birth of Jesus is untrue, then the story of Jesus changes greatly; we would have a sexually promiscuous young woman lying about God’s miraculous hand in the birth of her son, raising that son to declare he was God, and then joining his religion. But if Mary is nothing more than a sinful con artist then neither she nor her son Jesus should be trusted.”
4] Destruction
- The virgin birth is the vehicle through which God would ultimately fulfill His purpose to destroy the works of