virgin birth - Drew Boswell

“Sign #2: The Virgin Birth” Matthew 1:18-25

The Signs of Christmas

Sermon Series

Sign #2: The Virgin Birth

Matthew 1:18-25

Introduction

The Gospel of Matthew says that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin when she gave birth to the Son of God. The world laughs at this idea and mocks it as if it were a myth. Even worse, some proclaiming Christians doubt the Virgin Birth; some don’t believe it at all.

But the truth is, there is no hope of salvation apart from the Virgin Birth. If the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ did not happen, the foundation of Christianity collapses. The Virgin Birth is not incidental: it is fundamental to our faith. This morning we will look at why the virgin birth is a sign that points the world to the Savior.

Prayer

The Virgin Birth Points to Jesus as the Messiah

“18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Engagement (betrothed) in ancient Judaism was legally binding and required divorce if it were to be broken, but sexual relations and living together under one roof were not permitted until after the marriage ceremony.[1] But now Joseph discovers that she is pregnant (and he knows that it wasn’t him.)

19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Joseph could therefore be spoken of already as Mary’s husband, but Matthew emphasizes this was “before they came together.” Joseph assumes that she has been unfaithful to him. When Joseph is referred to as “a just or righteous man” it does not mean that he perfect, only that he was law-abiding, and upright in character. Because of the character of Joseph, he wants to spare her any public disgrace or even death (Duet. 22:23-24). Jewish law required a man to divorce (or that she be stoned) an adulterous wife. She would have been marked for life as unfaithful, and an adulterous.

The angel explains in a dream that Mary has not been unfaithful and that her child has been supernaturally conceived. As he calls him “son of David” the angel is reminding him of messianic lineage. It is as if the angel is saying, “remember, there is a messiah coming through your lineage.” He commands him to go ahead and marry her thereby legally making the Christ child a son of David.

In this angelic dream there are no images of delivering the Israelites from the Roman oppression instead the angel emphasizes salvation from their sins. He is to be named Jesus which means Yahweh is salvation or “the Lord saves.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us) (Isaiah 7:14). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”

Historically, the virgin birth was an essential Christian doctrine. The amended version of the Nicene Creed in 381 says, “For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

The Apostle’s Creed says, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…”’

This morning I want to answer the question of, “Why is it so important that Jesus had to be born by a virgin birth?” One answer would be because God prophesied that He would be (Isa. 7:14), but God could have chosen any event or miracle to be fulfilled to show Jesus to be the Messiah – why a virgin birth?

Original Sin

Our answer begins at the beginning of time with the Doctrine of Original Sin. Original Sin is the biblical teaching that sin is not just an act but also a condition that has been handed down from Adam to all mankind. When Adam sinned in the Garden, his physical and spiritual nature was corrupted—his body was no longer eternal but would eventually die, and his soul was no longer spiritually alive but separated from God.

Separation is an essential theological theme in Scripture. In the Bible, separation is how death happens. Ecclesiastes 12:7, in speaking to physical death, Solomon writes, “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

Death is the separation of the body from the soul. When the soul leaves, the body dies. On the other hand, spiritual death is defined as the separation of the soul from God. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.”

Original Sin Results in Death

The Bible defines death as a separation:

separation of the soul from the body (physical death) and separation of soul from God (eternal death).

Because God is spirit, holy, and without sin, the soul of a sinner cannot be in His presence. Therefore, sin acts as the means to detach (or separate) us from God.

Because Adam sinned and was separated from God, all who are born of Adam are also born separated from God. Consequently, when the soul is separated from God (Who is the source of spiritual life), the soul is dead.

This is why Ephesians 2:1-3 describes the spiritual state of a person before Christ by saying, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

For this reason, Jesus claims we must be spiritually resurrected (or born again) to enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3-5). As we know, spiritual life (the reuniting of the soul with God) is only found in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. However, the Bible teaches that if a person remains spiritually dead by their unwillingness to repent and trust in Christ, they will experience what is called the second death. This is the eternalseparation of your soul from God (a.k.a. hell).

Revelation 21:8 says, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Ultimately, we learn two important truths in this doctrine of Original Sin. First, Adam’s sin was the reason Adam died (physically and spiritually). It’s also the reason why all of humanity is born spiritually dead (needing to be born again) and will experience physical death.

Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Original Sin and Federal Headship

The second lesson we learn in the Doctrine of Original Sin is the concept of “federal headship” or “covenant representation.”

When Paul says, “so death spread to all men because all sinned.” He’s teaching that when Adam sinned, we all sinned with him or in him. Adam was the human race’s covenant representative before God in the covenant of works that was established in the Garden of Eden. That is, God established a law for man to follow (to not eat of the forbidden tree), and Adam failed to keep his portion of the covenant.

Now, because all humanity was, in a real sense, genetically inAdam, when Adam sinned and broke that covenant, we all sinned with him or in him. Therefore, when Adam was genetically corrupted, we were genetically corrupted. When Adam died spiritually, we died spiritually. When Adam was cursed, we were cursed. Ultimately, when Adam fell, all of humanity fell with him.

This is why Scripture teaches for a person to be saved, they must go from being in Adamto being in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22). We need to switch from Adam (who failed to keep the law) to Christ (who kept the law, perfectly). We need to go from the man who is not righteous to the only Man who is righteous—Jesus Christ.

So, because of Adam I have inherited a sin nature, you may say, “that’s not fair. I am being judged because of something Adam did?” But have you sinned? Yes, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).” But if you think it is unfair to be linked with Adam “then we should also think that it is unfair for us to be represented by Christ and to have his righteousness imputed to us by God.”[2] One man brought sin into the world and one man defeated it for the world.”

Romans 5:17-19 says, “For if, because of one man’s trespass (Adam), death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass (though Adam) led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness (through Christ) leads to justification and life for all men.For as by the one man’s disobedience (Adam) the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience (Christ) the many will be made righteous.”

Jesus, the Second Adam

As you can see, Jesus is a second and better Adam. In fact, God prepared His people for and pointed them to this need for a second Adam. For example, in the Old Testament, God’s covenantal mark of circumcision, while symbolic for several reasons, aims to demonstrate man’s sinfulness by marking the male’s reproductive organ.

It was a physical reminder to God’s people that sin is passed down from generation to generation. Namely, that sinful man can only reproduce sinful men. But more than that, it would remind God’s people that salvation would not be from men but by from God. Somehow God would have to break this chain of sin being passed from generation to generation.

Even in Isaiah 7:14, we see the prophet foretelling God will step in when he wrote, “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”

God’s people knew to expect a Messiah that would come through a supernatural birth

—a pregnancy and birth that included a virgin woman.

This Messiah would be fully human and fully God. He would have His humanity from His mother and His divinity from God the Father. But most of all, He would not inherit the corruption, curse, or covenant representation of Adam.

He would be conceived by the Holy Spirit, free of sin, legally adopted by an earthly father of the tribe of Judah, born of the line of David, and would stand before the world as a new Adam. Namely, He would keep the Law with perfection, to give His life as a ransom for many, and to spiritually reproduce others who were not like the first Adam but like Him.

So how does this all come together? Why is the virgin birth of Jesus absolutely necessary? Because if Jesus were born of Joseph, He would have had original sin—He would have been born physically corrupted, spiritually dead, sinful, and cursed. If that were the case, Jesus could not pay for the sins of others because He would have to pay for His own sin with His own life.

Therefore, the cross would not be a moment of redemption but simply the passing away of another sinner. As a result, no justification could be given by faith. No redemption could be bought by His blood. No wrath could be satisfied by His death. And no resurrection could occur to validate His righteousness.

Without the virgin birth, all of Christianity falls apart.

Therefore, during this Christmas season, we don’t simply celebrate thatChrist was born, but we also celebrate how Christ was born. He’s the first fruits of the harvest to come, the firstborn from the dead, and for those who trust in Him, the One who reconciles them to God for eternity.

Conclusion

“Radio commentator Paul Harvey tells of a man who did not believe that God had taken human flesh in the person of Jesus. He was a kind, decent family man, but he was skeptical about the message of Christmas and couldn’t pretend otherwise. So on Christmas eve, he told his wife that he was not going to church with her and the children, because he just couldn’t believe. So they went without him.

Shortly after the family left, snow began to fall. As he sat in his fireside chair reading the paper, he was startled by a thudding sound against the house, then another, then another. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against the living room window. But when he went to investigate, he found a flock of birds, huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm, and in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his window.

He didn’t want to leave the poor creatures there to freeze. He thought of the barn where his children stabled their pony. He put on his coat and boots and tromped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the door wide and turned on the light. But the birds didn’t come in. He went back to the house and got some bread crumbs and sprinkled a path to the barn, but the cold creatures ignored the food and continued to flop around helplessly in the snow.

He tried catching them and shooing them into the barn, but they scattered in every direction, frightened by his well-meaning actions. As he puzzled over how he could help save these frightened creatures from sure death, the thought struck him, “If only I could become a bird and speak their language, then I could show them the way to safety in the warm barn.” At that moment, bells from the church rang out through the silent, falling snow, heralding the birth of the Savior. The message of Christmas suddenly made sense, and he dropped to his knees in the snow.

It is possible to believe in the virgin birth and incarnation of the Savior and yet not be saved. Salvation does not depend upon affirming the creeds. “The demons also believe” (James 2:19). Salvation depends upon personally receiving the free gift of eternal life which God offers to you through His eternal Son who took on human flesh through the virgin Mary on that first Christmas, who offered Himself as the substitute for sinners on the cross. If God is truly with us in Christ, then we must come to God only through Christ.”[3]

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[1] Craig Blomberg. The New American Commentary, Vol. 22. Matthew (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman), 59.

[2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1994) 495.

[3] https://bible.org/seriespage/christmas-1996-virgin-birth-why-believe-it-matthew-118-25-luke-126-38

The Fundamentals of Our Faith; What We Believe Sermon Series “We Believe in Jesus” Miscellaneous Verses

The Fundamentals of Our Faith;

What We Believe Sermon Series

“We Believe in Jesus”

Miscellaneous Verses

Introduction

We must continue to affirm the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ. For he is unique in his incarnation (the one and only God-man), unique in his atonement (only he has died for the sins of the world), and unique in his resurrection (only he has conquered death). And since in no other person but Jesus of Nazareth did God first become human (in his birth), then bear our sins (in his death), and then triumph over death (in his resurrection), he is uniquely competent to save sinners. Nobody else possesses his qualifications.

So we may talk about Alexander the Great, Charles the Great and Napoleon the Great, but not Jesus the Great. He is not the Great—he is the Only. There is nobody like him. He has no rival and no successor.[1]

Prayer

Fulfilled Prophecies

“Jesus is the second member of the trinity, and is described to us as the Son of God, who existed before the creation of the world, participated in creation, and became a human (Jesus of Nazareth), was given birth by a virgin, coming to earth to do the will of God the Father. He lived without sin, died for our sins, was bodily resurrected, ascended into heaven and will come again someday to judge sin and establish permanent righteousness on earth.”[2]

1 Corinthians 15:1-5 “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”

This passage says, “according to the Scriptures” – there is prophecy after prophecy that predicted Jesus’ arrival, and with very specific detail show Him to have fulfilled them. Some biblical scholars hold that there are close to 300 prophecies of the Messiah in the Bible. In we pull only eight and “The prospect that anyone would satisfy those eight prophecies was just 1 in 10¹⁷. In Science Speaks, he described it like this:

“Let us try to visualize this chance. If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all of the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 10¹⁷silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state.

“Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.”

The God-Man

As God in eternity, He existed before taking on human flesh and becoming human, yet He did not give up any of His divinity – yet he took on being human completely. He was fully God and fully man at the same time.[3] One God, three persons.

In Philippians 2:5-8 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Remember last week we said that God is immutable (unchanging) – So Jesus as God does not change. Jesus did not cease to be God when he took on “the form of a servant,” so he was fully human (he grew tired, slept, was thirsty and hungry, expressed emotions, etc.) yet fully God at the same time.

The theological term we use here is kenosis or “emptied himself,” so this involves a voluntary nonuse of his divinity – Nonuse does not mean subtraction. For example, there are things that as the God-Man Jesus chose not to know (when He was coming back, parousia).

Also, there is apart of his kenosis that involves covering Jesus’ preincarnate glory. If we go to the transfiguration of Jesus in Mark 9:2-8 “And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

But while fully God, Jesus was also fully man. “If Jesus had not been a man, he could not have died in our place and paid the penalty that was due to us.”[4] Hebrews 2:16-17 says, “For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest pin the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Propitiation; “the sacrifice that is an acceptable substitute for us.” The root meaning of this word is “to make the face of someone sweet or pleasant,”[5] There has been an offense, what then is required to make things right again. We have offended God due to our sin, what must be done to propitiate the relationship? Justice demands death, the penalty for our sin is death. “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect” Jesus had to be fully man, so that He could settle the offense of sin against God.

The Virgin Birth

Jesus became human in a very special way. His birth was a result of a miraculous conception. “In the womb of the virgin Mary, Jesus was supernaturally conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:35 tells us what happened, “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.” Jesus did not have an earthly biological father, Mary conceived as a virgin.

Why is the virgin birth important?

1) “It shows that salvation ultimately must come from the Lord.”[6] Salvation will never have come from human self-effort, God had to step in and do something.

2) “It makes possible Christ’s true humanity without inherited sin.” Everyone inherits a corrupted sin nature from Adam, but because Jesus did not have a human father that was somehow interrupted. What About Mary’s inherited sin nature? Luke 1:35 “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.” In some miraculous way, the Holy Spirit kept the sin nature from passing on the Jesus.

3) “The virgin birth made possible the uniting of full deity and full humanity in one person. This was the means God used to send his Son (John 3:16; Galatians 4:4) into the world as a man.”[7]

Savior of the World

Jesus lived a sinless life, “He had to be sinless or else His death on our behalf would have been worthless. Since ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23), meaning eternal spiritual and physical death, if Jesus had sinned He would Himself have suffered eternal separation and physical death. His death on the cross, then, could have done nothing for us. But because He was sinless, He did not deserve to die; and because He was God, His death could count for ours.”[8]

“Adam served as our representative in the Garden of Eden, and through his disobedience God counted us guilty as well. In a similar way, Jesus was our representative and obeyed for us where Adam had disobeyed and failed.”[9]

There is a parallel between Jesus’ temptation (Luke 4:1-13) and the time of testing for Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen. 2:15-3:7). Paul also discusses this parallel between Adam and Christ in Romans 5:18-19 “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for fall men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” This is why Paul calls Jesus the “last Adam.” There are no other Saviors coming, He is the ultimate and final sacrifice.

Humanity is separated from God because of sin, and unless one believes in Jesus, committing your life to Him, he or she will be separated from God forever. John 1:1, 12 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, the gave the right to become children of God,”

His Teachings Were Astonishing

Jesus taught us, that nothing is more important than your soul, and what you do with it. Matthew 16:26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” Our greatest need is to do something about our sin – we need to be saved. Through Jesus we see that God is willing, because of His love for us, to give His one and only Son to be the payment that is required for our sin.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus came to this reality (remember God is transcendent) and suffered as a man and died, so that His creation may be rid of sin.

Before we move on from Jesus’ teaching, I think it is helpful to look at a quote from C.S. Lewis,

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”[10]

Jesus claimed deity for Himself in a way quite clear to His listeners. He said on one occasion, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). His decisive expression of deity led to his crucifixion” John 19:7 “The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.”[11]

The high priest expressly asked Jesus in Matthew 26:63-65 “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need?” In His claiming to be the Son of God, he said he had the authority to forgive sin, that He would come in future judgment, and that He had the authority to raise the dad.

His Actions Were Miraculous

To prove He was who He said He was, he did miracles. “Jesus performed miracles not to amaze or entertain people. He healed people out of a sense of compassion. He wept before raising Lazarus from the dead. Also, He performed miracles in order to help people believe what He was saying. For example, He claimed to be the light of the world, and then gave sight to a blind man. He claimed to be the bread of life, and He fed five thousand people with a few loaves. He claimed to the resurrection and the life, and He raised Lazarus from the dead.”[12]

“Jesus demonstrated for all to see and hear the attributes which belong to God alone. He claimed omnipotence (all power) with the words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). During His life He demonstrated power over nature by stilling the stormy waves (Mark 4:39) and turning water into wine (John 2:7-11).”[13]

His Continued Ministry For Humanity

When Jesus ascended into heaven He sat down at the right hand of the Father, indicating that His earthly task was completed successfully. Now, He intercedes for us in prayer. Romans 8:34 “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Also, Romans 8:24 says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

Do You Know This Jesus Today? Have you accepted His gift of His life as a substitute for your sin – His sinless life for yours? He wants you to give your life to him today – won’t you do it.

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[2] Max Anders, New Christian’s Handbook, Everything New Believers Need to Know (Nashville, Tennessee; Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999) 24.

[3] Shortly after Jesus’ death some claimed that Jesus did not truly have a human body; He only seemed human. That was rejected at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. (Anders, 25)

[4] Grudem, 236.

[5] George Arthur Buttrick, Dictionary Editor, The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, An Illustrated Encyclopedia (Nashville, Tennessee; Abingdon Press, 1962) 920.

[6] Wayne Grudem, Bible Doctrine, Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1999) 230.

[7] Grudem, 230.

[8] Anders, 28.

[9] Grudem, 235.

[10] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6979-i-am-trying-here-to-prevent-anyone-saying-the-really

[11] Paul Little, Know What You Believe, A Practical Discussion of the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith (Colorado Springs, Colorado; Cook Communications, 1999) 42.

[12] Anders, 42.

[13] Little, 43.

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