WHY IS THE VIRGIN BIRTH NECESSARY?
Matt. 1:23
Morning Meditation 10/12/16
Let me begin by telling you that today, December 19th, I celebrate my 43rd anniversary in the ministry. I actually surrendered to preach the gospel on Friday night December 17th after having talked to my pastor at his home in Benton, Arkansas. Then I made it public on Sunday morning the 19th. I have never been sorry, never doubted what God called me to do, and I never intend to quit until there is no breath left in my body. God has given grace, satisfaction, and fulfilment. The Lord has given me many friends over the years that are as close to me as is possible on this earth. Along with the blessings, I have made enemies and many who traded me off for another preacher. All of this is NOTHING. Had I been in the shoes of those who opposed me, I might have treated me worse than they did. We have a way of being blind to our faults and we are a lot easier on ourselves than we are on others. I have absolutely no complaints and rejoice in the Lord that He would call me to preach His unsearchable riches. I’m sure I’m not right on everything. But you can be sure of one thing. When I say it or write it, I believe it with all my heart. I have been corrected many times. But I have never changed on a single doctrine because someone disagreed with me. I will have to be convinced that I am not understanding the Bible right on the point. Then any of us should be willing to change.
Now to our topic. Why the virgin birth of Christ? Matthew says, “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” (Matt. 1:23). Yesterday, we looked at the virgin birth itself. Today, let’s look at why the virgin birth is necessary. I have asked many of my Catholic friends over the years, “Do you know why Jesus had to be born of a virgin to be the Saviour of the world?” I have not had the first one who knew. Do you know why I said Catholic? It is because they emphasize the virgin birth in the Catholic Church. If we believe in the virgin birth, we should know why it is necessary to believe it.
Jesus had to be born of a virgin because of the inherent sin nature that is passed from father to children. Paul said in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned..” Adam is the man that is identified by the words “as by one man.” It was through Adam that sin entered into the world. Sin entered the angelic realm through the sin of Lucifer. You can read about this in Isa. 14:12 and Ezek. 28:13-19. When God created Adam and Eve they were without sin. They were perfect. But they were created with volition that God allowed to be tested by Satan and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They failed the test. When Adam sinned, he died spiritually on the spot. God had said, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17). There is physical death and spiritual death. Spiritual death along with total depravity is passed from father to children. This is what Paul means when he says, “ . . . and so death passed upon all men.” The word “passed” translates “dierchomai” and means, “to go through, pass through; to go, walk, journey, pass through a place; to travel the road which leads through a place.” It is an aorist active indicative verb. This means it happened at a point of time. What point of time? The conception. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Ghost. Man is conceived by a human father. When conception takes place, the old sin nature is passed to the person conceived.
Why was Jesus born of a virgin? He was born of a virgin because, if He had had a human father, the sin nature of his human father would have passed to him. This would have disqualified Him to be the substitutionary atonement for the sin of the world. Jesus had to be perfect to be God’s Lamb to take away the sin of the world. 1 Peter 1:19 says, “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Paul says in Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” The words “without spot” translate “amomos” and means, “morally: without blemish, faultless, unblameable.” Jesus is without sin. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
The typical sacrifices of the Old Testament had to be without blemish. Exo. 12:5 says, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats.” The Red Heifer offering is described as being without blemish: Num. 19:2, “This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.”
This typical significance is seen in the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah. This is brought out in Genesis 22 where Abraham is asked to make the supreme sacrifice. God said, “Take now thy son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and . . . offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (vs 2). Abraham took his son Isaac, laid him on the altar, and was ready to take his life when the “. . . angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham . . . Lay not thine hand upon the lad . . .” (Vss 10-12). Then the important verse to illustrate this truth: “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son” (vs 13). God provided an unblemished ram to typify Jesus who would be offered IN THE STEAD OF MEN. Why was the ram caught by his horns? Had he been caught by his body in the thicket, it would have penetrated his skin and he would have been a blemished sacrifice. Therefore, even in this Old Testament type we see that Jesus was to be unblemished.
Jesus had to be born without an old sin nature to live a perfect life. This is the reason all are sinners. You do not have to train a child to sin. If you take God’s standards and try to train your child not to sin, it won’t be long before you will discover you have a major problem. No matter how hard you try, you will fail.
Jesus did not come to save by leaving us an example so that we could go to heaven by following His good example. It would not be any easier to follow a perfect example than it would be to keep God’s perfect law. Perfection is out of man’s reach (Rom. 3:23).
Jesus was born of a virgin in order that He might live a perfect life. He lived a perfect life that He might die a substitutionary death. He died a substitutionary death that we might have life here and a home in heaven. Until you have Christ, you are spiritually dead. You can put a spiritually dead man on the church rolls and it will not give him life. A spiritually dead man can no more generate life by movement (his good works) than you can give life back to a dead mule by working his legs.
The righteousness with which believers will stand before the Lord is His righteousness imputed to them by faith. Paul says, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” He says again, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
The virgin birth is necessary because man has no Saviour without it.. Now if you believe in good works for salvation, this will not be important to you. You think Jesus was a good man, maybe a prophet, but you do not believe that your salvation rests on His finished work which He could not have done apart from the virgin birth. Maybe you think He is necessary as a crutch to prop you up, so that between the two of you, you might make it. But this is not the Bible Jesus. Jesus is not a crutch. He is the One who obtained our salvation completely apart from any effort on our part. Paul said, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). Well, glory to God! Some one hold my mules!
May God bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
