Virgin Birth

QUESTION: Is the virgin birth that important?

ANSWER:

The Bible is very clear that Jesus was born of a virgin. Isaiah 7:14 prophesied, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Matthew 1:23 fulfills this prophecy, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel - which means, 'God with us.'"

The virgin birth is an essential doctrine. It is the base of a sinless Jesus. Even though Adam and Eve both sinned in the garden (Gen 3:1-19), God placed responsibility for the Fall on Adam in Genesis 3:17-19: "To Adam he said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' 'Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Romans 5:12 reiterates this thought: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." The Bible is clear that we inherited our sin nature from Adam. That is the reason we all die. In fact, Romans 5:17 says, "For if, by the trespass of the one man. . ." It is evident, according to Genesis 1:26 that Adam was created in God's image and then all of Adam's descendants are in his image (Genesis 5:3).

It is important to understand that it is not the mother, but the father who passes on a sin nature to their offspring. So, in order for Jesus to be born without a sin nature, it was essential for Him not to be born of a man. That is why it was necessary for Jesus to be born of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had to be virgin-born, so He did not have Adam's sinful nature, allowing Jesus to die as our sinless substitute!