ADVENT FOR ADULTS #5
December 5th … 20 NIGHTS TIL CHRISTMAS
THE REASON FOR THE VIRGIN BIRTH
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” [Matthew 1:18=21]
LUKE tells us that because Mary was espoused to Joseph and was found pregnant, Joseph was “minded to put her away”— and this is when he was visited by an angel and told “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” [Matthew 1:20,21]
Mary had to be a virgin for her son to be miraculously conceived.
In our day, our Muslim friends get upset when they hear Christians say that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, and that Jesus is the son of God. There is actually a frieze around the Dome of the Rock (that big building on top of what’s called the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) that says in Arabic, “Jesus, son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah. Allah has no son. It is blasphemy to say he has taken a son.”
But that’s what Joseph was told. Mary would bear a son conceived by God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The angel told Mary: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” [Luke 1:35]
Why is it so important that God have a son? Because of what this “son” would have to do— “she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” [Matt..1:21]
This “son” would have to save people from sin.
What in the world does this mean? And how do you do that?
When you take the whole Bible into account[1], you realize that the biggest human problem is sin. It started in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” [Genesis 2:17] It’s SIN to disobey God. And sin is ultimately the source of all suffering and death.
Despite all human efforts to stop sinning, nobody can do it. The Muslims with their Five Pillars of Islam try so hard to obey Allah but they still fail miserably. Even the Jews, with their 613 Laws of Moses, try so hard to obey, but can’t obey them perfectly. And how many of us really obey all the 10 Commandments?
Many people believe Jesus came to teach us how to obey laws, so we can live perfect lives— but if we are honest, none of us can ever completely obey God’s laws, none of us can ever be perfect, none of us can live perfectly sinless lives. The problem is not the good that we men try to do— the problem is the bad we do without even trying!
No matter how religious we try to be, we inevitably fail. That’s why God had to send his Son into the world— to save people from sin.
But how do you save people from sin?
Can you stop them from sinning?
How do you do that? Pass laws that forbid sin?
How many laws have been written throughout history? And have these laws stopped people from sinning?
What about teaching people? Teaching them to be good and love each other— has that worked? Teaching them to live right, to be perfect— has that worked?
Setting a good example— has that worked? What about Confucius? Ghandi? Moses? Even Jesus— didn’t he set a good example?
So if Jesus was just another man, a good man, a good teacher, could he really save us from sin? To do that he’d have to keep us from sinning. Could he do that if he was only a man?
If Jesus was just another man, just the son of Mary and Joseph, (and not the son of God)—then nothing Jesus ever did would be able to save anybody from sin. Setting a good example, teaching people how to live, all that is GOOD, but it’s not enough. Jesus was sent to save people from sin. How? By teaching them more religion? No!
There is no religion in the world that can save people from sin. There never has been. All the prophets and teachers and good men born from among men haven’t been able to solve the sin problem.
That’s why God had to send his Son. All the LAWS that men have ever written, all the laws of Mohammed, and Moses, all the rules people try so hard to keep, have never been able to give men the power to stop sinning.[2] Worse, those laws only condemn us, because it’s only by the laws that we discover how sinful we really are. And once we’ve broken a law, how can we ever hope to clean away our record? By saying we’re sorry? What does that do? By paying our “debt to society“? (Does this undo the damage we have done? No!) By doing extra good? Good luck! It’s only as we accumulate a record of breaking the law that we realize we can never clear away our sin debt by our own efforts— not in a million years.
That’s why God had to send his son— “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” [Gal 4:4,5] (More about this NEXT TIME!)
God sent his son, “made under the law”, who obeyed all the law, but who was nevertheless arrested, falsely accused, tried, condemned, and crucified— and by his crucifixion he paid our sin debt in full—so that we could be transformed from sinners into sons!
Only the son of God could have done this.
I’ll explain more later.
NEXT: MANY SONS
GO TO START: ADVENT FOR ADULTS #1
[1] And for these short essay’s I can’t cover everything…but if you want to understand how the Bible was written and why it’s unique and utterly reliable, read this page: http://www.christianministriesintl.org/articles/Bible-the-Inspired-Word-of-God.php)
[2] The LAW can’t save us. The Bible has lots to say about this, here are only a few passages:
“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.“ Galatians 2:21 Explanation: If men could become perfectly righteous by obeying law, Christ’s death was pointless.
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3,4 Explanation: We humans may have the desire to obey the law, but we don’t have the power— only the Holy Spirit of God, which we receive after salvation, gives us the power.
“If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” Galatians 3:21 Explanation: If God could have passed a law that would MAKE men righteous, he would have done so—but law only makes demands, it doesn’t give men the power or ability to meet those demands.