Page 78 - Apologetics Student Textbook (3 Credits)

from God, being validated by their ability to perform miracles. As people saw the miracles they could
do, they then trusted that what they proclaimed was from God.

All the miracles had a purpose—to prove that God is like no one else, that He has complete control of
creation because He is its source, and to convince us that if He can do all these miraculous things,
nothing in our lives is too hard for Him to handle. He wants us to trust Him and know that He can do
miracles in our lives as well. If the miracles did not occur, then how can we trust anything the Bible tells
us, especially when it tells us eternal life is available through Christ? When we begin to call any part of
Scripture into doubt, all of God’s marvelous plan is suspect, and we open the door for the lies and
distortions which are Satan’s plan to destroy our faith (1 Peter 5:8). The Bible is to be read and
understood literally, including the miracles.

For more information about miracles watch a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxvDLNiY7sM

9.3 Is the virgin birth of Christ all that important?
The doctrine of the virgin birth is crucially important (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew
1:23; Luke 1:27, 34). First, let’s look at how Scripture describes the event. In
response to Mary’s question, “How will this be?” (Luke 1:34), Gabriel says,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). The angel encourages Joseph to not fear
marrying Mary with these words: “What is conceived in her is from the Holy
Spirit” (Matthew 1:20). Matthew states that the virgin “was found to be with
child through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). Galatians 4:4 also teaches the
Virgin Birth: “God sent His Son, born of a woman.”

From these passages, it is certainly clear that Jesus’ birth was the result of the Holy Spirit working within
Mary’s body. The immaterial (the Spirit) and the material (Mary’s womb) were both involved. Mary, of
course, could not impregnate herself, and in that sense she was simply a “vessel.” Only God could
perform the miracle of the Incarnation.

However, denying a physical connection between Mary and Jesus would imply that Jesus was not truly
human. Scripture teaches that Jesus was fully human, with a physical body like ours. This He received
from Mary. At the same time, Jesus was fully God, with an eternal, sinless nature (John 1:14; 1 Timothy
3:16; Hebrews 2:14-17.)

Jesus was not born in sin; that is, He had no sin nature (Hebrews 7:26). It would seem that the sin nature
is passed down from generation to generation through the father (Romans 5:12, 17, 19). The Virgin Birth
circumvented the transmission of the sin nature and allowed the eternal God to become a perfect man.

The Messiah came to die for the sins of mankind. He was called Emmanuel, “God with us.” He was both
God and man. His conception by the Holy Spirit was the “God part” of his nature and his conception by
Mary was the “human part” of which He came to be. We know that God is eternal and can never die.
But God had to die to pay the penalty for sin. The only way that could happen is if God became a man
which now created the possibility that the God-man could die as he was also human, subject to death.

His virgin birth prevented his body from inheriting a sin nature, which would disqualify Him from being a
sacrificial lamb. The virgin birth also qualified Him to be God who would pay the ultimate penalty for

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