Christ the God-Man: An Advent Reflection on the Virgin BirthSample

We will now study more closely the divinity of the Son. 

Jesus Christ, fully man, was also completely and genuinely God… 

• without being adopted by God later in life. Adoptionism said Christ was born of a virgin by special decree of God, was tested as to His ability, and was given supernatural powers at His baptism. But a man can’t become God later in his life. The virgin birth maintains that Jesus was always divine. 


• without being human only. According to the heresy of Ebionitism, Jesus was just the final and greatest of all the prophets, the natural son of Joseph and Mary, but not the eternal Son of God. The virgin birth provides for the fullness of God to dwell in Jesus in bodily form (Col. 2:9). 


• without being sinful. How can a descendant of Adam be sinless? The God-Man must be both God and man, without the sinfulness of manhood tainting His divinity. The virgin birth supports Jesus’ humanity and also His sinlessness, since He was not born similarly to other descendants of Adam. 


• without God creating another Adam. If God had simply created another sinless man from the dust and named him Jesus, He wouldn’t have been a descendant of Adam who could have credibly saved Adam’s descendants. He also wouldn’t have been God. Only God can save humanity. It is impossible for a descendant of Adam to be the sinless Savior of human beings without the virgin birth. 

How can God become really man, and not merely man? How can Jesus be divine and man? The virgin birth addresses these concerns. It makes possible the exclusive incarnation of God (John 1:1, 14,17)—the complete representation of humankind (Heb. 2:17; 4:15) that results in the possibility of our own salvation and that of all humanity. 

Have you trusted in the God-Man for the forgiveness of your sins?