Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

What is the virgin birth and the incarnation really all about?

That’s what we celebrate every Christmas

But we can get so lost in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season that we can easily forget that the glory of it all, and what makes the incarnation so special in the first place.

The incarnation is the glorious truth that...

The Eternal Son of God took on human flesh to save us from our sins.

That’s what we celebrate this time of year.

God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place for our sins and give us the greatest gift any of us could ever be given: Eternal life.

But eternal life did not start with the cross.

It started with the Virgin Birth and the glorious incarnation of Jesus Christ.

But what usually happens is that we don’t get much further than that.

We know we are supposed to believe that Christ was born of a virgin and that He took on human flesh, but we don’t get much further than that.

We just know that’s just what Christians have to believe.

So what I want to do this morning, is to take the virgin birth and the incarnation of Jesus Christ and move it beyond a theological curiosity.

Something Christians merely believe, and show you the glory.

Show you the glory of the incarnation and all that it means that the eternal Son of God took on human flesh to save us from our sins.

So here’s how we are going to do that.

We are going to work through Matthew 1:18-25 to get the overall story of Christ’s birth and I’ll do some running commentary and interesting tidbits all along the way.

And then after that we are going to come back and look at 10 Golden Truths of the Incarnation.

What makes the incarnation so glorious in the first place?

So let’s start with Matthew 1:18...

Story

Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Christ’s birth was no ordinary birth.

He was born of a virgin.

A mother who had never known an intimate relationship with a man.

And yet, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

The virgin birth of Christ is a fundamental doctrine of our Christian faith.

You have to believe it to be a Christian because without the virgin birth Christianity itself completely unravels.

Let me give you three reasons.

Bible Untrue

First, if Christ was not really born of a virgin, then the Bible is not true, and it is not the Word of God.

If Christ was not really born of a virgin, then how would we know He died on the cross for our sins?

How would we know He rose again?

How would we know anything in the Bible was actually true?

Without the virgin birth, Scripture is not inerrant or infallible and the foundation of our faith comes crumbling down.

Non Eternal Christ

Number 2. If Christ was not born of a virgin, then He is not the eternal Son of God.

Human life starts at conception.

And if Christ had been born through the normal process of a man and woman coming together, then that union would have created an entirely new person who did not exist before.

That’s all of us.

All of us had a beginning.

But Jesus did not have a beginning.

He is the eternal Son of God.

He was never created nor did He ever come into being.

That’s heresy.

We believe, that as the second person of the Trinity, One with the Father and the Spirit, Jesus Christ always was, is, and is to come.

He is eternal.

He has always existed, and He existed before His incarnation.

And through the virgin birth, God prepared a human body with a human nature for Jesus to incarnate in, without creating an entirely new person because that would mean that Christ was born a man and became God which is a heresy.

Instead, the eternal Son of God who existed before the foundation of the world, came into the world and took on human flesh in the incarnation to save his people from their sins.

He is fully God and fully man.

One person.

Two distinct natures.

The virgin birth proves that Jesus Christ really did exist before His incarnation and really is the eternal Son of God.

No Gospel

Thirdly, without the virgin birth, we lose the gospel itself.

To save us from our sins Christ had to be both a Suitable Substitute to pay for our sins and Pure Sacrifice to atone for our sins.

As a Man, Jesus was a Suitable Substitute who could actually Pay for Adam’s sin.

But as the GodMan, He was also a Pure Sacrifice perfectly sinless in every way.

Through the virgin birth, Christ was descended from Adam without ever being “in Adam” so He did not inherit and of Adam’s original sin.

The Bible says all of us sinned in Adam because He was our father.

So now we inherit Adam’s original sin - the death, guilt, and inner corruption we all share.

Everyone born in Adam is dead in their trespasses and sins because they inherit Adam’s sin and guilt as their own, because we all sinned in him.

But Christ did not have Adam as an earthly father.

Like the first Adam He had a Heavenly Father.

Now that’s not to say that Mary wasn’t a sinner or that somehow women have nothing to do with passing on original sin.

But it is to say that we sinned in Adam because he is our father, head, and representative.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

By being born of a virgin, Christ is a New Adam.

Paul calls him the Last or the ultimate Adam (1 Cor 15:22).

By being descended from Adam through Mary, he was a Suitable Sacrifice for our sin.

Man sinned against God so man had to pay for their sins.

By by being born of a virgin, He is a pure sacrifice for our sins, because he did not inherit any guilt of original sin nor did He have any sin of His own to atone for.

Jesus was was born in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) and yet, Hebrews 4:15, he was without sin.

He lived a perfect and sinless life that we all failed to live, and He died the death we all deserved on the cross in our place for our sins to pay our debt to God.

And now through faith in Him, God, by His sovereign grace, takes us out of Adam and put us in HimChrist

Just as Adams sin became our sin.

Jesus’ life becomes our life.

His death becomes our death.a

God justifies us and declares us righteous in Him because He fulfilled all the demands of the Law on our behalf.

Both the righteous requirements of the Law do this and live, and just punishment we deserved for the wages of sin is death (Rom.

6:23).

As Paul says For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor 15:22).

And Romans 5:18-19 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Through the virgin birth Christ was descended from Adam without ever being “in Adam.”

And He had to be.

He had to be a Suitable Substitute who had the legal authority to pay for our sins.

Man sinned against God.

And he had to be Pure Sacrifice who could actually pay for our sins with a perfect and sinless life to be a spotless lamb, life for life, and give us the forgiveness of God.

So the virgin birth an essential doctrine of our faith that strikes at the very gospel itself.

Without it, the Bible is not true, Jesus is not the eternal Son of God, and the gospel is a lie instead of the power of God for Salvation for everyone who believes (Rom.

1:16).

And yet, who had ever heard of such a thing?

Who had ever heard of a child born of a virgin.

Absolutely impossible.

People don’t just wake up one day pregnant and find out they’re pregnant.

There are some necessary steps you have to take to get there.

How could this be?

Well that was Mary’s question.