Jesus’ mother and Father – the God-man
What does Scripture reveal to us concerning the mystery of Jesus’ God and man realities? He came here to be among us, Jesus the Son of God, God Himself in every sense, yet also fully man. The Son of Man, introduced without sin and obedient to His death, fully by design, intent, and necessity to bring His own out from under the very same Law he was born under – releasing us from the Law through our spiritual death and rebirth in His Spirit’s power. Without this death, we are bound to the law and to the sentence sin demands.
But how did He become this unique Man? He must be both, yet without sin. More specifically, He must be introduced into humanity as true flesh and bone, yet without the stain we all carry as sons of Adam, and with the attributes of God as well.
In the Garden, God set down the command both Adam and Eve would live under, but Scripture records God giving instruction only to Adam (Gen 2.15-17), of which he would apparently be responsible for Eve’s instruction. His exclusive revelation to Adam, and so his responsibility, is further seen immediately after the Fall (Gen 3.14-19) as God deals with the three progressively. Adam is the last to be dealt with, as God started with the least and finished with the most responsible. Eve, while being the first to eat of the Fruit, is not the focus of the failure, nor responsible for the introduction of the lasting problem of sin in humanity. Instead, it is Adam who is held accountable by God – due to his responsibility given in God’s instruction to him alone, his failure to effectively instruct and shepherd Eve, in his standing by while she made the decision and ate of it, and finally and most importantly, his partaking of it himself. Adam’s higher accountability is illustrated in God dealing with him last. Now, afterwards, he has placed men and women under an order of authority, apparently to remain in place as long as sin reigns among mankind.
This order of accountability is central to understanding the contributions necessary to arrive at the God-man’s sinless birth. This also would need to be possible without God violating or arresting His law.
Scripture testifies we die in our inheritance of Adam, and It also tells us we will be Saved through the new Adam. The significance is in that our sin nature has been passed to us by Adam, not Eve. Our Salvation is also the responsibility of the new Adam. This is also evident when we consider the conception of the Christ-man.
Mary was surely a sinner as all of the rest of humanity, despite the lie the Catholic Church attempts to present in her sinless-ness. She, as all of our daughters, had inherited her sin nature from her father, and it would remain until God’s Salvation. Scripture offers no other remedy, even temporarily, of our sin. We are either under the law or not. Furthermore, she could not have received this sin nature from her mother. The final proof of this must be our Lord’s own conception. If God will not ignore His Word and the consequences, Mary had to be a sinner, but her sin had to have no contribution to His sinless beginning. Our daughters’ sin ends with them, and it is not an inheritance for their children.
Mary, while a sinner, was the human contributor to God’s insertion into humanity. She was also a Jew that He would be born of a woman, and born under the very Law He would fulfill and overcome (Gal 4.4-5). His Father, sinless by necessity and miraculous to satisfy prophesy, was His God contribution. A Father outside of the curse, able to fulfill Isaiah 7.14, and of the essence of God, was mandatory. She made him a Son of flesh, and He made Him a sinless Son of God.
Only God Himself could have been the Father of our Lord, just as Scripture testifies. Only Someone able to miraculously impregnate Mary, as well as bring a Son into flesh Who would be free from the sin we all are doomed to from Adam, the root of all races.
This explains why enemies of the Cross are so bent on challenging the sinless yet human birth. If He was not flesh, nor sinless, He could have no role whatsoever in the Sacrifice. If He was not all of these things, there would be no value on the Cross, nor any of the consequences that followed. Give us a Saviour Who is only flesh, or Who is stained with sin, and the whole issue is moot. Thank God for His provision, and thank Jesus for His obedience, Sacrifice, and subsequent work now on High as our Faithful and Perfect High Priest – God glorified in His body of flesh.