Steven Sim

The sermon during the Holy Friday service was about how Jesus fulfilled ancient OT prophecies. 

The speaker spoke about virgin birth and related it to Jesus’ sinlessness, that is, not inheriting the sinful nature from a human father. He went on to assert that sinful nature can only transmit from the father to the children and not from the mother and claimed that there is a scientific explanation for it.  

I’ve always think the argument for Jesus’ sinless nature due to the virgin birth is problematic. Protestant detested Catholics’ believe in the immaculate conception of Mary. But I think Catholics knew deep in their heart it was a problem as well, if we claimed that Jesus was sinless because he didn’t have a human father. Because Mary is a human being, who inevitably sin in the flesh. So to be consistent, the Catholics had to also teach that Mary was born without sin.

But that’s just delaying the problem to another stage. Because to be really consistent the solution would be ad infinitum.

Rather than seeing the virgin birth as something to do with Jesus’ sinlessness, which I believe is not explicit in the bible, perhaps we focus on other aspects of the miracle.

Firstly, it is a focus on god’s creative power. Just as god created Adam through his creative power to create out of nothing, he created Jesus, the second Adam out of nothing (i.e. without the spermatoza). It was this power which animates and gives life.. This is the fundamental defining bridge between god and man, that is, god as Creator and man as his Creation. 

Secondly, the virgin birth again brings us back to the god who identified himself with the least of man. Young Mary, helpless and poor was probably the kind who fitted the category of the meek (see Mary’s confession Luke 1:48) .  And that the would-be Crucified One was born out of wedlock in such age and culture made sense. He would carry his cross, he would empty himself and bare himself to the grief and pain and torments of the world.

I think we should probably stop thinking about sinlessness when we think about virgin birth. Rather, let’s focus on god’s creative power and god’s self-identification with man. The virgin birth, rather than some scientific mumbo jumbo about DNA and sinful nature, should be about power and compassion, two paradoxical aspect about the Crucified One, who turned out to be the Crucified God.

It’s the old theology that god became man so that man can become [like] god – god identified with humanity so that humanity may be identified with god. 

 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Gal 4:4-5)