The virgin birth of Jesus was not the result of a normal conception, yet its spiritual and biological aspects are understandable. What made Jesus Christ unique was his divine – and therefore sinless – nature. Mary gave Jesus a humanity with a potential to sin, but God gave him a nature that enabled him not to sin. Sin was inherent in us but was not so in him.
Jesus was thus the model for the “new creation” featured in the Apostle Paul’s epistles (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus was “The firstborn of a new creation.”
We know that Jesus was “tempted in all points, as we are”, yet never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). For the temptation to be real, it had to be possible for Jesus to have sinned. But although as a human being Jesus was capable of sinning, the nature of his Father enabled him not to sin.
Nothing in Jesus responded to temptation. “The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life”, which had brought about the fall of “the first Adam”, were all foreign to the nature of the one whom Paul calls “the last Adam”.
We sin when we are drawn away as a result of our own lust and are enticed (James 1:14). Jesus was by nature sinless. The temptations he faced were real enough, but nothing within his divine nature responded to them. (John 14:30) Through the New Birth, we too share in the divine nature and so are “dead to sin” through baptism and “alive unto God” through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:3,11). Sin cannot be awakened in us if we do not allow it to sleep in us.
The Apostle Peter writes of believers being “born again, not of corruptible seed (NT Greek: “sperma”) but of incorruptible, by the word of God…” (1 Peter 1:23) The “seed” is the Divine life, and the “word” is the means by which that life is imparted when the Gospel is believed (verse 25).
Peter also writes that we are given “precious mega-promises” by which we become “partakers of the divine nature” and escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).
The apostle John writes that “whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for His ‘seed’ remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9) Some think this means that the believer does not sin habitually. While this is true, John is referring to the believer’s new nature of the believer rather than behaviour.
The “new creation” nature of the believer is incapable of sinning. John later restates this in the context of the believer guarding himself so that “the wicked one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18). This verse echoes Christ’s victory over the Devil’s temptations in the wilderness.
It also explains how Jesus could say, “…The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me [of his own nature].” (John 14:30)
Satan tempted the crucified Jesus through the challenges of those who passed by and mockingly asked him to come down from the Cross — “If you are the Son of God!” But the Lord’s prior surrender of his will in the Garden of Gethsemane allowed God’s will to be done through him in his hour of greatest weakness.
When we submit to temptation instead of surrendering to God’s will, we do so against the divine nature in us and so find ourselves in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. How much better when the divine nature governs our conduct, and the sin that once ruled us no longer does!
As descendants of sinful Adam, we had to be “born again” to receive the divine nature that Jesus had as the result of Mary believing and receiving the word spoken to her by Gabriel. She received “seed” when the Spirit of God “overshadowed” her, and that resulted nine months later in the virgin birth.
Likewise, the believer partakes in the divine nature when “born from above” by the Spirit of God and receives the word of promise. This parallels the work of the Spirit of God in Luke’s account of Mary’s conception. Moreover, the fact that Jesus was human makes him our model “elder brother”. As humans, we are prone to sin, yet as “born again” sons of God, we share our Father’s sinless nature.
The divine nature that kept Jesus from sinning also prevents us from sinning — unless we choose to give in to temptation and let the old nature rise. When we do sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, the righteous Jesus (1 John 2:1). Thank God for our Great High Priest!
However, we should not regard sin as unavoidable and change things to fit our experience: sins that plague us are there to be overcome, and God’s forgiveness in Jesus is available to us during the struggle. (John writes “if” anyone sins, not “when”.)
Like those who are physically dead and buried, those who have been “crucified with Christ” and “buried with him in baptism” are “dead to sin and alive to God”. We need to stop struggling against sin and start living as “born again” overcomers who are called to live the Resurrected Life rather than “the Crucified Life”! The Cross in which we rejoice is an empty one — not a crucifix. I understand the reverence by many for the latter, but they need to move on through “burial” with Christ in water baptism, and identification with Christ in his resurrection and his glorification!
In choosing to live in accord with the divine nature, we guard ourselves. The wicked one, who found nothing in Jesus, finds nothing in us that responds to temptation. Our humanity may be vulnerable, but our new nature is untouchable. God’s “seed” remains in us. Our responsibility is to “abide” in Christ; live in close fellowship with him.
Instead of limiting our understanding of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ to the narrative of Luke’s Gospel, we can expand it by studying the epistles of Paul, Peter and John — more particularly the verses in Peter’s second epistle and in John’s first epistle, which are forensic, in that they reveal the new nature of the believer to be the same nature that Jesus Christ was born with: the divine nature.
Although uniquely God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus is “the firstborn among many sons”, all of whom are “born of incorruptible seed” by the power of the Spirit of God after believing the Gospel message.
We should not “walk as men” — like those who are unsaved — but as sons and daughters of the living God with the sinless nature of our Father. Most Christians baulk at the idea of a sinless life — but it may well be the greatest of all challenges. Don’t take my word for this, but as always, God’s Word.