We know that the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ was not the result of 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 humanity that had the potential to sin but God gave him a sinless nature, so although tempted he had no predisposition to sin. Jesus was thus the model for the “new creation” that Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
We know that Jesus was “tempted in all points, as we are” yet did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). For the temptation to be real it had to be possible for Jesus to have sinned. But although Jesus was humanly capable of sin, the nature of his Father enabled him to overcome temptation and live a sinless life.
Nothing in Jesus responded to temptation. “The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life” that had brought about the fall of the first Adam were all foreign to the nature of the man Paul calls “the last Adam” (which to me suggests there would not be another).
We sin when we are drawn away as a result of our own lust and are enticed (James 1:14). Christ’s nature was sinless. The temptations were real enough, but nothing within his divine nature responded to them. Through the New Birth we too share in the divine nature, and so are “dead to sin” through water baptism and “alive unto God” through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:3, 11).
The apostle Peter writes of believers being “born again, not of corruptible seed (“sperma”) but of incorruptible, by the word of God…” (First Peter 1:23) The “seed” is the Divine life and the “word” the means by which that life is imparted. The word is received when the Gospel is believed (verse 25). Peter also writes that we are given “precious mega-promises” by which we are made “precious mega-promises” by which we become “partakers of the divine nature…” (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 say this means that the believer does not sin habitually. While this is true, John is writing about the new nature of the believer.
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” (First John 5:18). This verse echoes Christ’s victory over the 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 Jesus through those who challenged 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 on the Cross.
When we refuse to surrender our will to God’s will we allow our humanity the ascendancy over the divine nature we have received, and so find ourselves in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. How much better when the divine nature governs our behavior and the sin that once ruled us no longer does so!
As the descendants of the sinful Adam we needed to be “born again” to receive the divine nature that Jesus had at birth, a nature that was the result of Mary believing the word spoken to her by Gabriel and receiving the “seed” that resulted in the conception and virgin birth of the Son of God.
Likewise, the believer partakes in the divine nature when “born from above” by the Spirit of God, after receiving 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 believers, we share God’s 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 rule. When we do sin, we have an Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). However, we should not regard sin as unavoidable.
In choosing to live in accord with the divine nature, we protect 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; i.e. live in close fellowship with him.
Instead of limiting our understanding of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ to Luke’s Gospel, which is a narrative, we can expand our understanding by studying the epistles of Paul, Peter and John, and 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 — i.e. the divine nature.
Although Jesus is uniquely God’s Son he is “the firstborn among many sons” (the NT Greek word includes daughters), all of whom are “born of incorruptible seed” by the power of the Spirit of God after believing the Gospel.
The printed copies of a painter’s masterpiece simply prove the existence of an original. The epistles throw added light on Luke’s Gospel, revealing the virgin birth of Jesus Christ to be not only logical and credible but also conceivable.