(Ver 1.2)  This is now Part 3 of a series of lessons on the importance of believing in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.  I have been attempting to give you some new spiritual Bible perspectives into the identity of the Son that was born to the woman Mary and the importance of us believing that she was a virgin.  Too many people today who call themselves, Christians have an opinion that Paul never wrote about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, so they therefore try to conclude that it did not happen, or was not important or maybe even try to stretch to say that Paul didn’t believe in it at all.  All of these are just people who are deceived into believing a lie from the enemy.  If you have not read this series from the beginning, I would strongly suggest that you go back and read starting with “Part 1”.

While Paul may not have written directly about the virgin birth, that does certainly does not mean he did not believe in it.  Nor does it mean that Paul did not write about the virgin birht indirectly using words that are dependent upon the existence of the virgin birth in order to be viewed as the truth.  There are literally too many ways to say something without saying somthing directly to say that Paul never understood that the virgin birth was a basic truth.   I personally believe that Paul was sent by God to teach the advanced revelation of other truths found in the Bible.  Most of these truths could not possibly be true without the existence of the virgin birth so the virgin birth is implied in the writings while never being directly mentioned.   Let’s start by analyzing some verses that speak about Jesus and see what they say about him.

Rom 1:3  Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

There are at least two implied references to the virgin birth of Jesus in this verse written by Paul.  Either people do not know how to read or they just do not know what to look for when searching for scriptures on this subject.  To say Paul never wrote anything about the virgin birth is denying the original author of the Bible.   God uttered the words, and men wrote them down.   God is the author of the entire Bible and He says plenty about the virgin birth.  In this verse in Romans 1:3 Jesus Christ is called the Son of God.   Doesn’t that imply or mean Jesus didn’t have a natural father?  So how did He get here and who was He born from?  People obviously see what they want to see in the Bible and ignore what they do not want to see in the Bible.   Then this verse tells us that “according to the flesh” Jesus was “made” of the seed of David.  To be made something is an implied creative act of God.  Anything that God creates He has made.   So what does that tell us?   That means Jesus didn’t come into the world, the natural way like you and me.  What we have is an indirect reference to the virgin birth being revealed to us.  We have Jesus who came according to flesh as being the Son of David, but according to Spirit, He was the Son of God.  How can this be if it was not from a virgin birth?  This represents the physical and spiritual union of God and the woman Mary and the result was a man named Jesus Christ.

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Anytime Paul writes about Jesus Christ being the Son of God, He is inferring the existence of the virgin birth.    Anytime Paul writes that God came in the flesh, he infers the virgin birth.  Jesus Christ, who was God, took on the likeness of sinful flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh.  We again see a clear reference to God’s union with the woman Mary to produce the physical man Jesus Christ.  It is interesting to think that the Bible says “God is not a man that He should lie, nor the Son of Man that He should repent”.  But, yet God becomes a man and a Son of Man.  That is a perplexing mystery that causes vast numbers of Jewish people to reject Jesus Christ.  You see when Jesus was on the earth in the flesh, He came to John the Baptist and told him to baptize Him.  Why did Jesus do this?  John was baptizing people for the remissions of sins, yet Jesus had not committed any sins.  John tells Jesus in the 3^rd chapter of Matthew that he needed to be baptized of Jesus and Jesus tells him do this to me to satisfy all righteousness.  Jesus who was God in the flesh, was baptized of John for the “repentance of sin” (Mat 3:11).  After John baptized Jesus, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove and God spoke out of heaven in a thundering voice and said “This is my son, in who I am well pleased”.   So why didn’t God do this before Jesus was baptized by John?  I think that is a really good question.  Perhaps you can read some of my other blogs and get some clues to what happened, but for now let’s continue with the virgin birth:

1Ti 3:16  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,  justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

You see again that Paul writes a simple statement that God was “manifested” in the flesh.  If this is not a clear reference to the virgin birth, then what is it?   How did God come to be here in the flesh?  The term “manifested” again refers to being “made” in the flesh.  So how do you make babies?   How does a Spirit being make babies?  It is certainly not the same way that you do it.  We know that God is a Spirit.  We also know God is omnipotent.  So how would omnipotent God become a man legally on this planet?  I believe that He gets a virgin woman to agree with the plan and to believe that she will have His son.  Isn’t it funny how Mary’s response to the angel of God was “Be unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).  Mary obviously believed it would happen to her even before it happened to her.  That sounds a lot like someone with faith, someone who believed, and someone in partnership with God.  Because Mary believed the words of God, she received the word and He became flesh inside of her.

Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

Those that claim Paul never wrote about the virgin birth are clearly ignorant and foolish.   This verse in Galatians compares two sons born of Abraham.  The first is called him that is “born after the flesh” and the other one is called “the promised son”.   As you recall Abraham was given the slave woman Hagar to have a child by his wife because Sarah was barren and he did.  That is called the child after the flesh.  This son however never received the blessing of the firstborn since Sarah miraculously conceived the promised child.   While this was not a virgin birth by any stretch of the imagination, it was clearly a miraculous birth for a 90 year old woman to give birth to a son.  So what is God saying to us?   I believe that God is giving us a prophetic view of the virgin birth.  You see Isaac was born in a supernatural way and this is a type of the birth of Christ who was born in a supernatural way.  These were just types and shadows of another son that was promised.  Jesus Christ’s birth was also prophesied to be a miraculous conception by the type of Sarah and Abraham having the son Isaac.  However, Jesus’ birth is a much greater miracle than that of Isaac.

Heb 5:5  So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

Again we see Paul writing to the Hebrews and he says a prophetic quote from God “Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee”.   The Greek word that is translated as “begotten”, means to “procreate as of the Father“.   What does the term “procreate” mean?   To procreate means to bring forth offspring or children.  It can also mean to “conceive”, to be “born” or “to give birth”.   Anyone with any brains at all can figure out what he is talking about.   If God is the Father and Mary is the natural mother, then how did God get this woman pregnant?   It wasn’t the natural way.   We have already seen very specific scripture that the Holy Ghost caused this to happen and that Mary was a young girl that had never known a man.  So it is very clear to me that Paul believed in the virgin birth and thought it was a critical piece of information to learn.  In other words it was a foundational part of his theology and his belief system.

Heb 1:5  For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

What we have is another witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is “begotten” by God.   Never had God done anything like this before and never will he do this again, this is what took Satan by surprise.  Satan did not know what to do with this man, Jesus.   According to Jesus’ parable Satan thought this was the heir so they had to kill him (Mat 21:38).   However, Jesus came into the earth to die and that is what defeated Satan.  What you need to do is realize that anytime the Bible calls Jesus the Son of God that is indirectly calling him the one that was born of a virgin.  Anytime you read about God coming to the earth in the flesh you are reading about a virgin birth.

Heb 13:20  Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

In the first lesson in this series I talked about the resurrection of Jesus being different than other people who were raised from the dead.   I asked you to think about why the resurrection of Jesus was so important to our beliefs and our salvation.  I showed in Romans 10:9 that it says that if you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and called him your Lord you would be saved.  This verse in Hebrews again refers to Jesus being raised from the dead and this is in conjunction with the “blood” of the everlasting covenant of God.  So where did Jesus get His blood?  You might recall in another blog I talked about the blood of a baby being a union of the father and the mother’s blood type.  So why is this important?  What made Jesus’ blood an acceptable payment for our sin and the foundational basis of an everlasting covenant?  Obviously Jesus’ blood was not the exact same as our blood, but yet at the same time it was.  So we have another paradox, and a mystery of Biblical proportions.   If Jesus blood was just like our blood then God could have picked anyone to pay the price for our sins.   You should really think about the blood of Jesus for a long time, because it is very important and very significant to your salvation.  You need to figure out why the blood of Jesus was sufficient to pay for your sins and why your blood is not sufficient payment for your sins.  I’ll give you some clues and more information on this subject later.

Paul writes a considerable amount of scriptures about the blood of Jesus Christ and its value and power.  What makes the blood of Jesus Christ so special?   In order to understand this it comes back to the virgin birth?  That is the only difference between my blood and Jesus’ blood.   His natural father was the Holy Spirit and mine was not.  My father’s lineage goes directly back to Adam and Eve and there lies the problem with my bloodline and yours.

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Why, is Jesus Christ called the “Last Adam”?   To me that was a really interesting thing to discover and to study.   What we see is a direct comparison of two men.  The first Adam is called a living soul and the “Last Adam” a quickening Spirit.  One is said to be physical and natural man and the other is inversely spiritual by nature.

1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

As you read through this chapter you find that natural things always came first in the world and then spiritual things came later.   This is a pattern for us to understand how God created this world.  We were first born naturally, and then we were born again spiritually.  Did you notice what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:47?  He said the second Adam came from heaven!  Uh Oh?  We have another clear, but indirect reference to the virgin birth.  God says that the body of the first man came from the earth.  But, the body of the second man was born here, but came from heaven.  We again see an implied reference to God coming in the flesh.  This is the Lord of Glory being made a man.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all  be made alive.

We can see that through Jesus, the Last Adam, He causes all men to have the ability to live.  This is in direct contrast to the first Adam who caused all men born on this planet to die.  So was Jesus Christ born a man on this planet?  If you understand the Bible you know that He was.  That means He had to die like everyone else that was descended from Adam.   Realizing that Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh came to the earth to die is a basic part of theology that you must embrace in order to understand who Jesus was and why he came to the earth.   What we have seen is two individuals, both are called a man, both are called Adam and both were made originally by God.    The first Adam was a natural man whose body was formed from the dust of the ground.  The last Adam came by the word of God through a virgin woman.

Now I want to talk about the Blood of Jesus Christ and give you some more insight and understanding on how it was able to satisfy the payment for our sins.  Paul writes about the blood of Christ in numerous verses.  You can read some of them in Romans 5:9, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 2:13, and Colossians 1:14.  By reading these verses you find out what Jesus bought with His blood.  There are many things that were resolved, there were many things purchased, there were many things that were forgiven, and there many things that were accomplished through the blood of Jesus Christ.   All of these verses tell us clearly that Jesus’ blood was something of great value, something that would cover the cost of the vast expanse of the sin of all humanity.  It also indicates that His blood was more valuable than our blood.  Therefore we have reached again a full circle that states Jesus Christ must have been born of a virgin to make Him different than you and I.  So what makes the Blood of Christ more valuable than ours?  Let’s briefly examine the Bible and find out:

Gen 9:4  But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

So what makes this flesh uneatable according to God’s commandment to Noah?  It is the blood!  The Blood of the flesh is said to be the Life of the flesh.  Isn’t that interesting?  Do you remember what Jesus told us?  Jesus said “I am the Life” (John 14:6).  Could Jesus have been referring to His blood?

Lev 17:11  For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for  your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

You see we have another confirmation written in the Law of Moses that says the life of the flesh is the blood.  So we then see God giving us another key piece of information.  The payment of sin comes from the shedding of blood.  It is the blood that will provide atonement for us.  The Hebrew word translated as “Atonement” is an interesting word that means “to cover”.  It can also mean “to forgive”, “to show mercy”, “to reconcile”, and “to cleanse”.   These are all the works of God and what He has accomplished in Jesus Christ through His blood.

Heb 10:4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

So we have another mystery given to us.  Clearly in the O.T. God implemented a series of laws that showed the people how to make sacrifices of animals for the sins of the people.  However, we discover that God would later say that the blood of bulls and goats would never take away our sins.  So why did God do this?   What we have is another natural pattern that establishes a spiritual N.T. reality in Jesus Christ.  Did you notice this verse didn’t say anything about a lamb?   Jesus Christ is called the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29)!  I’ll wrap this blog up with one more verse about the blood of Jesus Christ:

Heb 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

We have another paradox being presented to us.  How can God offer Himself as a sacrifice to Himself?  This is some really deep stuff, isn’t it?   Maybe we can talk about that in another blog, but for now let’s keep going.  If you recall from my last blog, there were three that agreed in the earth.  These were the Spirit, the water and the blood.  The blood represents the life of the flesh.  The Bible also tells us that the body is dead without the spirit (James 2:26).  We are now beginning to understand a little bit how the blood of Jesus could satisfy the price of our sin.   The man Jesus Christ born of a virgin was God in the flesh.  The omnipotent God gave His life, His eternal Spirit and His blood as payment for our sin.  As Jesus hung on the cross and bled I am convinced that He was smiling on the inside.  He knew what was being accomplished, He knew what was being purchased, and He knew the end result for all of His pain and suffering. 

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So if anybody ever tells you that Paul didn’t believe in the virgin birth, tell them to go and read those letters again.  Maybe you can help them now by telling them what to look for.  God Bless!