--As we discussed yesterday, being a human means being afflicted with the condition of sin, which we all inherit from our parents going back to the first sin of Adam and Eve, which ruined all of us.
--Unlike many diseases (colds, for instance) which are not passed on to our children directly, sin affects us at a much deeper level and is imparted along with DNA directly. --In fact, that’s why it is useful to think of sin as a kind of genetic condition rather than merely an acquired disease.
--But this leads to a problem. No human can ever be free of this condition, but if there is going to be a Savior who will die in our place, He must be both human and sin-free.
--This is where it becomes important to notice the difference between sin as some behavior and sin as a status or nature. Were sin “merely” behavior, Jesus could have had a normal origin and just done what God wanted. But part of the point of Jesus’s special birth is precisely to declare that NO OTHER PERSON is even capable of undoing the rotten nature they are plagued by.
--So Jesus had to be born in a different way in order to be free from the sinful condition. That’s why He had to be conceived by the Holy Spirit, rather than by the ordinary mechanism of man and woman. That’s the meaning of Jesus being born of a virgin or “the virgin birth” of Jesus.
--But here’s where things get interesting. Even though Mary was a virgin and Joseph was not biologically involved in the creation of Jesus, it’s an open question whether Mary was. If she was, then you must either believe that only the father and not the mother passes on the sin component in reproduction OR you must believe that Jesus was somehow immune from the sin He otherwise would inherit from Mary OR you must believe that Mary was free of sin at the time of Jesus’s conception.
--So which is it? I’ll explain that tomorrow.
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