WHY A VIRGIN BIRTH?
By: J. Dietrich Bondurant
December 2005
“Why was Jesus born of a virgin?” When I hear this question my mind quickly jumps to two reasons: 1) To fulfill the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, “Behold the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” 2) So that no MAN could boast or take credit for having anything to do with producing the baby Jesus – the One Who would one day give sight to the blind, cause the lame to walk, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise people from the dead, then conquer death and the grave Himself by rising again on the third day! Praise the Lord!
If the truth be known, there are probably hundreds of reasons for the virgin birth. In this article I’d like to explore one that you may not have heard before. It has to do with an interesting problem concerning a “blood curse” on the royal line. God announced early on that His play for the redemption of mankind involved a Messiah coming forth from the tribe of Judah, and specifically from the line of David. After King David and King Solomon the succeeding kings, with only a few exceptions, went from bad to worse. Eventually the story brings us to the evil King Jeconiah (also known as Jehoiachin) upon whom God pronounced a “blood curse”. God said, “…no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.”
This curse created a problem. The Messiah was supposed to come from the royal line, yet now there was a “blood curse” on that very line of decent! How could the Savior of the World come from a cursed line? (I’m sure that Satan thought that he had thwarted God’s plan of redemption.)
We discover the answer to this question by studying the differing genealogies of Jesus Christ in the gospels. Matthew, a Levi, presents Jesus as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and as the Jewish Messiah in his gospel. Thus, Matthew traces the LEGAL line starting with Abraham (as any good Jew would) through David, then through Solomon and follows the royal line to Jeconiah and then on the Joseph, the LEGAL father of Jesus.
On the other hand, Luke, as a physician and historian, highlights Jesus’ humanity and presents Him as the Son of Man. So, Luke traces the blood line from Adam (the first man), through Abraham to David, but then Luke departs from the path taken by Matthew’s genealogy and traces the family tree through another son of David, Nathan (the second surviving son of Bathsheba). Luke continues from Nathan down through Heli, the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus. So, Luke’s genealogy does not include King Jeconiah or the blood curse.
We should also note the exception in the Old Testament to the law permitting inheritance through the daughter if no sons were available and she married within her tribe. The daughters of Zelophehad had petitioned Moses for a special exception, which was granted when they entered the Promised Land under Joshua. Mary’s father, Heli, apparently had no sons, and Mary married within the tribe of Judah giving her the right to her father’s inheritance.
We see through the genealogy in Matthew that Jesus has the LEGAL claim to the throne of David through Joseph – His LEGAL father. And we see in the genealogy in Luke that Jesus, through His mother Mary, was by direct blood-line decent the Son of David without being tainted by the blood curse of Jeconiah because of the virgin birth! And thanks to the daughters of Zelophedad, Jesus has legal claim to the throne of David through Mary as well.
Many people throughout the ages have tried to deny the virgin birth of Christ. To do this is to deny the Word of God. To deny the Word of God is to deny the salvation of God and God’s agent of salvation, Jesus Christ. Anyone who denies the virgin birth must think that miracles do not happen. If you think that God is incapable of coming to Earth in the form of a baby born of a virgin, then how could you possibly believe that this baby grew up and died for your sins, rose again, and now sits at the right had of the Father in Glory? One cannot be a born again, saved by the Blood of the Lamb Christian and deny the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was and is the virgin born Son of God! You either believe it or you don’t!