“BEHOLD,
A VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD” (Matthew 1:23).
Mary was highly honored that
she should be the virgin mother of Jesus of Nazareth. This was a
distinction for which every Jewish woman had hoped and prayed. But, now
that Mary had heard the glad news from the angel Gabriel, she was to find
herself in the most embarrassing position of an unmarried maiden with
child. Little wonder that Mary hastened to the hill country to visit
Elisabeth, the mother-to-be of miraculously-born John, later called
“John the Baptist.” After all, who, in such a case, would better
understand Mary’s plight, or be better fitted to give sympathetic advice
to Mary?
Most
people have never noticed that the pregnant Mary
remained with Elisabeth for about three (3) months, or until the birth
of John the Baptist (see Luke 1:36, 56).
Then the real test lay ahead; she must return to her home in
Nazareth
to face her relatives and acquaintances — and Joseph, her fiancé. What
would they say? And above all, what would Joseph say? How could they be
expected to believe her story that an angel had appeared to her!
In the record of Joseph’s
reactions we are given light as to the extreme embarrassment in which Mary
now found herself. Consider Joseph’s position. Mary was his “espoused
wife.” Why had she gone away — and stayed so long? And now, what
is this? She is found with child — not by him. Her explanation, if
indeed she offered it to him, must have seemed most unsatisfactory.
Under Jewish law Joseph
could have charged her with adultery and had her stoned, but “being
a just [Lit., "fair-minded"] man” he “was
minded to put her away privily” (Matt. 1:19). But “while
he thought on these things,” with a heavy heart, “the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him” and Joseph learned the truth; that
she was indeed to be the honored mother of the Messiah of Israel, the
Redeemer of sinners.
Mary was destined to give
the eternal Lord His physical body that would be taken to the cross on
behalf of “the sins of the world” of mankind. “But
when the fulness of the time was come, GOD
SENT
FORTH
HIS SON, MADE OF A WOMAN, made under the law” (Galatians 4:4).
Jesus
was born to Mary, a 14-year old Jewish girl, whose lineage went back to
Adam via her father, Heli. (See Luke 3:23, 38 to see Jesus’ lineage, via
Mary, through her father Heli, to Adam.) Therefore, Mary had a sinful body
just as all we humans and she gave a like body to Jesus. Yet, Jesus had a
perfectly sinless nature at His core, in His Spirit, as “the
Son of God.”
Thus,
Jesus’ mother Mary was a fallen human; while His Father is the eternal
God whose life was in His life core – in His Spirit. No place in
Scripture says Mary was sinless; rather, the Bible clearly reveals
Mary’s lineage via her father, Heli, goes back to Adam “by
whom sin entered” the world of humanity. It was by Adam that “sin
entered” into the physical bloodline of humanity, including Mary
body and Jesus’ body – yet in the face of that potential to sin, Jesus
never sinned! “Wherefore,
as BY ONE MAN (Adam,
V14) SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD,
and DEATH BY SIN; and so DEATH
PASSED UPON ALL MEN, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12,
see Adam in v14)
Thus, Jesus was genuine in
His humanity in that He bore an Adamic fallen human body and thus He could
“be tempted” by Sin just as
we – but He was “yet without
(any act) of sin).” “For
we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but WAS IN ALL
POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE,
yet WITHOUT SIN.”
(Hebrews 4:15)
Jesus
remained sinless, thus His life offering unto death of the cross would
meet God’s demand for justice on our behalf. But how could a sinless
Jesus die? It was due to Sin in His flesh body. Though sinless, Jesus had
taken upon Himself “the sins of
the world.” It was our sins that killed Jesus. “THE
STING OF DEATH IS
SIN…” 1 Corinthians 15:56; “…
SIN, WHEN IT IS FINISHED,
BRINGETH FORTH DEATH.” James 1:15.
Our Lord
Jesus was qualified to go to Calvary’s cross and pay the full penalty
for our sins because, though He was born physically into the world with a
Mary-body that had the full Sin potential, Jesus remained “YET
WITHOUT (any act of) SIN.”
For
HE (God The Father) HATH
MADE HIM (Jesus) TO BE
SIN FOR US, (He, Jesus) who
KNEW NO SIN; (SO) THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN
HIM. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
HE
(Jesus) “SUFFERED FOR SINS, THE JUST FOR THE UNJUST, THAT HE MIGHT
BRING US TO GOD” (I Pet 3:18).