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The Virgin Birth—Can You Believe It?The Watchtower—1982 | February 15
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Was Jesus a God/Man?
A later embellishment of the simple Bible account of the virgin birth is that the babe born was not totally human but was an incarnation. Thus, the second of the “Articles of Faith” of the Church of England states: “. . . the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man.”
Religions that teach the Trinity believe that on earth Jesus had the two natures in himself. But the Bible does not support such an idea. The apostle Paul says about Jesus: “Since all the children share the same blood and flesh, he too shared equally in it, . . . It was essential that he should in this way become completely like his brothers.” (Hebrews 2:14, 17, Jerusalem Bible) How could he be “completely like his brothers” if he were a God/man? Paul wrote to the Philippians of “Christ Jesus, who, although he was existing in God’s form, . . . emptied himself and took a slave’s form and came to be in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:5-7) So this heavenly Son of God divested himself completely of “God’s form” to take on human nature, to become a man. Just why he had to be wholly man, not a God/man, and the implications as to the virgin birth, we shall discuss next.
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The Virgin Birth—Should You Believe It?The Watchtower—1982 | February 15
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The Virgin Birth—Should You Believe It?
SO WE come to the questions: Was Mary a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus? Did she need to be? Why did Jesus not have a human father? We are helped to answer these questions by examining who Jesus was and what was his mission on earth.
The apostle John explains that before Jesus was born on earth he lived in the spirit realm as the firstborn Son of God and was called the Word. In due time “the Word became flesh and resided among us.” (John 1:1-14) Or, as expressed elsewhere in the Bible: “God sent forth his Son, who came to be out of a woman.” (Galatians 4:4) Jesus himself acknowledged that “on coming into the world: ‘[God] who wanted no [animal] sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me.’”—Hebrews 10:5, Jerusalem Bible.
There were strong reasons for Jesus’ becoming a human, “coming into the world” of mankind. High on the list was the redemption of the human family from slavery to sin, imperfection and death. The apostle Paul explained: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) As to how Almighty God would cope with that situation, Paul says: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.”—1 Timothy 2:5, 6; compare 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22.
Yes, death came to all humans through the rebellion of our forefather Adam, and justice required the life of another perfect man, not more, not less, to provide the ransom that would buy back the possibility of everlasting life for us. No imperfect human could possibly provide that. (Psalm 49:6, 7) Someone would have to step down from the heavenly realm. Appropriately, the one to do this was the firstborn Son of God. He had to become a perfect man and yet not lose his continuity of life. His life-force was not to be extinguished but would be transferred to the ovum of the virgin girl, Mary. She, ‘overshadowed by the protective power of the Most High,’ could produce a perfect body for the babe Jesus.—Luke 1:35.
This explains also why the life-force could not come through an imperfect human male in the normal way. An imperfect Jesus could not have become the ransom. Nor could he have become such as an incarnation or God/man.
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