Promises Fulfilled: A Men's Devotional on Christmasಮಾದರಿ

Born of a Virgin

My daughter looks a lot like my side of the family. When people meet us for the first time and I introduce her as my daughter, they often say, “Oh wow! She sure is! She looks just like you!”

Right…because she’s my kid.

It’s not surprising—it’s just genetics.

Traits get passed down from generation to generation. It’s not an exact science of how we turn out, since we’re all a unique mixture of the man and woman who parented us, but we know that DNA gets reproduced in the next generation, and that is a core part of what makes us who we are.

Tragically for the world, this is also true of our sin.

When Adam fell, Scripture says, sin entered the world through him (Romans 5:12). Since that day, every man follows the pathway of that first man in various ways, choosing to disregard God’s ways and choose our own (Isaiah 53:6).

When we do this, we, too, unleash sin on the world, damaging ourselves and others as we do. When it comes to what the Bible calls our “sin nature” (Romans 7:18), all men have a strong family resemblance to our first father, Adam.

So, when God planned to send His Son into the world to save us, living a perfect life and redeeming what Adam lost, how would this happen? How would the Son avoid the sin pattern that every man born of a woman has followed?

God had a unique solution.

Jesus was born into this world like any other son, as we have already looked at this week.

But He was not conceived like any other son.

To be born in the usual way, God needed a womb, and chose His faithful servant Mary, a virgin who loved and served the Lord.

But to conceive, God didn’t need a man, as He would father this child miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:34-35).

Mary’s virginity confirms that this was no earthly man’s son. And the lack of an earthly father meant that this son would not have a sinful family resemblance to our first father, Adam.

The promise of the virgin birth, fulfilled in Jesus, shows us that God was truly raising up a man who was going to do things very differently from our father Adam, and who would empower men who follow Him to live differently than what their sin nature would tempt them to do (John 8:36).

Prayer: We praise and thank the One who was born and lived without sin, that we too might share in His righteousness! Help us to walk as You did, choosing God’s way, as we leave our sinful ways behind. Amen.

Reflection: What is your greatest “sin struggle” these days? Who can you talk to about it, and who can walk with you through it toward holiness? Meet up with that person and make a plan together.