Season: 4 Episode: 054
Summary:
Was the virgin birth a true event in history? How do we know and how do we defend it? Shanda talks about apologetics in this week’s episode and she teaches you how to know and defend the birth of Jesus. She also talks about the purpose of God’s only son. He was born to die.
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Intro
Hey guys! Welcome back to another episode of the Her Faith Inspires podcast, where we take cultural issues and align them to biblical truth. I’m excited about this week’s topic because it aligns with apologetics in a way that will help you defend your Christian belief in the sinless, incarnate Son of God—and most Christians don’t know how to do that.
Jesus was born to die.
Can you imagine being born with the purpose of dying? I mean, think about it. That is the reason God came down to earth. So today, we’re going to talk about Jesus being born to die and the incarnation of Christ.
Some religions, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, think Jesus was created and that He is not God. Others believe He was a man or a prophet, but not God. As Christians, one of the foundational principles of our faith is the belief that Jesus is 100% man and 100% God. If you don’t know how to explain that—you aren’t the only one. But I will say this: you need to know how, and the good news is that we’re going to talk about that today.
So, I’m glad you’re here.
Today, we’re going to talk about:
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How is Jesus both God and man?
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What does it mean that Jesus was born to die?
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When does the Bible first speak of Christ? (This may surprise you.)
When people say Jesus is 100% God and 100% man, that can be kind of confusing. We have to understand the reason for this before we can understand what it means.
The reason it’s important for us to believe and know that Jesus was sinless is because it proves He was both God and man. If He wasn’t sinless, He would not have been God. He would not have been the perfect sacrifice—and our entire Christian faith is debunked.
I’m going to show you today how He was both God and man—and sinless—so that you can go and share that with others. Because the truth is, many Christians believe God created Jesus and that He was not sinless.
I shared in my episode, “What’s Shaping Your Worldview,” that only 4% of self-professing Christians agree to 10 foundational truths of Christianity—and one of them is that Jesus was sinless.
Just this year, Don Lemon said Jesus wasn’t perfect. I mentioned this in one of my IG stories and said that this man doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But more than being upset with Don Lemon for having no theological foundation whatsoever, the question is, can you defend why Jesus was both God and man—and why He was sinless?
If not, keep listening. We’re going to dive deep!
In the beginning
When you go back to Genesis 3, we see the first glimpse of the sacrifice Jesus would make on the cross. The judgment God gave the serpent shows that the woman would have a child who would crush the serpent’s head.
Next, we see that God clothed Adam and Eve in animal skin. This is the first death, the first sacrifice, and a foreshadowing of Christ’s atonement. Atonement means “reparation for a wrong.”
For thousands of years, the Jews sacrificed animals to atone for their sins. So why don’t we still do animal sacrifice? Because Jesus died.
There’s another issue with animal sacrifice. Every time someone sinned, they had to sacrifice an animal. Sacrifices were ongoing. Jesus died once. That’s it.
Again, the question is why? Why was Jesus’ sacrifice necessary? And how is He both God and man?
Could anyone have died on a cross for the sins of the world? No.
The origin of sin and the virgin birth
When Adam and Eve were created, they were perfect. They were sinless. Once they sinned, all of humanity was lost. All of creation came from Adam and Eve. But the fault of their sin was with Adam. God said that through Adam’s seed came the curse. All of mankind was destined for hell. That’s why we are born with a sinful nature.
So what did God do? He chose the woman to bear children. It’s not her seed that’s cursed—it’s Adam’s. The sin nature is passed down through the father. And that takes us back to Genesis 3, when God told the serpent the woman’s seed would crush his head.
The woman is highly valued by God, and the Bible explicitly shows this. She was chosen to birth the Messiah. She was part of the greatest event in the history of the world because God could not use the man.
The sin of the world required a perfect sacrifice.
Why didn’t He use the man?
Again, because of his sinful nature.
Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The Messiah could not come through Adam’s seed. That’s why God mentions the woman birthing the child who would crush the serpent’s head.
In the Gospel of Luke, we see Joseph is called Jesus’ earthly father—but he is not His biological father. He can’t be. It wasn’t through his seed that Mary was impregnated.
When the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her she would have a child, she asked, “How can this be, since I have never known a man?” The word “known” in the Bible refers to sexual intimacy. She was a virgin.
The angel answered in Luke 1:35:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
This is how Jesus is both God and man. Mary’s egg was used to clothe the Son of God with flesh, and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her to bring God to man. That’s why the angels were in awe of His birth—they saw their Lord humble Himself and take on the appearance of a man. But He could not do it with the seed of sinful man.
God chose a woman.
Matthew 1:20 says, “What is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
This shows both the immaterial—the Holy Spirit—and the material—Mary’s womb—were involved in the incarnation of Jesus. That’s how He is both God and man.
Why a virgin?
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If Mary had been with other men, Jesus’ divinity would have been disputed.
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Prophecy required a virgin (Isaiah 7:14).
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It was miraculous and required faith. Mary was called to this purpose. She was a submissive servant of God, willing to be the mother of the Son of God—who was born to die.
What does it mean that Jesus was born to die?
Jesus came for the cross. He was the Word made flesh—God incarnate. Jesus knew He was going to die. He spoke of it many times, but His disciples didn’t understand.
Let’s go back again to the OT. Genesis 3 foreshadows Christ’s atonement when God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins. An animal had to die—symbolizing the cost of sin.
Christianity is the oldest religion in history—not by name, but by concept.
God foretold Christ’s sacrifice in Genesis 3. Isaiah prophesied of Jesus’ birth in 7:14, and Micah in 5:2 said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem—800 years before it happened. The Psalms describe Jesus’ death, like Psalm 22:1, quoted by Jesus on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Isaiah 53: “He was pierced for our transgressions … by His stripes we are healed.”
Jesus predicted His death
Matthew 16:21–23: Jesus tells His disciples He will suffer and be killed. Peter rebukes Him. Jesus responds, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me.”
Peter didn’t align his desires with the OT prophecies. He didn’t yet understand Jesus’ purpose.
In John 2, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They thought He meant the physical temple—but He meant His body.
Much of what Jesus taught wasn’t understood until after His resurrection. Then it all made sense. They realized—He was born to die.
When does the Bible first speak of Christ?
Jesus didn’t begin to exist on Christmas Day. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
“Word” (logos in Greek) refers to God’s divine revelation. Genesis 1 echoes this when God speaks creation into existence.
1 Peter 1:20 says Jesus was “foreknown before the foundation of the world.”
Genesis uses the word Elohim, plural for God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus told the Pharisees in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
Let me paint a picture for you:
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—existing outside of time—knew that man would sin. They also knew that nothing on earth could be a worthy sacrifice.
So they asked, “Will one of Us go?”
And Jesus said, “I’ll go. I’ll be the sacrifice.”
And God said, “Let there be light.”
Jesus is God. He is eternal. The man Christ Jesus took on flesh in the first century AD—but God the Son was, is, and always will be.
Closing
I know this episode was a little deep. We took an apologetics route today—and it can get deep—but I encourage you to listen again if needed. Take notes. Understand the incarnation, the sinless nature of Christ, and His eternal existence.
This is a huge part of the Christian faith. If we can’t explain this, we don’t fully understand our own religion.
I’ll catch you on the next one!
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