Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:34-35).
After Adam and Eve sinned, God had to find a way to bring man back to Himself. He couldn’t just forgive his sin. That would violate God’s morality and would be unjust. All sin must be judged. Psalm 89:14 says that justice and judgment are the foundation of the throne of God.
God must be fair to Himself, to man, and to Satan His enemy. After Adam’s sin, God could not make another man from the dust of the ground and use him to redeem the human race. The dust of the ground was tainted by sin after the fall. Satan legally obtained the temporary control over the earth that God gave Adam. And besides that, if God could have created a human from the dirt the way he did Adam, that human would not be blood related to Adam and Eve.
So here’s God’s problem. Adam, a man, sinned. Now a man must pay the legal price for the mistakes of Adam and Eve, and the entire human race yet born. It’s not an issue of whether God loves man or not. Of course He does. But because God is just and fair, all sin must be judged. He has to judge sin to be fair to Satan and fair to His own moral law.
Satan knew this. Satan was kicked out of heaven because iniquity was found in Him. There is no redemption available for Satan. He was a perfect spirit being created by God and he sinned. The payment for his sin is eternity in the lake of fire. Satan is an eternal spirit rebel. If he was allowed to freely travel in the universe he would corrupt it. So his eternal judgment is being confined to the lake of fire.
Adam’s judgment for sin had to equal Satan’s for God to be fair. So Adam’s sin penalty is likewise hell, the final judgment, and then being cast into the lake of fire.
Because Jesus was God incarnate, the problem of God finding a suitable sacrifice for sin has been solved! This is the wisdom of God in our redemption. Jesus, born of a virgin, was not tainted with sin. His flesh was sinless, yet He was a man. Satan had no legal control over Jesus. Jesus was a pure Man. He is a spotless Man. Jesus was born in fellowship with God and out from under Satan’s control and out from under the curse. Jesus had the same relationship with God that Adam had before He sinned.
Because of all of this, Jesus could legally bear man’s sin penalty. So Jesus lived a perfect life. He faced successfully every temptation that man faces without sinning. Then, Jesus was somehow made to be man’s sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Then, Jesus experienced physical death. When He died, He went to hell. He stayed there until God was satisfied that man’s sin penalty was legally and completely paid.
Then God raised Him from the dead and sat Jesus at His right hand as man’s eternal lawyer. The penalty for mankind’s sin has been eternally paid by the innocent Son of God. Satan’s mouth of condemnation toward man has been stripped of power. The Father has proved His love for us based on His absolute justice. The Virgin Birth gave us back our relationship with the Father!
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