How Could Mary Give Birth as a Virgin?

Question: How can Jesus have been born by Mary when she was still a virgin? You have to have a male to create a child. Was this virgin birth just made up so that Jesus would seem to be extra special? And, how could Mary have remained a virgin after she gave birth? This would all be unnatural and against the laws of nature, right?

When Adam broke his binding covenant with God by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, God put a curse on him. Part of this curse was that the male descendants of Adam would now posses and pass down a genetic induced cognitive predisposition to sin. Thus, we are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are born sinners. This condition is referred to as Original Sin.

The Messiah or Savior of the world, would be required by God to willingly self- sacrifice Himself on behalf of all the sins of mankind. To accomplish this, He must first be free from any sin, or what is referred to in the Old Testament as "any blemish". So, if Mary had conceived Jesus by way of her husband Joseph, He would have received the sin gene from His father and so would not be considered by God as unblemished. Mary was informed by the angel Gabriel at her conception that she would become pregnant by a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). Thus, Mary became pregnant yet remained a virgin. Her conception was supernatural, but her birth of Jesus was natural. And so Jesus was born, lived and died sin free. We know that His self-sacrifice was acceptable to God because He was raised from the dead. Scripture tells us that after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had four more sons and at least two daughters (Mark 6:3).

So, Jesus was supernaturally conceived but was naturally born. Mary went on to live a normal life, married with children. Jesus would serve as a model for His followers by living a sin free life. He would then die, be resurrected in an immortal body and ascended to Heaven where He now reigns eternally. On the other hand, while His followers are born in sin, when they accepted Him as their Saviour, they are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. This supernatural event now brings them directly in line with the conception and life of Christ. They were originally born in sin, but now they are reborn with a sin debt that has been paid. So they are now considered by God as being "sin free". When they die, they too will now also be resurrected in immortal bodies. They will also ascend to Heaven where they will reign as Saints eternally. So, Jesus' life, death and resurrection served as both a model and a solemn promise to His followers of much bigger and better things yet to come (Matthew 5:12; 6:20; 16:27; 25:23).