Importantly, it is necessary to stress the following:

We must stress [rightly]:

And yes, in accordance with Scripture:

However, we might miss something important…

Jesus of Nazareth, the Baby born in Bethlehem, had not existed from eternity. Jesus of Nazareth, the human being, was:

The Second Person of the Godhead (God the Son) is Eternal. However, when He entered that body and became Jesus of Nazareth, that person had not existed before. God did something new: He created a brand new person.

When God the Son became a human being, [in a way] the Godhead altered His own nature for us. The Godhead was different now. This may seem like something shocking to say, because the Godhead is eternal. But there is a big difference now; part of the Godhead is a human being.

Jesus of Nazareth was a new person, and He is also Eternal God. How can both of those be true? Jesus of Nazareth was a New Person, but He was also Eternal God.

Let us go back to the question:

The answer is — it depends because He had two natures, as follows:

1. A Human Nature who came from a human mother.
2. A Divine Nature who came from Himself.

This is something we will see as we go through the book of Matthew. Know ahead that it is impossible to understand!

What is really impossible to comprehend is that the two natures did not co-mingle; His divine nature and His human nature did not mix together, but He was One Person:

• In His divine nature, He has always been — He has always existed.
• In His human nature, He was a new person.

The Son was completely God and completely a new person:

He retained all of His attributes of deity, and He took on the limitations of humanity.

This passage challenges some of our thinking. It is easy to have a wrong idea about His birth. For instance, some individuals [incorrectly] believe:

• The pre-incarnate Messiah, the pre-incarnate Word, from eternity was placed inside Mary's womb. God the Father took the pre-incarnate Messiah and just put Him inside Mary's womb to incubate as if Mary was a surrogate mother. [Like Mary was a rent-a-womb -sic!] That does not sound too wrong, does it? There is one problem — that is heresy (a departure from God's revealed truth) — and that is dangerously close to Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a theory that Jesus was God, but He was not a real human being. If it were the case that God put the eternal Messiah into Mary's womb to incubate, then He would not be a human being. Messiah would be God, He would have a divine nature, but He would have no human nature.
• There is another theory that may sound correct, but it is not; it is called parthenogenesis (Greek for "virgin birth"). This theory states that the virgin birth was a miracle where a virgin had a baby, and there was no father element what so ever. Now that does not sound too bad, except that could not be right. Why not? That would deny His Deity (His being GOD).

The fact is:

I think this is another time when we over react, because:

God does not have a mother — Mary was not the mother of God, however:

We know that she was not the mother of God, but do we really believe that Mary was His real mother? She was and she had to be, or He would not be human.

He got His human nature from Mary. Is that not amazing? This is an amazing act of condescension. The eternal God did come in a body, Jesus of Nazareth was a new person, but He got His human nature from His mother.

His human nature is what He got from His mother.

The virgin birth was not parthenogenesis, because Jesus of Nazareth had a Father. Somehow Holy Spirit took the role in the physical part of conception that a human father normally takes. As for the mechanics, I do not know and I do not think we should try to speculate about it. What we do know about Jesus is:

• He had a human nature from His mother.
• He had a divine nature from Holy Spirit.

If He had a biological father, we would say it was Holy Spirit.

I want to keep coming back to the following:

We should never lose track of that truth.

Throughout the Old Testament, it was predicted that:

Some of those predictions were veiled; some of those predictions were very direct.

Let us look at Isaiah 9:6:

A child is a human being.

A son is a human being.

So far, He could still be a human being.

This Person is obviously Messiah. This clearly says God was going to be born. You cannot miss that one!

Another one is from Isaiah 40:9, in a passage speaking about Messiah:

Anyone who has read this passage should have understood:

Messiah was God and He was man.

That is what the Scripture says. Unfortunately, many did not believe it.

I have heard people say They should not have received it because it did not make sense; it was too hard to understand. That is no excuse. For instance, how many people can understand and explain the Triunity of God — God is three Persons, one God? — however, does any biblical believer doubt the Triunity of God? No! There is no excuse.

One of the most amazing books of the Old Testament is the book of Job. I do not understand the book at all, and I never will, at least not until I get to heaven. I never understand how after all of his children die, God gives Job a fresh set of children and then everything is okay. Sorry, I do not get it!

What amazes me about Job was that he was out of the loop (not one of the inner and influential group).

The book of Job was probably the first book ever written; almost certainly, the events took place before Abraham and before Moses. Job did not have any special revelation, nor did he have the Scriptures. For example, he was far away from the descendants of Shem (father of the Jews and the Arabs, and the three great religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity), and yet here is a man (Job) who says:

Think about what Job is saying:

He knew his Redeemer was alive [right then]. He also said:

What did Job know?

• He knew that Messiah was God.
• He knew Messiah was a man and that He was alive right then, but He would also be alive in the last days and stand on the earth.

He knew Messiah was God and Messiah was man.

So the Messiah had to be the Son of David. That meant that He was a human being. And most people caught that. Most people did not catch that He would be the Son of God.

As we look through the book of Matthew, we are going to see many times Jesus would be walking through a town, and what would people call out after Him?

You do not hear any of them saying:

Jesus of Nazareth did not hear Son of God throughout His whole earthly life, including the almost three and one half years of His ministry, until just a few weeks before He headed to Jerusalem to die on the Cross. Jesus of Nazareth never expected the masses to catch on, but after three and one half years He thought Maybe My disciples did, but they did not.

Finally, a few weeks before the Cross, Messiah, the Son of God, confronts His disciples and asks:

And the disciples answered:

[Oh Please!] So Jesus asked the disciples:

And then Peter (of all people, the simpleton of the disciples) answered:

Undoubtedly, Jesus thought I have never heard this before. And Peter continues…

Finally! Somebody got it and Jesus rejoiced! Peter caught on:

Peter caught on that Jesus of Nazareth had a human nature and He had a divine nature.

In Romans 1, Paul says:

Now look at this; He gives the two natures, as follows:

That was His human nature.

That was His divine nature.

By the way, Paul does not say that Jesus became the Son of God at the resurrection. He says that the resurrection proves that the Child born in Bethlehem was the Son of God.

As presented in the book of John, the genealogy of Jesus traces back to Himself, back to Eternity [past]. There was never a time He did not exist, emphasizing that Jesus is God.

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