Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #124： Why The Virgin Birth is Vital to Salvation

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge, where each week

00:00:13.140 I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological and pastoral questions. This is

00:00:19.100 a 100% listener-supported audio ministry of relearn.org. And for those who don't know,

00:00:25.720 our mission at relearn.org is to educate and equip ordinary Christians to plant biblical,

00:00:31.860 confessional, and missional house churches. For more information, just visit relearn.org

00:00:37.580 forward slash house. Okay, so as we approach Christmas, the focal point of the season

00:00:46.960 really is the virgin birth of Christ. Many secular philosophers and cultic religious leaders

00:00:54.760 deny the virgin birth of Christ. But why? And why is that important? What's at stake

00:01:01.180 if Christ was not born by divine conception? Well, as we're going to see today, if Jesus had

00:01:10.260 a human father, the entire gospel falls apart. But before we dive in this discussion, I'd like

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00:02:32.740 the church. You can make a donation just at relearn.org forward slash donate. Again,

00:02:38.640 that's relearn.org forward slash donate. Okay, today's question is from Darlene in St. Louis,

00:02:46.100 Missouri, and she asks, Pastor Dale, I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I know the virgin

00:02:52.500 birth of Christ is critical to Christian theology, but honestly, I don't know why. If a person asks

00:02:59.620 me about a question about it, I would be unprepared to give an accurate response. Can you help me

00:03:05.580 understand this issue so that I can defend and explain it to anyone who may ask me?

00:03:11.160 Yes, I can do that. Thank you, Darlene. This is a great question. Thank you for writing in.

00:03:15.800 I can assure you that you're not alone in this insecurity. Unfortunately, most Christians today 1.00

00:03:21.460 have never been theologically catechized or systematically trained in Christian doctrine, 0.94

00:03:28.320 and this is why we have such a biblical and theological illiterate church and generation,

00:03:34.320 And it's why we need to be humble, like Darlene, and admit that we just don't know about these

00:03:41.020 issues, that even though we've been maybe professing the faith for several years or

00:03:45.080 even a decade or more, and it's time to start asking questions, start studying so that we

00:03:50.800 can be prepared to defend the Christian faith against those who come against it.

00:03:55.500 And so I'm going to start with a famous quote from a talk show host you guys have all heard

00:03:59.820 of, probably Larry King.

00:04:01.500 He once said, I would like to ask Jesus if he was indeed virgin-born, because the answer

00:04:07.800 to that question would define history.

00:04:10.740 Well, Mr. King was right when he said that, but why was he right?

00:04:15.120 Why is the virgin birth so critical to the gospel?

00:04:18.860 So hold on to your hats, because this one's going to be a bit theologically heavy, but

00:04:23.360 I think you're going to be able to grasp this.

00:04:25.960 I really spent a lot of time on my notes trying to make sure that this would be comprehended,

00:04:29.880 So just stay with me here. So we're going to start all the way back at the beginning,

00:04:35.860 because it's going to frame up some requirements of Jesus's human fatherless birth. So in Genesis

00:04:44.300 chapter 2, God creates Adam and Eve. And as you know, in Genesis chapter 3, the enemy in the form

00:04:49.940 of a serpent tempted Eve to disobey God's command of not eating from the tree of the knowledge of

00:04:55.400 good and evil. And as you also know, Eve succumbed to this temptation, ate the forbidden fruit,

00:05:01.180 then gave it to Adam, and he ate too. Okay, the law of God in the Garden of Eden was broken.

00:05:09.940 And for the first time, sin entered into the world, the scriptures say, by way of Adam. So

00:05:15.380 sin entered into the world. And interestingly, even though Eve committed the first sin,

00:05:21.420 the transgression was attributed to Adam. And because Adam was the one whom God delivered the

00:05:31.640 command, he was the responsible party for the crime. Okay, so if you guys actually read Genesis 0.71

00:05:38.100 chapter 2, you'll see that God actually gives this command prior to even creating Eve, and he gives

00:05:46.740 it to Adam alone. He doesn't give Eve and Adam these directions simultaneously. He gives them

00:05:54.020 to Adam as the acting headship or the husband in that relationship. So this experience here

00:06:04.020 introduces two really critical doctrines, and they are federal headship and the doctrine of

00:06:13.400 original sin. Okay, these are maybe some words that you're going, wow, Dale, you're introducing

00:06:18.160 some crazy stuff here. No, just pay attention, just remember it, federal headship and the

00:06:24.480 doctrine of original sin. Okay, federalism is the representative system that God has chosen to use

00:06:34.880 over the entire human race. In other words, God has given humanity two representatives throughout

00:06:42.260 history, Adam and Christ. This is fully explained in the chapter of Romans 5. And for the sake of

00:06:52.500 time, I'm not going to read the entire chapter, but I will read a good chunk of it, verses 12

00:06:58.600 through 19. So if you want to open up, I'm going to be reading here in the ESV. But go ahead, if you

00:07:04.940 wanted to find your Bible, this is Romans chapter 5, and I'm going to be reading verses 12 through

00:07:11.560 19 it says therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and

00:07:21.520 so death spread to all men because all had sin for sin indeed was in the world before the law

00:07:30.260 was given that is the law of Moses and 10 commandments but sin is not counted where there

00:07:36.080 is no law. There was no law. Sin wasn't counted between Adam and Moses. Verse 14, yet death reigned

00:07:44.440 from Adam to Moses. So even though there wasn't a law in place between Adam and Moses, people were

00:07:52.140 still dying as a result of their sin. And it says, so yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over

00:08:01.780 those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, meaning they had their own sins, not

00:08:07.760 eating of the forbidden fruit, who was a type of the one who was to come. Verse 15, but the free

00:08:14.620 gift, that is the free gift of grace he's talking about in context, the free gift in contrast to

00:08:21.820 Adam, he's talking about Christ, the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through

00:08:28.620 one man's trespass, that's Adam, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace

00:08:36.640 of that one man, Jesus Christ. Verse 16, and the free gift is not like the result of that one man's

00:08:48.060 sin, Adam. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following

00:08:56.180 many trespasses brought justification. This is a big contrast between Adam and Christ, the two

00:09:02.320 representative heads over humanity. Verse 17, for if because of one man's trespass,

00:09:11.040 death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace

00:09:18.000 and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Verse 18,

00:09:24.020 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men.

00:09:35.760 For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

00:09:45.100 Okay, that is, again, you're seeing a contrast between Adam and Christ.

00:09:50.580 Christ has also been called the second Adam, right?

00:09:53.220 And so there's these two federal heads over us as humanity. 0.51

00:10:01.040 Okay, so I'm going to explain this idea.

00:10:03.520 A.W. Pink gives a bit of an explanation on this, and I'm going to read it because I think

00:10:08.520 it's helpful as an illustration to help you grasp what really has been said in this passage

00:10:15.080 of scripture.

00:10:15.800 He gives a great, easy illustration.

00:10:17.860 He writes,

00:10:47.860 and they all wither and die. So it was when Adam fell. God permitted Satan to lay the axe at the

00:10:57.320 root of the tree, and when Adam fell, all his posterity fell with him. At one fatal stroke,

00:11:06.120 Adam was severed from communion with his maker, and as a result, death passed upon all men.

00:11:13.280 1 Corinthians 15.22, Paul says,

00:11:17.120 Okay, basically, Darlene, since I'm speaking to you here, Adam disobeyed God, and through his representation of the human race, failed all of us.

00:11:41.440 And as a result, Adam's original sin has been imputed to us or been credited to us, to all humanity, including you and I.

00:11:54.100 And again, this doctrine of federalism and original sin can be confirmed in two ways.

00:12:00.000 First, all of Adam's descendants are born with an intrinsic desire to sin.

00:12:06.800 Now, you may have heard it said, we're not sinners because we sin.

00:12:10.780 We sin because we're sinners.

00:12:12.680 Okay, I'm going to say that one more time.

00:12:13.940 We're not sinners because we sin.

00:12:16.180 We sin because we're sinners.

00:12:18.320 What I mean by that is we don't become sinners when we first commit a sin.

00:12:24.160 We commit sin because we're all born sinners.

00:12:28.380 So that's the first way to confirm that we have been infected with Adam's original sin.

00:12:36.400 And the second way to confirm these two doctrines of, again, federal headship, so federal representation, and the doctrine of original sin, meaning that we are born into a condition of sin.

00:12:49.760 Sin is not just an act. It's also a condition in which we are born sinners.

00:12:56.100 Okay, so the second way to confirm it is to see that all humanity has reaped the consequences of Adam's original sin.

00:13:05.600 which is death. Namely, God said that if Adam was to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden,

00:13:12.620 he would surely die. Okay, this is why Romans 6.23 states, the wages of sin is death. Okay,

00:13:22.680 in other words, federalism and the doctrine of original sin, if these were not true, and we

00:13:31.420 teach that we, you know, if you believed that we each had the free will to represent ourselves

00:13:39.120 before God, well, if that was true, you would expect that some humans throughout history would

00:13:44.580 have had the self-determination to not commit sin and as a result, restrain death. But that's simply

00:13:51.960 not the case, okay? And I think it's evident to anyone who is a parent that human beings do not

00:13:57.800 need to be taught how to sin. It comes naturally. And as a result, all people die. Okay, if you

00:14:06.720 still don't believe this doctrine that we're all born sinners, you would expect, again, since the

00:14:15.200 wages of sin is death, that infants who have not yet committed physical sins would not die. But the

00:14:24.000 truth is, they do. Now, I'm not saying that all who passed away in infancy go to hell. That's an

00:14:30.440 entirely different theological discussion. But the only logical and sound conclusion for this

00:14:37.340 discussion is that nobody is free of sin, and as a result, everybody dies. So I'm going to give you

00:14:45.900 another quote that I think is very clarifying to what I'm trying to say. And it's important that

00:14:51.720 you understand this. This is like central Christian gospel doctrine that you should

00:14:57.560 know. This isn't just for theologians. The average Christian should be able to defend

00:15:02.640 themselves against a critic of Christianity. And so some of you guys have probably heard

00:15:09.120 of Tim Challies. He has a blog called Challies.com, I think, or .org. He's a prolific

00:15:16.240 pastor, theologian. He's in Canada. He actually just had a son pass away. It was very sad.

00:15:22.960 But he once wrote on the topic of federalism, and I like what he said. He said, and I quote,

00:15:30.680 the teaching of scripture is clear. Even if I never committed a sin throughout my entire life,

00:15:39.280 I would still be justly condemned to hell because of the original sin of Adam.

00:15:47.040 This sin is imputed to me because Adam, as representative of the human race, sinned on my

00:15:54.560 behalf. We see the pervasiveness of this sin by the fact that Jesus had to be born of God rather 0.66

00:16:02.960 than man, for that is the only way he could be born freed from the burden of original sin.

00:16:11.860 As such, he was pure, not just in actions, but also in his very nature. Adam's sin was not

00:16:20.500 imputed to Jesus. If we are to believe that Christ stands as our representative in the act

00:16:27.920 of redemption, we must also believe that Adam stands as our representative in the act of 0.63

00:16:34.840 becoming a fallen people, end quote. Okay, so I'm going to wrap this whole thing up. You heard the

00:16:41.720 answer to your question there, Darlene. I hope you caught that. The answer is this. If Christ was

00:16:49.180 born of a man, he would have been subjected to Adam's sin and infected with the disease of sin 0.97

00:16:59.020 like the rest of mankind. Now, for that reason, Jesus would have been a sinner, 0.77

00:17:06.060 making him an imperfect sacrifice, and he would have been unable to atone for our sins

00:17:12.140 and would have remained dead after his crucifixion.

00:17:17.340 But as you know, he did not remain dead, and his resurrection validates my point.

00:17:24.360 If the wages of sin is death, then Christ, who was sinless, couldn't remain dead.

00:17:32.360 In other words, Christ had to be raised because he did not sin.

00:17:36.580 And because he did not sin, he was a perfect sacrifice, meaning that he was pure even from

00:17:43.620 birth. Okay, that was the whole circle there. So again, hopefully you understand the concept of

00:17:49.840 federalism or federal headship, that we all die in Adam's sin, and that we are now all finding life

00:18:00.700 in Christ's righteousness. It's a beautiful doctrine, and I actually am going to leave

00:18:06.000 you guys with a few resources that will help you further your understanding on this topic.

00:18:11.520 And you can find them on the post page of this episode at relearn.org. This is titled,

00:18:17.000 what did we title this episode? Why the Virgin Birth is Vital to Salvation. This is episode 124.

00:18:24.260 And I have a few good resources. The first one is an article and it's written by R.C. Sproul.

00:18:32.680 It'll probably take you maybe 20 minutes to read it, but it's titled, Adam's Fall and Mine.

00:18:39.800 Lots of really great illustrations and explanations and scripture references to really support

00:18:48.240 this doctrine of federalism and explain it in a way that you can comprehend it.

00:18:54.120 The second article is an article for pastors, but I think you guys would benefit from it.

00:19:00.580 It's titled, How to Explain Covenantal Headship to Your Church.

00:19:05.820 Same kind of doctrine.

00:19:07.120 This is an article on NineMarks.org, and I thought it was helpful.

00:19:11.220 Then there's an audio sermon by John MacArthur titled, Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ.

00:19:20.140 And hopefully that'll be a good resource for you as well.

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00:21:03.680 this episode of Real Christianity. We will see you next Wednesday.

Dale Partridge - December 16, 2020

Real Christianity #124： Why The Virgin Birth is Vital to Salvation

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