The promised one must be human, a perfect human, and also God at the same time. Only a perfect human could die for human sins, and only an eternal God can provide eternal forgiveness of sin. For that reason, the virgin birth was necessary to fulfill the requirements of the Savior-man. Ryrie speaks of this saying, “Matthew carefully guarded the fact of the Virgin Birth in the genealogical table of our Lord (Matt. 1:16). He recorded that Joseph was the husband of Mary, but that it was by Mary only that Jesus was born. The pronoun “by whom” is feminine singular, indicating clearly that Jesus was born of Mary only and not of Mary and Joseph.” (Ryrie 279) The Virgin Birth was also to be a sign from God, a miracle as was mentioned earlier in Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6, an entrance into the world so different that there would be no doubt about the one who came. In reference to this John F. Walvoord says, “In these unmistakable terms Mary is informed that her Son would have no human father, but that he should be indeed the Son of God who would fulfill the promise given to David of a Son to reign over his house forever. In conformation of this unusual promise and evidence of the supernatural power of God, Mary is informed that her kinswoman, Elizabeth, had also conceived a son in her old age as a demonstration of the power of God.” (Walvoord, The person of Christ Part 1 The Incarnation of the Son of God
The promised one must be human, a perfect human, and also God at the same time. Only a perfect human could die for human sins, and only an eternal God can provide eternal forgiveness of sin. For that reason, the virgin birth was necessary to fulfill the requirements of the Savior-man. Ryrie speaks of this saying, “Matthew carefully guarded the fact of the Virgin Birth in the genealogical table of our Lord (Matt. 1:16). He recorded that Joseph was the husband of Mary, but that it was by Mary only that Jesus was born. The pronoun “by whom” is feminine singular, indicating clearly that Jesus was born of Mary only and not of Mary and Joseph.” (Ryrie 279) The Virgin Birth was also to be a sign from God, a miracle as was mentioned earlier in Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6, an entrance into the world so different that there would be no doubt about the one who came. In reference to this John F. Walvoord says, “In these unmistakable terms Mary is informed that her Son would have no human father, but that he should be indeed the Son of God who would fulfill the promise given to David of a Son to reign over his house forever. In conformation of this unusual promise and evidence of the supernatural power of God, Mary is informed that her kinswoman, Elizabeth, had also conceived a son in her old age as a demonstration of the power of God.” (Walvoord, The person of Christ Part 1 The Incarnation of the Son of God