by Tad Lindley
But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman… (Galatians 4:4)
On my dad’s side I inherited a receding hairline, my last name, and my chin. On my mother’s side I get my eye color, my mitochondrial DNA, and my crooked pinkies.
About two thousand ten years ago a baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a stone feeding trough in a cave in Bethlehem. This baby had a mother and a father also. We don’t know the day the birth happened. There is even debate about what year he was born. In fact there is a 99.7% chance that it took place on some day other than December 25th, and it probably took place B.C. In spite of what we are not sure of, there are some very certain facts about Jesus Christ.
This infant was like no other before or after. Mary’s later children would be conceived naturally, but Jesus was conceived supernaturally. He was born of a virgin. She became pregnant when the Holy Ghost overshadowed her. So the child that she bore is called the Son of God.
On His Father’s side
We also know that Jesus was not a lesser God, a junior God, nor one-third of God. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9) II Corinthians 5:19 tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. We know also from I Timothy that there is no controversy about the mystery of who Jesus was: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.(3:16)
On His mother’s side
Jesus was the Son of Man. He possessed in his body all the human frailty that you and I do. He was born, was the eldest son to Mary and stepson to Joseph, lived as a man, and died in about 29 AD at the age of 33 years.
He was fully God and fully man
On his mother’s side, After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (Matthew 4:2) On his Father’s side, he would feed 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish and there would be twelve baskets full of leftovers. (Matthew 14:13-21)
On his mother’s side, Jesus would weep at the death of his close friend Lazarus. (John 11:35) On his Father’s side, Jesus would stand out side the tomb of his decomposing friend and cry with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth”. (John 11:43)
On his mother’s side, Jesus would know grief. On his Father’s side, he would become “the resurrection and the life”. (John 11:25)
On his mother’s side, Jesus would be tempted. (Matthew 4) In fact, would be in all ways tempted, just as we are. (Hebrews 4:15) On his Father’s side, would overcame temptation and remain sinless.
On his mother’s side, Jesus would be the only begotten son of the Father. (John 3:16) On his Father’s side, he would be the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
On his mother’s side, he would be seriously injured to the point of death on the cross.
On his Father’s side, he would heal the sick, and open deaf ears, blind eyes, and dumb tongues.
On his mother’s side he would give up the ghost as he hung on a wooden cross. (John 19:30) On his Father’s side, he is the Holy Ghost. (Acts 3:20)
On his mother’s side he was perceived as the lowly illegitimate son of Joseph the carpenter. (John 8:41) On his Father’s side it is written, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
There has never been another like Jesus. One of the most beautiful passages of scripture describes the events surrounding the placing of almighty God in human flesh. It is found in John 1:14: And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. On his mother’s side, fully man. On his Father’s side, fully God. It is the miraculous genetics of Jesus.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.