WHEN THE FULLNESS OF TIME HAD COME

WHEN THE FULLNESS OF TIME HAD COME

The apostle Paul, for example, was also very clear and concise when he reiterated the true nature of the Incarnation: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Gal. 4:4). Paul includes no mention of a human father for Jesus because, according to the divine plan, God was His Father. Jesus had one human parent (Mary) so that He could be a man and identify closely with what it means to be human (Phil. 2:5–7; Heb. 4:15). And He had divine parentage so He could live a sinless life, perfectly fulfill the Law of God for us, and make the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
Admittedly, all these centuries after Matthew’s divinely inspired Gospel declared that Jesus was born of a virgin, His miraculous conception remains impossible to understand by human reason alone. God chose not to explain the details of it to us, even as He chose to leave unexplained the intricacies of His creating the universe from nothing, the precise way He could be one God in three Persons, or exactly what happens when depraved sinners are born again as they repent of their sins and trust Christ. Many of the essentials of Christianity God wants believers to accept by faith. Full understanding will have to wait until heaven: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now [we] know in part, but then [we] shall know [fully]” (1 Cor. 13:12).

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2001). God in the manger: the miraculous birth of Christ (pp. 6–7). Nashville, TN: W Pub. Group.