Was Joseph The Biological Father of Jesus?

‘Was Joseph the biological father of Jesus? If so, then how is Jesus different from everyone else?’ L

The Bible makes it very clear that although Joseph was Mary’s husband, he was not the biological father of Jesus Christ.

To better understand God’s plan to save mankind through Christ, we must go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin entered the world. Although Eve was the first one to sin, the responsibility of sin was placed on Adam, as he was the representative of the human race. As descendants of Adam, we have all inherited his sinful nature.

Out of His love for us, God provided a messiah (or a saviour) to redeem all of us from our sin. But in order to qualify, the messiah had to be perfect and sinless. Therefore he could not be a descendant of Adam, which basically ruled out everyone.

God knew that there was only one way to provide a messiah that was without sin – and that’s exactly what He did. There are two parts to consider here:

• Jesus Christ is fully human because He was born of the woman Mary. But because sin comes through the father’s line and not through the mother’s, Christ did not inherit Adam’s sin. Christ is the only person ever to have been born without sin
• Jesus Christ is fully God, as well as fully human, because His father is God: ‘Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit’ (Mt 1:18); ‘But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”’ (Mt 1:20)

God the Father supernaturally planted His seed into Mary’s womb to create a Messiah that would be both fully human and fully God.

Christ is different to every other human who has ever lived, for one crucial reason: His biological father is God. We each inherited sin through our earthly father (who can trace his lineage all the way back to Adam), whereas Christ’s Father is a sinless God who passed no sin on to His Son.

Christ was therefore the only person Who has ever been qualified to take our sins upon Himself to save us: ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive’ (1 Co 15:22)

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