Original Sin and Y Chromosomes

Jesus’ Gender, Original Sin and Y Chromosomes

Talking Points:

  • Intro What is original sin?

  • How original sin is transmitted

  • Corruption spreads from one man to all mankind.

  • The role of Eve in original sin

  • Virgin birth of Christ.

o   Virgin birth is a supernatural act of God.

o   Virgin birth and cloning

o   Types of cloning:

o   Does a cloned human have a soul?

  • “X” chromosome of Mary was also corrupted.

  • Source of Jesus’ Y Chromosome

  • Conclusion.

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1. Introduction :  What is original sin?

Original sin is the first sin committed by Adam resulting in the fall of man. It is also a state of sin of humanity as this sin is passed from parent to child, resulting in humanity becoming a massa damnata (mass of perdition, condemned crowd)- Saint Augustine …through procreation. Although Eve is the one who sinned first, but because Adam is the Federal Head, the universal ancestor, being the first man and from whom all human kind descended, his fall included or represented all of humanity.

(Rom. 5:12). “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

Scripture teaches the dichotomy of human composition –the material or physical and the immaterial (soul and spirit).

Gen 2: 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

 

At the fall, both the material part and the immaterial aspect of man were corrupted.

Gen 2: 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

At the fall, spirit of man was severed from God, resulting in spiritual death. At the same time, the clock of mutation and aging starts ticking in the physical realm. Although the body still continues to function, the cells in the human body have started to die. When the time is ripe, when each of the major parts of the body deteriorate to the point when it can no longer sustain the continuous function of the entire body, clinical death or cessation of the body function takes over. Death with Adam did not happen at the time when the body ceased to function, death occurred when the process of death started. It was a crossover from life without death to temporal life tainted with death.

 

2. How original sin is transmitted:

“The first law of thermodynamics”, known as the law of conservation of energy, states that the total energy of a closed system is constant; energy or matter can be transformed from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed. Only God has the power to create ‘ex-nihilo’ (something out of nothing). On the sixth day, God had completed all His creation. DONE – Nothing has been created or added since then.

Gen 2: 2 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

God has designed, enabled, and commanded human to reproduce “offspring” or living organisms after themselves through pro-creation. New individuals that were born were not new creations (ex-nihilo) because God has ceased His work of creation.

1Gen 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Pro-creation ( Wikipedia) is the biological process by which new offspring, individual organisms, are produced from their parents. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual organism exists as the result of reproduction.

 

Through pro-creation, both men and women are born with original sin/sin nature.

Details of Pro-Creation ( Wikipedia)

When the egg cell of a woman is fertilized by the sperm of a man, the fertilized egg starts to divide. Cell division is essential for an organism to grow, but when a cell divides, it must replicate the DNA in its genome so that the two daughter cells have the same genetic information as their parent. The double-stranded structure of DNA provides a mechanism for DNA replication. Here, the two strands are separated and then each strand’s complementary DNA sequence is recreated by an enzyme called DNA polymerase. This enzyme makes the complementary strand by finding the correct base through complementary base pairing, and bonding it onto the original strand. As DNA polymerases can only extend a DNA strand in a 5′ to 3′ direction, different mechanisms are used to copy the anti-parallel strands of the double helix. In this way, the base on the old strand dictates which base appears on the new strand, and the cell ends up with a perfect copy of its DNA.

 

From the process in which human is reproduced we can infer that all human are born with original sin. Since all the cells of Adam and Eve were corrupted at the fall, both their gametes (sperm and egg cell) from which new individuals were formed were also corrupted. The offspring that were born with corrupted cells naturally carry with them original sin. The immaterial part of every individual is also procreated at conception following the verse that says “God ended His work” meaning work of creation. Immaterial part that was procreated from a corrupted immaterial part of Adam and Eve must be corrupted also. Therefore, all humans that comes after Adam and Eve were born with original sin.

 

3. Sin spreads from one man to all mankind

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned–“

It says “one man” – singular. In here, “one man” does not represent humankind in general that includes women. But in the next phrase “death spread to all men” – all men here is used as a general term that includes women.
If sin of Adam and Eve only affected them both and has not spread to all men, then their sin has not been transmitted. But the verse says “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men”. Sin not only made an entrance but it was transmitted and spread to all mankind. — through ONE MAN…Adam.

 

4. The role of Eve in original sin

But, did not Eve also sin? In fact was it not Eve who sinned first? Why does the Bible say sin entered the world through one man? What was the role of Eve?

Eve did not sinned as the way Adam did in that the command was given directly to Adam and not to Eve. EVE knew about the command of God through Adam. Eve sinned and just like Adam, both her material part and the immaterial part were all corrupted at the fall.

Romans 2:12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law

All womanhood who inherited the corrupted “X” chromosome originated from Adam become the recipients or carriers of original sin and thus suffer the consequences of corruption. But they or the corrupted “X” chromosomes in them do not transmit sin.

 

5. To explain further why only MAN transmits original sin, we have to look at the “VIRGIN BIRTH” of CHRIST.

Factors that determine the gender of a human:

Biological background; (Wikipedia)

A baby’s sex is determined at the time of conception. When the baby is conceived, a chromosome from the sperm cell, either X or Y, fuses with the X chromosome in the egg cell, determining whether the baby will be genetically female (XX) or male (XY). To be genetically female, one needs to be (XX), whereas to be a genetic male, (XY) is needed. It is the Y chromosome that is essential for the development of the male reproductive organs, and with no Y chromosome, an embryo will develop into a female. This is because of the presence of the sex determining region of the Y chromosome, also known as the SRY gene.

Human has 23 pairs (n=46) of chromosomes. receiving one set (n=23) from each parent. The 23rd pair is either a pair of XX (female) or XY(male)

 

Miracle one – Virgin birth of Christ is not cloning.

 

A. Virgin birth is a supernatural act of God.

Luke 1:35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will over shadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

Virgin birth – Biologically, unfertilized egg inside Mary started to undergo mitotic–division. This division makes the fertilized egg grow into an embryo. The process of division is supposed to undergo mitotic division only when it is fertilized. Unfertilized egg degenerates when it travels to fallopian tube from ovary and is discharged from the body through menstruation.

B. Virgin birth and cloning (ICR.org)

Reproduction without sexual union has been observed in some fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles. In recent years, cloning in laboratories has even been successful with several mammals, although great care and advanced technology is required. Progress is being made, and we can expect cloning to become mainstream practice before long. Even human cloning, while discouraged by many governments, is being aggressively explored by several labs. (I suspect the strident insistence for embryonic stem cell research has human cloning as an unstated goal.) Unless God intervenes, advances in cloning technology may lead to a brave new world of human clones, with Pandora’s Box opened wide.

But is this the same thing as the virgin birth? Would human cloning equate to the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy “a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son” (Isaiah 7:14)?

No, it would not. In humans, the DNA in each egg’s nucleus contains 23 chromosomes, with the remaining 23 usually supplied by the father. In cloning, the original 23 chromosomes are stripped from an unfertilized egg, and a full complement of 46 from a donor is inserted. The child would possess identical DNA to the donor, with a minor exception–a small segment of DNA present in the cells’ mitochondria is passed from mother to child, undiluted by the father.

Is cloning a possible explanation of Christ’s birth? If Mary’s nuclear DNA was used, the resulting child would have been female. If another source was used, the offspring would have carried the corrupted DNA  and thus could not have been the perfect “lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19).

Cloning is not the answer. While much remains a mystery, the birth of Christ was a miracle in every regard. He said of God the Father, “…a body hast thou prepared |for| Me” (Hebrews 10:5), free from any genetic defect and thus qualified to be a perfect sacrifice. And then, “when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman…to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4: 4-5).

 

C. Types of cloning:

1. Artificial Embryo Twinning

Artificial embryo twinning is a relatively low-tech way to make clones. As the name suggests, this technique mimics the natural process that creates identical twins.

In nature, twins form very early in development when the embryo splits in two. Twinning happens in the first days after egg and sperm join, while the embryo is made of just a small number of unspecialized cells. Each half of the embryo continues dividing on its own, ultimately developing into separate, complete individuals. Since they developed from the same fertilized egg, the resulting individuals are genetically identical.

Artificial embryo twinning uses the same approach, but it is carried out in a Petri dish instead of inside the mother. A very early embryo is separated into individual cells, which are allowed to divide and develop for a short time in the Petri dish. The embryos are then placed into a surrogate mother, where they finish developing. Again, since all the embryos came from the same fertilized egg, they are genetically identical.

 

2. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

In somatic cell nuclear transfer (“SCNT”), the nucleus of a somatic cell is taken from a donor and transplanted into a host egg cell, which had its own genetic material removed previously, making it an enucleated egg. After the donor somatic cell genetic material is transferred into the host oocyte with a micropipette, the somatic cell genetic material is fused with the egg using an electric current. Once the two cells have fused, the new cell can be permitted to grow in a surrogate or artificially. This is the process that was used to successfully clone Dolly the sheep.
For further reading on Partehogenesis:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-Suk
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/parthenogenesis

Note;
In here, we realized that virgin birth can be replicated in laboratory today. An egg taken from a woman can be induced to start to undergo mitotic division and grow into an embryo by zapping the egg with electricity. This process does not involved sperm cell. A modern day “virgin birth”? Certainly not.

 

6. Does a clone have a soul?

God had ordained procreation of a human being complete with material and immaterial parts to come from the union of a man (N=23) and a woman (N=23). A clone is a product of a growing tissue resulted from a single (N=23 replaced with an adult N=46) however complete it maybe, whether attached or detached from original host body – a “tumor”. The entire tissue growth will be an integral part of the original host, whether attached or detached from the original host body. It will not possess a separate immaterial aspect as a complete human being has.

To define what is a human and when does life of a human begins;

Isaiah 44:2 Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Isaiah 48:8 Surely you did not hear, Surely you did not know; Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, And were called a transgressor from the womb.

Isaiah 49:1 “Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar! The LORD has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Luke 1:15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

Luke 1:44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

 

The Scripture teaches that human life begins at conception. But when is the exact moment? Based on the scientific study of human development, human zygote comes into existence at the moment of sperm egg fusion called “syngamy”. This event occurs in seconds after sperm penetrate the egg. After the sperm enters the cytoplasm of the oocyte (also called ovocyte), the cortical reaction takes place, preventing other sperm from fertilizing the same egg. The oocyte now undergoes its second meiotic division producing the haploid ovum and releasing a polar body. The sperm nucleus then fuses with the ovum, enabling fusion of their genetic material. The pronuclei migrate toward the center of the oocyte, rapidly replicating their DNA as they do so to prepare the zygote for its first mitotic division.

Meiosis divides chromosome number by half for haploid gametes, Syngamy restores diploid chromosome number, and the number of genes N=46 is restored. After the union or fusion of the sperm and egg chromosomes, the cell starts to go through mitotic division and later developed into an embryo. Therefore for an embryo to become a separate human and not just a tumor growth from a body, it needs to have a fusion of “X” and “Y” chromosomes from an egg and a sperm

 

Miracle two –

Even if conception without fertilization is achieved, because Mary’s body does not have a Y chromosome, the offspring will always be a female, an exact replica of the egg donor and never a male. Jesus was born a male.

Matthew 1:21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

 

Miracle three –

Jesus having the exact same chromosomes (identical DNA coding) as Mary, should have identical physical feature (looks and builds) as Mary- not to mention that the offspring of a virgin birth should have been a girl. Jesus was born a man and even his enemies testified that he was a man – (not having a feature or physical structure of a woman).

John 9:16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

Jesus addressed himself as son of man …

Matthew 19:28 So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Son of man

In the Greek of the New Testament, the term “the son of man” is rendered “ὁ υἱὸς τοὺ ἀνθρώπου”, which might be translated more literally as “the son of the human being”. This expression occurs 81 times in the four Canonical gospels, where it is used only in the sayings of Jesus. The use of the definite article in “the Son of Man” is novel in the gospels, and prior to the gospels there is no record of its use in surviving intertestamental literature in Greek.[2]

 

7. “X” chromosome of Mary was also corrupted.

The “X” chromosome and DNA of Mary was sanctified:

1 Corinthians 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

Mary’s X was sanctified because of the presence of the “Y” chromosome of pre-fall Adam. And in union and becoming one with uncorrupted “Y”, her “X” was sanctified or set apart.

Excerpt from John Piper on I Cor 7:14

… 1st Corinthians 7:14 is addressed to that perhaps unique situation of “the only problem being unbelief” type of marriage. In verse 14, Paul reassures women in this difficult situation (of being married to a “good” unbeliever) that their lives are not meaningless in the Lord (even if they stay married to this unbeliever), nor are their children somehow tainted because of their spouse’s lack of belief – their own faith “sanctifies” the union (marriage is a sacred bond invented by and sanctioned by God for unbelievers as well as believers). This is an important clarification for us to receive, because in many instances in life, it is the bad which permeates/flavors the good (like leaven), but in some instances, it is the good which permeates the bad (as having the preservative property of “salt“: Matt.5:13; Mk.9:30; Col.4:6). Paul assures us here that in the case of marriage, the believer is “the salt”, so to speak, and makes the entire union, including the offspring from it, “holy” in God’s eyes (cf. Lev.2:13). That is to say, along with the believer himself/herself, the marriage, the unbelieving spouse, and their children are all “set apart to God” for the special protection and oversight that falls to the lot of believers. In the same way that the presence of believers in organizations and countries brings blessing and protection from God (especially of believers who walk close to the Lord – compare Lot’s deliverance for Abraham’s sake), so in marriage too this principle obtains. This does not mean that the unbelieving husband (or the children) are automatically saved, but it does mean that they are treated by God as belonging to the believing spouse, falling under that spouse’s “umbrella” of blessing and protection.

 

1 cor 6:16 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says,“shall become one flesh.”[b] 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Note;
Union with harlot or outside of marriage is a union in sin- not sanctified even if one of them is a believer.

 

The salvation of womanhood;

1 Tim 2:15 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. 15 Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.

Excerpt from Matthew Henry’s Commentary :

But good women may and ought to teach their children at home the principles of true religion. Also, women must not think themselves excused from learning what is necessary to salvation, though they must not usurp authority. As woman was last in the creation, which is one reason for her subjection, so she was first in the transgression. But there is a word of comfort; that those who continue in sobriety, shall be saved in child-bearing, or with child-bearing, by the Messiah, who was born of a woman. And the especial sorrow to which the female sex is subject, should cause men to exercise their authority with much gentleness, tenderness, and affection.

 

To interpret this difficult passage:

1. Paul was referring to “womanhood” in general. A shift from singular pronoun “she” referring to Eve to plural pronoun “they” referring to womanhood.

2. The means for “X” in general, originated from Eve to be sanctified/set apart/protected is to unite with pre-fall “Y” chromosome of Adam in Jesus.

3. The effectual saving power of Jesus not only spread to all “Y” carrying male who believes but it also spread to all “X” carrying female who believes as a result of this union.

4. The biological term for “child bearing” used by Paul would be the fertilization of an “egg” by a “sperm” or union of “Y” carrying male gamete with “X” carrying female gamete.

 

Miracle four –

God supplied the Y chromosomes by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus for him to become a man without sin.

For Jesus, born of a virgin, to be fully “human” or a man, he needs to have a complete set of chromosomes. Since God had ceased His work in creation, therefore God could not have created afresh another “Y” chromosome in Mary (which He could if He so ordained) . Where then did Jesus get His “Y” chromosome?

 

8. Source of Jesus’ Y Chromosome

Creation of Adam and Eve

Gen 2:22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib[h] (a part of) he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

God could have made Eve from the dust just like He made Adam but instead God made Eve from a part taken out of Adam. Eve should have identical chromosomes/DNA with Adam. This means Eve should have been a male in the first place. Having ”Y” chromosome and “X” chromosome like Adam. We know that the only difference between chromosomes /DNA structure of male and female is the absence of Y chromosome in female. This would coach a body to grow into an entirely different anatomy for female. Reading from the foot prints of God’s creation, God must have taken out the Y chromosome from the part taken out of Adam to make Eve.

God must have taken out the uncorrupted Y chromosomes from pre-fall Adam and held it in abeyance until Jesus.

When God by the power of the Holy Spirit made the pre-fall “Y” chromosome of Adam available for Jesus, he was born sinless and fully human having both “X” and “Y” chromosomes in him. Having identical “Y” chromosomes, Adam was called the “first Adam” and Jesus was called the ” last Adam” in the Scripture.

1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Hebrews 10:5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.

 

Jesus – the last Adam ..fully man … with the “Y” chromosomes of the pre-fall “first Adam”, without sin reversed the direction of the path of sin to give salvation to everyone with “Y” chromosome who believes. Applying the interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:15 – also to everyone with “X” chromosomes who believes.

 

Romans 5:13 13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

Jesus, described as the last Adam in 1Cor 15 is not a pattern of Adam, but Adam is a pattern of the one to come Jesus. Adam was created in the image of God … the pre-incarnate Jesus.

 

If Eve’s “X” chromosome  transmits original sin as Adam did, then Jesus who was conceived from Mary’s corrupted egg cell was born with original sin. Throughout the Scripture, the genealogy of Jesus, the Levites priestly line, the succession of kings, etc. was always determined by the father and never the mother. The redemptive plan of God was already prepared before the foundation of the world that one day Jesus will be born of a virgin, without blemish or sin and walk on earth in human flesh to finish the work of salvation.

 

9. Conclusion

God took the Y chromosome from pre-fall Adam and held in abeyance and by the power of the Holy Spirit put into the sanctified egg of Mary resulting in a XY / male offspring. This makes Jesus fully man born without sin.

 

Here is the good news!

1 Corinthians 15:22 (NKJV) 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Romans 5:15(NKJV) 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

Romans 5:21(NKJV) 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 3:16 (NIV) 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Acts 4:12 (NIV) 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

John 1:12(NIV) 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.