By Phil Sarpong
The Biology of Life
In normal human biology, a woman can have 1 to 2 million eggs. These eggs are essential for pregnancy to occur. The ovaries release the eggs, which are on either side of the uterus. The number of eggs that a woman is born with is what she has. There is no new production of eggs during her lifetime. Once a woman reaches her reproductive cycle to start menopause, she can release 400 eggs.
During the menstrual cycle, an egg can reach maturity and release it to the fallopian tubes. The tubes are on either side of the uterus and enter into the uterus. Ovulation is the release of these eggs into the uterus and is the only time the egg can go through fertilization by sperm to create new life. If the egg doesn’t get fertilized by a sperm, it will die within a day.
Men create sperm regularly. Sperm, however, takes some time (usually two to three months) to fully mature. Sperm do not live long in a man’s body and will die after a few weeks of maturation. During ejaculation, about 250 million sperm release from the penis. Despite all these sperm, only one can penetrate and fertilize an egg. Two types of sperm, the Y chromosome and the X chromosome, determine sex. The Y chromosome carries the boy’s genetic makeup, while X carries the girl’s genetic makeup.
Sperm have a long and challenging journey to reach the egg. First, the sperm have to withstand the vagina’s acidity level of the vagina, which, if acidic enough, can destroy the sperm. The cervical mucus is usually a thick layer that only allows the strongest and fastest sperm to penetrate. Once a sperm penetrates this mucus layer, it has about 7 inches to travel up the cervix, through the uterus, and reach the egg at the entrance of the fallopian tubes.
To put this into perspective. A study compared the length of sperm to the size of a salmon or whale. The measures explained the distances traveled if sperm was as big as a salmon or a whale. Sperm have what is called a flagellum (tail). The tail is its mode of transport and powers the sperm to swim across long distances. If sperm were the size of a salmon, it would be swimming 500 miles an hour to get to its destination. What about if sperm was the size of a whale? It would swim 50,000 miles per hour and take forty-five minutes from the Pacific Coast of North America to Japan.
Sperm needs every bit of this firepower because even once reaching the fallopian tubes. They need to penetrate the egg’s outer shell. What is impressive is that as soon as the sperm penetrates the egg, the egg’s outer shell immediately becomes hard and prevents any other sperm from coming inside. This shield allows the sperm and egg to meet finally. The sperm and egg start to combine their genetic material and rapidly divide to form the embryo. Pregnancy proceeds from there as now life has finally been initiated.
But now, the magic starts to happen as the embryo develops into the fetus (around eight weeks from birth). The fetus depends on the mother for survival. The placenta is an organ that is produced during pregnancy and located in the uterus. An umbilical cord connects the fetus to the placenta. The mother’s body can give the fetus nourishment, as well as oxygen, by sending these nutrients through the placenta by way of blood vessels attached to the umbilical cord.
The placenta is vital to the successful life of the fetus. The placenta also ensures the fetus’s blood and the mother’s blood will never mix. The placenta allows the diffusion of nutrients and oxygen to pass to the fetus without going into the blood. This process is essential because, as we know, a mother and her baby can have different blood types. If those blood types mix, the mother’s immune system can react aggressively towards the fetus’s blood type.
The reaction happens because the body is constantly fighting against infection, and if the body doesn’t recognize a substance in the body, it labels it as a foreign substance. The mother will then make antibodies to fight the infection or foreign material. You can imagine how dangerous this is for the fetus, with the mother’s immune system potentially attacking her baby.
The theory I have is not a theological point at all but simply a way to marvel at the wonders of how God may intervene spiritually into our physical lives.
“And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward, the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly man, so too are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.”1 Corinthians 15: 45-49
“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, all shall be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15: 21-22
If God supernaturally implanted a seed into Mary, this seed would meet Mary’s egg and start the procreation of life. Now, as we’ve talked about, the sperm and egg would share their genetic material and rapidly begin to divide, becoming an embryo and ultimately growing into a fetus that is attached to the placenta.
The seed is 100% God, and the egg is 100% Mary. The fetus growing inside of Mary has its very own blood type. Because of the placenta, the baby’s blood would never mix with Mary’s blood. Meaning Jesus would have his blood type separate from Mary’s. Why is this important? Because Jesus may have had the skin and organs of a human being, but he had the blood of God.
Why Did God send Jesus?
God knew that if he came to earth and sacrificed Himself, he needed to maintain his Godliness, purity, and holiness within the human body. The only way to do that is in the blood. Jesus was a full man physically, but he was entirely God spiritually through the blood. The only way to kill God is if God is within the vessel of something that can die. God had to confine himself within the same vessel we are trapped within to give us new eternal life through Jesus’s blood.
Just because He is fully God in this full man’s body doesn’t mean he can’t sin. Jesus felt all the emotions that we humans think today; worry, anger, pain, sadness, and distress. The difference is that He decided not to sin. What’s more challenging, being incapable of sin or choosing not to sin?
God had to die for Man; otherwise, Man would have to die for Man. Our God is a God that will always keep His Word and never change his character based on circumstance.
The integrity and righteousness of God are something that even our human minds find difficult to wrap around.
So, to feel spiritually alive, we must go to the one who paid the price of death, which was Jesus. He died for us so that we could live spiritually rich lives with Him and the Creator. What Jesus did on the cross is how we feel spiritually alive because of His Spirit within us. The same Spirit that resurrected Him from the ground is the same Spirit we have when making Him Lord of our lives.
Sources
Boundless. “Boundless Biology.” Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/human-pregnancy-andbirth/#targetText=Labor%20and%20Birth,after%20the%20last%20menstrual%20period).
Elert, Glenn. “Speed of a Sperm Cell.” Speed of a Sperm Cell – The Physics Factbook, hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/EugeneKogan.shtml.
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