“You’ve got to be kidding, right? A virgin birth? Surely that’s way out there with the Loch Ness Monster and Santa Claus?”
No, I’m not kidding. Some 700 years before it happened, Isaiah wrote the prophecy, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Immanuel means “God with us.” No surprise that in the gospel of Matthew, the birth of Jesus is recorded this way:
An angel of the Lord appeared to (Joseph) in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel.”
A similar explanation was given to Mary, as recorded in Luke’s gospel. Not only did the conception and birth of Christ actually happen just as the Bible says, but it had to happen that way. It was necessary that it did, for several reasons.
The Bible, if it is going to be trustworthy as God’s Word, has to be factual in the conception and birth of Christ. If these events in the Bible are not reliable, the other claims will also fall. If the virgin birth is myth, then what does that say about Jesus rising from the dead, or that He lives today and is coming again to judge the world?
Jesus, if He is truly the Son of God and my Savior, had to be both God and man. Otherwise He is no Immanuel, and He would be unable to live a holy life to become the one, perfect, sufficient sacrifice for my sins. If He was not sinless, how could He take my sins to the cross? The Bible explains that He was born of Mary so that He would be fully human, and He was conceived by the Holy Spirit so He is fully God. Only because He is both, He is able to lay down His life and be my Savior.
Today, the virgin birth is scoffed at by professors and scientists and even some “theologians.” Many, even in some churches, claim the nativity accounts are more fable than fact. Christianity stands or falls on history. No other faith is like it in this way. The virgin birth, like the cross and the empty tomb, doesn’t just answer the question, “Is there a god?” It answers the question, “What sort of God is He?”
I wish you a Merry Christmas and I encourage you to hold firmly to the certainty and joy of the life found in His Son, the Light for all people.
