THE VIRGIN BIRTH
How Important Is It For Our Faith?
By Paul Christensen
INTRODUCTION
Recently a billboard went up outside one of the Auckland, New Zealand main Anglican churches showing Joseph in bed with Mary and thinking that he could not compete with God. The billboard was subjected to attacks by people who objected to what it was implying. Finally, it was taken down at the insistence of the Bishop of Auckland after receiving numerous complaints from other church leaders around the city.
The archdeacon who had the billboard erected, was quoted in the news as saying that he found it ridiculous that God came down and deposited His sperm in Mary. In this statement, he is clearly demonstrating that he does not believe in the Virgin Birth of Christ.
Because he is a senior member of the Anglican church in Auckland, it is important that we examine his assertion and see whether there is any merit in it.
It is not known whether the same things have been done in other countries where this article might go. I suspect that in most Western countries there is a section of the nominal, traditional Christian church which have religious leaders who put more emphasis on the moral side of Christian practice than the creative and healing power of our supernatural God.
It is natural for human scientists and church ministers who are dependent on “sense knowledge” training to doubt parts of the Bible which do not appear to be supported by empirical evidence. A significant component in the theological training of many traditional church ministers involves critical analysis of the Bible. Not all of Bible criticism supports a strong belief in a supernatural God doing creating a universe out of nothing and sending His Son to die on a cross to be a substitute for sin, and then being raised back to life by supernatural power.
This is why “not many [of you were considered to be] wise, according to human estimates and standards; not many influential and powerful; not many of high and noble birth” (I Corinthians 1:26, AMP). Also, “God has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom” (James 2:5). Although formal learning does not prevent a person coming to Christ and having a Biblical faith in Him, it is much easier for a less sophisticated, more child-like person to have an uncomplicated faith in the literal teaching of the Bible.
This is confirmed by the Lord's own prayer to the Father in Matthew 11:25, 26: “At that time Jesus began to say, I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth and acknowledge openly and joyfully to Your honour that you have hidden these things from the wise and clever and learned, and revealed them to babies – to the childish, untaught and unskilled. Yes, Father, [I praise You that] such was Your gracious will and good pleasure.”
The other thing to consider, and possibly the main issue, is that the truth of the message of the Gospel is revealed to those who have given their whole hearts to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Human training can give knowledge about the Bible, but it is only the spiritual voice of Christ that reveals the truth and is the only way a person can obtain genuine faith and commitment to Him. It is my desire that as you read this article, Jesus in His mercy and grace will speak to your hearts with His internal spiritual voice and confirm what the Gospel writers say about His birth.
IN SUPPORT OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH
The first consideration in this is that Biblical Christianity is based on the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Therefore, we need to determine whether the Jesus of the Bible was born of a virgin. The only evidence we have of this is the Bible itself, and therefore we need to see what it says about the Virgin Birth.
The first reference we find is in Isaiah 7:14. Here is the quote:
“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel – God with us “ (AMP).
Although Isaiah does not show clearly whether he believes it is actually a virgin or a young woman of marriageable age through the Hebrew word he uses (almah), although the word may include the distinct possibility that the young woman would be a virgin.
Matthew 1:23 contains the quotation from Isaiah, and uses the Greek word from LXX that normally means “virgin”. Some commentators say that Matthew is incorrectly quoting Isaiah because of his own conviction that Jesus was indeed born of a virgin.
In Luke 1:27, he uses the Greek word parthemos (virgin). The footnote in the Amplified Bible says that this is the word from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament translated Jesus read and quoted. Therefore it is my view that if Jesus used this version, then we can safely assume that Mary was a virgin in spite of Isaiah's use of the Hebrew word which some quote to throw doubt on the Virgin Birth. If Jesus Himself had enough confidence in the Greek Old Testament translation, it would be good enough for any Christian who has faith in the Jesus of the Bible.
But we also need to look at the cultural attitudes around virginity and marriage that existed in the society of which Joseph and Mary were a part. We know that both Joseph and Mary were God-fearing people, and that Joseph would not have married Mary if he knew that she was not a virgin. A single woman in Jewish society who is not a virgin would be generally frowned upon and certainly would not have been married to a man who wanted to do the will of God in his life. Mary would have been seen as an immoral woman if it were known that she had sex before marriage.
We see in verse 19, that when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, “being a just and upright man and not willing to expose her publicly and shame and disgrace her, decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) her quietly and secretly”.
He had every right to do that according to Jewish Law, and no-one would have blamed him. This also shows that Joseph was not the father of the Jesus of the Bible, because Mary was already pregnant before they consummated their marriage. This is supported by Matthew 1:25: “But he had no union with her as her husband until she had borne her first-born Son, and he called His name Jesus”.
What changed Joseph's mind about Mary and her pregnancy? Look at Matthew 1:20: “But as he was thinking this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary [as] your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of (from, out of) the Holy Spirit)”.
This shows that Joseph was prepared to obey the Word of God that came to him through the angel, more than the cultural norms of his time. Joseph therefore was a man who was prepared to put God first, and was the appropriate husband to raise Jesus in the way He should go.
Also, there is no reference in the Bible that Mary was impregnated with sperm from anyone. God is a Spirit, and so is the Holy Spirit, so if Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit, then sperm would not have been used. The conception was not brought about by physical means, but spiritual. We cannot explain it in scientific terms; all we can do is to accept that the Holy Spirit caused the conception through God's creative power.
This is enough proof to show that the Jesus of the Bible was born through a virgin birth. Now we need to examine why this was so important.
Because of the disobedience of Adam in the Garden of Eden, sin came into the world, and he and every person whom he fathered was spiritually dead. Sin is more than just the act of sinning; and it is more than the tendency of mankind to commit sinful acts. Sin is much deeper than that. It is a blight that has entered into the very spiritual core of man and woman, separating the person from God, and causing death in the physical body.
If restoring the relationship with God was a matter of restoring a set of moral values and keeping to them, then all a person had to do was to ask God’s forgiveness for past sins and to stop committing future ones. But this is not possible, because sin is so much a part of the spiritual and physical fabric of a person, that he or she is totally unable to restore a relationship with God through their own efforts. There needs to be an initiating work of the Holy Spirit to firstly, bring conviction of sin; secondly, bring understanding of what the Gospel is all about; and, thirdly, open the way for the sinner to be forgiven, cleansed, and converted to Christ.
But this cannot happen without the justice of God being met. Man is a sinner, and therefore subject to the justice of God and the appropriate punishment for sin. Just as a High Court Judge cannot arbitrarily release a guilty defendant through the limitations placed on him by the law, God cannot release a guilty sinner from a future in hell without something being put in place to satisfy His justice. God has to be just in all His dealings. He would want to be gracious and merciful, as in the case of a High Court Judge wanting to set a condemned prisoner free instead of going to the electric chair, but as the Judge is bound by the law in that the prisoner is under the sentence of death for his crimes, so is the sinner condemned to eternal death through his sin.
But if the punishment was borne by a suitable person who is entirely innocent, then the condemned prisoner might go free. It is the same with God. If there is a person who is totally free of the blight of sin in his spirit and soul, then that person can be the condemned sinner's substitute for the punishment that God has to give.
This is where Jesus comes in. Because the Jesus of the Bible was born of a virgin, He was not affected by the sinful nature that was passed on by Adam and all the fathers of children ever since. The Person who caused Mary to conceive was the Holy Spirit. This made Jesus the appropriate substitute to take God's punishment for the sin of mankind.
“Even so it is that Christ having been offered to take upon Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once and once for all, will appear a second time, not carrying any burden of sin nor to deal with sin, but to bring to full salvation those who are (eagerly, constantly and patiently) waiting for and expecting Him” (Hebrews 9:28, AMP).
This is why He went to the Cross. He took our sin in His body, and shed His blood to cleanse us from our sin. If He had not been born of a virgin, He would not have been qualified in the sight of God to be our substitute. He could not have been able to take our sin in His own body, because He would have been blighted in the very fabric of His soul and spirit by the sin of Adam.
What this means for us is that if Jesus could not have been our substitute for sin, our conversion to Christ would not have had any merit with God. All we would have had is a religion based on some form of morality. We would not have had any spiritual union with Christ, nor would we have been filled with the Holy Spirit. We would have been still dead in our sins, and condemned to eternal hell when we die.
So, if a person is a Biblical Christian, he has faith in the Jesus of the Bible. He has accepted this Jesus to be his substitute and Saviour. He is then truly converted to Christ, his sin is totally forgiven, and he has a spiritual union and relationship with the living resurrected Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in him.
So what does this mean for the person, like this archdeacon, who does not believe in the virgin birth?
It is quite clear that he does not believe in the Jesus of the Bible. He is connected to a “Jesus” of his own imagination.
“For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, and will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions” (II Timothy 4: 3-4, AMP).
What they have done is to depart from the sound doctrine of the Bible, and have made up for themselves a form of religion based on “myths and man-made fictions”. The Jesus they believe in is a pseudo religious teacher who requires them just to hold to the moral principles expressed by the Sermon on the Mount.
These people include what are identified as “Liberal Modernists”. These are the ones who have rejected the supernatural, including the resurrection of Christ, the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels, and who reject the idea of a heaven and hell. To be converted to Christ for them is to become good church members and living as good people in the world.
But we have already seen that the only way to escape the justice of God and condemnation is to accept the Jesus of the Bible as your only substitute for sin; otherwise there is no conversion to Christ, no spiritual union with Him, no forgiveness of sins, and no escaping the penalty of an eternity in hell.
“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done mighty works in Your name? And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly – disregarding My commands” (Matthew 7: 21-23, AMP).
We have to ask the question: Is the archdeacon a real Christian? I answer no. He does not accept the Virgin Birth of Christ. Jesus has not become his substitute for sin. Therefore his sin is still blighting his spirit and his nature. When he ultimately stands before God on the Day of Judgment, he will be there as a guilty and condemned sinner, along with all those in his congregation who choose to follow him in his liberal modernist teaching unless they repent and believe the Gospel before that time.
“How much worse (sterner and heavier) punishment do you suppose he will be judged to deserve who has spurned and [thus] trampled under foot the Son of God, and who has considered the covenant blood by which he was consecrated common and unhallowed, thus profaning it and insulting and outraging the (Holy) Spirit [Who imparts] grace...?” (Hebrews 10:29, AMP).
So, in conclusion, how important is the Virgin Birth of Christ to us? It is absolutely vital to our standing with God. If we don't believe in the Virgin Birth, then our “Christianity” is insufficient. All we have is a false hope which will fall away when we appear before God.
The answer is to believe what the Bible says about Jesus Christ. To ensure your salvation and right standing with God, you need to go deeper than just a mental and intellectual knowledge of God and the Bible. You need to accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord. It is the Jesus of the Bible who has the words of eternal life for you. “Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words (the message) of eternal life” (John 6:68, AMP).
If you are concerned about the state of your soul, and you want to know the steps to a true conversion to Christ, then here are the steps you need to take.
1. You need to ask the Holy Spirit to show you your sin and how it is affecting your standing with God. This is the only way that you can come to the point where you can believe that you are a sinner, deserving God's justice and an eternity in hell. “And when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict...the world...about sin...righteousness...and about judgment” (John 16:8, AMP).
2. Once you are convinced that you are a sinner (and some sense this more deeply than others, depending on how long they have been a sinner in the sight of God), then believe that Jesus died for you on the Cross and took your sin in His body as your substitute, and is able to cleanse you from your sinfulness through His blood. “He personally bore our sins in His [own] body to the tree [as to an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed “ (1 Peter 2:24, AMP).
3. Then accept Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. This is a crucial step, because it is not enough just knowing about what Jesus has done for you. You need to accept Him and start living for Him. “But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in...His name” (John 1:12, AMP).
4. At this point, you can accept that you are truly converted to Christ. The Scripture says that “He who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
5. Now you can allow the Holy Spirit to start the sanctification process within you. He will start revealing to you the parts of your life that need to be changed for you to live the life that He wants you to live. As you obey His promptings and instruction, you will gain more and more understanding of His will for your life, and you will discover what it is to walk with Jesus as your friend and guide.