The message of Christmas is that God came down to be born as a human. By being fully God and fully man, Jesus was able to become our sacrificial savior. The doctrine of the virgin birth is as essential today as it ever was.
The Virgin Birth falls on one of the great fault lines of the Christian faith. It rests on the “great divide” that separates those who believe the Bible is God’s Word, and those who don’t.
It separates those who believe in a supernatural Christ from those who believe he was just a good man, a moral teacher, a revolutionary, a prophet perhaps, but not the Son of God from heaven.
The virgin birth is the catalyst to everything that follows. It signals that there is something heavenly about this child. He is the God-man. He is fully human (born of Mary) but fully God (conceived by the Holy Spirit). There is no other child like him. He is God’s agent of mercy, sent into the world by the will of the Lord.
I believe in the miracle of the virgin birth. This belief is essential for our faith and our salvation. Like many of the things God has done, and still does, the virgin birth is a miracle. If you don’t believe in miracles, then you don’t believe in the God of the Bible. All the time He does things that are unexplainable. He does things that only He can do.
The virgin birth is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
Isaiah prophesied it 700 years before Christ’s birth.
Isaiah 7:14 - “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
The virgin birth is a critical piece of God’s plan of salvation.
Matthew 1:21 - “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.”
If Jesus had been conceived by natural means, if Joseph, or any other man had been his father, Jesus would not have been the Son of God, and could not have been our savior. His death on the cross would have been the same as any other man put to death by Roman soldiers.
Only someone perfect could offer his life as a sacrifice for humanity. God alone is holy, and so God alone could atone for man’s sin.
If we deny the virgin birth, we are denying that Jesus is God’s son…and in doing so we have denied the very essence of Christianity.
Everything else the Bible teaches about Jesus hinges on this truth that we celebrate today - Jesus is God in human flesh.
Today’s Challenge: Our only proper response to this great truth is worship. Like the wise men who knelt to worship Jesus, may we give him our praise, our worship, our allegiance, and our very lives.
