Conceived By the Holy Spirit, Born of the virgin Mary.

Over time many have tried to discredit or mute what the Bible says about certain things.

One of the more common things people try to challenge is that of the virgin birth.

Some people refuse to acknowledge that a birth like Jesus just simply cannot happen.

Many people consider themselves far too sophisticated to believe in things like blood redemption or a virgin birth.

These doctrines remain a foreign concept to many.

A cultural symbol to some and a point of division for others.

The Bible teaches nothing less than the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Indeed without such a birth there is no gospel.

A Christian who does not believe in the virgin birth is in eternal peril, for the one in whom he believes is not the One who is testified about in the Bible.

The Apostles Creed therefore, has included the virgin birth for a good reason:

It is true

It is essential

It is glorious

As the creed suggests, Jesus Christ the seed of the women who’s heel would strike the head of the serpent and reverse the curse, was conceived by a sovereign act of God and born of a Virgin.

The Church must affirm the Virgin birth because it rests at the foundation of other critical doctrines.

Without the virgin birth Christ is not God.

Also without the virgin birth the gospel does not provide salvation.

Christians today must affirm the virgin birth of Christ.

The Church Fathers and the Virgin Birth

The church fathers understood that for Jesus to save, He must be both God and man.

Also in order to achieve this union between God and humanity, Jesus must be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

The church fathers understood that without a proper understanding of Jesus in the womb one would never understand Jesus on the cross.

The nature of Christs conception is central to the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV

22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

The Testimony of Scripture about the Virgin Birth

Understood in the light of Salvation history, the Gospel accounts of the virgin birth satisfy the OT yearning for a savior.

God made a promise in Gen 3:15

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This was to annihilate the one who brought corruption and through the birth of Jesus God accomplished His promises to redeem his people, destroy sin, and usher in a new creation.

Genesis 4:1 ESV

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

Eve thought Cain would be the one to restore them from sin.

But no child conceived in this manner could reverse the curse because no child conceived as Cain was conceived would be without Adams inherited and imputed sin.

In Order that the death of Christ might fully atone for sin, he had to be fully God and fully man.

He had to be born of the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary.

Jesus offers salvation to the world as the perfect representative on behalf of humanity

Mary and Joseph modeled faith in God and faithfulness to His plan.

We see this in to different verses in the Gospels.

Matthew 1:20 ESV

20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:38 ESV

38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Doctrinal Significance of the Virgin Birth

The virgin conception of Christ possesses significant doctrinal importance for the church.

Three Implications of the Virgin Birth

The virgin birth affirms the true identity of Christ as truly God and truly man.

Jesus was not conceived by the will of a human man; rather He was conceived of the Holy Spirit.

The virgin birth makes possible the unity of the divine and the human.

The virgin birth certainly points to the miracle by which this child is conceived without sin.

According to Scripture all those who descend from Adam receive the guilt of sin.

However Jesus does not descend from Adam and therefore He does not participate in that common condition .

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 5:18–19 ESV

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

The virgin birth accentuates the miraculous nature of Gods redemption.

Humanity needed a prefect human savior savior, but humanity could never produce such a one.

Those who deny, ignore, or explain away the virgin birth struggle to explain in any meaningful sense the divinity of the Son and the majesty of the incarnation.

For this reason the miraculous birth of Christ stands at the vanguard of the New Testament; it has become a litmus test for orthodoxy.

The truthfulness of the virgin birth therefore creates a moral obligation.

In other words because Scripture affirms the virgin birth then it is true; and if it is true the it must be believed.

The child in the manger was the child whose heel would smite the serpent and in whose name Christians gather.