The Virgin Birth

 

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

 

Luke 1:30-35

The day that we celebrate the Birth of our Lord is nearing, and one of the many things that unbelievers (and sometimes, even believers) point out is the impossibility of a virgin birth. They sneer at the thought of it and say things such as, “This just can’t happen.” And along with these derisions comes forth many facts and figures of how births really do occur.

 

I’m here to say that an educated man is ignorant, that a strong man is weak and a wealthy man is poor if he does not believe, or at least understand, the true meaning of Christmas. Approximate 700 years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah was writing “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

 

The virgin birth was a sign from God. It was supernatural. It cannot be explained through logic and science.

 

What good is it for us to put a man on the moon if we leave God out of our hearts? What good is it to know astronomy and the star in the heavens, if we do not know Jesus, the Bright and Morning Star? What good is botany and the study of flowers, if we ignore the Rose of Sharon? What good is it to know history, and not the history of His story? What good is it to know geology and the ages of rocks, but disregard the Rock of Ages?

 

That angel that told Mary she was to conceive also told her “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37 [emphasis add]). God can do all things.

 

If you don’t believe in the virgin birth, your trouble is not with the birth itself, but with God. Think about this; if God could make Adam without a father or mother, how much simpler would it be to bring His Son into this world by way of a virgin?

 

If you don’t believe in the virgin birth, you have character problems.

 

• The character of Mary. If Mary had a child out of wedlock, then Mary would have been an impure woman.
• The character of Jesus. If Jesus had not been born of a virgin, He would then have been the son of Adam, and in Adam all die (I Corinthians 15:22).
• The character of the Word of God. The Word of God would have been flawed, because it plainly teaches the virgin birth.

Salvation is inextricably interwoven with the virgin birth. No virgin birth, no deity; no deity, no sinless life; no sinless life, no sacrificial death; no sacrificial death, no salvation. And with no salvation, you are going to go to hell.

 

Jesus came to earth so that we might go to heaven. He was born of a virgin so that we may be born again.

 

Jesus was not just another child, or a Galilean peasant, or a great teacher. He was supernatural. He was God in the flesh.

 

You will never, really understand the meaning of Christmas until you understand the virgin birth. This child was, and is, the very Son of God.

 

Never forget that.