The Virgin Birth

Then Mary said to the angel,

"How can this be, since I do not know a man?"

Luke 1:34

How important is the doctrine of the virgin birth to my Christianity?

Matthew and Luke both make a good effort to emphasize the fact that Mary was indeed a virgin--not just a young girl, as some liberal scholars would like us to believe, but a virgin in every sense of the word. Matthew points out that after her betrothal but before they had "come together" she was found to be pregnant, and he connects it to the Isaiah prophecy, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive." He goes on to say that Joseph did not "know" her until after Jesus was born. Luke calls her a virgin twice, and then quotes her as saying, "I do not know a man." These three references, plus the Genesis 3:15 prophecy about the seed of the woman form the ENTIRE basis for the doctrine of the virgin birth. Jesus never talks about it, and the epistles never mention it. So how important is that particular doctrine to my Christianity?

One popular author whose writings seem to embody the thinking of the emergent church claims that it shouldn't be important at all. To paraphrase, "If tomorrow we found out that Jesus Christ was the son of Joe the plumber instead of the Son of God, it would do nothing to my faith."

I think that is an extremely stupid and short-sighted statement. Of course, that same author rejects all formalized doctrine as an invention of the corrupted church, and states that though the Bible may be the Word of God, we as mere humans do not have the intelligence or insight to formulate doctrine from its pages. But that's for another blog. My question is still this: If Jesus Christ was really the son of Joe the plumber (or carpenter, as the case may be), instead of the son of God, is it really that important?

And my answer is yes! It is of vital importance. The virgin birth, and the deity of Jesus Christ are of ultimate importance to the foundation of Christianity--mine, and anyone else's. And here's why.

First of all, the Bible prophesied the virgin birth at least twice. In the Garden of Eden, God promised Eve that her seed would destroy the serpent at the climax of the eternal conflict between good and evil. The problem with that statement is that women don't have seed; men do. Men provide the seed that fertilizes the woman's egg. And yet God, who created us and certainly understands that fundamental scientific fact, said that it would be the woman's seed. Not the seed of a man, but the seed of a woman. And Isaiah specifically said, "A virgin shall conceive." Liberals would like to tell you he simply meant a young woman, but the ancient scholars who translated the Old Testament into Greek took it to mean virgin. So did Matthew and Luke. So do I. If Jesus was not conceived and born of a virgin, then He was not the fulfillment of God's promises through those two prophecies, and therefore not the Messiah. Not the Savior.

Ever since Eden, every union of a man's seed and a woman's egg resulted in the conception of a completely human person, an individual inheritor of Adam's likeness and Adam's fall. David says, "In sin my mother conceived me." Elsewhere, the Bible states that we are wicked from the day of our birth. If Jesus was conceived in the natural way, and not the supernatural way of the virgin birth, then He too was conceived in sin, born in sin, and was just as in need of salvation as any other. As a sinner, He could not be the savior.

Under the law, God required sacrifices and offerings to atone for sin and provide reconciliation between God and man. And He was very specific about what kind of sacrifice he would accept. Male lambs, spotless and unblemished, perfect, and unbroken. But those sacrifices of the Old Covenant were not sufficient to completely remove the sins of the people; they were merely the means of covering the sins with blood until a better sacrifice could be provided. A perfect sacrifice. A sinless sacrifice. If through man sin entered the world, then through man sin must be removed. But it couldn't be just any man, just any son of Adam. It had to be a perfect man, as sinless and unblemished as Adam before his fall. If Jesus was to be the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, then He also had to be a perfect man, impossible for a man begotten of man. But not for a Man begotten by God. A merely mortal man could not be the savior of mankind.

Without the virgin birth, there could be no sinless life, no sacrificial death, no perfected atonement for all of humanity. Without the virgin birth, there is no Savior, and no salvation. Without the virgin birth, Jesus' death could not pay the price for all of our sins, for he could not even pay for his own. But if Jesus was who the Bible says He was, then all is well! We can be saved!

Central and foundational to the Christian faith is that Jesus was the Son of God, not the son of any mortal man. And it is important!