The Virgin Birth is a Miracle and Mystery

Jesus was no ordinary birth. John 1:14 tells us that "the Word was made flesh...", and Galatians 4:4 tells us that the Son of God was "made of a woman". Any denial of the Virgin Birth also more or less disbelieve His sinless life, miracles, vicarious atonement, bodily resurrection, ascension and second coming.

Jesus' Virgin Birth is a miracle and mystery. Medically, conception without male agency is incredible. It has no documented parallel in the annals of medical science. Yet the Christian is not baffled by the event. The God of the Bible is the God of miracles. As Luther once said in a Christmas sermon, "The Virgin Birth is a mere trifle for God; that God should become man is a greater miracle".

Science, in spite of all its achievements, has yet to originate life. How much more mysterious, then, is the Virgin Birth of Jesus. Scripture acknowledges the essential mystery of our Lord's earthly origin (1 Tim. 3:16). Yet as one observer has noted, "The presence of mystery is the footprint of the divine".

It is important to know exactly what is meant by the Virgin Birth. By the Virgin Birth, we mean that when the Lord Jesus was born, He has a human mother but no human father. This is very clearly stated in Matthew 1:20. God has four ways of making a human body.

He can create one without the agency of either man or woman as He did when He made Adam out of the dust of the ground. Then God can form a body through the agency of just a man as He did when He formed Eve from the rib taken from Adam's side. A third way is through the agency of both a man and a woman. This is the common way, the way we have received our bodies. But God can also form a body through the agency of just a woman, and that is the way our Lord received His body - born of a virgin.

This is the only time that God has ever formed a body in this fashion, and it is as Jeremiah said, "The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man" (Jeremiah 31:22).

The Virgin Birth was necessary to make possible the Incarnation. By the incarnation we mean that the eternal Son of God took Himself a genuine human nature and lived a genuine human life on earth without a moment ceasing to be God. The term "incarnation" (from the Latin, "in flesh") is not a biblical word. The idea, however, is thoroughly biblical. John put it simply when he wrote, "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God" (1 Jn. 4:2). Jesus who was God became flesh through the agency of a Virgin Birth.

The Virgin Birth is the only explanation of His sinless life. He must to be sinless in order to be the Redeemer of mankind. Had he been born according to the natural process He would have inherited a sinful nature of mankind.

The doctrine of the Virgin Birth is clearly stated in the Scriptures. In Gen. 3:15, we are told about the seed of the woman. Nowhere in Scripture is the seed ever connected with a woman, for the simple reason that the "seed" is always resident in the male (Gen. 12:7; 15:8; 24:7).

The Virgin Birth was a clear prophecy in the Bible. A recent translation of the Bible renders the Hebrew word, "Almah" in Isaiah 7:14 by the words "young woman". In this way Satan seeks to do away with the virgin birth; for a young woman is not necessarily a virgin; she may even be married. When Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 he translates "almah" by the usual Greek word for virgin (Matt. 1:23). We may safely conclude that Isaiah predicted Messiah's birth of a virgin. An ordinary birth would hardly constitute a sign.

Martin Luther once said, "If a Jew or a Christian can prove to me that in any other passage of Scripture "almah" means a married woman, I will give him a hundred florins, although God alone knows where I may find them". The King James Bible has correctly translated the word "almah" as virgin. "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel".

In Matthew 1:16, it does not say "Joseph begat Jesus..." In verse 17 there are mentioned three groups of fourteen generations. But in the last group of 'fourteen' you will find only thirteen names. The fourteenth is the Holy Ghost, through Whose agency the Lord Jesus was conceived.

In the Gospel of Luke, we find that two supernatural births are announced- that of John the Baptist, announced by the angel to Zacharias (the father) and that of the Lord Jesus announced by the angel to Mary (the mother). Why this change? It was because Jesus had no human father. Notice also that Mary (the mother) sang the Magnificat (in anticipation of the Saviour's birth in Luke 1:45-55: but Zacharias (the father) sang the Benedictus when John was born in Luke 1: 67-79.

As we celebrate Christmas, let us reflect the Psalmist's words: "Oh sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvellous things; The Lord had made known His salvation; His righteousness hath openly shewed in the sight of the heathen" (Ps. 98:1-2). Isaac Watts had this Psalm in mind when he wrote "Joy to the Lord".

Lovingly,
Pastor Peter Chua

Adapted from Evangel BPC's Weekly, 16th Dec 2007