I know this is not the Advent season but in our examination of the Apostles’ Creed we have come to the phrase concerning the Lord Jesus: “He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.” This matters. From the very beginning, Christians have believed in the sinless deity, miraculous conception, and the virgin birth of Jesus.
This is because it is what the Bible teaches. There are skeptics who say it doesn’t really matter whether or not Jesus was born of a virgin. But they must concede that the early church, the earliest creeds, and the New Testament taught these things. When Christians affirm their faith in the virgin birth of Christ, it is not with fingers crossed or with mental reservations. It is because we believe Luke who recorded what the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
Luke was a physician. But he was not writing on the basis of his medical experience. This was not a case study for peer review in a medical journal. What he was describing is a great miracle of the Holy Spirit. He wants us to draw certain conclusions.
First, Jesus was fully human. He had a human birth. While his conception was supernatural, his birth was according to natural processes. This agrees with the idea that in Jesus Christ, the human and the divine are united in one person.
Second, Luke implies that Jesus was without sin. This is taught repeatedly in the New Testament. Here our Lord is spoken of as “the Holy One.” It is inconceivable that God could be incarnated in human flesh if it involved sin. This is attributable to the Holy Spirit and to Jesus’ divine pre-existence.
A third conclusion is obvious from Luke 1:35. We are told that this Holy Child “will be called the Son of God.” As Mary’s son, he was fully human. As the Son of the Most High, he was divine. How could he be the Son of God if he had a human father? The virgin birth really matters. It involves the entrance of God into the stream of humanity. It highlights our Lord’s absolute uniqueness. He is “Immanuel, God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
To deny this is to deny the supernatural character of the gospel. It is the story of a great miracle. If one denies the miracle of the virgin birth of Christ, it is only a short step toward denying the many miracles, the resurrection, and the second coming of Jesus Christ as well.
The trustworthiness of the Bible is at stake. Let’s just say it plainly. If Jesus had a human father, the Bible is not true. It comes down to this: can we trust the Bible? Were Matthew and Luke and the other writers of the New Testament guilty of falsifying their testimony about Jesus? If the virgin birth is open to question, so is everything else the Bible teaches.
On the other hand, if the Bible is truthful and trustworthy, then we can accept the fact that it contains the record of supernatural events that are beyond our comprehension and must be accepted by faith.
When we recite the Apostles’ Creed, we acknowledge that God used miraculous means to bring his Son into the world. This was a special act of his love in providing a Savior who “was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.”
This matters. It means that Jesus was, and is, human like us. He understands our problems and needs. This also means that Jesus is divine. He is the powerful Son of God who is able to save and sustain all who put their faith in him.
Pastor Randy Faulkner