John 1:14 tells us that “the Word was made flesh.” How exactly this happened no one knows but God Himself. But we must accept the virgin birth as fact and not fantasy. God sent His only begotten Son to earth in the form of a fetus in the womb of a virgin girl. Although baby Jesus is often lost amid the tinsel and glitter of Christmas, the most foundational conviction of Christianity is His virgin birth.
During the first few centuries of the early church, no one was allowed to be baptized in water without first confessing the incarnation as a fact. Since His birth, this fundamental doctrine has continued to be defended. The Bible simply states the virgin birth as a fact of history. And it is not simply one fact of history; it is perhaps the most important fact. If the virgin birth is heresy, how can we believe anything else the Bible says about Jesus?
Jesus was born as a human being without surrendering His divine nature. Think it over. How else could God have sent His Son? If He had simply been placed on earth by angels, it would be harder for us to relate to Him. Had He suddenly appeared as a majestic King, destroying all His enemies in an instant, He might be seen as a dictator. But He came to us as a baby. It is easy to love a baby.
But was Mary a virgin? The Bible says so emphatically. The annunciation bewilders Mary! “How can this be?” she asks in innocence, “For I am a virgin.” Read Luke 1:35 to find the angel’s explanation. And his explanation is all we have. All Hebrew and Greek terms, studied in their proper context, validate this fact (Matthew 1:23). When we read Luke’s account (1:27), we find that he quotes Isaiah 7:14. When we study this verse we discover that both the Greek and the Hebrew terms agree: Mary did not have sex before marriage. Matthew 1:25 clearly tells us that Mary and Joseph did not have sex until after Jesus was born. She “was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). Jesus is God’s Son (Mark 1:1), not Joseph’s.
Denial of Jesus’ virgin birth is a challenge to all other Christology. How can one believe in His death, resurrection and ascension and deny the manner in which He first arrived on earth?
Since our redemption is based on the fact of His incarnation, to believe that Jesus had a “natural” birth is a misconception. But why did the Father send His Son in this unique way? To protect His holiness. But the incarnation is no easier to explain than the doctrine of the Trinity. Some things simply must be accepted by faith in God’s Word.
In the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, Jesus is called Emmanuel, “God with us.” At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus promises to continue to “be with us.”
And He continues to be with the human race, despite the attempts of the critics to erase the fact of His virgin birth. Those who deny His virgin birth are like Herod who attempted to destroy the baby Jesus before He became the King. Neither Herod nor those who deny the miracle of the incarnation are wise. In Matthew 2, we find the wise men worshipping Jesus when they found Him. From that day to this, wise men and women still worship the Lord Jesus Christ.