THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH

 

 

It is Essential to the Trustworthiness of the Gospel Records

There is only one way to get rid of the Virgin Birth, and that is by making Matthew and Luke either liars or victims of blind credulity.

If we do that, we put a question mark after everything in their writings: the life of Christ, His teachings, His death, resurrection, etc.

Some critics argue that we have been trying to defend too long a battle front, that the line should be shortened by giving up certain parts like, the Virgin Birth, But the difficulty is that we cannot surrender the Virgin Birth without surrendering all along the line, See Luke's claim in 1:1-4. Suppose that he was wrong about the first matter he investi­gated! We could not rely on everything else that Luke wrote.

The Virgin Birth is Vitally Related to our Lord's Sinless Nature

Some argue that the Virgin Birth has no necessary connection with Christ's sinlessness; that if God by a miracle could preserve Christ from the sinful taint of a human mother, the same could have been done in the case of a human father. Therefore, the Virgin Birth is unnecessary. For example, see E. J. Carnell, "The Virgin Birth of Christ", Christianity Today (Dec. 7, 1959), pp. 177-178, reprinted in The Case For Biblical Christianity (ed. Ronald Nash, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1969), pp. 141 ff.

We reply that it is a hazardous thing for men to judge what was or was not necessary in bringing a sinless Saviour into the world. One thing we do know - God is not in the habit of violating His own laws of nature uselessly. And it is a universal law that sinful humanity in the ordinary process of procreation reproduces its own sinful nature. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

Luke 1:35 seems to suggest that our Lord's sinlessness was somehow related to the miraculous manner of His conception and birth (cf. Luke 1:35 ASV margin).

"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."

The Virgin Birth Gives the Only Reasonable Explanation of the Incarnation of God's Son in Human Flesh

It has been suggested that it is more reasonable to believe that our Lord entered human life in the ordinary manner, through the union of father and mother. But just the opposite is true.

We must remember that the natural result of the ordinary procreative process by human parents always results in the beginning of a new personality.

But Jesus Christ did not get His personality through human birth. He was a person before He was born.

Hence, for the bringing of God's Son into human life, there was not only no need for the ordinary procreative process, but such a process would have been absolutely out of the question.

The use of the ordinary procreative process would have necessitated a special divine miracle to prevent the production of a wholly new personality of the Son of God. Those who deny the Virgin Birth of Christ generally wind up by denying His deity and pre-existent personality. This is logical, if not Biblical.

Those who accept the pre-existence of Christ as a personal being must also accept some kind of a miracle in connection with His entrance into human life with a vital connection to the human race. The miracle of the divine conception and Virgin Birth is by far the most reasonable. By a special creative act the personality of the eternal Son was clothed with human nature and form in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

The Doctrine of the Virgin Birth Protects our Lord (and His mother) From the Blasphemous Alternative

We approach this alternative again only from a sense of duty. There is something utterly abhorrent even in the phrasing of it in human language. But we should be forewarned and forearmed against the defamers of our Blessed Lord. They will tell us with glib assurance that there is nothing wrong with the view that Jesus was a child of Mary and Joseph. Were they not espoused? Is there anything unholy, they will ask, with human parenthood? Is it not a sacred relation ordained by God Himself? Was Jesus not a genuine member of the human race? Why should He not, then, have been born as other men?

But we should mark well that the choice is not between the Virgin Birth and the parenthood of Joseph and Mary. In the only record we have concerning Joseph's relationship with Mary and her child, as it evidently came from Joseph himself (Matt. 1:18-25), Joseph disclaims any procreative responsibility for this child! If our Lord was not born of a Virgin, therefore, then He was the Son of an unknown father, His mother was unfaithful to her betrothal vows, and she lied in saying she had not known a man (Luke 1:34). This is the brutal alternative! Does it appeal to you? Let our Lord Himself answer, as He speaks with deep pathos to His enemies who had made exactly this charge, "ye do dishonor Me" (John 8:49).

Any one of these glib critics, who tells you that the Virgin Birth is not an essential article of Christian faith, would turn pale with anger if such a suggestion were made about his own mother. Yet they do not hesitate to offer this supreme insult to the mother of our Lord, to say nothing about the blasphemy about Christ Himself. The man who asserts the Virgin Birth is a non-essential matter does not deserve the name "Christian".

The Virgin Birth is Necessary to Complete the Picture of the Supernatural Career of the Son of God Upon Earth

Every aspect of His career was shot through with the supernatural. He was a supernatural person, with supernatural knowledge -- power -- works-­message -- life -- death -- resurrection -- ascension! Considering such a Person, would it not have been passing strange if He had entered the world by a merely natural birth? If the Gospel records contained no account of a supernatural birth, it would have marred the harmony of the record. We close with the words of the Ancient Creed, "He was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary."

The Virgin Birth is Necessary to Solve the Enormous Problem of Jeremiah's Curse (22:30) upon the Solomonic Line

Messiah must inherit the throne of David through Solomon (2 Sam. 7:12-16; Acts 2:30).
But Messiah could not be a physical descendant of Solomon through the last legitimate king, Jehoiachin, because of the curse.
The only solution is for Messiah to be born of a virgin who is a physical descendant of David (through Nathan, a brother of Solomon), and who marries a man of the royal line of Solomon. By adopting a boy who had no human father, but was of David's family through his mother, Joseph could pass on to Jesus his title to the throne without the curse that would necessarily accompany it through ordinary generation.