In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on 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. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Luke 1:26-38
From our Founder: Jim Wood
One of the beautiful truths we celebrate at this time of year is the virgin birth of Jesus. This is not a tangential belief held only by some segments of believers. This is the historic confession of all Christians everywhere. In the words of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived from the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried…”
Are there people who claim to be Christians but reject the truth? Of course! This was the case in New Testament times as well (Acts 20:29-31, Galatians 2:4, 1 John 2:19, Jude 4, 17-19). What we call ourselves does not determine what we are. Christians are those who have been born again into God’s family, receiving salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus warned that there would be many who will be surprised to discover that despite their religious activity, they are not part of the family (Mathew 7:22-23). If the virgin birth is too great a stretch for a person’s faith, that person is clearly not trusting in the Lord. Every December, I am dismayed by the parade of insolent would-be intellectuals who claim that the virgin birth could be believed by earlier generations but is unacceptable to modern minds because of science and education. Mary, a teenager living two thousand years ago, would laugh at their ignorance. Her response to the angelic announcement is perfect: “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” Luke 1:34.
Joseph also clearly understood this bit of basic biology: This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Matthew 1:18-25.
Joseph and Mary provide examples of genuine faith. It is not ignorant or naïve to believe God’s word. In fact, it is ignorant to disbelieve the Bible and naïve to believe that you will get away with it. If I become convinced that gravity is not real, that bit of self-delusion will not make me weightless.
Throughout this series, we are reminding ourselves of some basic truths drawn from scripture that believers have embraced and taught from generation to generation. But mere assent to orthodoxy is not enough. Satan believes in the virgin birth! He knows it is true, but he is an enemy of truth. The people in Galatians 2 and Matthew 7 shared the same problem. Their trust was not in God’s grace revealed in Jesus. They were trusting in themselves to do what they must to earn eternal life.
Jesus came to save sinners! All of us have sinned, but if we are bent on justifying ourselves by doctrine or behavior, we are still refusing to cast ourselves on God’s mercy. Our doctrine and conduct should honor God. Still, our trust is not in our conduct or the rightness of our beliefs. Our trust is in the God who saves. When we trust in him, we believe what he says. We know that parting the sea or walking on water, quieting a storm or feeding a multitude, healing the sick or raising the dead, is easy for the Creator of all things.
The virgin birth is important, because it was the fulfillment of God’s promise (Isaiah 7). It is important, because Jesus’ father is God, not a man. It is important, because God declares it to be so.
Preachers who shy away from this doctrine, in order to make it easier for people to believe the Gospel, end up dropping other truths as well. Sin is redefined. God’s wrath is not mentioned. “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”1 Corinthians 1:18. Even the truth of the resurrection has had its deniers since the time of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15).
Christmas is almost here. We are celebrating the birth of the Word made flesh (John 1). We do not worship Mary, but we honor her obedient faith, and we trust her Son to save us.
