“Conceived of the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary,” or WHY the Virgin Birth Matters:

Let’s begin our study with what should be two familiar verses of Scripture:

“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.’” (Matthew 1: 20).

“The angel answered, ‘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).

The first verse tells us what the angel said to Joseph to reassure him about Mary’s pregnancy.

The second verse is part of what the angel Gabriel said to Mary when he announced that she would give birth to Jesus.

Taken together, these verses form a fitting introduction to the next section of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ … who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”

Here we come face to face with the Virgin Birth of Christ—a doctrine we tend not to think about except during December, but still essential the week after Easter.

We are considering it today because the early Christians considered this truth so necessary that they included it in the first Christian creed. Therefore, it must be of paramount importance as a foundation doctrine of our faith. Here are three simple statements about the Virgin Birth of Christ:

First, it is clearly taught in the Bible. Isaiah prophesied it 700 years before Christ’s birth. Matthew and Luke explicitly included it in their gospels.

Second, it has been universally believed. This doctrine reaches across the various divisions of Christendom—Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical.

Third, it has been hotly debated, but up until the last 150 years, few people challenged this teaching.

With the rise of liberal Christianity, some theologians have attacked this doctrine as superstition, or they have branded it a legend created to make Jesus seem divine, or they have said the church borrowed a pagan myth or a Jewish tradition.

They will go on to declare that the silence of the New Testament outside of Matthew and Luke’s Gospel regarding the Virgin Birth must mean that either it doesn’t matter or it didn’t happen.

If you go all the way back to the gospel accounts, you can find hints here and there that even in Jesus’ lifetime, there were rumors about his having an “unusual parentage.”

Some people thought he was illegitimate. Others suggested an act of immorality. A pagan opponent of the early church said that Jesus’ father was a Roman soldier. That slander has been repeated across the generations down to the present day.

The Virgin Birth falls on one of the great fault lines of the Christian faith. It rests on the “great divide” that separates those who believe the Bible is God’s Word, and those who don’t.

It separates those who believe in a supernatural Christ from those who believe he was just a good man, a moral teacher, a revolutionary, a prophet perhaps, but not the Son of God from heaven.

Because these issues are essential doctrine, it’s crucial that we state plainly what we believe about the birth of Christ. Christians make a claim for Jesus that cannot be made for any other person: His life did not begin with his birth or with his conception.

Unlike every other human whose beginning can be traced to a specific moment in time, we declare that the true life of Jesus Christ had no beginning. Because he is eternal, he existed forever with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. This is an utterly supernatural claim that could not be made about anyone else. To help us think through the implications of this doctrine, here are three questions about the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ.

1) What Does This Mean? What exactly do we mean when we say that Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit” and “born of the virgin Mary?”

We mean at least five things:

First, Jesus was born by the direct action of God (because he chose to do it this way). A virgin gives birth by the sovereign choice of Almighty God. There is no other explanation.

Second, no man was involved in the process. Not Joseph. Not a Roman soldier. Not any other man.

Third, Jesus had a human mother and no human father.

Fourth, Jesus is and was and thus fully human and fully divine. He is fully human because he comes forth from Mary’s womb. He is fully divine because he is conceived by the Holy Spirit. He is not half-human and half-divine. He is the God-man—one person possessing two natures, God incarnate in human flesh.

Fifth, he is therefore without sin. Luke 1:35 calls him “the holy one,” meaning that he will be born without any taint of sin. He has no inherited sin from Adam, no sin nature, nothing in him that will cause him to sin. He is holy in the truest and deepest meaning of that term. There is no sin in him or about him.

Here is another way to state the same truth. In order for Christ to be our Savior, (to qualify as redeemer) three conditions must be met:

1) He must be a man. An angel could not die for our sins. He must truly share our humanity.

2) He must be an infinite man. A mere mortal could not bear the infinite price that must be paid for our sins.

3) He must be an innocent man. A sinner could not die for the sins of others.

The Virgin Birth guarantees that our Lord fulfills all three conditions. Because he is born of Mary, he is fully human. Because he is conceived by the Holy Spirit, he is fully God. Because he is born holy, he is sinless in thought, word and deed. Thus he is fully qualified to be our Savior.

2) How Did It Happen? The second question revolves around the process. The virginal conception of Jesus was a direct creative miracle of God. That also means it is a mystery we will never fully understand.

In these days of amazing technological advancement, we occasionally hear talk about science reproducing a “Virgin Birth” today. But no matter what the scientists may do in the field of genetic manipulation, cloning, parthenogenesis, or any other advanced research, you can take all the scientists from the best labs, and give them unlimited resources and a thousand years, and they will still be unable to duplicate the virginal conception of Christ.

Only God himself could create a human life that is fully human and yet fully divine. Jesus Christ is truly God’s “one and only” Son. This is a miracle and a mystery that lies beyond the reach of science.

John 1: 14 says, “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” Christ, the living Word, “put on” humanity the same way I put on my clothes before I came to church on Sunday morning. He was always God but he “added” humanity through the Virgin Birth.

3) What Difference Does It Make? The biggest barrier to reaching you with a sermon like this may be that most of us already believe in the Virgin Birth. Even if we’ve never thought about it very much, we know we believe it because we hear about it every December.

So it’s easy to put a sermon like this in the category of, “Nice but doesn’t matter.” That would be a huge mistake. We can be certain that the early Christians didn’t feel that way or they wouldn’t have included these phrases in the Creed. What difference does it make that Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit,” and “born of the Virgin Mary?” Here are three implications for us to consider.

Biblical Authority.  Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus entered the world in a supernatural way—through a mighty miracle of God. Theses same writers tell us that Jesus’ earthly life came to a climax with another mighty miracle—his bodily resurrection from the dead.

We all understand the significance of the Resurrection. Because he lives, we too shall live. His resurrection guarantees ours. But it’s not the same with the Virgin Birth. His supernatural birth doesn’t tell us anything about our physical birth. And since we’ve already been born, it’s easy to discount the Virgin Birth when we compare it to the Resurrection. But that is a major mistake.

If you can’t believe the first miracle, how can you believe the last miracle? If you doubt the Virgin Birth, how can you be certain about the Resurrection?

Jesus Christ. The Virgin Birth forces us to confront what we believe about Jesus Christ. Who is he? Where did he come from? At issue is the supernatural character of our Lord. Is he truly the Son of God from heaven?

If you answer yes, you’ll have no problem with the Virgin Birth. If you answer no, you’ll have no reason to believe it. Is he just a prophet, or is he “more than a prophet?” Is he a great teacher and nothing more?

Was he a martyr who died for his cause? Was he a revolutionary who never intended to start a religion? Is he a divine leader who came to teach us about God? Or is he God incarnate, the Lord of Glory, the Son of God, our Lord and our Savior?

The Virgin Birth forces us off the fence about Jesus. It tells us that we can’t be neutral and we can’t say that the stories of his birth don’t matter. The fact that this is a miracle and a mystery doesn’t let us off the hook.

Those with an anti-supernatural bias will have no use for the Virgin Birth, and they will explain it away. But those who believe in a supernatural Christ will find the Virgin Birth a mysterious miracle that, instead of destroying their faith, actually makes it stronger.

Three conditions must be met in order for Jesus to be our Savior. He must be a man, he must be God, and he must be sinless. The Virgin Birth guarantees that all those conditions have been met. Thus there is a direct connection between the manger and the cross.

Remember that without his Virgin Birth, his sufferings have no meaning. It is his birth that makes his death meaningful. If he is not who he said he was, then his death was the most tragic mistake in history.

Salvation - by means of the Virgin Birth, Christ enters the world guiltless of the sin of Adam. He becomes the beginning of a new humanity—the restoration of the human race. Because he is born of Mary, he is truly human; because he is conceived of the Holy Spirit, he is free from the inherited guilt handed down from Adam.

Thus he is fully able to stand in our place, taking our guilt, our shame, our punishment. He could pay for our sins precisely because he had no sin and no guilt of his own. “He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might receive the righteousness of God through him.”  (2 Corinthians 5: 21).

This brings to the forefront Paul’s words in Romans 5: 6, “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”

At the precise point of our weakness, Christ was strong. He succeeded where Adam (and all of Adam’s descendants) failed. We were so helpless that we could not do anything to save ourselves.

The Virgin Birth teaches us that our salvation is entirely supernatural.

The Virgin Birth teaches us that salvation is entirely by grace. God does it all because we could not do any of it.

The Virgin Birth reminds us that we all need a Savior.

In today’s world we may want a teacher or a leader or we may look to as a pastor to guide us. But a day will come when only a Savior will do. When we face the moment of death, a prophet will not help us. When we stand at death’s door, we need a Savior to lead us safely through to the other side.

There have been many stories of deathbed conversions and professions of faith – and not so many professions of atheism or agnosticism. The hope of the cross and the reality of Jesus Christ appears real to some.

We all need a Savior sooner or later.

When you face death, you don’t need a teacher—You need a Savior. When you have to cross the river of no return, a myth won’t help you—You need a Savior.  You need a Savior.

Thank God, we have one. His name is Jesus Christ. He was there when I needed  him and He will be there when you need him too. Do you have a Savior? May God help you to trust in Jesus Christ. He’s the Savior we need. Amen.