In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” 29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” 34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. Luke 1:26-35 (NLT)
The virgin birth is one of the key doctrines of Christianity. Why is it so essential? Why would God use something that is seemingly impossible, and even ridiculous to some, as the means of bringing His Son into the world? Isn’t the resurrection a big enough hurdle for the modern rational mind without injecting a virgin birth into the Gospel story before we even get to the punch line? Why did God ask Mary to endure what was an apparent blemish on her character? I feel sure that most doubted her story. She must have endured the critical gaze of those who thought she was a loose woman with an illegitimate son. And how about the pain and confusion this abnormal birth caused Joseph? Couldn’t God have done this some other way? Apparently not.
The Bible reveals that Jesus is the God-Man, fully human and fully God. Jesus, who is the risen and glorified Lord, who knows what he is talking about, told his disciples that the Scriptures cannot be “broken.” In other words, Jesus’ followers cannot add to or subtract from what the Bible says.
Jesus lived, died, and rose again with the conviction that the Scriptures are true. As he hung on the cross in agony bearing the sins of the world, he put all his eggs in one basket: God is true to his word. The least his followers can do is follow his example.
John the Baptist announced to the world that Jesus is the Lamb of God. What a shocker that message must have been to his listeners! Jesus was to be a human sacrifice! Most who heard those words probably concluded that John was just using flowery religious language. Even Jesus’ disciples, who heard Jesus tell them repeatedly that he would die on a cross, lived in denial about his coming crucifixion. No one grasped up front that Jesus would be God’s blemish-free substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
Jesus had to be a man without sin who also was fully God in order to become the ultimate sacrifice who would pay the penalty for our sins and provide us with a right relationship with his heavenly Father.
Jesus had to become a true man because the first man, Adam, sinned against God and earned the death penalty for the entire human race. Since then every human being has become a co-conspirator by personally sinning. Jesus had to be truly God because only God is perfect enough to make a perfect offering.
In order for Jesus to be a human and at the same time avoid being born with a wicked and debilitating sin nature, which the rest of us inherit from Adam and our own natural fathers as a matter of course, he had to be supernaturally begotten by God with a human mother.
For Christianity to work, this had to be. It is the divine logic. Jesus became the “second Adam,” the spiritual progenitor of a new race of people. His mother was a “standard issue” human being, but his Father was God. He was conceived by the operation of the Holy Spirit, which made him the most unique and important person ever to walk this earth. He had to be in order to accomplish his mission.
Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:47 (NLT)
The Miracle of the New Birth
But Jesus is not the only person who has experienced a miraculous birth. His virgin birth prepared the way for a multitude of equally amazing births in which God is also the Father.
Through the miracle of the New Covenant, which was inaugurated by Jesus’ death and resurrection, every person who puts his or her faith in Christ is born miraculously. It’s called the new birth.
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ John 3:5-7 (NLT)
The only way for a sinful human being to become a child of God is for Christ to be born or formed inside him. The Bible uses different metaphors or images to communicate what happens through the new birth process. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again. Obviously, Jesus did not mean that Nicodemus had to go back into his mother’s womb.
The new birth takes place when God’s life is planted inside a person causing him or her to come alive in the spirit.
Paul called it the new creation.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Peter wrote that the new birth is a result of God’s seed being planted inside a person, an obvious analogy to the biological conception process.
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 1 Peter 1:23 (ESV)
The truth God wants us to apprehend is that, through the new birth, we who believe become authentic children of God.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13 (ESV)
The new birth, like the virgin birth, is not religious speak. It is not a beautiful way to describe a common human experience. The new birth is real. It is a brand new beginning in God. It is the gateway to eternal life. It is the greatest gift of all!
The Divine Logos, who existed for all eternity as the Only Begotten Son of the Father, chose to become flesh so that we hopelessly estranged and lost humans could become part of the divine family and reconnected to God’s eternal purpose.
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, comes to live inside all born again people, giving us the same relationship with the Father that Jesus has, minus the divinity.
That is why we too can cry out, “Abba, Father,” and have it be genuine and from the heart.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:15-16 (ESV)
If you think it’s hard to believe that God would humble himself to become a man, just consider how amazing it is for God to allow humans to become part of his family! And it all started with the virgin birth!
Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. Galatians 4:19 (NLT)
In the verse above, Paul takes things a step further. He not only wanted his readers to believe the gospel and be born again; he also was vitally concerned that his disciples be conformed to Christ’s image or likeness in how they thought, spoke, and acted. He understood that our focus should not be on mere outward conformity. Instead, transformation must begin on the inside, in the spirit, where the seed of God is planted, and where the Holy Spirit dwells. It is in the spirit that we are united with God’s Spirit, and it is from there that the life of God permeates our entire being as leaven spreads throughout a lump of dough. When the life within completes its course, we will look, act, speak, and think like our Lord. He will have been fully formed inside us, conforming us to his image.
Then we will have come full circle, so to speak. The Logos (the eternal Word of God, Jesus) became flesh through what is called the incarnation so that humans could become like the divine Logos through the new birth (a repeat of the incarnation) and the ongoing inner transformation by the Spirit.
So, is the virgin birth something special? Yes, it is, and so is Christ’s resurrection and the new birth. All are miracles from God that have elevated believing humanity out of oppression and hopelessness into the glorious privilege of being children of God!
Why did God use things that are so “abnormal” and, to the world, incredible? It was because there was no other way.
God uses what the world has a hard time believing to deliver those who have faith. Faith itself is a gift from God, something the Holy Spirit helps us with. Without God’s gracious help, no one could ever really “get” the Gospel message, but when our eyes and hearts are opened, we are born again!
If you have never believed in your heart that Jesus is who the Bible says he is, but something deep inside of you is drawn to this wonderful message of hope, you can ask God’s Spirit to help you. That is one of his names – the Helper. He will lead you into all truth. He will help you to know Christ through revelation. He will help you to become a true believer. You too can experience the miracle of the new birth. Perhaps now is the time for you to offer a prayer from your heart. God will hear you. If you open the door, he will come in.
A Sample Prayer
Dear Lord, I want to be part of your family. I need your help. Holy Spirit please open my spiritual eyes, unstop my deaf ears, and soften my hard heart so that I can believe. Jesus, I ask you to come into my heart and change me on the inside. I ask for the forgiveness and life that you died to give me. I surrender my life to you. Now I depend on you to do the rest. Amen.
