27to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. [simple_tooltip content=’26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.
32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.’](Luke 1:26-38)[/simple_tooltip]
The virgin birth of Jesus is so incomprehensible that it has always been one of Christianity’s main targets of criticism. Skeptics cite the impossibility of such a thing as proof that the Bible can’t be true. Nevertheless, the virgin birth of our Lord is one of the cornerstones of the Christian faith.
Mankind produces offspring in their own likeness and image [simple_tooltip content=’And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.’](Gen. 5:3)[/simple_tooltip]. Therefore, if Jesus had been the natural product of a man and woman, He would have had a sinful nature [simple_tooltip content=’Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—’](Rom. 5:12)[/simple_tooltip]. He would not have qualified to take our sin upon Himself on the Cross because He would have had to be the debt of His own sin. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin [simple_tooltip content=’Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.’](Is. 7:14)[/simple_tooltip], which denotes that God would be His Father. This had to happen to give Him sinless blood.
The Messiah also had to be born without sin for God to legally raise Him from the dead. Our faith rests on the resurrection [simple_tooltip content=’that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.’](Rom. 10:9)[/simple_tooltip] because the only legal way God could raise Him from the dead was if He Himself was without sin. Once He died for our sins, God was legally bound to resurrect Jesus [simple_tooltip content=’and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.’](Rom. 1:4)[/simple_tooltip] because He was sinless. There is no room for compromise on this issue! If Jesus was not born of a virgin and the sinless sacrifice for our sins, we are all lost and going to hell.
Even true believers try to find natural explanations to the miracles of the Bible to make it more palatable to unbelievers. They try to reconcile the Genesis account of creation with evolution and have the children of Israel crossing the “Reed” Sea instead of the “Red” Sea. However, there is simply no way to explain away the supernatural fact of the virgin birth. Without it, there is no Christian faith.
Aren’t you glad that the Bible is true, and you don’t have to make any apologies for it? Your new life in Christ is proof that your sins were paid in full by the spotless Lamb of God, who is your Lord and Savior today.
