I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary...
Since the era of the Enlightenment, there have been objections to the authenticity of Jesus' birth found in the gospel narratives of Matthew and Luke. Some scholars have suggested that early Christians borrowed mythical elements from ancient literature in an attempt to adapt the gospel to a Hellenistic (Greek) culture (1), while others have suggested that there has been an error in translating the word almah, leading to a conclusion that the original authors did not explicitly express. Many versions of the Bible render this word as virgin while critics argue that it should be translated young woman or maiden. William Beck, who has done extensive research of the word comments,
I have searched exhaustively for instances in which almah might mean a non-virgin or a married woman. There is no passage where almah is not a virgin. Nowhere in the Bible or elsewhere does almah mean anything but a virgin (2).
The Apostle's Creed is a formal summary of basic Christian doctrines. It used worldwide by various denominations of the church as a way to communicate what the universal church believes about God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Church. The statements about Jesus begin by confessing that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, but do the details surrounding Jesus' conception imply anything of significance for believers? In 2016, a pastor of one of America's largest megachurches made a statement that implied that the virgin birth is not crucial to the Christian faith.
“If somebody can predict their own death and resurrection, I’m not all that concerned about how they got into the world... Christianity doesn’t hinge on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus. It hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.”
The intent of this statement may have been to demonstrate the simplicity of the gospel and show that there is other evidence pointing to the historicity and authority of Jesus, however, this pastor's words did not fall on deaf ears. There are numerous individuals who confess Jesus as Savior that doubt the authenticity of the virgin birth, and others who do not believe in the Messiah for this very reason. This is why we want to pause to reflect on three essential doctrines that are affected by a rejection of this miraculous event.
1. The Inerrancy of Scripture
As Christians, we believe that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God. This means that we believe that God speaks directly to us through Scripture and that what he speaks is the truth. If we deny that Scripture is true or find that it contains false statements, then there is no reason to consider any part of it reliable. This means that if we deny the virgin birth as it was recorded by Matthew and Luke, then we have no reason to believe anything that the Bible declares regarding God, creation, sin, salvation, and the resurrection.2. The Hypostatic Union of Jesus
The hypostatic union merely refers to the two natures (divine and human) that are united in the person of Jesus. As Christians, we believe that Jesus was both, fully God and fully human; the God-man (Colossians 2:9).If we deny that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and was instead born as a result of purely human conception, we are rejecting that Jesus was divine. This would mean that God has not dwelt among us (John 1:14) and that God's love has not been displayed in the sacrifice of his Son for our sins (John 3:16, Romans 5:8).
If we assert that Jesus was merely human, Christians would not have a great high priest that empathizes with our weaknesses and struggles (Hebrews 4:15), and the death of Jesus would not be a sufficient sacrifice before God. As Jonathon Edwards states,
Eternal life was not bought by silver and gold, and such corruptible things, but by the precious blood of the Son of God (1 Peter 1:18). Christ's life went for ours. So great a thing as eternal life, so infinite a blessing, was not purchased by anything but that which in God's sight was of infinite value, even the blood, and obedience of his own and only Son.
To deny that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin strips Christianity of its good news, and we are left with a form of deism that views God as distant, cold, and unconcerned.
3. The Sinlessness of Jesus
Had Jesus been born as the result of a natural conception between Mary and Joseph, it would be difficult to conclude how he would be exempt from the curse of sin and guilt of Adam. The Bible is clear that the human race was represented in the garden by Adam who served as our Federal head (Romans 5:18-19). As the spokesman for all of humanity, Adam chose to rebel against God in pursuit of becoming like God himself (Genesis 3). This is demonstrated in the Genesis narrative by God's interrogation of Adam even though Eve was the first to eat of the forbidden fruit. This truth can be summarized by saying, that according to Scripture, we are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. Our human inheritance is that we are born guilty before God because of Adam's sinful rebellion on behalf of humanity.If Jesus were the natural child of Mary and Joseph, the guilt and curse of sin would have been passed down through the seed of Joseph. This would be detrimental to any hope we have of salvation as God requires a perfect sacrifice to atone for our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22-24).
Conclusion
The doctrine of Jesus' virgin birth is vitally important to the Christian faith. Apart from this belief, it is not possible to believe that the Bible is reliable, that God is loving and involved in his creation, or that Jesus' sacrifice was sufficient for our sins. As Al Mohler states,If Jesus was not born of the virgin then the Bible cannot be trusted when it comes to telling us the story of Jesus, and that mistrust cannot be limited to how he came to us in terms of the incarnation. The fact is that biblical Christianity and ultimately the Gospel of Christ cannot survive the denial of the virgin birth. Because without the virgin birth, you end up with a very different Jesus than the fully human, fully divine savior revealed in scripture.
(1) For more information on the similarities and differences of the gospel narrative and ancient mythology see Dallas Theological Seminary
(2) For more discussion on the intent of Isaiah 7:14 see Christian Courier.
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