The Essentiality of the Virgin Birth

Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!” Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:10-14, NASB used throughout). 

It is strange that when we talk about the core doctrines of Christianity, we often bypass talking about the virgin birth. However, as we shall see, the virgin birth is indeed a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith. 

One hundred and fifty years before Isaiah was born, the nation of Israel went through a civil war. As a result, the kingdom was divided into two: North and South. Most of the people lived in the Northern Kingdom, known in Scripture as Israel, with the capital city of Samaria. The Southern Kingdom became known as Judah with Jerusalem as its capital. Each kingdom had its own king. In the mid-700’s BC, Isaiah the prophet was called to preach to the people living in Judah. 

When we step into Isaiah 7, Ahaz is king. As events unfold, we learn that Israel has made an alliance with Syria and plans to attack Judah. Naturally, the people in Judah were terrified. Isaiah’s job is to encourage King Ahaz. Therefore, he says to Ahaz, “Take care and be calm. Have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands.” Then in verse 9, Isaiah continues, “If you do not believe, you surely will not last.” He is saying, “Ahaz, put your faith and your trust in God.” I love this verse because sometimes simple trust in God is all that we have. 

Sometimes when we are afraid, when people have let us down, when circumstances are spiraling out of our control, when life seems to be chaotic … all we have is faith in God. If we do not stand firm in our faith, we will not be able to stand at all. 

God had made an incredible promise that He would protect and deliver Judah against overwhelming odds. All Ahaz had to do was trust God. Then God tells King Ahaz, “Ask Me for a sign.” Normally, it is not right to ask God for a sign. We know we should not put the Lord our God to the test. Jesus said, “It is a wicked and adulterous generation that asks for a sign.” Here, God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Ahaz refuses to do it, feigning spirituality. Isaiah intervenes and informs Ahaz that he is trying God’s patience. Then he says since you won’t ask for a sign, God will give you a sign anyway. 

That sign was simply, “The Lord Himself will give you a sign … a virgin will be with child and bear a son.” In this verse, the word “you” is plural. It is “I will give you all a sign.” It is not a sign just for Ahaz; it is a sign for all the people. Then he says, “She will call His name Immanuel.” Through the prophet Isaiah, God told the world about the greatest gift that was coming. 

The birth of Jesus was a miraculous birth. Actually, it is not accurate to say that His birth was miraculous. What was miraculous was His conception—that was supernatural. Historically, however, we refer to this as the virgin birth. 

Throughout church history, there have been some rather silly things said to explain the birth of Jesus apart from God. Some people have suggested Jesus was the illegitimate child of a Roman soldier or merely the natural son of Joseph and Mary. These later theologians contend that the whole virgin idea was a masterfully developed conspiracy. 

Some have tried to make much of the word “virgin.” They take the Hebrew word translated “virgin,” and they say, “It doesn’t really refer to a virgin in the sense of a woman who has never been with a man, but just refers to a young, unmarried woman.”   However, when Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 in Matthew 1, he uses the very specific Greek word for virgin. It would not be much of a sign for an unmarried young woman to have a baby. That type of thing happens all the time, but not many virgin women get pregnant. Matthew goes to great lengths to tell his readers that the miraculous conception and virgin birth of Jesus were a direct fulfillment of the promise of Isaiah 7. 

In Genesis 3, after the fall of man in the Garden, God made an important promise. It was the first promise of the Messiah to come into the world and undo the curse that had just been put on mankind. It was there that God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. God was promising a child to be born who would come from a woman but not have an earthly father. The birth of Jesus is unique in that it involved only one human parent. 

This is why I will contend that the doctrine of the virgin birth is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith. Someone might look at all of this and say that they just cannot believe in the virgin birth. Well, without the virgin birth, there is no hope, no sign given to the world, and no God with us. To reject the virgin birth is to pull out a load-bearing beam from the house of Christian faith. Once removed, the structure collapses. If Christ is not conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, then His origin is merely human, His sonship becomes merely honorary. The incarnation becomes a myth, the atonement becomes symbolic, and the resurrection becomes uncertain. To reject the virgin birth is to reject Christianity; it is to reject the authority of the Bible. If we reject the virgin birth of Jesus, we reduce Christmas from a divine visitation to mere religious sentiment. 

The most important reason we believe in the virgin birth is that we believe in the deity of Jesus. The virgin birth establishes the fact that Jesus is fully God and fully man. If Jesus were not virgin-born, then He would have been conceived just like everyone else. If He were conceived like everyone else, then He is not God in the flesh. As a man, He is the perfect representation of us. As God, He is the perfect sacrifice for us. 

Furthermore, Isaiah points out that He will be called, “Immanuel,” which in Hebrew means “God with us.” This tells us that when Jesus stepped into the world, it was God among men. God, the Almighty creator of the Universe, wrapped Himself in human flesh and took on the whole human experience. In the Gospel of John, we do not have the traditional nativity scene, but John does tell us that in the beginning was the word, the word was God, and the word was with God. He goes on and says, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” 

Since we have God with us, we have clarity about what God is like. Jesus’ coming into the world revealed to the world more clearly what God is like. Jesus Himself said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” 

Because of Immanuel, God with us, many of the misconceptions we may have had about God are cleared up. Is God a vindictive, angry God? God with us through the incarnation of Jesus says, “No.” Is God just some cosmic vending machine, waiting to grant our every request? God with us says, “No.” Is God some distant, passive, detached deity? God with us says, “No.” Jesus showed us God. He is approachable, strong, merciful, righteous, compassionate, kind, and just. He is holy yet hospitable, authoritative yet gentle, and majestic yet meek. 

Jesus gives us clarity about what God is like. John says that Jesus “explained God.” The book of Hebrews says He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.” Paul in Colossians writes, “He is the image of the invisible God.” In Philippians, Paul says, “He is in the very nature of God.” Thomas, when he saw the resurrected Jesus, fell on his knees and cried out, “My Lord and my God.” 

God with us became a historic reality, and it also becomes a prayer. May God be with us as we observe the injustices in the world around us. May God be with us when we feel helpless and worthless, in our pain and grief, when we feel the intense pressure of temptation, when we are making difficult decisions in life, when we try to make sense of the chaotic world we live in, and as we try to raise our children in the midst of a wicked and corrupt generation. May God be with us as we try to be a light in a dark place and as a church trying to reach our community one by one, so that all people might become lifelong followers of Jesus Christ. 

God with us means we are not alone. God with us means He cares.