3 Reasons the Virgin Birth Matters
Trevor Cox
The Virgin Birth means that through a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ mother, Mary, became pregnant without having sex. This does not mean God had sex with Mary or that Mary remained a virgin forever. The Virgin Birth doesn’t mean Jesus became the Son of God. Rather, it does mean Mary became pregnant with the Son of God.
Mary’s own astonishment highlights the mystery of what God is doing in and through her. Notice her exchange with the angel in Luke 1:34-35 (ESV):
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
3 reasons the Virgin Birth matters
1. The Virgin Birth shows us God’s commitment to His promises.
Isaiah 7:14 foretells Jesus’ arrival some 700 years before Jesus’ birth: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” When prophetic statements like this one are fulfilled, as we see in Matthew 1:23, our faith in God’s Word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ strengthens. Because of God’s faithfulness and his ability to see ahead, we can stop worrying about the future and trust Him without fear. God always has a plan and God always follows through!
2. The Virgin Birth shows us that all things are possible with God.
When God miraculously intervenes, we’re reminded that we are not left on our own — that God is truly with us. Through the Virgin Birth, God miraculously enters into His creation to fix the problem we can’t fix on our own. Being born of a woman means Jesus is fully man and can relate to people as only a human in shared circumstances can. But as the Son of God, Jesus is fully divine and can satisfy the righteous demands placed on Him as only God can. It is only through God breaking into our story that we can be made right with God.
3. Through the Virgin Birth we understand the depths of God’s love for us.
The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. The word “so” describes the extravagance of God’s love. He didn’t send an angel. He didn’t create a special creature for the job. God didn’t look for a bargain. God paid what we owed with his very own Son.
So many times, we’re confused when bad things happen or circumstances don’t go our way. The Virgin Birth means that, whatever reasons God has for permitting what He permits, the reason can’t be that He doesn’t care or doesn’t love us. In the Virgin Birth, we see God coming low — getting small — growing nine months in His mother, being born in a manger — getting down in the mud with us. The Virgin Birth means that just like us, Jesus can bleed and die. But it also means that Jesus can rise up, because, as God, Jesus has the power of an indestructible life.
The Virgin Birth is central to our faith for so many reasons. Through it, we see God’s unmeasurable bigness. But, in an astounding turn of events, we see God becoming small like us, so that He might reach us and we might know Him.