Greenwoods Community Church

Whose birth are we celebrating at Christmas? Is it Jesus, the one born of a virgin, or is it some other Jesus, who was conceived the ordinary way, the way every other baby is born into this world? It makes a world of difference! In verses 18-25 of Matthew chapter one we understand that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, who was born of the virgin, Mary!

It might surprise you to know that growing numbers of American pastors not only think the virgin birth of Christ is not essential to our faith, but actually deny that it happened at all. In the well known Harris Group poll a little over a decade ago, a poll of nearly 7500 Protestant clergy, 19% of Lutheran, 34% of Baptist, 44% of Episcopalian, 49% of Presbyterian, 60% of Methodist, and a whopping 79% of Congregational clergy denied that Jesus was born of a virgin! Another poll the same year found that among the general population of American Protestants, 83% believed the virgin birth of Jesus to be historical fact, but a second poll just a decade later indicates that the number of those believing has dropped to 61%, a drop of 22%.

Now while I believe that it is possible for an individual to be a Christian and have doubts about the virgin birth, I do not believe that Christianity can stand without the virgin birth of Jesus. Without it, everything we believe the Bible teaches concerning Jesus begins to unravel and fall apart. If the virgin birth is not historical fact, then the Jesus we celebrate at Christmas was no Messiah at all, we can have no confidence in the Scriptures which purport to be God’s Word, and we have no Savior or salvation from our sins!

Now we could spend a good deal of time piling up what I think are good arguments supporting the fact that Jesus, was born of a virgin as both Matthew’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel clearly state. And, perhaps another time we might do that. But I think it unnecessary for this post, except to share with you something the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, renowned scholar and for 32 years the pastor of Philadelphia’s famous Tenth Street Presbyterian Church once said: “The doctrine of the virgin birth is not neglected today because it has been disproved. Quite the opposite is the case. It is disregarded out of simple unbelief.”

It has been well said, that two miracles serve as bookends to Christ’s ministry on this earth. The resurrection of Christ from the dead at the end, and the virgin birth of Christ at the beginning. The virgin birth of Jesus is vital to our faith and walk in Jesus Christ because it assures us that God keeps His word; that Jesus is in fact the legitimate heir to the throne of David, possessing the right to be Lord and King over His people; and it assures us that He is able to save sinners, having been born without a natural bent toward sin, so unlike the rest of us.

William Barclay, the late great New Testament scholar, for whom I have great respect once stated that the virgin birth of Christ is not essential to our faith. He said it really didn’t matter, that the important thing was that his birth of Jesus was a work in some way of the Holy Spirit. Well, I humbly differ. That is precisely the point! The birth of Christ as indeed also the resurrection was a work of the Spirit! It is an insult to the Spirit of God to deny the work that he did in effecting the birth of Jesus to a young virgin named Mary. And it matters because like it or not, so much of what true Christians believe unravels without it.