When Gabriel visited Mary and explained to her that she would become the mother of God’s Son, she asked, “How can this be, since I have not been intimate with a man?” (Luke 1:34). Gabriel explained that God would cause this miracle to happen. The Holy Spirit would come upon Mary, and His Power would overshadow her. This would bring about a conception in which the baby growing inside the mother was both human and divine. Having existed from eternity past, He now would come to take up residence in a human body, even as a preborn baby!
Some “scholars” dismiss the virgin birth as a fantasy. They say that the idea of a conception and birth without a human father is impossible. Almost as if anticipating their objections, Gabriel himself refuted their thinking when he told Mary that “nothing will be impossible with God” (v. 37). These “scholars” say, “Such a thing couldn’t have happened, so how can anyone contend that it did?” Believers in the virgin birth actually are more open-minded than these “scholars,” for they—the believers—are open to the possibility of an all-powerful God’s intervening in and overruling the natural laws He set into motion. So the believers reply, “But if the virgin birth did happen, then how can you say that it couldn’t?”
Christians today—even those who have no trouble believing in the virgin birth—need to think carefully about the implications of not believing in it. The virgin birth is a foundational teaching that affects a multitude of other beliefs about many other critical matters.
- What a person believes about the virgin birth affects his or her belief about the Bible. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus had no earthly father. If the Bible is wrong about that, then how can anyone believe anything else it teaches?
- What a person believes about the virgin birth affects his or her belief about the nature of God. For example, a person who is skeptical about the possibility of Jesus’ not having a human father also must be skeptical about God’s omnipotence. He or she easily might think, Perhaps God couldn’t have arranged for this to happen. If He couldn’t have caused it to occur, however, could He really have created the reproductive process in the first place? So, disbelief in the virgin birth makes it easy to doubt that God can do anything, doesn’t it? Other questions naturally arise. How will such belief affect a Christian’s prayer life, or a Christian’s hope for a future resurrection? The implications truly are enormous!
- What a person believes about the virgin birth affects his or her beliefs about who Jesus is. If Jesus had human mother and a human father, then He surely was human, but He couldn’t also have been God! He would have been born in sin and would have been guilty of sin just like everyone else. His death on the cross, then, could not have been substitutionary, and everyone believing in Christ for salvation is deceived in the worst sort of way.
These are but three of countless ominous implications of disbelief in the virgin birth. Thankfully, we as believers can rest assured in the truth of this biblical doctrine. The Bible is true, God truly is all-powerful, and Jesus is both man and God! Therefore, true believers in Jesus are fully forgiven and saved for all eternity!
Copyright © 2015 B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations in this article are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.