Necessity of Virgin Birth

Transcript

GR 648
10/30/1983
Necessity of the Virgin Birth
Matthew 1:18-25
Gil Rugh

In our first study of this Gospel, we saw that the first seventeen verses spoke of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Gospel of Matthew is to present Jesus Christ as the prophesied Messiah, the king of Israel.

Throughout the centuries, the Old Testament prophesied a coming king for the nation Israel. Matthew wants to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the focal point of those prophesies and that they all find their realization and fulfillment with Him. As Matthew does that, he will also develop and explain the various aspects of the kingdom over which Jesus Christ rules -- first, the kingdom He offered when He was here on earth two thousand years ago; second, the kingdom as it exists today during His absence from the earth; and third, the kingdom as it will exist when Jesus Christ bodily returns to earth and rules over the world with Jerusalem as the capital. The Gospel of Matthew was written to Jews to explain their kingdom and to present their king.

Having demonstrated that Jesus Christ is in the Davidic line and is qualified to be the king of the nation Israel, Matthew will now close out the first chapter dealing with the virgin birth. After having demonstrated Christ's lineage from Abraham through David and Solomon, he now wants to show the unique birth of Christ -- that Christ is not only in the line of David, but that He is also the Son of God. As such, He is the unique Messiah-King that God has provided for his people.

Matthew begins in verse 18 to describe how Jesus Christ was born: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit." Today, we would probably say they had been engaged, although our word engaged is not strong enough to describe the relationship and responsibilities of a Jewish couple during their betrothal. For Jews anticipating marriage, there was an engagement period, a preliminary arrangement usually made by the parents. That arrangement could be made when the parties involved were children.
Then when they reached adulthood, a betrothal took place. At that time they were bound in a marriage agreement -- bound from the standpoint that they were called husband and wife. If the husband died, the wife was called a widow. This was not an actual marriage, however, because they did not live together or consummate the marriage physically. The betrothal period lasted for one year and was a waiting period during which both individuals continued to live at home with their parents. The agreement was so binding that it could not be broken except by a bill of divorcement. Thus it was as binding as a marriage but did not have all the full privileges of marriage such as sexual union. One of the purposes of this waiting period was to demonstrate the purity of the bride-to-be.

Verse 18 informs us that Joseph and Mary have entered into this binding agreement for a marriage contract. But during this one-year waiting period, Mary is discovered to be pregnant. We cannot appreciate the full impact this would have on Joseph. He has come into an agreement of marriage with the one he loves. Now during the waiting time, it is discovered that she is pregnant. In the remaining verses of this chapter, Matthew is going to unfold the fact that Mary's pregnancy is by the Holy Spirit; he is also going to record how Joseph was made aware of that fact.

When Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant, he does not know the supernatural circumstances surrounding the conception. If you think about it for a moment, you can appreciate the difficulty of the situation for both of them. Why doesn't Mary just tell him the circumstances? Well, you must admit that such a disclosure would be rather awkward. Joseph, I want to tell you that I am pregnant. But this is the result of the miraculous conception; this is going to be a virgin birth. As much as Joseph may have wanted to trust her, this would be rather difficult to believe.

We can see Joseph's response to the situation in verse 19: "And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, wanted to send her away secretly.”
We are not told very much about Joseph in the Bible, but this is a good testimony of his character. We are told that he is a righteous man, just as Job was described as being righteous in the Old Testament.

Joseph had two options for handling the situation. He could make a public issue of her condition and disgrace her in a public divorce, or he could “...send her away secretly” -- an expression that refers to a private divorce. Joseph had decided to divorce her, but to do it secretly and not make a public display of it, which would have been his right. We can assume from his conclusions that he still has a strong attachment to Mary. This was surely a tremendous burden to Joseph; he wants to handle it in as discreet a manner as possible. This is a testimony to his character as a righteous man. He does not desire to make a show of Mary, but rather to handle it properly.

After Joseph mulled over the options in his mind and had come to his decision, the Lord intervened, according to verse 20: “But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream...” Joseph probably experienced sleepless nights over this difficulty, and during one of these nights he had a dream. It is significant that Matthew records the appearance of an angel of the Lord, not the angel of the Lord. The latter statement in the Old Testament refers to the preincarnate Christ. But He does not appear in the New Testament at all in that form. Though we are not told in Scripture, the angel could be Gabriel because in Luke's account he is involved in the announcements to the mother of John the Baptist and then to Mary.

This angel “...appeared to him in a dream...” In keeping in mind the importance of the connection to David in the genealogy, notice how Joseph is identified: "...Joseph, son of David...” This is a reminder that Joseph is in the line of royalty, the line of the Messiah. The angel continued his announcement: "...do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." That statement declares in a concise way that the most miraculous birth which has ever occurred was by an act of the Spirit of God in the womb of a virgin. This conception occurred by the Spirit of God. That may raise many questions in our minds, but the answer is rather simple even though we don't understand all the details. The Holy Spirit acted in the womb of Mary in such a way as to bring about a supernatural conception. In effect, the father of Jesus Christ is God, the Holy Spirit. He is born of a physical mother, Mary, but conceived by the Holy Spirit of God.

After the fact of the miraculous conception, the angel immediately tells Joseph something of the character and ministry of the Son who will be born. Verse 21: "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."
Mary and Joseph had no discussion about what the name of this child would be. In our previous study we saw that His Old Testament name is Joshua, meaning Jehovah is salvation or Jehovah our salvation. Jesus Christ is Jehovah, salvation; the One in whom salvation is found. Then the angel stresses emphatically, “...for it is He who will save His people from their sins.”
From the time of the conception of Jesus Christ, His life is connected with providing salvation for sin. His people has prime reference to the nation Israel. But we saw in our last study that Jesus Christ provides salvation for all men. Matthew will close his Gospel with the exhortation to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. But here the focal point is on the salvation He provides for Israel.

There is not an elaboration in the explanation to Joseph, but it is clear enough for him to see the picture. In this One is Deity residing in a physical body so that He might provide salvation. This has been the emphasis of the Old Testament -- that God Himself is the salvation of Israel. As we work through this Gospel, we will see this salvation provided by God becoming a man and paying the penalty for sin. In effect, God in reality is salvation and has provided it by His own death.

The Scriptures emphasize that concept repeatedly. Let's look at several passages which stress the fact that God is the salvation of Israel. As we look at these passages, keep in mind the danger that the focal point for salvation is easily shifted from the Person of God Himself through Jesus Christ to related matters. Israel began to trust in their traditions and their religious observances. People today begin trusting in their church, their baptism or their religious activities -- their own good deeds. The shift is made subtly to trust in what they do rather than in what God is and what God does.

The Psalmist wrote in Psalms 130:7-8: "O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” The Old Testament prophets did not understand all that redeeming Israel from its iniquities would entail. They probably did not understand that He would redeem them by His own death.

The prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 12, verse 2: "Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation." Later in his prophecy, Isaiah wrote these words in chapter 45, verses 20-22:
"Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; they have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idol, and pray to a god who cannot save. Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other."

No matter what kind of religious system or practice you follow, salvation cannot be found through religious systems or practice. Many people today have placed their faith in their church or in various religions. That is the very thing Isaiah says is foolishness; they have no understanding or knowledge.

Salvation is found only in God Himself as God became a man. That is the thrust of the virgin birth. Christ is the Savior -- God in the flesh. You can have salvation only by turning to Him and believing He died for you. Salvation is not found in a church or in religious rites like circumcision, baptism, confirmation or communion. It is not found in church membership or good works. It is found in the Person of Jesus Christ Himself.

Matthew is writing about the Messiah's first coming to earth. When He comes the second time to establish his earthly kingdom, the nation Israel will experience a national conversion. Events going on in the world today are leading up to a period of time called the Tribulation, a seven-year period during which the ultimate purpose is to prepare Israel for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to earth. In Jeremiah 23:6, the prophet Jeremiah writes of these times: "In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘the Lord our righteousness.’" Jeremiah says the Lord is our righteousness, because Isaiah 64:6 informs us that "...all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment." What we need is the righteousness of God. When we believe in Him, we are credited with His righteousness and thus made acceptable to God.

Jeremiah continues to write in the same context -- the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth -- in Jeremiah 33:16: "In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the Lord is our righteousness.”
The righteousness which makes us acceptable to God is not the righteousness we earn. It is not righteousness which may be received by faithfulness in serving the church or by being a part of the church. It is righteousness received by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ -- His death and resurrection on our behalf. That is why John the Baptist presents Jesus Christ to the nation of Israel in John 1:29 by saying, "...Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Redemption from sin is found only in Him.

As recorded in Acts 13, Paul is preaching on his first missionary journey. After giving a brief summary of the history of the nation Israel, he mentions Saul as its king. Then Paul said in verses 22 and 23: "After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.' From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus." Notice that the Savior provided is Jesus. Paul continued in verses 38 through 41: "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: 'Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and perish; for I am accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.'"

This is true right down to our day. So many good, religious people do not believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ even though it is described to them. You will notice that this salvation, this forgiveness of sin, is conditioned upon believing in Jesus Christ. He alone is salvation. It does not matter what else you do. It does not matter if you are the most faithful person at church for the next hundred years. If you do not accept Jesus Christ for your salvation, you will spend eternity in hell. God never said that forgiveness of sins comes through being faithful at church or being baptized or listening to me preach. God said that forgiveness of sins is conditioned upon believing in the death and resurrection of His Son. That is such a simple message, yet we clutter it up with our religious ideas and practices.

One other passage on this subject is in Colossians 1:19: "For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him." The phrase all the fullness refers to the fullness of Deity. That is explained in Colossians 2:9: "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form." Do you see what is happening in the virgin birth? The eternal God, the One who is described in Isaiah 6 and acclaimed by the seraphim as ’’Holy, holy, holy,” has now been conceived by an action of the Holy Spirit of God in the womb of Mary. This One who is born is completely humanity and completely Deity. This is referred to in theology as the anthropic union, from the Greek words theos -- God -- and anthropos -- man. Thus we have the God-Man. In becoming a man, Jesus Christ did not lose any of His Deity, and He is no less humanity. All the fullness of Deity was dwelling in bodily form.

After speaking in Colossians 1:19 of the fullness of Deity dwelling in Christ, Paul continues in verses 20 through 22: "And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” This shows us God's provision in making us right before Him. We are all sinners. Romans 3:23:"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:10: "...There is none righteous, not even one." None of us are above the need for salvation. God's plan for bringing us into a right relationship with Him is for us to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:6: “...I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

The focal point of Matthew 1:21 is that Jesus Christ will save His people from their sin. That is what all the message of the Old Testament led us to, and that is what everything we have to say 2,000 years later looks back to -- that Jesus Christ is the focal point of God's plan for redemption. The tragedy is that multitudes of millions of people are involved in religious activities today who do not understand what it is all about. You do not need to be religious; you need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The conception and birth of Jesus Christ was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Matthew continues his description of these events in verses 22 and 23 by quoting what the prophet Isaiah had said 700 years earlier: "Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which translated means, 'God with us.'"
Isn't it amazing that 700 years earlier God had said that a virgin would conceive, bear a son and his name would be Immanuel, meaning God with us? This is God in the flesh. God became a man, present with us as a human being. That is a mind-boggling concept to us, yet Isaiah prophesied it 700 years before it happened.

There is much discussion today on the subject of the virgin birth. As a basic doctrine, it is one of the first thrown over by liberals who reject the authority of Scripture. There is not a lot said in the epistles about the virgin birth. But everything that is said there is built on this fact. We saw earlier that Paul wrote in Colossians that it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness of Deity to dwell in bodily form. That was brought about through the virgin birth of Matthew 1.

Let me show you how one rather modern commentator viewed the virgin birth.
William Barclay was a superb Greek scholar who died just a few years ago. Yet he was a man who did not understand the message that we have just expressed regarding salvation through faith in Christ alone. Let me quote from his commentary, published by Westminster Press, regarding this passage in Matthew: "This passage tells us how Jesus was born by the action of the Holy Spirit. It tells us of what we call the Virgin Birth. The Virgin Birth is a doctrine which presents us with many difficulties; and it is a doctrine which our church does not compel us to accept in the literal and the physical sense." I really don't care what his church compels us to accept. I am concerned with what the Bible tells us to accept.

Barclay continues: "This is one of the doctrines on which the Church says that we have full liberty to come to our own belief and our own conclusion." Where does the church get its authority to say that you can choose not to believe it if you want to; it's a matter between you and God? "At the moment we are concerned only to find out what this means for us. If we come to this passage with fresh eyes, and if we read it as if we were reading it for the first time, we will find that the fact which it stresses is not so much that Jesus was born of a woman who was a virgin, as that the birth of Jesus is the work of the Holy Spirit." It is easy to take a passage like this and make it nonsense. He says the emphasis is that the birth of Jesus Christ was the work of the Holy Spirit, but it doesn't emphasize that His was a virgin birth. I sometimes wonder about people when I read things like this. I have to go back and read Matthew 1 again to find out if we are even reading the same passages!

Matthew 1 emphasizes that the conception of Jesus Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit: Verse 18: "...she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.” Verse 20: "...the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." Verse 23: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child..." Barclay says this passage is not stressing a virgin birth, yet he goes on to talk about how the Holy Spirit works. His contention is that whether or not you believe that Jesus Christ was physically born of a virgin really doesn't matter. He concludes this section by saying, "There is much more in this chapter than the crude fact that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin mother."

To Barclay, the virgin birth is simply a crude fact; and if that is what you focus on, he says you miss the point. His point is that the Holy Spirit is involved in creation and re-creation and revealing truths. What is the point of that? The whole point is to undermine the virgin birth. If you don't have a virgin birth, what about the Deity of Jesus Christ? Without it, how do you explain that you have God and man wedded together in one person? This whole approach becomes a subtle attack on the Deity of Jesus Christ, which also, incidentally, William Barclay does not believe. In his book Jesus As They Saw Him, he expresses in his chapter "Jesus Is God" that theologically he does not believe the Deity of Jesus Christ, although he continues his nonsense by saying he believes it devotionally. He can sing the words of songs such as, "That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me," but theologically he does not believe that is a true thought in the Scriptures. It isn't hard to see how one thing leads to another in this process of corruption.

In order to understand the background for the prophecy of Jesus Christ being born of the virgin, we need to understand some historical developments that preceded Isaiah's prophecy.
We find the record of those developments in 2 Kings 16:1: "In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king." Ahaz becomes king of Judah, the Southern Kingdom; Pekah is king of the Northern Kingdom. The narrative continues in verses 2 and 3: "Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before the sons of Israel." That is referring to the fact that he offered his son as a human sacrifice to one of the pagan gods. Verse 4: "He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.”

Verse 5 then introduces the king of Syria, a country which is also known by the name of Aram. The modern nation of Syria has been a problem for Israel for centuries. Seven hundred years before Christ, Syria and Israel were having their problems. That is nothing new to us today. In succeeding verses of this chapter, Rezin, king of Syria, recaptures Elath, which Judah had ruled for Syria. The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom under Pekah and the king of Syria had joined together against Judah over which Ahaz was king. Verse 7 continues the story: "So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, 'I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.'" Then Ahaz sends some money to the king of Assyria in order to hire him to help the Southern Kingdom defend itself against the Northern Kingdom and the Syrians.

This historical background sets the stage for Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 7. Those two kings are waging war against Ahaz, who thinks he will call on Assyria to help. Isaiah comes to tell Ahaz that he ought to call on God to help, not Assyria. One commentator said that for Ahaz to request assistance from Assyria was like a mouse that was being attacked by two rats to call on a cat for help. After Assyria defeats the Syrians and the Northern Kingdom, its king decides he might just as well have Judah, too. That is exactly what happened.

In Isaiah 7, the prophet, who has brought his son, Shear-jashub, with him, comes to speak to Ahaz. The king is told in verse 4, "...take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands..." Isaiah is telling Ahaz not to be afraid of Pekah and Rezin, verse 5, "Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, 'Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it.'" Ephraim is the name used of the northern ten tribes because it is the dominant tribe there.

The prophecy continues in verse 7: "Thus says the Lord God, 'It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.'" You may want to read the entire chapter for the context. The message continues in verses 10 through 12: "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!'" It sounds spiritual to say that you will not test the Lord by asking a sign. But if God has told you to ask for a sign, you should be asking for a sign! He won't ask for the sign because he is an unbeliever, and he doesn't want God's help. He has already made up his mind, and he is going to Assyria for help, not to God.

Some people are just like that today with their church. If you try to share with them what the Bible says, they argue that they have their own religion and they don't want to be confused. They believe their church is just as good as any other church, so don't confuse them.

Ahaz doesn't want to ask God for a sign, but God gives him one anyway. Verse 13 continues: "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?" Isaiah told Ahaz that he was trying God's patience. Then God gave Ahaz the sign in verse 14: "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.” As far as we know, Jesus Christ was never called Immanuel as a title like he was called Jesus or Christ. But Immanuel is descriptive of Him as God in the flesh. Even though that is not a proper name used of Him in the New Testament, it surely describes Him to us.

Verse 14 contains the prophecy of the virgin birth -- “...a virgin will be with child...” Verses 15 and 16 continue to describe Him: "He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken."

My understanding of this prophecy, different from some, is that it includes a near view and a far view. In the near view, Isaiah is speaking of a virgin, perhaps the one who is to be his second wife, who at the time of the prophecy is an unmarried virgin, but who will be married and will conceive a son. By the time that son is born and has the ability to determine between good and evil -- less than age 12 as the Jews would think of it -- Syria and the Northern Kingdom will be out of the picture. That is exactly what happened. The final fulfillment of that prophecy, the far view, is that a virgin will conceive by the power of the spirit, as Matthew gives the interpretation by the Holy Spirit, and there will be a supernatural conception with the birth of a supernatural Son.

The immediate fulfillment of this prophecy, as far as Ahaz is concerned, begins to take place in chapter 8. Verse 1 begins: "Then the Lord said to me, 'Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.'" In verse 3, Isaiah refers to a prophetess, evidently his second wife. Perhaps his first wife has died; he has a son already, Shear-jashub, and a virgin had to be one who was unmarried. "So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, 'Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.'" That is quite a name! Sometimes we give our children biblical names, but I have never met a son with that name. It simply means what we read in verse 1: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey. Thus his name becomes a sign.

The Lord continues his prophecy to Isaiah in verse 4: "For before the boy knows how to cry out 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria." As you read other verses of this prophecy you will eventually come to the statement at the end of verse 8, "...O Immanuel." The word Immanuel appears three times in the Bible -- Isaiah 7:14; 8:8 and Matthew 1:23, which quotes from Isaiah 7:14. The fulfillment of the prophecy in the near view, in Isaiah's day, was a testimony that God would use Israel and was carrying out His plan. Its full impact is not realized until Jesus Christ is conceived by the Holy Spirit and is born to be God with us, literally, God living among us. So Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.

Isaiah 9:6 looks to the future fulfillment and prophesies the birth: "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."
The names of Deity are ascribed to Him, so He is Immanuel. It is remarkable indeed that God should choose to become a man.

Isaiah 6 gives us a description of Jesus Christ before His birth. Verse 1: "In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him...and one called out to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.'" The remarkable thing about this story is that in John 12:41 this is revealed to be a description of Jesus Christ before He was born in a manger in Bethlehem. So in chapter 6, Isaiah is given a vision of the full glory of Jesus Christ before He became a man. Then in Isaiah 7 he prophesies of that virgin birth when the One who is high and exalted on the heavenly throne will leave that glory and be born of a human mother. It was necessary for Him to become man so that He could be the Savior of mankind. Hebrews 2 develops this concept that Jesus Christ became a human being so that He could provide salvation for human beings because the penalty for their sin is death. It was necessary that God Himself become man so the God-Man could die to pay the penalty for sin. How remarkable and how amazing!

The Apostle John wrote in John 1:14: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." We were told in the first verse of John that the Word was God; now the Word has become flesh. So the Word is not only God, the Word is also mankind -- humanity, flesh -- and we beheld His glory. We saw earlier in Colossians 2:9 that the fullness of Deity dwells in Christ in bodily form.

The doctrine of the virgin birth is a foundational doctrine. If Jesus Christ is not the virgin-born Son of God, then there is no salvation in Him because he is simply a man. It does not matter how great a man He is nor how tremendous his accomplishments were. The penalty for sin is death. If Christ was the greatest man who ever lived but nothing more, He could only pay the penalty for His own sin when He died on that cross. But the virgin birth is God's statement that He was more than a man; He was also God. When He died on that cross, He could pay the penalty for the sins of the world. This enables God to offer salvation as a free gift. Whoever believes in him can have eternal life. Therefore, it is extremely important that we understand the significance of the virgin birth. In that process, God became a man so that God Himself could become man's Savior by paying the penalty Himself for man's sin.

As Matthew closes his record of his announcement in chapter 1, we see Joseph as a righteous man, a man of faith, who believes and heeds the angels. Verse 24: "And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife."

There is a difference in the responses of the two men to whom an angel announcing the birth of babies appeared in Matthew 1 and Luke 1. Joseph believed and heeded the angel. But as the angel appeared to Zacharias in Luke 1 announcing the birth of John the Baptist, Zecharias' response to Gabriel was, "How can I know that this thing will really happen?" Gabriel was almost dumbfounded by Zacharias' response. To paraphrase the account, he says, "I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God! What do you mean, 'How will I know these things to be true?' You can be no more sure, Zacharias. But if you want a sign, let me show you what the sign will be -- you will be dumb! You will not speak another word until the son is born."

Joseph's response indicates his faith. After the angel explained everything to him, he took Mary as his wife and, verse 25, “...kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” This means they had no sexual relations until Jesus was born. Perhaps the purpose for this is to make sure that there is no confusion about the fact that Joseph is not the physical, earthly, human father of Jesus. There can be no question about that since they did not have a sexual relationship until after the birth of Christ.

There is nothing in Scripture to support the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. The indication from Scripture is that after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary had a normal physical relationship as husband and wife. We learn from other passages of Scripture that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Of course, Mary is an exalted person as we read in Luke 1. You can read the testimony of Mary as she was blessed of God to be chosen as the mother of the Messiah. That was indeed a great honor, but Scripture does not elevate her above humanity. It does not make her sinless or one to be sought after or believed in for salvation. Rather, Jesus will play down the physical relationship when the disciples later come to Him referring to His mother and brothers wanting to see Him. Mark 3:33-35: "Answering them, He said, 'Who are My mother and My brothers?' Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, 'Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.'" In other words, those physical ties are not significant.

The virgin birth of Jesus Christ is a tremendously encouraging truth. It describes God breaking into the human race, becoming a man so that He could secure our redemption. What a testimony to the love and grace of God that He would love us enough to become a man! In order to provide salvation, He has died to pay the penalty for our sins. If we believe in Him, we have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

The tragedy in all of this is that there are still people who think they are going to get to heaven by being religious. They think that if they do their best, God will accept them. There are still people who think that if they get baptized they will go to heaven. Others think they will go to heaven by joining the church. What a tragedy! The message of the birth of Christ is God's testimony to the fact that Jesus is the Savior. No one is saved by believing in the church, by believing in the preacher or by believing in baptism. You are saved by believing that you are a sinner for whom Jesus Christ died. He paid the penalty for your sins when He died on the cross. As the Son of God, He became a man so that He might provide salvation for mankind.
Salvation is available to all who will believe. What a testimony to the grace of God!