Text: Isaiah 7:10-14

Every year we celebrate one of the most significant events in all of human history. It is not just the birth of any child. Children are born all the time. We celebrate the birth of a special child. Jesus is like no other child in all of human history. He is true God from all eternity. God became a human being like you and me. He became our perfect Savior. How do we know that God truly became man? We know because of the virgin birth. That was a miracle. That miracle, God becoming man through the virgin birth, is called the incarnation. Today we focus on the necessity of the miraculous incarnation.

Part 1: We are born Evil

It may come as a surprise to you, but not every Christian believes in the miracle of the Virgin Birth of Jesus. Perhaps you are aware of some of the speculation. Maybe you have wondered about it yourself. How could Jesus be born of a virgin? Surely he must have had a human father? Our human reason wants to ask those questions. Human intellect struggles with belief in something that doesn’t make sense to our scientific way of thinking. Perhaps you have come across scholars or teachers or even pastors who offer up alternate explanations for the conception and birth of Jesus.

Some of these people will claim that the accounts that we have in the Bible are just myths or legends. They try to come up with alternate explanations for the miracles of Scripture. Despite the fact that there is no evidence for these theories, people will still try to make claims that the “actual history” was different than what we have recorded on the pages of the Bible. When it comes to the virgin birth, they will say that Jesus must have had a human father because we all have human fathers. They will say that perhaps it was Joseph or perhaps it was a roman soldier or perhaps it was some other man. When it comes to the roman soldier theory, they even speculate that perhaps that soldier raped Mary. How sad it is that they feel the need to invent such a despicable story.

You might be wondering why people would come up with these ideas that go against what the Bible tells us. Before we deal with that, let’s review some key parts of the birth of Jesus. Scripture tells us in Luke chapter 1 that the Angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her that she was going to have a son. Mary responded, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” This was certainly a valid question given the circumstances. Gabriel told her that God would make it happen. He said, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

In Matthew chapter 1, Joseph was upset when he discovered that Mary was pregnant. If Joseph had been the father, he would not have reacted like he did. He planned to break off their engagement. An angel came to Joseph and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21). The angel confirmed that Mary was still a virgin. Matthew chapter 1 confirms that it is fulfilling Isaiah 7:14. Verse 25 states that Mary remained a virgin until after Jesus was born. It says, “But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son.” Anyone who denies the virgin birth denies the clear words of the Bible from Matthew and Luke.

So then, why are there doubts about the Virgin birth? It goes back to the main reason that we need a Savior. We need a Savior because we are all born sinful. We are all born evil. That is not what we want to hear. We would like to think that we are basically good people. After all, we love others and we are helpful toward certain people. Regardless of nice things that we occasionally do, we are all born with sin. Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” When it comes to earning God’s favor, we can’t do it. We are tainted by sin. Isaiah 64:6 says, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”

We have a desperate need for a perfect Savior who can defeat our sin. The Virgin birth is necessary in order for us to have a Savior. I come back to the question: why do people doubt the Virgin birth? It goes back to our sinfulness. Our sinful nature wants nothing to do with God. Our sinful nature wants to push God aside and do things our own way. Our sinful nature wants to doubt the truths of God’s Word and find some other path. Our sinful nature feeds us the lie that we are basically good and can ultimately live a good enough life to enter heaven based on how good we have been toward others. If we are good, then we don’t need a Savior.

Let’s look at some evidence of our sinfulness. We might think that we are good because we took time out of our day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. However, just being here doesn’t mean that we are truly following Jesus. Think about how our sinful nature wants to avoid God and follow other paths. While God wants us here in worship today, he also wants us here very regularly. Are you going to be back tomorrow? Next Sunday? The Sunday after that? I hope worship is a regular part of your routine so that you can be strengthened to fight against your sinful nature. What does your life look like outside of church? Do you read your bible? Do you talk about Jesus? Do you find ways to strengthen your faith? Or does your sinful nature find ways to separate you from Jesus?

I mentioned that one theory is that Mary was raped by a roman soldier. That makes me think of one of the most prevalent sins in our world. I am talking about sexual sins. Sexual temptations are all around us. Our culture promotes many sexual sins. Think about how entertainment has been trying to push open acceptance of all kinds of deviant sexual behavior for years. It really shouldn’t be a surprise that so many people are getting in trouble right now for sexual misconduct and sexual assault. We have been living in a world that promotes sexual sin and now people are getting called out on their perversions. We would be kidding ourselves if we claimed that these cultural influences have not contaminated our hearts also. Evil is all around us and it infects us too.

Part 2: He was born Good

We need the miraculous birth prophesied by Isaiah. Isaiah 7:14 tells us, “Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and call his name Immanuel.” The translation I used, the Evangelical Heritage Version, emphasized the importance of this prophecy with the word “Look!” The New International Version of the Bible did not have that word or any word in its place. The King James Version of the Bible had the word “Behold.” With this passage, the King James and the Evangelical Heritage Version are closer to the original Hebrew. This is one example in which I prefer the King James. It emphasizes the importance of the prophecy to say, “Behold, the virgin will be with child…” Using the words “Behold” or “Look” tell us that what follows is a very special, very important prophecy.

The next word to highlight is that word “virgin.” As I said, certain people do not want to believe this part of the prophecy. They think that this miracle is impossible. There are many reasons that they don’t want to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin mother. One of those reasons is that their human intelligence tells them that every child needs to have a human father and a human mother. While this is true of every human child – Jesus is different. Jesus is true God and true man. Unbelieving hearts have trouble accepting this truth but it is still the truth.

Some of these unbelievers will try to use the Hebrew language to argue their point. They point to the word that is translated “virgin” and say that it can also mean “a young woman.” While it is true that the word can mean both “young woman” and “virgin,” a good translator of the Hebrew will let the surrounding context determine what the word means. If you look at the times that word is used in the entire Old Testament then you see that there is never a time when it can be proven that it is talking about a young woman who is not also a virgin. Also, here in Isaiah, when it says “Behold, the virgin will be with child” it is talking about a special event. There is not much that is special about a pregnant young woman. But a virgin who is pregnant, that is incredible.

The miracle of the virgin birth is very important to our salvation because it shows that Jesus was true God and true man. Only God could have been born in this miraculous way. If Jesus had not been true God then he could not have been our Savior. If he had not been true God then he would not have been perfectly sinless. He would not have been our substitute to take away our sins. But because he is true God, he truly is our Savior. The name Immanuel comes from two Hebrew words which mean “God with us.” Jesus is God. He is perfect. He is also man. He lived as one of us. He is our brother who was tempted like us in every way and yet was without sin.

The Virgin birth proves that he is without sin. Every person with a human father and a human mother is born with sin. If Jesus had a human father, then he would have been born with sin. Then he could not have saved us from our sin. Then the angels would have had nothing to sing about when Jesus was born. Then the shepherds would have had no reason to go to see the child. If Jesus had a human father, then there would be no reason for us to gather here this evening to worship him.

Because Jesus was born of a virgin, he truly is our Savior. That is why he is special. That is why we can have the wonderful response of Mary in Luke 2. It says, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” We treasure the fact that our perfect Savior came to earth to live and die for us. Because of this we want to worship him and celebrate him as often as we can. We want to grow closer to him and we want to lead a pure and decent life in word and action. We want to do all these things as a response of faith. We see how much God has loved us and we love him in return.

Conclusion

We are truly blessed to be able to live with the joy of the miraculous incarnation. Jesus, true God from all eternity, became our human brother. He was born of the Virgin Mary. Yes, our human reason struggles with this miracle. Whether doubts enter your heart from your own thinking or from someone else, I encourage you to push those doubts aside. Trust that God really became man in the person of Jesus. Jesus truly is your Savior. He was perfect for you. Look to him. Celebrate him. Worship Jesus. Live your life with Jesus at the center of your heart. Treasure him and meditate on his wonderful gospel of forgiveness and salvation.