Is It Really Necessary to Believe in the Virgin Birth?

According to a variety of studies, 20-43% of Protestants do NOT believe in the virgin birth. For clarity’s sake, the term is taken here to mean ‘virgin conception’. Jesus was conceived in the womb of His mother, Mary, by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and without a human father.

The Scripture describes what happened – “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). Shortly after that, an angel spoke to Joseph, who was engaged to Mary, in a dream—"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” (Mt. 1:20).



The same story is told in Luke’s gospel, where we read about the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Mary. After the angel told her that she would bear a son (Luke 1:26-33), Mary responded, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (v.34). The angel answers, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (v.35).

WHY IS THE VIRGIN BIRTH ESSENTIAL?

1. The reliability of the Old Testament, which foretold Christ’s supernatural birth, is at stake. (Isaiah 7:13-14)
   Isaiah 7:13-14 announces the birth of a wondrous child through a virgin as a sign of deliverance of the whole house of David. This sign also guaranteed the deliverance of God’s people and the final establishment of David’s throne through the birth of this supernatural child called Immanuel, which means, “God with us.”
   
   
2. The credibility of the Gospel writers is at stake. (Mt. 1:18-20, 23-25; Lk. 1:27, 31, 34-35)
   If the Gospel writers cannot be trusted in these matters, how can we believe anything they have reported to us? In fact, if there is no virgin birth, we have no reliable or authoritative Bible.
   
   
3. The credentials of the Lord as both Savior and sin substitute are at stake.
   If His birth was anything less than what it is described to be by Matthew and Luke, Jesus would be disqualified as the substitute for sinners. “His full deity and complete humanity are essential to His work on the cross. If He were not man, He could not die; if He were not God, His death would not have had infinite value” (Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, MAJOR BIBLE THEMES, p. 56).
   
   
4. The virgin birth makes possible Christ’s true humanity without inherited sin.
   All human beings have inherited legal guilt and a corrupt moral nature from their first father, Adam. But because Jesus did not have a human father, the legal guilt and moral corruption that belong to all other human beings did not belong to Christ. Salvation comes only by the atoning work of Jesus the Christ, the virgin-born Savior. Anything less than this is just not Christianity!
   
   This material is taken from Systematic Theology by W. Grudem (Leicester: IVP; Michigan: Zondervan, 1994), pp. 529-532, and Christian Theology by M. Erickson (Michigan: Baker House, 2002), pp. 757-775.