This time of year there is a lot of discussion and mentioning about the “true meaning of Christmas”. People refer to special time with family, giving, gathering at home around the Christmas tree, etc. Although there is nothing wrong with those things, they are not the true meaning of Christmas.
The good news is that you can be without all those things and still experience and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.
The fact that Heaven came down and Jesus was supernaturally born is the true meaning of Christmas.
Why was the Virgin Birth necessary?
The Virgin Birth is the capstone of our Christian Belief. Anyone that attacks the Virgin Birth attacks Christianity at its roots.
We don’t necessarily celebrate the fact that Jesus became a child. We celebrate because He had a supernatural birth into the earth.
There were other children that were born around the same time that Jesus was born but it was the fact of His supernatural birth that gives us reason to celebrate.
Isaiah 7:14 | NKJV (14) Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
The Lord Himself will give you a sign. There were three signs that Isaiah gave by the Holy Spirit towards the Children of Israel before the dispersion of the Jews was to begin.
The Resurrection of the Lord and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit all took place at around 32AD. But forty years later, Jerusalem and Israel were destroyed and the Israelites were dispersed around the world.
It has only been in the last 80 years that God has brought them back to their homeland to build them again into the nation of Israel as we know it.
- The first sign that the Israelites were given was to be a Virgin Birth.
Isaiah 53:1-2 | NKJV (1) Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? (2) For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
- The second sign was contained in Isaiah’s prophecy in the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Isaiah 53:3-12 | NKJV
- The third sign was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.
Isaiah 28:10-12 NKJV (10) For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.” (11) For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, (12) To whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear.
Remember on the Day of Pentecost, it was the Orthodox Jews that heard the disciples speaking in the tongues of the nations from which these pilgrims came that had gathered in Jerusalem; yet they would not hear.
Isaiah 7:14 | NKJV (14) Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
The word that causes the most problems with people is the word “virgin”.
The word “virgin” in the Hebrew is the “almah”. It was translated young maiden, or a woman that had just had a baby. So, some have said that Mary was a young maiden and she and Joseph had had relations thus producing the birth of Jesus.
But we can always prove Scripture with Scripture. Matthew confirms the words of Isaiah in his writings.
Matthew 1:20-23 | NKJV (20) But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. (21) And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” (22) So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: (23) “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which is translated, “God with us.”
The word “virgin” here is the Greek Word “Parthenos” which specifically means “one who has not known a man”.
Why was the Virgin Birth Necessary?
Before the fall of Man in Adam, the Virgin Birth was not necessary. After Adam’s sin, Satan’s seed had entered into humanity and that seed is the nature of the flesh resulting in spiritual death.
Romans 5:15, 17 | NKJV (15) But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. (17) For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
God prophesied about the birth of Jesus in the Garden:
Genesis 3:15 | NKJV (15) And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
Enmity – means “a division”. God is saying that I will put a division between your seed, the nature of the flesh and woman’s seed.
Bruise = “crush”
Satan would cause temporary setbacks to the Kingdom of God, but Jesus would ultimately crush his kingdom. If your heel is crushed, you can get over it, but if your head is crushed, there is no getting over that.
The nature of the flesh is handed down by the seed of the father. The woman cannot pass down the nature of the flesh. The only way to escape this is to be born of God Who has no sinful nature of the flesh.
Don’t just see a natural baby that was born in a manger, see a supernatural birth of the One Who came to redeem mankind.
Luke 1:31, 34-35 | NKJV (31) And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. (34) Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (35) And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
The Virgin Birth is so important because if Jesus could be supernatural born of a virgin, then you and I can be supernaturally Born Again. The New Birth takes place without the agency of sinful man but by the sinless Son of God.
Luke 1:37-38 NKJV (37) For with God nothing will be impossible.” (38) Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Notice God could not force Mary to conceive supernaturally. She had to say “yes”. God works the same way in us. He is waiting for us to give Him a simple response like Mary did and say “yes” and allow something by the Holy Spirit to be conceived on the inside of us.
When you say “yes”, the Jesus that was formed in Mary will be formed in you!