All day today, the miracle of the virgin conception and subsequent virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ has been on our minds. But why is the virgin conception and subsequent birth so important?
The virgin conception/birth is important because it allows for the full humanity and full deity of Jesus Christ.
I am not saying that Christ had to be conceived by a virgin. God could have chosen another method for his Son to come to the earth.
For example, God could have had Jesus beamed down from heaven resembling something of what you might see on Star Trek. The problem with this is that would allow for his deity, but not his humanity. We would have a hard time believing that Jesus was human if he came down from heaven. To be human, he needed to be born of humans.
Or, we could also conceive of a situation in which Jesus was born from the relations of both a man and a woman. But in this case, it is hard to conceive that Jesus would be God. In this arrangement of conception, when did his God-hood attach to his manhood? There would have had to be a point in time that Jesus’ God-hood would have begun. But the Bible makes clear that the second Person of the Trinity has always been God.
So, the virgin conception allows for the God-man. One has said: “Christ was God not because he was virgin born, he was virgin born because he was God.” God chose the virgin conception as his method, and this allows for Christ’s full deity and full humanity. Luke 1:34-35: “Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.’”
Notice the angel says that Mary will conceive of the Holy Spirit, and “for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” Since the child is conceived of the Holy Spirit, the child is “the Son of God.”
That Jesus is fully God and fully man is extremely important, because if Jesus is not fully God and fully man, we have no salvation.
He must be fully man because only a human can be our representative and die in our place.
But he also must be fully God to bear the full penalty of the sins of humankind. A mere man cannot bear the full punishment of all the sins ever committed. Only someone that is God can bear the full penalty of the sins.
Therefore, the virgin conception/birth is so important. It allows for the God-man and thus our salvation!