The Importance of the Doctrine of the Virgin Birth
Cathy A. Bihler
Quote: What is at stake in Christianity with the doctrine of the Virgin Birth?
If I were to try to put a "nutshell" definition on Christianity, my first thoughts turn to God - Who He Is. Then, I think about who we are, and the relationship between God and us. The Christian Faith is lived out by people who believe that God is Our Creator
[1] and that He is Father/Son/Holy Spirit
[2]. The Christian Faith is lived out by people who believe that humanity is totally "messed up" by sin
[3] and that only Jesus Christ can and does save us from this human condition
[4]. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is both the Son of God
and the Son of Man: Fully God
and yet Fully Human
[5]. Christians believe that when people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell with them
[6] and teach them and sanctify them, helping them become the people that God created them to be
[7].
God has created humans and enjoyed personal, interactive, and loving relationship with the first of His created humans: Adam and Eve. They chose to disobey God's commandment and brought sin and death upon themselves
[8] and to all who were born after them and even to all of the created world
[9]. They were removed from the holy Garden of Eden
[10]. Now separated by sin from Holy God, how is the relationship restored?
Ever since that day - the fall of humanity from the good and beautiful beginning - God has been busy revealing Himself to us and working for our redemption and total reconciliation. He loves us of His own free will and chooses to give us free will to either:
1. Return our love to Him
[11], demonstrating our love by choosing to obey His directions for a holy life
[12]. This option includes becoming sons and daughters of God, adopted heirs, and spend eternity in heaven with Him and all the angels and all the other saints
[13]. This option includes being forgiven for all that we have done wrong, cleansed and purified from the effects of our sins, becoming holy and righteous
[14]. This option includes entering the Kingdom of God now
[15] and working toward sanctification
[16] and loving others as God has loved us
[17]. This option includes a future entering into heaven in fully resurrected bodies
[18] designed to last forever with love and light and life and joy and peace[19]; or
2. Chase after what we want: other things, other gods
[20]. We can choose options of self-idolatry or self-made idols
[21], which we think will bring joy and satisfaction and love, but will actually bring eternal death
[22]. Eternal death is experienced in a place that is as far opposite from heaven as is possible - -hell
[23]. This place is described by God as a pit of fire, a place where the devil and death are going to be placed on the final Day of Judgment
[24]. This option includes being judged by God as sinful and unholy and, therefore, as ones who have chosen the ways of the devil, belong where the devil is judged to go
[25].
God has chosen to reveal Who He Is through the lives and actual historical events of people, particularly in a people who came to be known as Israelites, descendents of Abraham and Sarah
[26]. The history of the People of God, their successes and failures (which depended upon their personal and faithful relationship with God)
[27] are recorded for us in the Bible.
When the time was right
[28], God Himself came down from heaven, in the Person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
[29], born of Mary
[30], a virgin Israelite, who was betrothed to a man named Joseph.
[31]
Jesus Christ, the Messiah
[32], The Word of God
[33], Who Always Was and Is and Always Will Be
[34], willingly left heaven, emptied and humbled Himself and came into the world as a vulnerable baby
[35], born to a young Jewish woman, Mary
[36], who consented to this most amazing thing. "Let it be unto me," she said, believing the angel's message
[37]. Her fiancé, Joseph, too, agreed to this arrangement and consented to continue the engagement and to take her as his wife and raise this Holy Child, the Son of God
[38].
One day, the Holy Spirit "overshadowed" Mary and she became pregnant, "with child". She was a virgin, which means that she did not have sex with her fiancé, nor with any man, and yet she became pregnant through and by the power of God. This unique Child, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. This Child, was named Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.
http://faithfulchristianlaity.org/virgin_birth.htm
SOLA GRATIA.