Believing the Impossible

            Mary went to visit relatives.  She was only gone three months.  Then again, a lot can happen in three months.  Apparently, in Mary’s case, a lot did.  Is that a baby bump?  “Mary, what have you done?  With whom did you do it?  Does our engagement mean so little to you?  Now what?  Do I subject her to public shame?  No!  I will divorce her privately.  Two witnesses will suffice.  Then she can get on with her life.  And maybe, in time, I’ll get on with my life too.  Please Lord, help me sleep.” 

And so, he did.  Joseph slept.  Joseph dreamed.  And in the dream Joseph dreamed, there came an angel who commanded him to believe the impossible—that a pregnant woman can be virgin.  In Matthew 1:20-21 the angel says, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 

            Really?  “Don’t worry, Joe?  What’s conceived in your fiancé is from the Holy Spirit”?  Right.  Of course.  How silly of me to think otherwise.

I’m pretty sure Joseph’s first thought after discovering Mary’s pregnancy wasn’t, “No problem, virgins get pregnant all the time.”  He wasn’t stupid!  Virgins don’t have babies!  To think otherwise is to believe the impossible!  But that’s exactly what the angel commanded Joseph to do—believe the impossible!

            So what about you and me?  Do we believe the impossible?  On the basis of Scripture, are we convinced that Jesus was born of a virgin?  Many aren’t.  For them, rejecting the virgin birth is a simple matter of science.  And what difference does it make?  The virgin birth of Christ is no big deal.  Except the Bible reveals it is.  In his Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem tells us why: 

First, Grudem reminds us, “The virgin birth of Christ is an unmistakable reminder that salvation can never come through human effort.  …Our salvation only comes about through the supernatural work of God.”  In other words, the miraculous conception of Jesus is a demonstration of God’s power to save! 

Second, Grudem explains, “The virgin birth made possible the uniting of full deity and full humanity in one person.  …It helps us to understand how God, in his wisdom, ordained a combination of human and divine influence in the birth of Christ, so that his full humanity would be evident to us from the fact of his ordinary human birth from a human mother, and his full deity would be evident from the fact of his conception in Mary’s womb by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.”  This is important.  We must know that both the full humanity and the full deity of Jesus is critical to our salvation.  If Jesus were not fully human, he could not be our high priest “who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).  Apart from his humanity Jesus could never have “become sin for us” when he died on the cross (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).  At the same time, if Jesus were not fully God, he could never have satisfied the divine wrath that is our due.  Only the eternal God can pay the eternal penalty for our sin.   

Finally, Grudem explains, “The virgin birth also makes possible Christ’s true humanity without inherited sin.  …Jesus did not descend from Adam in exactly the same way in which every other human being has descended from Adam.  And this helps us to understand why the legal guilt and moral corruption that belongs to all other human beings did not belong to Christ.”  Gabriel speaks to this when he tells Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be call holy…”  In other words, born free of a fallen nature.    

In the end, of course, Joseph did believe the impossible. He believed his fiancé was both pregnant and a virgin.  Matthew says, “When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him:  he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.  And he called his name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25). 

Today, the ball’s in our court.  Do we believe the “impossible” like Joseph believed?  Do we rejoice when we remember the supernatural birth of Christ?  The virgin birth gives evidence of God’s power to save.  It bears witness to the reality that the name of Jesus is, in fact, the only “name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)?    

Thanks for reading. If you have comments or questions contact me at deanpshriver@gmail.com.