This child was to be the Redeemer from God of sinful man and so it would be expected that his birth would be unusual and special. If we were to provide a Savior we would have done it differently. We might have provided a full grown man, in the richest country in the world, and raised in a kings palace in glory and honour. But God's ways are not our ways. And so it was no ordinary birth but a virgin birth, in Bethlehem, in obscurity and humiliation.

Matthew's Account
In Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew gives the record of how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. Mary and Joseph were engaged to get married but before they had begun to live together, Mary was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph did not want to disgrace Mary he thought about getting a quiet divorce. Although Mary and Joseph were not married, they were engaged and a Jewish engagement could only be dissolved by a writ of divorce and in fact an engaged virgin was considered a widow if her fiancée died.
Basilica of Annunciation, Nazareth  The site where Mary & Joseph lived.

Joseph had problems with the idea that Mary was expecting a child because he knew he had not been with Mary. An angel of the Lord then appeared to Joseph and told him there was nothing to be afraid of because what was conceived in Mary was of the Holy Spirit. Joseph was given further instructions that when the child was born he was to be called Jesus because He would save his people from their sins. The reason given for all of this was to fulfil Scripture in Isaiah 7:14. Matthew makes it very clear that when Joseph had taken Mary home as his wife that he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. Matthew 1:25

Matthew it seems draws his information from Joseph himself. The description is from Joseph's point of view. Matthew 1:25 states 'And (Joseph) knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus.' Only Matthew would be able to provide this kind of information. Joseph looks at the situation from two aspects, as a 'righteous man' and 'as her husband'. The decision was contrary to his own and the final conclusion was made by an angel of the Lord. The angel says that Mary will give birth to the child and Joseph will give him his name. Joseph's task was set apart from Mary's.

In Matthew 2:13,14 the Angel of the Lord told Joseph in a dream 'take the young child and his mother'. Notice that the angel did not say take your wife and son. Joseph is treated as the guardian, never as the biological father. Joseph is never spoken of as the father of Jesus, even though Mary is called Jesus' mother. 

All of these point to the fact that Jesus was born in a unique way and Joseph himself testifies to this.

Luke's Account
In Luke 1:26 Luke describes the angel Gabriel going to Mary in Nazareth and telling her what will be taking place. Luke in describing Mary uses the word 'virgin' twice. The angel explains that she will be visited by the Holy Spirit and the child shall be called not Joseph's son, but the Son of God.

From here Luke gives the account as Mary would have told him. She recounts how she was visited by the angel and the facts of the events surrounding and including the birth.

Genealogies
Matthew
The genealogies lend a great deal to an understanding of the virgin birth. Although they were written with two different purposes in mind, they both lend themselves equally to the argument of the virgin birth.

The purpose for the genealogy in Matthew is to show the messianic lineage of Jesus as fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David and the Son of Abraham.

First, in Matthew 1:1-17 we find the genealogy of Jesus Christ through Joseph. It starts with Abraham and goes through to Jesus Christ. It goes on and on and on with the repetitive clause 'begat', until the last where it reads in verse 16, 'And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.' The author obviously knew that Jesus was not Joseph's son. Jesus by adoption was the son of Joseph.

Luke
The genealogy of Jesus Christ as found in Luke is recorded in Luke 3:23-38. Luke uses the pedigree of Heli, the father of Mary. So Luke's genealogy is through Mary where Matthew's is through Joseph. He starts with Jesus and then goes to Heli, Mary's father, and then traces the line of Christ through Abraham to Adam and from Adam to God. Luke wants to show that Jesus is the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, Genesis 3:15, and so he traces Jesus back to Adam.

In verse Luke 3:23 Luke states 'And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,' 'He was the son of Joseph', so it was thought. Everyone thought that Jesus was the son of Joseph because Joseph took Mary as his wife. This is the only place in the entire genealogy where Luke writes in this way. Early in Jesus' ministry in his own hometown of Nazareth, the people said, 'Isn't this Joseph's son?' Luke 4:22. Luke says that the people didn't really know who Jesus was. He was really the son of God.

Both of the genealogies have helped in several ways to conclude that Joseph was not the natural father of Jesus. Luke and Matthew are not in conflict with one another in their genealogies. They trace different lines with one common denominator, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the unique son of God. 

Fulfillment of Prophecy
In Genesis 3:15 it is stated that Jesus would be the child (seed) of a woman. This is fulfilled in Galatians 4:4; Luke 2:7; Revelation 12:5. Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. While the concept of virginity is not mentioned here, the fulfilment of prophecy is clear and when linked with the other passages of Scripture becomes a key passage. God tells us early in redemptive history that He would take the initiative and provide for mankind a redeemer and he would not simply come down out of heaven but would be born by a woman.

In Isaiah 7:14 we find 'Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.' This portion of Scripture is fulfilled in Matthew 1:18 and Luke 1:26-35. The purpose of the prophecy as revealed in Isaiah 7:14 was that the virgin birth was a sign to the people that Jesus Christ could be recognised as 'Immanuel' or 'God with us'. This sign was given by the Lord himself to us that we might know who He is.

He also fulfils the verses in Psalm 132:11 and Jeremiah 23:5 in which Jesus is prophesied to be the heir to the throne of David. It is recorded in fulfilment in Matthew 1:1,6 and Luke 1:32,55.

Mankind was foretold of the miraculous events surrounding the birth of Jesus. He was virgin born.

No Earthly Father
The idea of a father for Jesus has brought about many thoughts and theories of the virgin birth. In Matthew 1:19, Joseph admits that he is not the father of Jesus and because of his knowledge he wanted to divorce Mary. The genealogies prove that Joseph was not the physical father of Jesus. The angel of the Lord treats Joseph as the guardian in Matthew 2:13,14.

Some people say that Jesus was begotten by an earthly father but if Joseph denied being the father of Jesus then there must have been another man. This implies that Jesus is the son of an unknown father and implies too that Jesus was both illegitimate and bastard. If Jesus was born by an earthly father then there are a number of implications that this would lead to.

1. If Jesus had an earthly father then He had a sinful nature and therefore was not God. So who is the second person of the trinity? The Trinity would have to be denied.

2. If he were born of an earthly father his death on the cross would not be an atoning sacrifice. Sinners must find another means of atonement with God.

3. If he were born of an earthly father he could not raise himself from the grave. Therefore he is still in the grave. This also means no resurrection for us and we do not have eternal life if Jesus had an earthly father. Then the Bible is not true.

To know who the father of Jesus is makes a great deal of difference. But Jesus Christ did not have a human father.

Jesus Existance
The question which now needs to be examined is 'How did Jesus come to be?' Joseph was given the answer to this question when he took for granted that there was another man. He knew it wasn't himself, so there had to be another man. How else? Then the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said that 'what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.'

According to Luke, when the angel confronts Mary, Mary admits to being a virgin. She asks the angel how she can be with child when she is a virgin. The angel again answers and says 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' Luke 1:35

It was a miracle for we have not the knowledge or understanding of God's methods by using our carnal minds, to figure out how he was able to do this. We do know it was through the method of the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and the son is from the Holy Spirit. There was no intercourse by human or divine persons but that Jesus Christ became present in Mary.

Fully God / Fully Man
This does not mean of course that Jesus changed from God into man but He attained His divine nature alongside his human nature. On earth there were two natures but one person, fully God and fully man. Jesus did not leave his divine nature in heaven and change into a man. 

'Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:' Philippians 2:6-9

If Jesus were conceived by Joseph or another man, he would have been no different from you or I and his death on the cross would have been no less than suicide because he stated that he would lay down his life himself. John 10:15

The whole purpose for the virgin birth was not only a sign but it kept Jesus Christ sinless which was essential in order for him to die on the cross in order to save us from our sin.

For Jesus to be punished for something he did not do is humiliation. Christ shows his humiliation when he comes and allows himself to be born into a world of sin. Christ humbled himself to be born in the same manner as we. When we think that Christ, being God, could have appeared on earth, and at the age of thirty start His ministry, then this is true humiliation. Christ could relate to man by becoming one himself and associating with them.

Jesus Christ, the son of God and second person of the Trinity was born of the Virgin Mary who was of the same sinful nature as we are. The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 states in 8:2 

'The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things he hath made, did , when the fulness of time came, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon here and the power of the Most High overshadowing here; and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures; so that two whole, perfect and distinct natures were inseparably joined to gather in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.'

Copyright © 1995 David Graves & Jane Graves, Electronic Christian Media