A. That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to Himself, through the working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary, a true human nature so that He might become David's true descendent, like His brothers in every way except for sin.
36. Q. How does the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you?
A. He is our mediator, and with His innocence and perfect holiness, He removes from God's sight my sin - mine since I was conceived.
"First, the virgin birth is essential to Christianity because it has been essential to Christianity. That may sound like circular reasoning, but only if we care nothing about history and catholicity of the church. Granted, the church can get things wrong, sometimes even for a long time. But if Christians of all stripes in all places, have professed belief in the virgin birth for two millennia, maybe we should be slow to discount it as inconsequential.
"Second, the gospel writers clearly believed that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived... If the virgin birth is false, the historical reliability of the Gospels is seriously undermined.
"Thirdly - and this intersects with the Catechism - the virgin birth demonstrates that Jesus was truly human and truly divine... If Jesus had not been born of a human, we could not believe in His full humanity. But if His birth were like any other human birth - through the union of a human father and mother - we would question His full divinity. The virgin birth is necessary to secure both a real human nature and a completely divine nature.
"Fourth, the virgin birth is essential because it means Jesus did not inherit the curse of depravity that clings to Adam's race. Jesus was made like us in every way except for sin (Heb. 4:15; 7:26-27)... So if Joseph was the real father of Jesus ... Jesus is not spotless, not innocent, and not perfectly holy. And as a result, we have no mediator, no imputation of Christ's righteousness (because He has no righteousness to impute to us), and no salvation.
"So, yeah, the virgin birth is essential to our faith.
The Good News We Almost Forgot, Kevin DeYoung, Moody Publishers, 2010, pp. 74, 77-78.
God's perfect planning of and in and through all things... keeps me trusting and so grateful. Blessings!
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