Behind Day 10 of my Advent Calendar is:
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Can we talk about the elephant in the room? I only ask because my wife refuses to discuss the subject, seemingly perfectly at ease with the fact that one of the world’s largest land mammals has taken up residence in our lounge. I wouldn’t mind, but Nelly, (not, I’d have thought, the most imaginative name that she could have come up with), is someone she claims offers more stimulating conversation than I do, takes up less room on the sofa and, can you believe it, has kind eyes!
But leaving all that aside, the idea of the virgin birth is something that some people would rather wasn’t mentioned – so much so that there are those, even within the church, who claim that it never really happened. But it seems to me that the reason some people don’t believe some things is simply because they’ve never heard of those things happening before.
But to say something can’t happen simply because they haven’t previously is intellectually dishonest – and no different from saying that God doesn’t exist merely because you don’t believe he does.
Furthermore, some people seem to find the wrong things hard to believe. Take the resurrection for example. Whilst I understand why some people might find it hard to accept that Jesus was raised from the dead, it is the fact that he died in the first place that should really cause us to be astonished. The Bible tells us that, ‘the wages of sin is death’ [Romans 6:23] and so, since Jesus was sinless, his death is the genuinely shocking.
And so we have to conclude that it was as a consequence of the sins of others that he suffered. Which it was – for it was for the sin of those he came to save that held him to the cross that day, dying as he did in their place, taking the punishment they deserved. But having died, being without sin himself, it was always going to be impossible for death to hold on to him. [Acts 2:24]
Far then from being unbelievable, Jesus being raised from the dead was nothing other than inevitable.
Now some of you might be thinking that I’m drifting away from the subject at hand. But really I’m not. And the reason I say this is because it was absolutely necessary for the virgin birth to have taken place if Jesus was to have been truly sinless – just as it was absolutely necessary for Jesus to have been truly sinless, if he was to come back from the dead.
Because, you see, if Jesus had been the biological son of Joseph, if he had been just another human being, all be it a particularly good one, he would have been tarnished with the same sin that we all are – the sin that we were all born with on account of Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden.
Make no mistake though, Jesus was, by virtue of his being born to Mary, fully man – and so was a fitting representative to die in the place of those who trust him for salvation. But equally, conceived as he was by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was fully God – and so was utterly sinless, making his death the perfect sacrifice that was necessary to pay the price for the sins he bore for others.
Jesus – 100% God, 100% man – a beautiful, mysterious, paradox.
Which is, of course, all very well – but is it true.
Because my believing something to have happened, no more means it did than somebody not believing something happened, means it didn’t. Even so, you have to admit that, though a virgin birth is not a common occurrence if, like someone coming back from the dead, it were to happen, even just the once, it would change absolutely everything.
And so the question remains, was Mary really a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus?
So let me be clear. Whilst my talk of oversized members of the order Proboscidea settling down to an evening of stimulating debate with my wife is not, for one moment, something I seriously consider to have ever taken place, I do wholeheartedly believe in the virgin birth. And if you were to ask me why I believe something that, not having been there at the time, I can’t possibly know for sure, I would tell you that it is by faith that I believe.
‘Ah’, you say, ‘that’s just a cop out’.
But mine is not a faith that is blind like that of the White Queen in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ – a faith that enabled her to believe in ‘as many as six impossible things before breakfast’.
On the contrary, my faith is, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, a belief based on evidence, testimony or authority. As is the case with many things that we all believe, my belief in the virgin birth, far from being wishful thinking, is in fact, an entirely rational belief, based, like the resurrection, on the compelling eye witness testimony of those who were there at the time.
That and the authoritative word of the one who spoke the universe into existence – the one for whom all things are possible [Matthew 19:26], and the one who, ‘knowing the end from the beginning’ actually predicted the virgin birth 700 year before the event.
‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’ [Isaiah 7:14]
Luke, the author of the gospel in which we are told of the virgin birth, was a doctor and is, therefore, not somebody you would expect to believe something without good reason. And yet, having looked closely into these matters, having gathered information from those who were there at the time, Luke was clearly persuaded by all that he had been told.
And so he wrote his gospel – so that we who read it may have certainly concerning these things. [Luke 1:4]
That’s why I’m convinced. The question is then, are you?
*****
I appreciate it’s been a bit of a heavy one today – but not as heavy as the one who, kind eyes or not, has completely wrecked our living room furniture! Even so, I promise you all something much lighter tomorrow.
But now, today’s song – ‘Mary Did You Know?’, performed here by One Voice Children’s Choir.
Previously from ‘A Christmas Countdown’:
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 9’, click here
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 8’, click here
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Part 7’, click here
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 6’, click here
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 5’, click here
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 4’, click here
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 3’, click here
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 2’, click here
To read ‘A Christmas Countdown – Day 1’, click here
Other related posts:
To read ‘Looking back to move confidently forward’, click here
To read ‘The “Already” and the “Not Yet”’, click here
To read ‘Faith and Doubt’, click here
To read ‘What becomes of the broken hearted? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Palm Sunday’, click here
To read ‘Why do bad things happen to good people? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Good Friday’, click here
To read ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? Rejoicing, though temporarily sorrowful, on Easter Day’, click here.
To read ‘The Resurrection – is it just rhubarb?’, click here
Some musings 