p. 9 | The Virgin Birth

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jun 2, 1904

The Virgin Birth

A STRONG attack is being made at the present time on the truth that Jesus Christ was born miraculously of a virgin. Men who rank high in the church are leading the attack.

We are now beginning to see the harvest of the seed sown by the “higher criticism,” Ministers have accepted the conclusions of the higher critics, saying that it is not the Bible, but Christ, on which our faith rests. Now it is becoming evident that when the Bible is abandoned, Jesus Christ is abandoned too. The “higher criticism” to-day denies any virgin birth, any special incarnation of the Son of God, or any actual resurrection of Christ; and those who have been credulously following the higher criticism in the past go on following it still.

The old gospel, that the Son of God became the sinner’s substitute, is despised to-day as unscientific and out-of-date, but still it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. It is not the gospel which suffers by human unbelief. It is the unbeliever who suffers. Those who believe must insist upon the old truths, and lift up the old standard, regardless of the sneers of human wisdom, and science, falsely so-called.

If Jesus had been born of two earthly parents, he would have been only human; and even if he had stood the test himself, it would only have brought the more condemnation to his fellow creatures. There would have been no power to save others.

If he had been only the Son of God, all his power and holiness would not have availed to save sinners. Sin had brought such a blindness into man’s heart that he could not see the things of God. Isa. 59:12. They were foolishness to him. 1 Cor. 2:14.

But in Jesus Christ were the two natures. Through Mary he received human nature, with all the weakness that pertained to it. From God he received all that God had to give. John 3:34. He was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power.” Rom. 1:3, 4.

Thus the Son of God took upon himself our nature. As Creator he had borne the burden of the universe; made in the likeness of sinful flesh, he took our sicknesses and carried our sorrows; dying for man, he bore the curse and purged the transgression of the world. “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.” Col. 1:16-20.

Take away the divinity of Christ, and there is no power in his life and death to make reconciliation. To persuade a professedly Christian church that Christ’s work was purely human, and therefore fruitless, would be a master-stroke of satanic policy. It would give the professing church over into his hands, to become Babylon, the synagogue of Satan. Rev. 2:9; 3:9; 18:2. The mother of harlots would greet another daughter then.

In Jesus Christ the sinful human nature never once appeared. It was overcome and swallowed up by the divine. The human nature appeared in weariness and hunger, but never in wrongdoing. What the Son of God did then in the flesh, he is able to do in every believer. He is able to keep us from falling, and to present us spotless to God. Jude 24.

Every one who is born again into the kingdom of God, by faith in his Word, has the two natures, the flesh and the Spirit. Each strives with the other. Gal. 5:17. We may sow to the flesh or to the Spirit, and the harvest will be according to the sowing. If we starve the carnal mind, refuse it food and exercise, but feed the spiritual mind, giving it free course, we shall be strengthened with might by God’s Spirit in the inner man, and as the result, Christ will be revealed in us. Eph. 4:16-18.

The Virgin Mary is an example to us. She received the wonderful promise that the Son of God should be born of her, and her answer was: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Luke 1:38. This is the response of faith, the key to a Christly life.—Present Truth.