Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
All that took place around the birth at Bethlehem and Nazareth happened in order to bring to pass what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. The prophet is Isaiah and the prophecy is Isaiah 7:14, that a virgin would conceive and bear a son called Immanuel. The fulfillment is God coming in human flesh, for Immanuel means God with us, the divine Son become human and joining divinity and humanity in himself forever. He is named Jesus, meaning Saviour, because he shall save his people from their sins, and his birth of the virgin identifies him as the promised Saviour in whom the Son of God became Son of man to redeem humanity. The virgin-birth prophecy was explicit and its fulfillment literal and exact, by a supernatural and divine conception by the Holy Ghost and not by ordinary generation, giving evidence that Jesus is the true Messiah and standing as an essential doctrine of the gospel and foundation of faith.
Setting and Wording
All that took place in connection with the birth at Nazareth and Bethlehem in B.C. 5 was done in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, including Mary being found with child of the Holy Ghost while betrothed to Joseph before they came together, Joseph as a righteous man planning to put her away privily, and the angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph in a dream telling him to take Mary as his wife because her child was of the Holy Ghost. The conception by the Holy Ghost, the angel's command to Joseph not to fear taking Mary, and the naming of the Son JESUS because He shall save His people from their sins all came to pass to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.
The verse belongs to the birth account showing Jesus begotten by the power of the Highest and born of Mary in Bethlehem during the reign of Augustus Caesar. In that account Mary brought forth her first-born Son, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. It states the familiar pattern that events surrounding Jesus' birth took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through a prophet. It introduces the account of His birth and early life as that fulfillment and connects what follows with earlier prophecy, affirming that prophecy and its fulfillment belong to the biblical account of His miraculous birth.
Matthew sometimes quotes prophetic words without naming the prophet. This illustrates the familiar Biblical use of fulfilled for what was spoken by the prophet coming to pass, showing that fulfill applies to prophecy. Faith required believing Scripture as the guide even beyond the angel's words, since Scripture gave the information that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem though the angel had not told Mary or Joseph this, and Joseph's response to the angel's message was not enough by itself if angelic words and Scripture seemed to conflict.
The verse identifies the birth as foretold but gives no date for it, the fulfilled prophecy concerning the virgin conception and birth of Immanuel. It tells of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus born of Mary, with Joseph as spouse of the Virgin. It stands in the opening chapters of the Gospels read after Isaiah 46-66, whose prophecies foretell the very work and words of Christ.
Prophecy and Fulfillment
The prophet is Isaiah and the prophecy is Isaiah 7:14, that a virgin would conceive and bear a son called Immanuel. The events surrounding the birth fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through Isaiah, for Christ was born of a virgin as foretold. This fulfillment was a sign identifying Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah at his first advent. Immanuel means God with us.
The Messiah was to be born in the ordinary course of human life yet of a pure virgin, and Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. The account makes clear by implication that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. His birth through Mary is connected with the fulfillment of the Lord's prophetic word, affirming the virgin birth as part of the scriptural record of his earthly life.
The virgin-birth prophecy was explicit and its fulfillment was literal and exact. Virgin meant simply Mary the wife of Joseph in her virginity, not any social or spiritual condition, Judah meant the tribe of Judah and not the Jewish race in general, and David meant David himself and not any royal line. The birth of Jesus of Nazareth was the literal fulfillment of the prophecy that a virgin would conceive and bear a Son called Immanuel, and the prediction was a sign connected with his first advent. This literal first advent proves the equally literal predictions of the second coming will be just as literally accomplished and not fulfilled in some mystical way that forbids certain knowledge that they are fulfilled.
The events of the life carry out the prophets' words, showing the New Testament agrees with the Old Testament and that the Lord ensures those words are fulfilled in detail. The prophecy that a virgin would conceive and bear a son called Immanuel was given nearly eight hundred years before the birth, and Matthew and Luke testify to its literal fulfillment. His birth in Bethlehem, the timing of his anointing and crucifixion, his triumphal entry, and details of his death and burial also fulfilled prophecy, and these predictions identify Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Together with the declarations that Christ was made of a woman and that God shall bruise Satan under feet, the fulfillment proves the promised seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 is the Messiah Jesus Christ. The serpent whose head is crushed is that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceives the whole world, the being who in the guise of a serpent beguiled Eve and led Adam and Eve into sin. The birth born of the Virgin Mary and conceived of the Holy Ghost is the Father preparing Christ a body when he came into the world, because sacrifice and offering under the Mosaic law were not desired since they were not sufficient for an atonement and the blood of bulls and of goats cannot take away sins, while the blood of this prepared body is an adequate atonement. This birth came in literal fulfillment of the promise concerning the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head.
The birth as recorded in Matthew and Luke is a major fulfillment of the Gospel promises made in the Old Testament. His birth begins a series of landmarks confirming that he is the true Messiah. The Lord foretold through prophets the experiences of his Son, including his incarnation, self-sacrificing life, death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation, and the detailed fulfillment of these prophecies cannot be explained on natural principles.
The birth marks fulfillment of God's prophecy about the promised Deliverer. The promised seed was to come through the woman and through the line of Abraham, Judah, and David. Despite Satan's efforts to destroy that line, God preserved it, and the lineage could be traced back through the line of promise. Joseph's familiarity with and expectation of the Immanuel prophecy enabled him to understand the angel's message and accept his part in the fulfillment.
Person of Christ
The fulfillment is God coming in human flesh, for Immanuel means God with us, the Word made flesh and God manifest in the flesh. In Jesus the divine Son became human and joined divinity and humanity in himself, taking human nature and becoming like his brethren. That union was not temporary but a bond that endures forever. In him the Jewish ceremonies and typical services found their fulfillment, for he took the place of the temple and the church's offices centered in him, with God's presence revealed in human life.
He is named Jesus, meaning Saviour, while he is called Immanuel, meaning God with us. His birth of the virgin and the name Jesus identify him as the promised Saviour, in whom the Son of God became Son of man, joining divinity and humanity so he could redeem humanity and reconcile people to God. As Son of man he gave an example of obedience, and as Son of God he gives power to obey. His coming as Immanuel assures deliverance from sin and power to obey God's law.
He was born of a woman and shared human birth with his brethren. His supernatural conception does not make his humanity unreal, for he had a real human body and mind experiencing human growth, needs, feelings, suffering, temptation, and death while remaining sinless. His genealogy lists bad men and women among his ancestors, some of another race than the Jews, showing he took the nature of man and was tempted in all points as human beings are, yet lived a perfect life in spite of his human nature, proving that human beings can live a holy life here in the world.
The angel's message to Joseph confirms Mary's explanation and establishes her purity, innocence, and humility in the matter of the miraculous conception. That confirmation gives grounds to believe the birth was supernatural. The prophecy gave Mary grounds to stand innocent before Joseph and before the universe, and her humility was honored with lasting glory.
The miraculous conception was not by any natural law of ordinary generation but supernatural and divine, and to deny it denies his divinity. The difference between Jesus and other men is quality not quantity, for he is divine while men are unregenerate sinners with a torrent of sin surging through their hearts, so to praise him as only the highest type of man and yet as not divine robs him of his divinity and cannot avail to stem sin. His conception is supernatural and divine, like his teachings and mighty works except when he acted under the limitations of his human nature, and like his resurrection by the divine power within him after his human death as a man.
Christ's coming through Mary without a man's concurrence fulfilled what the Lord spoke through a prophet and was the means by which deliverance from sin came. His birth and his naming as Jesus fulfilled prophecy, revealing the incarnation in which God came in human flesh to save when Jesus was named because he would save his people.
Lineage and Covenant Promise
Matthew 1 is a record of prophetic fulfillment in which the lineage and events leading to Christ's birth show God's promises to Abraham being carried out. The succession was preserved through forty-two generations despite obstacles. This establishes Christ's legitimacy as the Son of Mary and His claim to Abraham's material promise, which included the whole world.
The chapter assures believers in Christ that the promises to Abraham belong to his spiritual seed. Natural descent from Abraham was privilege and opportunity, but it did not by itself make anyone an heir, for the inheritance is received through faith. Through faith in Christ believers have a right to Abraham's promised blessing, share His promised inheritance of the world, and are joint heirs with Christ to David's throne.
Matthew traces Christ's ancestry from Adam, showing that Christ had a human pedigree and entered the human family by birth, unlike Melchizedek who had no such pedigree. It gives the preserved genealogy of Judah, tracing the descent of Jesus through the tribe of Judah on both His mother's side and His father's side, proving that the tribe was held together until Jesus came. His parents were Jews belonging to the family of David and the tribe of Judah. Joseph is named as Jesus' father because Joseph was His legal father under Jewish law, while His physical descent came through Mary, for as Joseph's wife Mary was treated as the daughter of her father and Jesus as Joseph's son.
Jesus Christ came to save sinners and did not refuse to be born of sinners. His genealogy lists bad men and women among His ancestors, some of another race than the Jews. This means He took upon Himself the nature of man and was tempted in all points as human beings are, yet lived a perfect life in spite of His human nature, proving that human beings can live a holy life here in the world.
Evidence and Belief
The virgin birth foretold in Isaiah 7:14 and fulfilled in the circumstances of Christ's birth was a sign of the first advent identifying Jesus of Nazareth as the promised and true Messiah, the virgin bearing a son called Immanuel meaning God with us. His coming was thus foretold in prophecy, and his miraculous incarnation belonged to God's revealed plan.
The miraculous birth is plainly declared in the Word and stands with the rest of Scripture, so that to deny it is to reject the truth on which Christianity rests. Its context identifies Jesus as born of a virgin by the Holy Ghost and possessing a divine nature, and its truth is essential to the Gospel of Matthew. It is an essential doctrine of the gospel given as divine revelation in the Bible in its entirety, to deny any of whose teaching shakes the faith of hearers.
The evidence for the virgin birth is the same in character as the evidence that Jesus lived and died at all, and as the evidence for his miracles, resurrection, teaching and sinless life, though the witnesses to the birth are fewer, and it is just as worthy of belief. To refuse belief in Matthew and Luke here undermines confidence in their competence as historians and in Mark and John and Paul as well, so that their testimony elsewhere will also be brushed aside, because the Bible must be trusted altogether or not at all as authority over conscience and life. Matthew is a credible and competent historian and witness, and the truthfulness of this birth account upholds his reliability at every other point. Denial on so delicate and important a matter involving the most sacred matters of human life charges him with being gullible, ignorant, given to romance, easily deceived, or ready to invent and deceive others, guilty of a gross and historically unpardonable blunder or crime that strips him of any claim to be a historian.
The account is true testimony and reliable teaching about a historical birth, not a legend, affirming that Jesus was not born in ordinary wedlock as the son of Joseph and Mary, and it cannot simply be disregarded. To claim that Joseph was his father denies Christ's deity. The birth was itself a great miracle and its advent miraculous, so that belief in the possibility of miracles is essential to Christianity. Faith in that miraculous birth and character stands together with faith in the inspiration of the Bible, and doubt beginning with whether the sacred writers were inspired at all times or beyond the best men of other ages, then whether even Jesus was infallibly inspired, then whether the work and character of Christ were miraculous, leads to general unbelief, so the beginning of doubt is the time of danger and the first doubts must be put down and crushed out.
Ministers should be able to affirm the virgin birth without doubt as part of the gospel story, and its true record is an old landmark of Christian faith to be held loyal. Yet the literal account was rejected by some ministers and the teaching denied, as by Dr. Fremantle. Seventy-four to nineteen refused to make denial a cause for resignation, with some holding that a Christian minister should be accorded liberty and that belief should not be a prerequisite of admission to the fellowship of evangelical churches, while others held that deniers should fall out of evangelical ranks and take their place with a humanistic and rationalistic religious fellowship.
The account stands against claims that the conception was not miraculous and that he was only an unusually good man, against rejection of the miraculous conception as fable by spiritualist teaching, and against critical treatment of Matthew's material beyond Mark as possibly true but unreliable and to be carefully examined. It is a miraculous event affirmed by Scripture, not to be minimized or rejected. Rejection of the birth as fact in light of modern science belongs to a wider denial of essential Christian beliefs including Christ's divinity and existence before his advent. The virgin birth is a great verity, a foundation stone in the creeds of Christendom and a fundamental of God's book upholding the authority of the Bible, once believed and proclaimed from the pulpit with the power of Christ and not civil law, and departure from it is backsliding, worldliness and unbelief, loss of faith in the miraculous and miracle-working Christ, minimizing what God calls great, treating what men cannot comprehend as mythical, and questioning by leading higher critics the mighty miracles of the eternal Son of God and relegating them to exploded myths and traditions.
The verse introduces the fulfillment of what God had spoken through a prophet concerning the virgin birth and miraculous conception. That Gospel account belongs to the divine record and to the biblical witness to Christ's divine identity, providing evidence of that identity. The virgin birth and miraculous conception are affirmed as doctrines of Christian faith, with the authority of Scripture as the rule of faith. The events fulfilled God's plan and provided a basis for faith, giving Mary grounds to stand innocent before Joseph and before the universe, with her humility honored with lasting glory.
Salvation and Christian Living
The birth that took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet revealed God's presence in human life through Emmanuel, meaning God with us, and in Jesus the Jewish ceremonies and typical services found their fulfillment, for he took the place of the temple and the offices of the church centered in him. The events surrounding that birth fulfilling what was spoken point to the virgin birth as part of the mystery of the gospel, in which the divine and the human are united in one who is both Son of God and Son of man, and his coming in human flesh is essential to the power of the gospel and distinguishes it from merely human moral teaching. His birth into a family shows that God wants to save families.
All that took place around the birth at Bethlehem and Nazareth happened in order to bring to pass what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. The prophet is Isaiah and the prophecy is Isaiah 7:14, that a virgin would conceive and bear a son called Immanuel. The fulfillment is God coming in human flesh, for Immanuel means God with us, the divine Son become human and joining divinity and humanity in himself forever. He is named Jesus, meaning Saviour, because he shall save his people from their sins, and his birth of the virgin identifies him as the promised Saviour in whom the Son of God became Son of man to redeem humanity. The virgin-birth prophecy was explicit and its fulfillment literal and exact, by a supernatural and divine conception by the Holy Ghost and not by ordinary generation, giving evidence that Jesus is the true Messiah and standing as an essential doctrine of the gospel and foundation of faith.
Setting and Wording
All that took place in connection with the birth at Nazareth and Bethlehem in B.C. 5 was done in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, including Mary being found with child of the Holy Ghost while betrothed to Joseph before they came together, Joseph as a righteous man planning to put her away privily, and the angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph in a dream telling him to take Mary as his wife because her child was of the Holy Ghost. The conception by the Holy Ghost, the angel's command to Joseph not to fear taking Mary, and the naming of the Son JESUS because He shall save His people from their sins all came to pass to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.
The verse belongs to the birth account showing Jesus begotten by the power of the Highest and born of Mary in Bethlehem during the reign of Augustus Caesar. In that account Mary brought forth her first-born Son, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. It states the familiar pattern that events surrounding Jesus' birth took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through a prophet. It introduces the account of His birth and early life as that fulfillment and connects what follows with earlier prophecy, affirming that prophecy and its fulfillment belong to the biblical account of His miraculous birth.
Matthew sometimes quotes prophetic words without naming the prophet. This illustrates the familiar Biblical use of fulfilled for what was spoken by the prophet coming to pass, showing that fulfill applies to prophecy. Faith required believing Scripture as the guide even beyond the angel's words, since Scripture gave the information that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem though the angel had not told Mary or Joseph this, and Joseph's response to the angel's message was not enough by itself if angelic words and Scripture seemed to conflict.
The verse identifies the birth as foretold but gives no date for it, the fulfilled prophecy concerning the virgin conception and birth of Immanuel. It tells of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus born of Mary, with Joseph as spouse of the Virgin. It stands in the opening chapters of the Gospels read after Isaiah 46-66, whose prophecies foretell the very work and words of Christ.
Prophecy and Fulfillment
The prophet is Isaiah and the prophecy is Isaiah 7:14, that a virgin would conceive and bear a son called Immanuel. The events surrounding the birth fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through Isaiah, for Christ was born of a virgin as foretold. This fulfillment was a sign identifying Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah at his first advent. Immanuel means God with us.
The Messiah was to be born in the ordinary course of human life yet of a pure virgin, and Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. The account makes clear by implication that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. His birth through Mary is connected with the fulfillment of the Lord's prophetic word, affirming the virgin birth as part of the scriptural record of his earthly life.
The virgin-birth prophecy was explicit and its fulfillment was literal and exact. Virgin meant simply Mary the wife of Joseph in her virginity, not any social or spiritual condition, Judah meant the tribe of Judah and not the Jewish race in general, and David meant David himself and not any royal line. The birth of Jesus of Nazareth was the literal fulfillment of the prophecy that a virgin would conceive and bear a Son called Immanuel, and the prediction was a sign connected with his first advent. This literal first advent proves the equally literal predictions of the second coming will be just as literally accomplished and not fulfilled in some mystical way that forbids certain knowledge that they are fulfilled.
The events of the life carry out the prophets' words, showing the New Testament agrees with the Old Testament and that the Lord ensures those words are fulfilled in detail. The prophecy that a virgin would conceive and bear a son called Immanuel was given nearly eight hundred years before the birth, and Matthew and Luke testify to its literal fulfillment. His birth in Bethlehem, the timing of his anointing and crucifixion, his triumphal entry, and details of his death and burial also fulfilled prophecy, and these predictions identify Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Together with the declarations that Christ was made of a woman and that God shall bruise Satan under feet, the fulfillment proves the promised seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 is the Messiah Jesus Christ. The serpent whose head is crushed is that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceives the whole world, the being who in the guise of a serpent beguiled Eve and led Adam and Eve into sin. The birth born of the Virgin Mary and conceived of the Holy Ghost is the Father preparing Christ a body when he came into the world, because sacrifice and offering under the Mosaic law were not desired since they were not sufficient for an atonement and the blood of bulls and of goats cannot take away sins, while the blood of this prepared body is an adequate atonement. This birth came in literal fulfillment of the promise concerning the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head.
The birth as recorded in Matthew and Luke is a major fulfillment of the Gospel promises made in the Old Testament. His birth begins a series of landmarks confirming that he is the true Messiah. The Lord foretold through prophets the experiences of his Son, including his incarnation, self-sacrificing life, death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation, and the detailed fulfillment of these prophecies cannot be explained on natural principles.
The birth marks fulfillment of God's prophecy about the promised Deliverer. The promised seed was to come through the woman and through the line of Abraham, Judah, and David. Despite Satan's efforts to destroy that line, God preserved it, and the lineage could be traced back through the line of promise. Joseph's familiarity with and expectation of the Immanuel prophecy enabled him to understand the angel's message and accept his part in the fulfillment.
Person of Christ
The fulfillment is God coming in human flesh, for Immanuel means God with us, the Word made flesh and God manifest in the flesh. In Jesus the divine Son became human and joined divinity and humanity in himself, taking human nature and becoming like his brethren. That union was not temporary but a bond that endures forever. In him the Jewish ceremonies and typical services found their fulfillment, for he took the place of the temple and the church's offices centered in him, with God's presence revealed in human life.
He is named Jesus, meaning Saviour, while he is called Immanuel, meaning God with us. His birth of the virgin and the name Jesus identify him as the promised Saviour, in whom the Son of God became Son of man, joining divinity and humanity so he could redeem humanity and reconcile people to God. As Son of man he gave an example of obedience, and as Son of God he gives power to obey. His coming as Immanuel assures deliverance from sin and power to obey God's law.
He was born of a woman and shared human birth with his brethren. His supernatural conception does not make his humanity unreal, for he had a real human body and mind experiencing human growth, needs, feelings, suffering, temptation, and death while remaining sinless. His genealogy lists bad men and women among his ancestors, some of another race than the Jews, showing he took the nature of man and was tempted in all points as human beings are, yet lived a perfect life in spite of his human nature, proving that human beings can live a holy life here in the world.
The angel's message to Joseph confirms Mary's explanation and establishes her purity, innocence, and humility in the matter of the miraculous conception. That confirmation gives grounds to believe the birth was supernatural. The prophecy gave Mary grounds to stand innocent before Joseph and before the universe, and her humility was honored with lasting glory.
The miraculous conception was not by any natural law of ordinary generation but supernatural and divine, and to deny it denies his divinity. The difference between Jesus and other men is quality not quantity, for he is divine while men are unregenerate sinners with a torrent of sin surging through their hearts, so to praise him as only the highest type of man and yet as not divine robs him of his divinity and cannot avail to stem sin. His conception is supernatural and divine, like his teachings and mighty works except when he acted under the limitations of his human nature, and like his resurrection by the divine power within him after his human death as a man.
Christ's coming through Mary without a man's concurrence fulfilled what the Lord spoke through a prophet and was the means by which deliverance from sin came. His birth and his naming as Jesus fulfilled prophecy, revealing the incarnation in which God came in human flesh to save when Jesus was named because he would save his people.
Lineage and Covenant Promise
Matthew 1 is a record of prophetic fulfillment in which the lineage and events leading to Christ's birth show God's promises to Abraham being carried out. The succession was preserved through forty-two generations despite obstacles. This establishes Christ's legitimacy as the Son of Mary and His claim to Abraham's material promise, which included the whole world.
The chapter assures believers in Christ that the promises to Abraham belong to his spiritual seed. Natural descent from Abraham was privilege and opportunity, but it did not by itself make anyone an heir, for the inheritance is received through faith. Through faith in Christ believers have a right to Abraham's promised blessing, share His promised inheritance of the world, and are joint heirs with Christ to David's throne.
Matthew traces Christ's ancestry from Adam, showing that Christ had a human pedigree and entered the human family by birth, unlike Melchizedek who had no such pedigree. It gives the preserved genealogy of Judah, tracing the descent of Jesus through the tribe of Judah on both His mother's side and His father's side, proving that the tribe was held together until Jesus came. His parents were Jews belonging to the family of David and the tribe of Judah. Joseph is named as Jesus' father because Joseph was His legal father under Jewish law, while His physical descent came through Mary, for as Joseph's wife Mary was treated as the daughter of her father and Jesus as Joseph's son.
Jesus Christ came to save sinners and did not refuse to be born of sinners. His genealogy lists bad men and women among His ancestors, some of another race than the Jews. This means He took upon Himself the nature of man and was tempted in all points as human beings are, yet lived a perfect life in spite of His human nature, proving that human beings can live a holy life here in the world.
Evidence and Belief
The virgin birth foretold in Isaiah 7:14 and fulfilled in the circumstances of Christ's birth was a sign of the first advent identifying Jesus of Nazareth as the promised and true Messiah, the virgin bearing a son called Immanuel meaning God with us. His coming was thus foretold in prophecy, and his miraculous incarnation belonged to God's revealed plan.
The miraculous birth is plainly declared in the Word and stands with the rest of Scripture, so that to deny it is to reject the truth on which Christianity rests. Its context identifies Jesus as born of a virgin by the Holy Ghost and possessing a divine nature, and its truth is essential to the Gospel of Matthew. It is an essential doctrine of the gospel given as divine revelation in the Bible in its entirety, to deny any of whose teaching shakes the faith of hearers.
The evidence for the virgin birth is the same in character as the evidence that Jesus lived and died at all, and as the evidence for his miracles, resurrection, teaching and sinless life, though the witnesses to the birth are fewer, and it is just as worthy of belief. To refuse belief in Matthew and Luke here undermines confidence in their competence as historians and in Mark and John and Paul as well, so that their testimony elsewhere will also be brushed aside, because the Bible must be trusted altogether or not at all as authority over conscience and life. Matthew is a credible and competent historian and witness, and the truthfulness of this birth account upholds his reliability at every other point. Denial on so delicate and important a matter involving the most sacred matters of human life charges him with being gullible, ignorant, given to romance, easily deceived, or ready to invent and deceive others, guilty of a gross and historically unpardonable blunder or crime that strips him of any claim to be a historian.
The account is true testimony and reliable teaching about a historical birth, not a legend, affirming that Jesus was not born in ordinary wedlock as the son of Joseph and Mary, and it cannot simply be disregarded. To claim that Joseph was his father denies Christ's deity. The birth was itself a great miracle and its advent miraculous, so that belief in the possibility of miracles is essential to Christianity. Faith in that miraculous birth and character stands together with faith in the inspiration of the Bible, and doubt beginning with whether the sacred writers were inspired at all times or beyond the best men of other ages, then whether even Jesus was infallibly inspired, then whether the work and character of Christ were miraculous, leads to general unbelief, so the beginning of doubt is the time of danger and the first doubts must be put down and crushed out.
Ministers should be able to affirm the virgin birth without doubt as part of the gospel story, and its true record is an old landmark of Christian faith to be held loyal. Yet the literal account was rejected by some ministers and the teaching denied, as by Dr. Fremantle. Seventy-four to nineteen refused to make denial a cause for resignation, with some holding that a Christian minister should be accorded liberty and that belief should not be a prerequisite of admission to the fellowship of evangelical churches, while others held that deniers should fall out of evangelical ranks and take their place with a humanistic and rationalistic religious fellowship.
The account stands against claims that the conception was not miraculous and that he was only an unusually good man, against rejection of the miraculous conception as fable by spiritualist teaching, and against critical treatment of Matthew's material beyond Mark as possibly true but unreliable and to be carefully examined. It is a miraculous event affirmed by Scripture, not to be minimized or rejected. Rejection of the birth as fact in light of modern science belongs to a wider denial of essential Christian beliefs including Christ's divinity and existence before his advent. The virgin birth is a great verity, a foundation stone in the creeds of Christendom and a fundamental of God's book upholding the authority of the Bible, once believed and proclaimed from the pulpit with the power of Christ and not civil law, and departure from it is backsliding, worldliness and unbelief, loss of faith in the miraculous and miracle-working Christ, minimizing what God calls great, treating what men cannot comprehend as mythical, and questioning by leading higher critics the mighty miracles of the eternal Son of God and relegating them to exploded myths and traditions.
The verse introduces the fulfillment of what God had spoken through a prophet concerning the virgin birth and miraculous conception. That Gospel account belongs to the divine record and to the biblical witness to Christ's divine identity, providing evidence of that identity. The virgin birth and miraculous conception are affirmed as doctrines of Christian faith, with the authority of Scripture as the rule of faith. The events fulfilled God's plan and provided a basis for faith, giving Mary grounds to stand innocent before Joseph and before the universe, with her humility honored with lasting glory.
Salvation and Christian Living
The birth that took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet revealed God's presence in human life through Emmanuel, meaning God with us, and in Jesus the Jewish ceremonies and typical services found their fulfillment, for he took the place of the temple and the offices of the church centered in him. The events surrounding that birth fulfilling what was spoken point to the virgin birth as part of the mystery of the gospel, in which the divine and the human are united in one who is both Son of God and Son of man, and his coming in human flesh is essential to the power of the gospel and distinguishes it from merely human moral teaching. His birth into a family shows that God wants to save families.