The Virginal Conception of Christ

During the early part of the twentieth century, a fierce conflict between creedal, orthodox Christianity and modernism engulfed the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Modernist theologians sought to accommodate the faith to the scientific materialism of the age, rejecting many of the miracles of the Bible as impossible while still trying to affirm that Jesus could be the Savior without them. One miracle that came under particularly strong attack was the virgin birth of Christ, which is perhaps more accurately called the virginal conception of Christ.

Yet to reject the virginal conception of Jesus is to invent another Savior altogether, as J. Gresham Machen and many other biblically faithful thinkers recognized. As the church has long confessed, the virginal conception of our Lord was necessary for us to have a perfect and sinless Redeemer, since “all mankind, descending from [Adam] by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 16; see Rom. 5:12–21). In the virginal conception, Jesus escapes the guilt and corruption of the fall and is revealed as both truly God and truly man without ever being stained by sin. As John Calvin comments, “Christ must not be born by ordinary generation, that he may be holy, and that he may be the Son of God; that is, that in holiness and glory he may be high above all creatures, and may not hold an ordinary rank among men.”

Today’s passage, among many others in Scripture, plainly teaches the virginal conception of Jesus. Mary has just been told that she will give birth to the Savior, but she does not understand how this is possible, since she is a virgin—she has not known a man sexually (Luke 1:34). The angel Gabriel answers her that she will become pregnant without sexual intercourse, for the Holy Spirit will work in her so that she will conceive in her womb the Son of God (v. 35). Proof that He can do this is found in the fact that if He could overcome the impediment of Elizabeth’s barrenness to make her naturally conceive, then Mary’s virginity is no barrier to the Spirit’s ability to supernaturally conceive a child in Mary (vv. 36–37). Mary shows great faith, then, in believing that God will make all this happen (v. 38).

In summary, the Holy Spirit will work such that the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, will take on a human nature in the womb of Mary. The Son of God forever united Himself to our humanity, without setting aside His deity (John 1:1–14; Phil. 2:5–11).