First, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with God, his Maker. The classic verse on this is Romans 5:1:

Therefore, having been justified by faith (referring to faith in Christ), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m reminded of that story about the preacher who asked the man, “Have you made peace with God?” The man answered, “I didn’t know that we were fighting.” Well, the fact is that every member of the human race is born fighting with God. Romans 3:10-12 says:

There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.

Yes, the sinner is at war with holy God. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus, through His shed blood (Colossians 1:19-20), has laid a peace treaty on the table for any individual who will sign it. Isaiah 53:5 describes it so beautifully:

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for out iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Second, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with himself. Christ’s words from John 14:27 refer to this kind of inner peace. He says to His disciples:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

In a recent series of devotions, my friend Malcolm Woody has been dissecting Philippians chapter 4, specifically as the verses relate to the inner peace of the believer. The devotions have driven home to me afresh and anew the fact that inner peace is there for the taking if the believer desires it. But even as I read those devotions each day it didn’t dawn on me that there was one particular area of my life concerning which I didn’t have an inner peace. It wasn’t until my brother Richie pointedly said to me the other day, “You just don’t a peace about you right now,” that I came to grips with the truth of that statement. I feel like the Lord worked through Malcolm’s devotions to set me on a tee and then He worked through Richie to whack me out of the park. Since my conversation with Richie, I’ve really been working hard at accessing the inner peace that I am afforded in Jesus as it relates to that one troublesome area of my life.

Christian, I gave you that bit of personal testimony to let you know that I speak from personal experience when I ask you if your heart is troubled about something right now. Is there some circumstance, some situation, some problem in your life for which you have no inner peace? If there is, you are, as I was, living beneath your privilege because you aren’t abiding in the peace that Jesus has given you. You need to repent of your worrying. You need to give up on trying to control things you can’t control. Most of all, you need to put your complete trust in your sovereign Savior and let His peace well up from inside you and begin to dominate your life as it should. A troubled heart and the peace that Jesus has given you just can’t coexist. We, as Christians, should obey the command of Colossians 3:15 and “let the peace of God rule in our hearts.”

Third, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with others. Ephesians 2:14 plays off the fact that in the Jewish temple there was a wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the areas that were exclusively for the Jews. The verse says of Jesus:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both (the Jew and the Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

In Bible times, it would have been impossible to imagine too more different people than the Jew and the Gentile. They were completely different races. They came from radically different backgrounds. They had strikingly different customs. And yet, through Jesus, the Jew and the Gentile could now be at peace with each other. This proves that, through Jesus, the Christian can peaceably get along with others. Jesus Himself says in Mark 9:50, “…have peace with one another.” Hebrews 12:14 chimes right in with that by saying, “…Pursue peace with all people.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5:13, Paul says to the Christians of Thessalonica, “Be at peace among yourselves.”

On the heels of such verses, you know what I’m going to ask you. Are you fighting with someone right now? Is there a person with which you currently are not at peace? If there is, let me encourage you to do all that you can to make peace with them, whoever they are. Remember that in His Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that His followers (whom He called sons of God) should be “peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). That means you, Christian. I’ll also quote Paul again here too. In Romans 12:18, he says:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

These words certainly ring true for any time of the year, but surely they ring all the more true for this season of Christmas. How can a Christian properly celebrate the birth of his Savior, the Peace-Giver, if he is at war with a fellow human being? I know, I know, Paul said “If it is possible…”, and maybe you are saying, “It’s just not possible with that person.” Well, maybe it isn’t, and maybe you and that person will never want to climb into a car and take a road-trip together, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t at least do your part to make peace. At the very least, you can stop throwing gasoline onto the fire and making the relationship worse. Ask Jesus to help you to know exactly what to do and what not to do, and trust that He will. Take heart in the fact that peace between yourself and others is one of the kinds of peace that He died to bring you.

-The New America Standard: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

-The New International Version: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

-The Revised Standard Version: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

-The Holman Christian Standard: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!”

In case you are wondering why it’s important to nail down the translation so precisely, it’s because there are those who try to make something of the fact that Christ’s birth really didn’t bring peace on earth. Obviously, there have been untold numbers of wars since His birth, just as there were untold numbers of them before His birth. But as we see in these various other translations of the angels’quote, this argument reads something into the quote that actually isn’t there. The angels weren’t saying that there would be peace on earth. That wrong idea sprang from the inferior translation of the cherished King James Version. If the angels really were saying that Christ’s birth would bring peace on earth, why did Jesus Himself prophesy that the future would bring “wars and rumors of wars” and that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”? (Matthew 24:6-7) Even more than that, why did He flatly say, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword”? (Matthew 10:34)

Still, what we need to understand is that there will come a time when there will be peace on earth, and Jesus will be the cause of it. That time will be His 1,000 year reign upon this earth. Isaiah 2:4 describes it this way:

He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Of course, Christ’s 1,000 year reign isn’t here yet, is it? And according to Bible prophecy, a lot has to happen before it gets here. A detailed list of events and proof texts would go on for pages, but here at least are the major highlights:

-There has to be Christ’s snatching away of His people in what is called the Rapture. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

-There has to be the rise of the Antichrist and his right hand man the False Prophet. (Revelation 13:1-18)

-There has to be a seven-year Tribulation period. (Daniel 9:20-27, Revelation chapters 6 through 18)

-There has to be a battle of Armageddon that climaxes the Tribulation period. (Revelation 16:12-16, 19:19)

-There has to be Christ’s Second Coming to literally walk this earth again and win the battle of Armageddon. (Revelation 19:11-21)

-There has to be the capturing of the Antichrist and the False Prophet and their banishing to the eternal lake of fire. (Revelation 19:20)

-There has to be the binding of Satan and the imprisoning of Him in the bottomless pit for the 1,000 years of Christ’s earthly reign. (Revelation 20:1-3)

-There has to be the great dividing between the living “lost” (those who took the so-called “mark of the beast” during the tribulation period and lived to see the end of the period) from the living “saved” (those who accepted Christ as Savior during the Tribulation period and lived to see the end of the period). (Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 13:11-18)

-There has to be Christ’s formal establishing of His Kingdom throne in Jerusalem. (Psalm 2:6-12, Zephaniah 3:14-15, Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Daniel 2:44)

And so, you see, this world isn’t anywhere near ready for Jesus to reign over it in peace. As a matter of fact, the death tolls that will come from the battles and wars during the Tribulation period will be almost beyond belief (Revelation 6:3-8, 7:9-17, 9:13-19). This isn’t to say, though, that world peace isn’t one day coming. And who will bring it in? Not surprisingly, it will be the One who was born on that starry night so long ago. He is, after all, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

When Christmas day came, that boy brought the teacher a gift, an extraordinarily beautiful sea shell. When she asked him, “Where did you find such a beautiful shell?” he told her that shells of that kind could only be found in one place, in a bay several miles away. She said, “But you shouldn’t have gone that far just to get a gift for me.” He answered in his broken English, “Long walk part of gift.”

I can’t read that illustration and not think of how Jesus left the glorious splendor of heaven and His throne at the right hand of God the Father to descend down into time, history, and the human race and have an animal’s feeding trough as his first crib. As 2 Corinthians 8:9 puts it:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

And because Jesus was the “gift” in the famous words “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16) I suppose we might loosely say of Him as well, “Long walk part of gift.”

The missionary, sensing that the Holy Spirit was working on the chief, started preaching again. This time he told the Indians that God, in giving us Jesus, had given us His absolute best. The chief listened carefully, considered the matter, and then walked forward again, this time carrying his blanket. He laid the blanket at the missionary’s feet and said, “Chief give his blanket to Jesus.”

But that still wasn’t the response the missionary was seeking, and so he went to preaching again. He told the Indians how Jesus, even though He was rich in heaven, had become poor for us by being born in a manger, living a humble life, and dying by way of a cruel, humiliating cross. This compelled the chief to leave the meeting, go and get his horse, bring the animal to the missionary, and say, “Chief give his horse to Jesus.”

Now the chief thought to himself, “I have given everything I have to Jesus, who gave Himself for me.” The missionary, however, started up yet another round of preaching. This time he explained that Jesus had arisen from the dead, appeared to many in His post-resurrection body, ascended back to heaven forty days later, and was now seated at the right hand of His heavenly father, calling men and women to Himself. And it was then that the Indian chief finally understood why the missionary had never seemed satisfied with the fine gifts. The chief stood up again, walked forward, bowed himself at the missionary’s feet, and said, “Chief give himself to Jesus.”

Ah friend, there it is! That is the decision that Jesus wants from each of us, and it is a far cry from merely attending church, putting some money in the offering plate, owning a Bible, praying prayers, trying to live a moral life, etc. Certainly each of those things is proper when understood in its rightful place. But, really, when it comes to salvation, they are all just tomahawks, blankets, and horses. What Jesus truly wants is you, lock, stock, and barrel. And, just to be honest about it, when He has you like that, He’ll have you keep all your tomahawks, blankets, and horses and use them in service to Him.

1. The gradual revelation began when God said to Satan (who was possessing Eden’s serpent at the time), “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23). So, the Savior would be born to a woman, specifically a virgin.   

2. The gradual revelation progressed when God promised Abram (Abraham), “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:16). So, the Savior would be born to a virgin, and He would be a Jew.

3. The gradual revelation progressed further when the elderly Jacob (Abraham’s grandson) prophesied that the Messiah would come through the line of Jacob’s son Judah (Genesis 49:10; Hebrews 7:14; Revelation 5:5). So, the Savior would be born to a virgin. He would be a Jew. And He would be born from the tribe of Judah. 

4. The gradual revelation progressed further when God promised King David that He would establish the throne of his son’s kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Matthew 1:1; Luke 1:26-27; Romans 1:3). So, the Savior would be born to a virgin. He would be a Jew. He would be from the tribe of Judah. And He would be born from the line of David.

5. The gradual revelation progressed further when Micah prophesied that the Messiah would be born in the small town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1-6). So, the Savior would be born to a virgin. He would be a Jew. He would be from the tribe of Judah. He would be from the line of David. And He would be born in the town of Bethlehem. 

6. The gradual revelation finally concluded when an angel said to Joseph, “And she (Mary) will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). So, the Savior would be born to a virgin. He would be a Jew. He would be from the tribe of Judah. He would be from the line of David. He would be born in the town of Bethlehem. And He would be named Jesus.  

You see, down through the eons of human history, God kept getting more and more specific regarding the details of the birth of the Savior of the human race. A plan was always in place, and God was always working His plan. That plan culminated on that night so long ago in the birth of that little baby that lay there in that manger.

# 1. On what day was Jesus born?

a. January 1^st

b. July 4^th

c. we can’t be sure of the exact date

d. December 25

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#2. Joseph and Mary lived in what city?

a. Dallas, Texas

b. Nazareth

c. Capernaum

d. Jerusalem

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#3. In what city was Jesus born?

a. Bethlehem

b. we can’t be sure of the exact city

c. Miami, Florida

d. Nazareth

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#4. Why were Joseph and Mary in that city?

a. they lived there

b. it was the closest place with a doctor

c. it was where their donkey broke down

d. they had to be registered for taxation purposes

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#5. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, what was the relationship between Joseph and Mary?

a. they were husband and wife

b. Mary was betrothed to be Joseph’s wife

c. they were brother and sister

d. they had dated in college

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#6. What was so unique about Mary giving birth to Jesus?

a. she was still a virgin

b. she rode to the hospital in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer

c. she was 70 years old at the time

d. she thought she was giving birth to a girl

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#7. What is our best guess as to the specific site of Christ’s birth?

a. a tavern

b. an inn

c. a shopping mall

d. a stall, stable, or cave where livestock were kept

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#8. Not long after Jesus was born, what did Mary wrap Him in?

a. her family quilt

b. a new blanket from Babies ’R Us

c. cloths

d. the sheet from the bed

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#9. Once Mary had wrapped Jesus up, where did she lay Him?

a. in the backseat of her car

b. in an animal’s feeding trough

c. in a crib that Joseph had built

d. on some straw on the ground

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#10. Who were the first people to hear that Jesus had been born?

a. some shepherds in a nearby field

b. the people who helped with the birth

c. Mary’s parents

d. the little drummer boy and his animals

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#11. How did they hear that Jesus had been born?

a. they heard a baby’s cry and followed the sound

b. it was a news broadcast that interrupted “It’s A Wonderful Life”

c. they were there on scene when He was born

d. an angel suddenly appeared to them and told them

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#12. Once they had found baby Jesus, what did they do with the news of His birth?

a. they kept quite about it because they were afraid

b. they went and told a lot of people in the surrounding area

c. they sold the scoop to the National Enquirer for $100

d. they only talked about it amongst themselves

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#13. Then what did they do?

a. they went back to what they had been doing before

b. they sold all their possessions to follow Jesus

c. they began to doubt what they had seen

d. they wrote a Christmas hymn about their experience

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#14. When did the wise men come to see Jesus?

a. when they had earned enough money to make the trip

b. at least several months after his birth, possibly even two years

c. when they got laid off from their jobs and had some spare time

d. the night of His birth

———————————————————————————-

#15. How many wise men were there?

a. three

b. none, any woman can tell you that no man is all that wise

c. twelve

d. the Bible doesn’t tell us

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#16. Where was Jesus when the wise men found Him?

a. working at WalMart

b. lying in a manger

c. in Mary’s arms

d. in a house

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#17. What gifts did the wise men bring to Jesus?

a. gold, frankincense, and myrrh

b. a Playstation III, an X Box, and a laptop

c. a shepherd’s staff, a sling, and a pouch

d. a white stallion, a king’s robe, and a crown

———————————————————————————-

#18. What was the occupation of the wise men?

a. they were shepherds

b. they were astrologers who studied the stars and natural sciences

c. they operated a chain of Christmas tree lots across the land

d. they were kings

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#19. What is our best guess as to where the wise men lived?

a. the city of Jerusalem

b. the city of Rome

c. the Babylon-Persia region

d. Los Angeles, California

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#20. The star that prompted the wise men to begin their journey was seen in what part of the sky?

a. the section directly over Santa’s workshop at the North Pole

b. the west

c. the south

d. the east

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(extra credit question): We find the Christmas story in what parts of the Bible?

A. the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)

B. the gospels of Matthew and Luke

C. the table of contents

D. the books of Genesis and The Revelation

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answers:

1.c     2.b (Luke 2:4)     3.a (Luke 2:4-5)     4.d (Luke 2:1-5)

5.b (Luke 2:4-5)     6.a (Matthew 1:18,22-25)     7.d (Luke 2:7)

8.c (Luke 2:7)     9.b (Luke 2:7)     10.a (Luke 2:8)  

11.d (Luke 2:9-14)     12.b (Luke 2:15-18)     13.a (Luke 2:20)

14.b (Matthew 2:16)   15.d (Matthew 2:1)  16.d (Matthew 2:11a)    

17.a (Matthew 2:11)     18.b (Matthew 2:2)    

19.c (Matthew 2:1; they lived in a land east of Jerusalem)

20.b (Matthew 2:2; they were in the east and followed the star west toward Jerusalem and Bethlehem)    

extra credit question: b

Since this snow is one of those “heavy” ones, we’ve been living under the constant threat of broken branches falling down onto power lines. Fortunately, our house only lost power for about three hours on Friday night. But other folks in the area didn’t fare so well. Some were without power for over a day. As for church today, we cancelled, just like virtually everybody else around here did.

The thing that has fascinated me about this snow is the effect it has had upon my two boys. They’ve seen snow before, but they haven’t seen a big storm like this. These mountains of western North Carolina get a fair amount of snow, but you have to go back to the winter of 1993 to find a storm that dumped this much on us. 

Actually, when I was a kid, some thirty or thirty-five years ago, we got these big snows much more frequently. I’m being serious and literal when I say that one year we were out of school for virtually the entire month of January. But, alas, now our typical snows are in the two to four-inch range. That’s what made this one such an event for the boys.

Over the past couple of days, they’ve ridden their snowboards for hours on end, built not one but two snowmen in our front yard, and begun construction on a couple of snow forts in the back yard. I don’t think the forts will get finished, but the boys have never even begun such forts after previous snows. That right there tells you that this storm is one for the memory banks.

Ryan, the twelve-year-old, said something interesting to me yesterday. He said, “Daddy, I’ve never seen a snow this big. Is this one of those like you got when you were a kid?” I said, “Yes, son, it is. It really is.” Following that conversation, I thought to myself, “Here is a boy twelve years old, and yet he’s just now seeing a snow this big. What should I make of that?” What I made of it is that our weather seems to have changed even over the course of my lifetime.

But, please, don’t put me on the global warming bandwagon with Al Gore and the others just yet. I have no point of reference for the weather in other parts of the world. Furthermore, even if our planet is getting warmer, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the increase is the result of what mankind has been doing to the planet. Maybe we have simply entered into a different long-term weather cycle.  

What I’m absolutely, positively, don’t have a doubt in my mind about, 100% sure of is that global warming isn’t going to bring about the end of life of earth. I’ve studied Bible prophecy and I know how things are going to play out. Yes, the book of The Revelation describes ecological disasters and cataclysmic events, but they all take place under the sovereign control of God. Our weather operates inside His mighty hands.

So, Chicken Little, calm down and know that God is in charge of such big departments as the weather and life on earth. I don’t mean to convey a “don’t worry, be happy” attitude, because much of the prophesied stuff for this earth’s future is very grim. But let’s never forget that God is in control. Not man. Not mother nature. Not mother earth. Not big business. Not Greenpeace. Not the United Nations. There is no panic in heaven, and the whole situation down here is in no way spiraling toward some undetermined end.

I can’t speak for you, but that simple, childlike faith in a sovereign God gives me great comfort. It makes me feel “safe.” What’s even better is the fact that this sovereign God once took human flesh upon Himself and was crucified on a Roman cross for the sins of the world. Even better than that is the fact that He arose from the dead and ascended back to heaven. Even better than that is the fact that I have placed my belief in Him as Savior. So, come deep snow, wintry mix, rain, or sunshine, I can rest in the knowledge that I will spend eternity with Him. That should give anybody a warm feeling on a night when there is a blanket of snow on the ground.

We’ve been in a series of posts on the matter of why we should believe in the virgin birth. With the two previous posts, we’ve learned that we should believe in the virgin birth because scripture and Bible prophecy demand it. Now, with this third and last post, we’re going to see that logic also demands it.

Can you name the problem with any man fathering a child? It’s the fact that a sinner can only produce another sinner. This has been the tragic, vicious cycle that mankind has been in since the moment Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and became a sinner.

When Adam impregnated Eve that first time, perhaps he hoped that the baby would not bear the marks of his sin. Sadly, though, it surely wasn’t too long into Cain’s life before Adam realized how ruined his race was. Cain came complete with the inborn nature of a sinner, and that meant that Cain, like his mother and father, was marked for death.

The Bible plainly teaches that sin brings death, and so the moment Cain was born the clock began ticking on his mortality. But it wasn’t just Cain who was born as a sinner ultimately headed for a grave. All of Adam’s other sons and daughters shared in this same fate because they were all products of their daddy’s sin-tainted seed. Then, of course, as Adam’s sons grew up one by one, they themselves took wives and fathered children. But all of those children (Adam’s grandchildren) were born sinners as well.

And so it went, on and on, down through the ages. Why? Because it is an irrevocable, unchangeable fact that a sinner can only father another sinner. Romans 5:12 puts it this way: “just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned.”

Now, it is with this in mind that I want you to put yourself in the place of God. You’ve got to get a Savior into this world, a Savior who will die for all the sins of the world. To die for those sins that Savior must Himself be completely without sin.

But how could any baby be born into the human race without passing through and coming under the taint of sin? How could a sinless child be conceived in a mother’s womb when every potential father on planet Earth was a sinner? I’ll tell you how: the virgin birth.

The man in the male-female, biological relationship would have to bypassed altogether. And that’s just what God did. Luke 1:35 lets us see as far as we can see into the mystery of the virgin birth. That verse says: “And the angel (Gabriel) answered and said to her (Mary), ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.’”

You see, there had to be something miraculous and supernatural about Christ’s birth. He simply couldn’t be the seed of Joseph and yet still be sinless and perfect. As fine a man as Joseph was, he was defective material. He was a sinner, a sinner who could only father another sinner. That’s why Christ’s birth had to be different. Really, when you come at it from a doctrinal standpoint, the virgin birth was only logical.

This is the second post in a three-part series on why we should believe in Christ’s virgin birth. With the first post, I explained that we should believe in the virgin birth because scripture demands it. With this one I want to show that we should believe in it because Bible prophecy demands it.

In Matthew 1:22-23, Matthew weaves an Old Testament prophecy into his God-inspired writing. He writes: “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’which is translated, ‘God with us.’”

This prophecy was given by the prophet Isaiah some 700 years before Jesus was born. We find the story in Isaiah chapter 7. The Lord instructed Ahaz, the king of Judah (Israel’s two southern tribes), to ask for a sign as proof that the allied forces of Syria and Israel (Israel’s ten northern tribes) would not invade and conquer Judah. God said the sign could be anything on earth or in the heavens. Ahaz, however, refused to name a sign. His problem was that he had pretty much already set his heart on getting his help from another group of people, the Assyrians.

The Lord was displeased with Ahaz’s refusal, and He went ahead and named a sign anyway. God said, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” That is the part of the prophecy that Matthew quotes in his gospel.

However, for the rest of the prophecy, God went on to say other things about the child. First, the child would eat curds and honey. Second, before the child would be old enough to know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the kings of Syria and Israel would meet their doom and the king of Assyria would invade the land of Judah.

There is much debate as to how God’s sign actually played out in the life of King Ahaz. It seems clear, though, that if the sign was only fulfilled in Christ’s birth that wouldn’t have been any sign to Ahaz. After all, Ahaz lived centuries before Jesus was born.

Therefore, the sign surely had some kind of partial fulfillment in Ahaz’s time. Perhaps a virgin that Ahaz knew got married shortly after God gave this sign. Perhaps then the newly married virgin got pregnant by her husband and gave birth to a son in less than a year. Some even contend that the woman was Isaiah’s second wife, his first wife having died.

Frankly, we just don’t know the exact details of how God’s sign played out to King Ahaz. What we do know is how the sign was ultimately and perfectly fulfilled. Matthew leaves no doubt about that. That final fulfillment came when Jesus was born to the virgin Mary.

And here again we see in the careful wording of the Old Testament text that Mary was a virgin when she bore Jesus. The Hebrew word that is used to define the young mother in the Isaiah passage is almah. This word comes from the root word alam, which means “to hide or conceal.” This shows us that the word specifically refers to a virgin. One writer has said: “The name was given to a virgin because she is said to be hidden or concealed in the family of the parents.” And so, based upon Matthew’s use of the prophetic passage from Isaiah, we can say assuredly that Bible prophecy demanded the virgin birth.

Before we move on, though, let me tell you about another prophecy that Christ’s birth fulfilled. This one goes all the way back to the garden of Eden. According to Genesis 3:15, after Adam and Eve had sinned in the garden, God said to Satan (who was inside the serpent at the time), “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He (her Seed) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

What jumps out at us as we read this prophecy is the strange idea of a woman having reproductive seed. That isn’t the way the human reproductive system works, is it? So why did God prophesy to Satan about the Seed of the woman?

He did it as a way of telling Satan about the virgin birth. Thousands of years from that fateful day, Jesus (the One who would strike a blow to Satan’s head) would be conceived in the womb of a virgin. He wouldn’t be the product of the seed of a man; He would be history’s only seed of a woman. This is why that Genesis 3:15 prophecy is called “the first gospel.” And that prophecy, along with the one from Isaiah chapter 7, is undeniable proof that we should believe in the virgin birth because Bible prophecy demands it.

In the December 25^th devotion from his classic devotional My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes: “Jesus Christ was born into this world; not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of – He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate – God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors.”

I want you to take careful notice of that last line: “His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors.” What was that most humble of doors? It was the womb of a young Jewish virgin.

I dare say that none of us can fully wrap our minds around this truth. Jesus (the son of God, God the Son) laid aside His power and glory, left heaven, invaded time and history, and in some miraculous way that we cannot fathom became a human fetus in the belly of young Jewish girl who was not officially married and had never had sexual relations with a man.

Is it any wonder that the liberals and skeptics have a hard time swallowing that? They say, “Oh, what a fantasy! What a fairy tale for adults!” Or they say, “The whole notion is just Christianity’s way of mimicking the traditions of the pagan religions in which the mythic gods and heroes supposedly sprang from supernatural sources.”

Sadly, such criticisms have surely taken their toll. Even amongst certain preachers of our day, there are some who say, “It doesn’t really matter whether or not you believe that Jesus was born to a virgin. The important thing is just to believe in Him. Let’s not make a big deal out of the virgin birth. At best, it is a minor issue and a secondary doctrine.”

But is this the attitude that we should take? Certainly not! Christ’s virgin birth is not a minor issue or a secondary doctrine. Not only is it a major issue, it is also a foundational doctrine. And this is what I’m going to show you through the three posts of a series I’m calling ”Why We Should Believe In The Virgin Birth.”

Now, with this first post I want to say that we should believe in the virgin birth because scripture demands it. You need to know that the Bible distinctly teaches that Mary was a virgin when she conceived baby Jesus in her womb. Follow with me and I’ll give you the references.

First, in Matthew 1:18, the Bible says: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.”

Second, in Matthew 1: 24-25, we read: “Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.”

Third, Luke 1:26-27 says: “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.”

Fourth, Luke 1:34 says of Mary after Gabriel had told her that she was going to conceive a son: “Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’”

By the way, in these New Testament passages that specifically use the word “virgin”, the Greek word that is translated is parthenos. It is the same word that was used in the naming of the famous Parthenon, which was the Greek temple dedicated to the virgin goddess Athena. So, yes, the Bible really does teach that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived in her womb.

Of course, I hope that quoting these passages from the gospels of Matthew and Luke is enough evidence for you to agree that scripture demands that we believe in the virgin birth. Sadly, however, it isn’t enough evidence for some people. Consider the following example.

Harry Rimmer, who was a well-known Presbyterian minister of his day, once found himself in a sad situation as he served as a member of the ordination council that was examining a certain young man for ordination into the ministry. To Rimmer’s astonishment the young man boldly stated that he did not believe in the virgin birth of Christ. Even more astonishingly, when some of the other ministers began to sternly question the young man about his position, an older minister from the council spoke up and said, “I don’t want this council to make a big point of this because I don’t accept the virgin birth either.” To that, one of the other ministers asked, “Why not?” The older minister replied, “Because it is only found on two pages of the New Testament. Matthew and Luke are the only ones who ever mention it. In all of the writings of Paul, he never introduces the question of the virgin birth.”

It was at this point that Dr. Rimmer could no longer keep quite. He stood up and said to the older minister, “Tell us then, what do you teach and preach?” The man answered, “The Sermon on the Mount. That is enough for anyone.” Dr. Rimmer said, “It’s not enough for me. I don’t believe in the Sermon on the Mount.” The older minister asked, “Why not?” Dr. Rimmer said, “Because it only occurs on two pages of the New Testament and Matthew and Luke are the only Gospels who mention it.”

Do you see how absurd the older minister’s argument was? Yes, it’s true that Mark never mentions the virgin birth of Christ, but Mark never mentions the birth of Christ at all! Can we assume then that because Mark’s gospel doesn’t mention Christ’s actual birth that Jesus was not born? Of course not! Do you see how absurd it is to say of any doctrine, “That can’t be scriptural because it is only mentioned in two places in the Bible”? How many times does God have to record something for it to become a legitimate doctrine or teaching? So, to sum up, we should believe in the virgin birth because scripture demands it.