What we believe about Christmas, and the significance we give to it, will depend almost solely on who we believe Jesus was and the importance we believe him to have to the history of the human race. There are very few people whose birthday is celebrated after their death. However, in the case of a few individuals who have had a significant influence, their birthdays may be celebrated for a number of years. Millions of Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus because they believe that he was more than just a human being, but was in fact the Second Person of the divine Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (1). We believe that this was a unique event, God entering into his own creation in order to redeem and transform it into what ultimately will be “a new heaven and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). If this is indeed so, then one might logically expect that his coming into the world could be a little different from the way the rest of us begin our human journey.

So the most important question, then, is not how he came, but who was he? The next important question is what did he come to do? If we can establish the answers to those two questions, then we can explore how it was that he came. To try to prove who Jesus was by attempting to show how he began his human journey, either by normal human conception or by some other way, without having first explored the much more significant evidence for who he was, will only leave us floundering (or arguing!). As Richard Longenecker put it in an article ‘Whose Child Is This?’ in Christianity Today, “In a theology that is biblically based, the virgin birth is neither the basis for nor the evidence of the Incarnation.” We look to other evidence for that.

Because this is such an important question, I intend to explore it in some detail. I shall do so by examining the way in which the early disciples became convinced who Jesus was, and why it was that, as a consequence, they had no problem in living with the stories of the virgin birth, stories they had lived with from the beginning, even though it was not a central plank of their preaching. One reason that both Luke and Matthew were possibly motivated to include the account of Jesus’ conception and birth in their stories was not just because it actually happened that way, but to counteract reports that his birth was illegitimate. Such reports were widespread among both pagans and Jews in the second and third centuries and no doubt were circulating in Jesus’ own day. A further reason that the Church included the virgin birth as a foundational truth in the Nicene Creed of the fourth century was to counter a rising heresy in the early church, the mistaken belief that Jesus was not really human but only appeared to be flesh and blood, a belief known as Docetism. At what date the clause about the virgin birth found its way into the baptismal confessions of faith cannot be determined.

It is likely that the public ministry of Jesus lasted about three years. John mentions three of the annual Jewish Passovers during that time (2:13; 6:4; 11:55). As it was fairly early on that Jesus chose twelve of his followers to be most closely associated with him in this ministry, this group probably lived with him for about two and a half years. During this period they saw him in every possible kind of situation, on numerous hikes through the countryside, over mealtimes, on social occasions, in private discussions, in debates with religious leaders and others, in teaching situations and in times of rest and relaxation.

During this period, whatever thoughts they may have had about him, one thing seemed clear—he was a genuine human being. They saw him joyful (Luke 10:21). They saw him in tears (John 11:35; Luke 19:41). They saw him weary (Matthew 8:24; John 4:6). They saw him angry (Mark 3:5; John 2:13-17). They saw him distressed (John 11:33,38) and they saw him in mental agony (Matthew 26:37,38; Luke 22:44). However, other things must have caused them to wonder if his humanity, however remarkable, was all that could be said about him. They had every opportunity to observe his character, an observation that caused them to declare later that they believed him to be without fault (1 Peter 2:22). They had seen him do remarkable things. They saw him heal the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the diseased, restore to health people who were demon possessed, and on three occasions at least, they had seen him raise the dead (Mark 5:38-43; Luke 7:11-17; John 11:41-44). They also saw him still a storm, feed a multitude and walk on water (Matthew 8:23-27; 14:15-21, 22-32). However, Jesus had told them on several occasions that it was not his own power that enabled him to do these things, but it was God his Father working through him by the Spirit (Matthew 12:28; John 5:19,30; 8:28; 14:10).

They had, on many occasions, listened to his authoritative teaching, so much of which centred on himself and his mission. They had heard him make claims that it seemed only God had a right to make, such as the right to forgive sins, a claim that the religious leaders rightly recognised as blasphemous if it were not true (Mark 2:1-12) (2). John tells us that at least some of his followers believed right from the beginning that he was the Messiah promised by the Old Testament prophets, a belief that was no doubt influenced by the testimony of John the Baptist (see John 1:29-51) (3). How they conceived of this promised figure, and what he would accomplish when he came, we can only imagine, as various views were current at that time. It was not till the final months of Jesus’ ministry that they were prepared to openly declare to Jesus himself that this was their belief (Matthew 16:13-16). Even then, they had distorted views about what he had come to do and how he would achieve it (vv. 21-23). When he finally met his death in Jerusalem, they were devastated.

However, one event was to change all this and enable them to see things in a totally new light—the resurrection. The disciple Thomas is usually remembered as “the doubter” because he could not believe what the other disciples told him, how Jesus had appeared to them on the evening of his resurrection. A week later, when confronted with evidence he could not deny, he became the first disciple to openly declare who Jesus really was—“my Lord and my God” (John 20:24-29). From this point on they constantly referred to Jesus in terms that could only be used of one who was more than merely human, who was in fact divine. Of course, there were still issues they had to work through. How did all this fit in with the strict monotheism in which they had been raised? The church spent many years debating the relationships that existed within the trinitarian nature of God, and how Jesus could be both human and divine, and such debates continue today. However, the rest of the New Testament clearly presents Jesus as the Creator and Sustainer of the material universe (Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-3), the one “in [whom] all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9), “the Lord” who is to be worshipped along with his Father (e.g. Revelation 5:9-14), the Judge of the human race (e.g. Matthew 25:31-46; Acts 17:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10) and the one who will one day return in power to usher in God’s eternal kingdom (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:24,25). The light of the knowledge of God’s glory [is] displayed in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). Altogether greater than the angels, and worshipped by them, he “was made lower than the angels for a little while” (Hebrews 1:5-13; 2:5-9). He “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). And if this is indeed who he is, then it excludes other possibilities. As the great Scottish theologian Hugh Ross Mackintosh expressed it:

When we come to know God in the face of Jesus Christ, we know we have not seen that Face elsewhere, and could not see it elsehow. Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and there is no door, nor way, leading to the Father but by him.

As it was the resurrection that was the final and conclusive demonstration to Jesus’ disciples as to who he really was, it was this, rather than the manner of his entry into human existence that was the focus of their preaching in the early days of the gospel. Von Camenhausen, in Virgin Birth, has this to say about the lack of emphasis in the beginning on the manner of Jesus’ birth:

Mark and John stand over against the infancy stories in Matthew and Luke; and almost all primitive Christian literature confesses by its silence that the ‘doctrine’ of the virgin birth was foreign to it, or at least a matter of secondary importance or indifference.

However, that does not mean that it has no importance or that it is not worth celebrating. After all, the angels celebrated it and had very good reason to do so, because of who he was and what he had come to achieve.

It is still the story of the risen Christ today that gives meaning to our celebration of his birth. John H. Westerhoff III, in A Pilgrim People: Learning Through the Church Year, puts this eloquently:

Now is the time to sing, envision, enact, and retell a story of God coming unexpectedly in the worst of times as a baby born poor, born homeless, born to die that all human life might be transformed and dreams made real. It’s God’s Good News—but only because we already know the story of Easter.

So, if Jesus is indeed who the New Testament declares him to be, then we have something here that is not only unique in human history, but obviously of great significance. Man on the moon pales into insignificance when we think of God on earth. It explains the statement of the great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon that “the greatest and most momentous fact which the history of the world records is the fact of Christ’s birth” or that of Charles Malik, the Lebanese philosopher and diplomat: “the hinge of history is Jesus Christ.” It means that, in the birth of Jesus, God was putting into motion a chain of events that has unimaginable consequences for the human race. Karl Barth wrote, “The mystery of the Incarnation unfolds into the mystery of Good Friday and Easter.” As Isaac Williams put it in The Nativity:

The unfathomable depths of the divine counsels were moved; the foundations of the great deep were broken up; the healing of the nations was issuing forth; but nothing was seen on the surface of human society but this slight rippling of the water.

In other words, what happened in the womb of Mary was setting in motion a chain of events that will ultimately result in the judgement of the world, the salvation of God’s people and the renewal of all creation.

This shaking of the foundations by the birth of Jesus is vividly pictured in the highly symbolic language of the book of Revelation. In chapter 12 we read that the birth of the “male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre” provokes the enmity of Satan (pictured here as “an enormous red dragon”) who attempts to “devour her child the moment he was born”. Satan is fully aware, not just of who he is, but the possible outcome of his birth and the defeat of all his own plans (see vv. 1-9).

Again, if Jesus was truly God, the Second Person of the Divine Trinity, he did not begin in Bethlehem. As Donald Macleod points out in The Person of Christ: “He is sent forth as one who already has being, not as one who comes into being by being sent.” Teilhard de Chardin, in an expressive comment on Paul’s description of Jesus in Colossians 1:15-20, put it like this:

The prodigious expanses of time before the first Christmas were not empty of Christ. They were imbued with the influx of his power. It was the ferment that stirred up the cosmic masses and directed the initial developments of the biosphere. It was the travail preceding his birth that accelerated the development of instinct and the birth of thought on earth. When Christ first appeared in the arms of Mary, he had already stirred up the world.

Isaiah’s prophecy, given 700 years before Christ’s birth, is significant in this respect: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:6,7). It was certainly true that a child was born in Bethlehem. But more than that, “a son is given”. God was offering us the gift of his eternal Son. Of course, there are mysteries here, which I will explore a little later. As Augustine put it in On the Birthday of Our Lord Jesus Christ, “The Heavens cannot contain him; a woman carried him in her bosom”.

Though John, in his Gospel, gives no details of his birth, he tells us clearly who he was. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…Through him all things were made…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:1,3,14). One of the reasons he speaks of Jesus as the Word is that it is through him God communicates with us. This has obvious links back to the opening verses of the Bible—Genesis 1:1-3.

This point, that the baby resting in Mary’s arms was indeed the Creator of the universe, is beautifully captured by Thomas Pestell (1584-1659) in his “Psalm for Christmas Day Morning”:

Behold the great Creator makes

Himself a house of clay,

A robe of virgin flesh He takes

Which He will wear for ay.

Hark, hark, the wise eternal Word

Like a weak infant cries!

In form of servant is the Lord,

And God in cradle lies.

It is this emphasis on the person of Christ, who he really was, that makes sense of the virgin birth. However, before looking at the details of his birth and the questions it raises, let’s explore the reasons why it matters who he was.

____________________

(1) I explain why it is that Christians believe in a Triune God in the booklet Understanding the Trinity and in the chapter ‘The cross and the Trinity’ in the book Why Did Jesus Die? Unearthing the meaning of the Cross.

(2) In the booklet Is Jesus Really God I have listed all the things that Jesus said about himself, things that no ordinary human being could say unless seriously deluded.

(3) In my book Why did Jesus Die? Unearthing the meaning of the Cross, in the chapter ‘The Cross in Acts’, I have listed all the terms used about Jesus by the early preachers of the gospel.