The religious value of this doctrine lies in its representation of the coming of Jesus as a new beginning in the history of the race. God Himself entered directly into human life for our salvation.

The human factor is not ignored in the doctrine of the Virgin Birth. Our Lord's birth was conditioned by the response of Mary that was made to God and no other. "Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it unto me according to Thy word." As F. W. H. Myers puts it:

With a sweet thanksgiving

She took in tranquillity what God might bring,

Blessed him and waited and within her, living,

Felt the arousal of a holy thing.

The Virgin Birth is fitting. It fits Christ. It harmonizes exactly with Him. It guarantees the continuity of His life. He belongs to humanity. He is the Son of Man. With the elimination of a human father, the national mark disappears. Christ belongs to all. It is not as a Jew that He belongs to us but as Son of God and Son of Man.

Biologically the Virgin Birth may be a mystery but is that sufficient ground for rejecting it? The question we ought to ask is whether it fits naturally with all we know of Jesus. And can there be any doubt what the answer ought to be?

There is no valid reason for doubting or disbelieving the story of the Virgin Birth. There may be prejudice but that is not reason. On the contrary there is every reason to believe in it if we believe in Christ at all. Our belief in Christ is not dependent upon the Virgin Birth. On the contrary we believe in the Virgin Birth because we believe in Jesus Christ as the Word of God to man.

2. The Child Was Different in What He Became.

Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins and boys together. John grew to be a prophet and more than a prophet but he only called men to repentance that God might forgive them. Yet Jesus forgave them. "That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, Rise, take up your pallet and go home." John taught the nature of God but Jesus revealed it.

We remember the young Isaiah almost crushed in the temple by his vision of the majesty of God so that he said: "Woe is me, for I am lost: for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." But Jesus stands upright in the presence of God and says: "I and the Father are one." That is different -- and what a difference!

All the saints have felt that the nearer they got to the great white throne of God the blacker their own hearts looked. Yet Jesus said: "Which of you can convict me of sin?" and none of them could answer Him a word. All of us pray for forgiveness but when Jesus teaches us to pray He says: "When you pray, say, 'Forgive us our sins'."

"On every page of the Gospels," says H. R. Mackintosh, "we encounter such imperial demands for obedience, as well as gracious promises of help and pardon, as it would have been an enormity for a sinful man to utter."