VIRGIN BIRTH: THE KEY ELEMENT TO CHRISTOLOGY, PART 3.

According to The New Dictionary of Theology, the New Testament teaches that Mary remained a virgin ‘until she gave birth to a son’: “But knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called His name Jesus.”( Matthew 1: 25). But that in the following century the belief emerged that she remained perpetually a virgin, that her marriage with Joseph was never consummated .5 I grew up in Catholic schools in a Catholic country and this seemed to be the view held by the people; there was a deep and almost worshipful reverence towards Mary, the Virgin. I believe the people revered her more highly than Jesus, as she was mentioned in your regular conversations more so than the Lord Jesus! Even girls, when doing something worthy of praise, they would exclaim ‘Virgen santa’ which means Holy Virgin! But this perpetual Virginity is contrary to what it says in the following Scripture: “While He was still speaking to the people, behold, His mother and His brothers stood outside, asking to speak to Him.” (Matthew 12: 46).

According to Dr. Jack W. Hayford “God introduced to the world His own Son, begotten of the Virgin Mary—God incarnate in our midst. Through Jesus, the Father taught us what kind of God He was and how redemption was to happen. Jesus lived sinlessly and with purpose, and He died to bear the penalty for the sins of all mankind!”6 I totally agree with Dr. Hayford’s words; and I believe that He was completely divine before, during and after the incarnation, and one of the facts that asserts this is His Virgin birth!
NOTES
5Sinclair B. Ferguson, David F. Wright and J.I. Packer, eds., New Dictionary of Theology, (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1988), 709.
6Jack W. Hayford, Grounds for Living, (Tonbridge: Sovereign World, 2001), 21.