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DECEMBER 17 12 "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel." —Matthew 1:22-23 H ow can any man not have a father? After creating our first parents, God ordained procreation for our entrance into His world. It was a good idea, since loving intimacy between a man and a woman is a beautiful and apt basis of new life in a woman's womb. Yet one man joined the human race without benefit of a human father. He was conceived in a young Jewish virgin named Mary. That man was the Son of God, the promised Messiah. But what is the significance of Jesus being conceived and born without a human father to the Virgin Mary? First, Jesus' conception was a fulfillment of prophecy, and thus received God's stamp of supernatural approval. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the events involving Mary's pregnancy "took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' (which means 'God with us')" (Matt. 1:22–23; see also Luke 1:26–38). Isaiah's prophecy (7:14) had finally come true. This was no ordinary man. As Paul wrote: But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship (Gal. 4:4–5). The manner in which Jesus fulfills Isaiah's prophecy singles Him out from every other human being—past, present, and future. No one else was born of a virgin, despite a few unsubstantiated myths to the contrary. Second, the virgin birth helps us understand the pre-existence of Christ. The Son of God did not begin to exist when Mary conceived Him. Yes, a new baby came into the world for the first time. This supernatural event was the beginning of the Incarnation: God with us in human form (see John 1:1–5, 14). However, the Word had always existed as the divine Second Person of the Trinity. The virginal conception of Jesus opens up the human space for the Incarnation. But Jesus' humanity was not the result of human- with-human procreation. In that case, there would have been no room for God's entrance into the human race as a human being. He would have been human only. But the Holy Spirit's work in Mary insured otherwise. That Jesus was born of a virgin is no fairy tale; neither is it an incidental item of theology. His virgin birth is the way of Incarnation and necessary for His saving work for humankind. Doug Groothuis, PhD Professor of Philosophy Born of a Virgin