Most people might assume they are the same thing. The Dec. 13 issue of Newsweek magazine announced that 79 percent of Americans and 87 percent of Christians believed in the virgin birth — that Jesus Christ was born to Mary who, at the time, had not had sexual relations with a man.
Less than a week earlier, Roman Catholics had celebrated the 150th anniversary of that faith’s doctrinal statement concerning the immaculate conception.
Virgin birth. Immaculate conception. The same thing. Right? Wrong.
The virgin birth is about the birth of Jesus. The immaculate conception focuses on Mary’s sinlessness. The virgin birth has been a central teaching of Christianity since its earliest days. Matthew 1:18–25 and Luke 2:26–38 provide the details of the story. The Matthew account tells the story of Joseph. Luke tells the story of Mary.
A few early Christian groups omitted these passages from their Bibles, but the study of ancient Bibles has established the authenticity of these passages beyond question. Scholar Joseph Orr wrote, “Is there a single manuscript of the Gospels — older or younger — from which these chapters in Matthew or Luke are absent? Not one.”
In the last 50 years, evangelical scholars have increasingly adopted the term “virginal conception” to refer to the events outlined in these chapters. These scholars believe the emphasis of the writing is on the manner of Jesus’ conception, not the manner of His birth. Of the virginal conception, they say, “It is the divinely ordered method of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. … To be the Redeemer of humankind, Jesus must identify Himself with human beings and at the same time transcend the human race.”
By excluding the male from the story and have a virgin conceive, God was clearly showing that what happened was beyond what man could do by himself. The late Carl F. H. Henry observed, “It (virginal conception) was nothing short of the intervention of God” that culminated at the cross where Jesus died for the sins of the world.
Virginal conception and incarnation — God becoming man and dwelling among us — are tied together. That is what Americans believe according to the Newsweek article. Ninety-three percent of respondents said they believed Jesus Christ actually lived, and 82 percent said He was God or the Son of God.
The doctrine of immaculate conception, which Roman Catholics must believe, has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. This teaching holds that Mary was conceived free from the inherited guilt of the first sin committed by Adam and Eve. The doctrine was declared by Pope Pius IX Dec. 8, 1854, when he announced that “the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception … was preserved free from all stain or original sin.”
The doctrine draws its biblical support from Luke 1:28, where the angel greeted Mary with the words, “Hail Mary, full of grace.” Theologians continue to argue over the meaning of the phrase. Most modern Bibles translate “full of grace” as “highly honored.” Catholic theology holds that the angel’s words affirmed that Mary “possessed” grace. One Catholic leader recently said of Mary, “She was always free of sin. Mary was never isolated from God, never alienated.” In other words, she never needed a Savior.
Evangelical Christians reject the idea that Mary did not need a Savior. Our understanding of the Bible is that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Not only do all human beings have a sinful nature but also all human beings, except for Jesus Christ, who have attained moral responsibility have actually sinned.
The differences between the doctrine of virginal conception and the doctrine of immaculate conception are significant. Yet, they can be confusing.
A recent article by Religion News Service quoted a Roman Catholic educator saying, “It’s very easy to garble this (immaculate conception) with the virginal conception of Jesus.” He lamented that the confusion is compounded by the fact that Catholic churches tend to use the virginal conception reading on the immaculate conception holy day, Dec. 8.
“Virginal conception” may be a more technically correct term for the events around the birth of Jesus than “virgin birth,” but they both point toward the same truth. God acted in a miraculous way in the birth of Jesus. A virgin conceived and bore a Child whose destiny was to “save His people from their sins.” Jesus was different from all others for all times. The fact that He lived sinlessly demonstrated that He transcended human life. He was God incarnate.
No other person, not even the “highly honored” Mary who gave physical birth to the baby Jesus, ever lived sinlessly.
It is not surprising that 79 percent of Americans believe Jesus was born of a virgin or that 82 percent believe He was God incarnate. It is difficult to understand why one would not believe these truths. Indeed, it is because we believe in the virginal conception and the incarnation of God in
Jesus Christ that we celebrate Christmas.
If the doctrine of “immaculate conception” applied to Jesus — meaning He was free of sin from the first moment of conception — then it would be a widely accepted teaching among Christians everywhere. It would be another way of saying “virginal conception” or “virgin birth.” But it does not refer to Jesus in its present use and until it does, it is a doctrine that evangelical Christians will continue to reject.
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