Thread by @davidngibbo

So—in my folly—in prep for writing an essay, I decided to preach 4 doctrinal(ish) Christmas sermons on the meaning of the virgin birth.

It’s been tough to do and I imagine way tougher to listen to.

But for what it’s worth, 25 tweets on the virgin birth—and Merry Christmas!

The sermon series:

The virgin birth of Jesus Christ: why the strangest of arrivals in the world is the best of news for the world

1. The sign
2. The scandal
3. The Son
4. The Saviour

Also preached on it at our evangelistic Carol service:

trinityaberdeen.org.uk

1. The sign—Isaiah 6-9. There is a difference between real name (Anakin Skywalker; Margaret Thatcher) and symbolic name (Darth Vader; Iron Lady). I went with the virgin bears one child with two names: real name (Maher-shalal-hash-baz, ch.8) and symbolic name (Immanuel, ch.7).

Immanuel, God with us—good news or bad news? It depends. The manger splits the world in two: on meeting him, some rise and some fall. Jesus, God with us—the Son come early to save before he is the Son come at last to judge. Don’t be Ahaz. Choose how you will meet him.

2. The scandal—four shady ladies in Jesus’ family tree resumè. Is Mary a fifth?

“To the anguish and the shame of scandal came the Saviour of the human race.”

Shame has a price, we know this. But we think our own shame too costly. And we put distance between us and the shameful. Yet feel the beauty of two words: “his people.” Incestuous, commercialised, adulterous, pagan sex (Matt. 1:1-6), yet “his”—he saves his people from their sins.

3. The Son—the virgin birth is a subversive vote, simultaneously, of confidence in the race but no confidence in its head, a federal leadership contest began from the womb; born of Mary that his humanity might be true, born of God that his humanity might be new.

“The Sprit acts not materially but efficiently; by power, not by seed; by might, not by intercourse—Christ was conceived from the power of the Spirit not the substance of the Spirit; not by generation, but by blessing and consecration.”

—Turretin

4. The Saviour— adored by the Father, worshipped by the angels, supreme, and invulnerable to pain—he could not die. To save his people from death the Son had to be able to die. He shared, partook, became flesh, that he might become a merciful, faithful high priest.

In the virgin birth, “The God of Israel, the creator God, is bringing Israel’s story to its climax by doing a new thing, bringing creation to its height by a new creation from the womb of the old. Whether or not it happened, this is what it would mean if it did.”

—N. T. Wright

Some general reflections:

*How* should we think about the virgin birth?

Alison Milbank plays the ‘divine joke/truly absurd’ trope ... you know what she means, the commitment to truth is welcome ... and yet ...

... as @FredFredSanders taught me last year, “the incarnation is an event than which nothing more appropriate can be conceived.” Just think about that. Hebrews 2:10 “it was fitting ...” This makes the vb a test case for reading Scripture, a litmus test for hermeneutical humility.

Karl Barth regarded the vb and resurrection of Jesus as two guards posted at the door of Christian faith, pointing to the miracles of Christmas and Easter.

Like bouncers at the door, they warn that if you cannot say the Creed, "your name's not down, you're not getting in.”

On Creedal guarding, Chalcedon plays a role too—“... and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary ... ”—again Bible reading is directed and guarded, there is something about the virgin birth that is *necessary* to salvation.

Maybe God could have done it differently. The fact that he didn’t must mean *something*.

Older dogmatics recognised it as integral to both Christ’s person and his work ...

... and yet the vb shows the triumph of evangelical apologetics over Reformed dogmatics—on settling historicity the task is not over, it is only beginning.

Compare: nothing at all on vb in S. Wellum’s “Christ Alone” vs the beautiful riches of Turretin, Berkouwer, Bavinck et al.

Barth is superb on the vb as a sign of judgment on creating, willing, achieving, sovereign man; but his commitment to the Son taking a fallen human nature means the ‘no’ of the virgin birth seriously outweighs the ‘yes’ in his account.

Compare with the triumph of grace in Calvin—the Son’s self-emptying begins before it begins, in not refusing the outrage of his lineage, full of crime and shame, and the goodness and love of God strive against its sin “that this adulterated seed might nonetheless win the sceptre”

Main theological reflection:

The virgin birth shapes the Saviour by being, in his humiliation, a point along the road of his perfecting through suffering, and, in particular, by grounding the fully, truly, voluntary nature of his obedience in his priestly self-offering.

Consider Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 14: “The eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to himself, through the working of the HS, from the flesh and blood of Mary, a truly human nature so that he might become David’s true descendant ...”

There are adoptionism problems if we hold to Christ *sanctifying* the human nature he took; and the fully voluntary character of his oblation is altered if a pre-existent human nature is co-opted into priestly service. The human nature of X exists only as the humanity of God.

Therefore the virgin birth is an act of the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit; he assumes a sinless human nature in special creation in conception, by the Spirit, and he lives an obedient human life, in the power of the Spirit, which he offers to God as a sacrifice for sin.

So Christ bears not the terrifying result of mankind’s fall in Adam, which descends on all, like an avalanche, on entry to the world; on the contrary, in his suffering and death he truly carries and carries away our guilt because he voluntarily takes it on him (Berkouwer).

In the imagery parallelism of the Spirit hovering over the womb of the world (Gen 1:2) and overshadowing Mary (Lk 1:35), “this foetus ... will spring from that virtue from which the world took its beginning.”

—Turretin

O holy wisdom of our God ...
A second Adam to the fight ...

Christ our Saviour recapitulates the story of Adam—not from the fall onwards but from creation onwards.

“He does not save us with, but from, our sins. This cannot be sufficiently preached.”

—Rudolf Stier

HT: @FredFredSanders