less, soulless system which substitutes intellect for Spirit, reason for faith and prating about God, knows Him not. Deny the virgin birth, and as absolutely as two and two make four, as inexorably as-the arrow to the mark, you deny and reject the Trinity of God. Without the virgin birth Christianity has no author ity, neither as an ethical nor doctrinal system. Without
This tells you what God thinks of an unmarried wom an who gives birth to a child. This tells you what God thinks of a married woman who gives birth to a child by another than her own hus band. This tells you what God thinks of the bastard himself. He must carry his mother’s shame and advertise it wherever he goes, and he must bear his own shame as a bastard, ashamed of God. Illegitimacy and bastardy are two millstones heavy enough to hang about the neck of any son. What think you is the weight of these millstones about the neck of Him whom we seek to call the Son of God? Consider, 3. The effect the denial of the Virgin Birth must have upon the essential being of Jesus Himself. If He were not virgin born, then of course He had a human father. If He had a human father He inherited the nature of that father. As that father had a nature of sin He inherited his nature of sin. If He had a nature of sin He would be under the penalty of all who are born in sin. He would be under the penalty of death. When therefore He claimed that no one could take His life from Him, that He had power over His own life, He did not tell the truth; being bom in sin (if He had a human father) He was as all others, doomed to die. He was therefore a lost sinner. As a lost sinner. He needed a Saviour. He needed a Saviour to save Him from death. According to His own legislation He needed to be bom again; He needed a new nature. It is terrific — but it is inexorable logic. If Jesus Christ were not virgin bom ; if He had a sin ful human father, He was as much in need of regenera tion and sacrificial redemption as any other begotten of a human father. Deny the virgin birth and you paralyze the whole scheme of redemption by Jesus Christ. What claim or right of claim has any man to be the Redeemer and Saviour of men who Himself is bom in sin, needing regeneration? But that is not the only consequence of having a hu man father. Mark it well. If He had a human father, and as that father had a finite personality, then He inherited a finite personality. If He had a finite personality, of course we are bound to say He did not have an infinite personality. He was not an infinite person. If He were not infinite He was not God. If He were not God, then He was not the Second Person of the Eternal Trinity. If He were not the Second Person of the Trinity then none was. If none were, there is no triunity of God. If there be no triunity of Godhead we are landed at the front door of Unitarianism, that bloodless, emotion- Bastardy is a shame to the mother. Bastardy is a double shame to the son.
EMMANUEL . . . GOD WITH US Time, in its swift and ceaseless flight, Has brought us through another year; To mark again the season bright That blends new hope with Christmas cheer. The narrative o f life is told In loss, in gain, through gales that blow ; In hopes and fears— so doth unfold His plan: the way that we shall go. N o t once His promises have failed; "Emmanuel” His name once given, "G od with us,” though by hell assailed Has daily led us on toward!“heaven. Fresh hope is ours as we recall The Babe, the Manger, and the Inn; The message: ransomed from the Fall, A Saviour born to save from sin. Wayfarer, cheer thee! be ye glad! Once more the bells o f Christmas ring; "G od with us” still— why then be sad? Rejoice in Christ, our Saviour-King!
—G. E. Hooker
the virgin birth, I repeat, Christianity has no decent, moral, spiritual nor intellectual basis on which to stand. He who denies the virgin birth denies Bible Chris tianity, smites the mother of our Lord with shame, snatch es the crown of deity from His brow, strips Him of His sinless humanity, makes His cross a blood-stained failure and bids us face eternity with no light in the darkness.
15
DECEMBER. 1961
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