He shall save His people from their sins (Mt. 1:21)

 

At Christmastime, we are reminded again of one of the greatest miracles in the Bible, what theologians call the incarnation of the Son of God.  We are reminded of the birth of Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God became man, and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person forever (cf. Shorter Catechism).  This was indeed a miracle of miracles.  It is likely a greater thing for the Creator to unite himself to the creature than it was for the Creator to make stuff out of nothing.  How can God become a man, in such a way that he does not cease to be fully God and yet become fully a man?  And yet that is what the Bible teaches us happened in the birth of Jesus Christ.  The one who was born to Mary fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah, made 700 years earlier: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Mt. 1:23).  Or, as the apostle John put it, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:1, 14).

Now there are some who say that the early church made a mistake and made Jesus into a God, when he himself never claimed to be such.  It is true that Jesus didn’t go around like Shirley MacLaine screaming, “I am God!” at the top of his lungs to anyone who would listen.  There was a reason for this; for one thing, his purpose in coming was not to be crowned King of nations as they were, but to die on a cross to redeem them from what they were.  There was a purposeful hiddenness to his self-revelation.  And yet, from the very beginning, Jesus’ coming was understood in terms of the announcement of the angel to Joseph: “He shall save his people from their sins.”  Don’t miss the significance of that.  To save sinners from their sins is God’s work alone, not the work of a mere mortal.  God is the one who will redeem Israel from all his iniquities (Ps. 130:8). And so the fact that Jesus was called Emmanuel didn’t just mean that God was with Jesus in a special sort of way, but that in Jesus Christ, God had become a man in order to save us from our sinfulness.  So it’s not that the church mistakenly morphed the man Jesus into a God in order to gain power, but that the church truthfully maintains that God became a man so that he might give pardon.

This is the hope that Christmas proclaims: not that we can do better in order to have a better life now in terms of peace on earth and goodwill toward men, but to gain eternal life in the age to come through Jesus who came to save his people from their sins.

What I want to focus on this morning with you is the certainty of this hope.  In particular, I want to consider with you this little word shall: “he shall save his people from their sins.”  Not he might, or even that he can, but that he shall do it.  There is certainty about this hope of salvation in Christ.  And it is a certainty that you can’t find anywhere else.  

Not that we don’t try to find it somewhere else.  Some people try to hold out hope that they will obtain fulfillment and happiness by manhandling their circumstances to gain achievement in some realm, whether it be the religious, scientific, political, or business worlds.  This is the “I am the master of my fate” mentality.  A lot of people have this hope because they haven’t really hit it big in this world.  They haven’t yet found the significance that they want but they hope to get it someday.  But what strikes me in reading about people in history who have hit it big is that when they get there they don’t feel satisfied.  Hope in finding significance by changing my own circumstances is ultimately allusive.  Hope doesn’t get fulfilled; it gets replaced with depression and disappointment, and sometimes despair.  Seeking hope in some achievement is like a mirage; we think we see water in the distance that will quench the thirst of our souls but when we get there it’s just more sand and snakes and scorpions.

But what the gospel tells us is that the hope Jesus brings is not something you achieve.  It’s not something you earn.  It’s not the result of manipulating your circumstances.  You don’t get it because you’ve become someone significant or done something significant.  You don’t get it because of your saintliness.  You get it because of what Jesus Christ did.  The Christian message is fundamentally different from every other religious message because of this fact.  Other religions say, do this or that in order to gain God’s favor or entrance into heaven.  But the Christian message, the gospel, is: God saves his people from their sins and brings them into heaven so that in the ages to come he might show the riches of his grace in his kindness towards them in Christ Jesus.

Here’s the goal of my message this morning: to showcase through this verse (Mt. 1:21) the certainty of the salvation Jesus achieves for his people in order that we might fully trust in him as our Savior and Lord so that we might find rest for our souls in him.  To do that, I want to ask the question: on what does the certainty of this salvation rest?  Of course the simple answer to that is Jesus.  But let’s try to parse that out a bit.  Why is the salvation that Jesus brings so certain?  Why does the angel say, “He shall save his people from their sins”?  He can say it because of the plan of God, because of the person of the Son, and because of the power of the Spirit.

The Plan of God

The mission and ministry of Jesus did not surprise him.  It was planned by God from eternity.  The apostle Paul talks about “the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:11), and the apostle John describes our Lord in the Revelation as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).  Here in Matthew 1, we see that the birth of Jesus “was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet” (Mt. 1:22).  Prophesy is simply the telling out loud of God’s hidden and eternal purposes.  Jesus’ birth was not a surprise to God; it was planned by God.

And this plan was a plan of redemption.  When the angels tells Joseph, “He shall save his people from their sins,” he is enunciating the main point of the plan.  Jesus came to save a people, his people.  And this people is the people the Father gave him in the eternal covenant of redemption to save.  Our Lord put it this way in John 6: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (37-40).  Jesus came to do the Father’s will, and that will was to save the people he gave to him, and to lose none of them, but raise them up at the last day.  

Who are these people the Father gave the Son?  Well, our Lord describes them in terms of those who see the Son and believe on him (40).  Earlier, he had described them in terms of those who come to him and believe on him as the bread and water of life (35).  Later, in verse 44, he will describe them in terms of those who are drawn by the Father to Son.  The people whom Jesus came to save are precisely those the Father gave the Son in election, who are drawn by the Spirit to faith in Christ, and who are kept by the power of God unto the end so that they are raised up in the resurrection of the last day to eternal life.  They are those, to put it in terms of Romans 8:29-30, who are predestined to be conformed the image of the Son, who are then called to faith in Jesus, justified, and glorified.

Now, it is significant that we put this in terms of the plan of God because God’s eternal plan is not something that is thwarted.  Note the indestructibleness of the plan.  Yes, there is a sense in which God’s will is thwarted every day.  Every time you or I sin we break God’s commandments which is to sin against God’s will for us.  In other words, God’s will of command is often broken.  But there is another sense in which God’s will is spoken of in Scripture, which is different from his will of command.  It is his will of eternal decree and purpose which is both unbreakable and unchangeable.  It is this that the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said, “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isa. 46:9-10).  It is this that the apostle Paul is speaking of when he writes about “being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11).

The angel therefore can say, “He shall save his people from their sins,” because Jesus was born to accomplish the unchangeable and unbreakable will of the Father.

Then notice the definiteness of the plan.  The ones who are saved are not some amorphous group with no shape and definition.  No, “He shall save his people from their sins.”  Again, “his people” are precisely those whom the Father gave to the Son to save in his eternal purpose of election in grace and love.  Jesus died for them and all of them shall be saved.  Their salvation is in no way, not from God’s point of view, in any uncertainty.  They will be saved.  They cannot be saved and then lost. As our Lord himself put it: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand” (Jn. 10:27-29).

In other words, God’s eternal plan in Christ is carefully defined and fully carried out.  There is absolutely no imprecision as to its meaning, its object, or its fulfillment.  This is why the angel can say, “He shall save his people from their sins.”  The plan of God guarantees it.

Thank God for the plan of God.  Thank God that he is not the God of the deists!  Thank God that his plans include the salvation of a people, and that for this people God purposed to come among them, to become one of them, Emmanuel.  Thank God that this plan does not depend upon Congress for the appropriation of funds and means to get it accomplished, nor does it ultimately depend upon any man for its fulfillment, but upon the God of whom it is written, “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places” (Ps. 135:6). 

The Person of the Son

We also see that the certainty of this salvation rests in the person of the Son.  Who came to save us from our sins?  Jesus, which means “Savior.”  He is the one foretold by all the prophets, the fulfillment of all God’s promises in the law and the prophets.  He is Emmanuel, God with us.  

Who is this Jesus?  I think the best place to start is by considering what Jesus says about himself.  When we look into the gospels, we see that Jesus saw himself as the Christ, the Son of God, and the apocalyptic Son of Man from the Book of Daniel.  That he understood himself in these terms is clear and plain from his interaction with the high priest at his final trial.  When the high priest asked him, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” our Lord replied by saying, “I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Mk. 14:61-62).  I think that is very significant because here you have all three titles at once: Christ, Son of God, and Son of Man, being affirmed by Jesus in the very earliest gospel (Mark).  This witness is strengthened by the fact that it is also affirmed in the other synoptics as well, Matthew (26:63-63) and Luke (22:66-70).

That our Lord understood his being the Son of God in divine terms (and not merely in terms of a title for a successor of David) is, ironically, underscored rather than undermined by his use of the title “Son of Man” for himself, for “the Son of man . . . coming in the clouds of heaven” is clearly a reference, not to his humanity per se, but to this mysterious, divine figure in the book of Daniel.  There, we read, “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13-14).  This is not a mere man, nor even an angel, but a divine figure who rules over the nations forever.  This is who Jesus understood himself to be.

As we noted earlier, Jesus understood himself, not merely in terms of these titles, but also in terms of his mission, which was to save sinners.  It was to obtain redemption by the forgiveness of sins by his own sacrificial death: “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:28).  We see it in the institution of the Lord’s Supper.  As our Lord gave his disciples the cup, he told them to drink it, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Mt. 26:28).  Note that Jesus didn’t just see himself as conferring the forgiveness of sins by the permission of the Father; he actually personally obtained the forgiveness of sins for his people by the sacrifice of himself.  This is not something someone who is only a son of Adam can do.  As the psalmist reminds us, “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) ” (Ps. 49:6-8).  The wealthiest and most powerful among men cannot obtain redemption from sins, but this is exactly what Jesus did.  Surely it is because he is not only fully man, but also fully God.

And so, because he is not only David’s son but also David’s Lord (cf. Mt. 22:45), the eternal Son of God, he is able to give rest to the souls all who come to him (Mt. 11:28-30).  

Or consider how Paul describes our Lord in his letter to the Colossians: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell” (Col. 1:14-19).  Again, this kind of description is incompatible with a sort of Arian understanding of God, that sees Jesus just as some exalted creature.  Jesus is not a creature.  He is the “firstborn of every creature” in the sense that he has rights over all creation, just as a firstborn son had rights over his father’s inheritance in the ancient world. Jesus has those rights precisely because he is the Creator of all things and holds all things together.  This is nothing less than the power of God that is ascribed to Jesus here.  In all things he has the preeminence.  And because “it pleased the Father that in him” – that is, in the incarnate Christ – “should all fulness dwell,” we can come to Jesus with all our emptiness and find our fulness in him.

The apostle will go on to say that Jesus “made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (20-22).

Here is the point of all of this: do you not see that because of who Jesus is, we can be sure that “he shall save his people from their sins”?  There is no doubt about it at all.  My hope is that we will not just file this away in our minds as a bit of interesting information, but that you will be able, by the grace of God and the Spirit of God working in your hearts, to really appropriate this for yourself, that you will embrace Jesus with all your hearts as Lord and Savior and rest in his finished work and find peace with God through him.  Find your hope in Jesus!  Find assurance in Christ!  Why try to look for it in other places?  Why chase after mirages when the fountain of life is right here before you, presented to you, in the gospel! 

Now we also see that Jesus will save his people from their sins – and there is no limitation here.  He saves his people from their sins, in every aspect of them.  From their penalty, from their power, and one day even from their very presence.  Christ will purge this universe of sin.  He will put down every enemy, including every false affection in our hearts that need to be mortified.  My friend, does the guilt of your sin seem too great?  The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin (1 Jn. 1:7).  Does the power of sin seem too strong?  Greater is he who is in us that he that is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4).  

My friend, go to God in prayer, and say to him, “Father, you have given us your Son for our sins.  You have said in your word that all who receive him by faith are adopted into your family (Jn. 1:12).  You encourage us in your word to put our trust in him – you command us to do.  And so I put my trust in him and rely upon his fulness of grace and righteousness and redemption to give me eternal life in your presence with joy forever.”  The prophets and the apostles unite in assuring us that, “Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:11-13).

The Power of the Spirit

“He shall save his people from their sins.”  We know this is certain because of the plan of God and the person of the Son.  But we can also know this because of the power of the Spirit of God.  The Father plans redemption, the Son accomplishes redemption, and the Spirit applies redemption to the people of God.

You find the Spirit here in Matthew 1 in the birth of Jesus.  We are told, for example, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (18).  Then in order to prevent Joseph from divorcing Mary, the angel told him, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (20).  Certainly, the Holy Spirit is the one who enabled the virgin Mary to conceive and bring forth a son who was called Jesus.  Virgin births don’t just happen; the virgin Mary was able to give birth because of the power of the Holy Spirit.

But this is not the only time we hear of the Holy Spirit.  When John the Baptist announces the coming of Jesus, he says, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Mt. 3:11).  When Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit comes upon him to anoint him for ministry (16).  He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to endure temptation and to conquer the devil in the way that Adam and Eve had failed to do (4:1-11).  It was through the Spirit that he cast out demons (12:28).  It was through the Spirit that he offered himself to God (Heb. 9:12), and it was the Spirit by whose power he was raised from the dead (Rom. 1:4; 8:9-10).  

It is this Spirit who now indwells every believer: “if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11).  Paul says that he wants us to know “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:19-20).  In fact, Paul tells us that “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13).  

So think about it.  Jesus told his disciples that he would not leave them as orphans but that he would come to them.  How so?  By the Spirit: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (Jn. 14:16-18).  This Spirit is the Spirit of Christ; he is so because he mediates to us the presence of the risen Christ.  The fulness of Christ is available to us through the Spirit.  Jesus is that friend who sticks closer than a brother by his Spirit in those who believe in him.

My friends, I know that you may not feel like it.  You may wonder why you are so cast down and troubled when you have put your faith in Christ.  Wasn’t it supposed to be better than this?  Why isn’t life better than this?  Why all these struggles with health and sickness and depression?  Why the unfaithful friends and family who stab you in the back?  Why can’t you seem to get a break?  Where is the power of the Spirit in all of this?

Remember that Jesus didn’t say that life would be easy.  In fact, he promised us that in this world – that’s where you and I are now – we would have tribulation.  But we can be of good cheer.  Why?  Not because you have the promise that the devastating illness will go away in this world, but because Jesus has overcome the world (Jn. 16:33).  That means that in the age to come all the problems we are experiencing now aren’t only going to go away, but that they will be totally defeated, never to make another entrance again.  And the Spirit indwells us now so that we will live a faithful life that brings honor and glory to Christ even through the pain and the disappointment and the defeats.  And yes, a life that even brings joy and peace amidst all the chaos of this world.  I think Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is remarkable: he prays that they might be “strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness” (Col. 1:11).  The power of the Spirit to strengthen us!  Unto what?  Unto all patience and longsuffering, which implies trials and hardship, things to persevere through, with joyfulness.  Only the Spirit of God can do that!  You want to know the best witness to Jesus?  It is a person who has unbreakable joy when the world gives them none, and when they have unshakable hope when the world gives them none.  Like Abraham: “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (Rom. 4:18-21).  That will bring out the questions: “Why are you so happy?”  And you get to tell them: “Because Jesus is my Savior who came to save me from my sins and put me in his family forever.”

My friend, there is no Savior like Jesus.  No one else, and nothing else, can save you from your sins.  But Jesus shall save his people from their sins.  Why would you find refuge in anything else?  Why would you seek hope in anyone else?  Look to Christ, and you will not be ashamed.