He Came To Save
Matthew 1 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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18 Jan 26 – Matthew 1b
Question: Is intentional lying a sin? You know the truth, but you intentionally lie. Many would agree that lying is a sin. Rev. 21, idolaters, murderers, practice of witchcraft and liars are excluded from God’s eternal Kingdom. Lying is a serious offense. It separates us from God – relationally and eternally.
Some of you may recall Corrie Ten Boom and her story about The Hiding Place. During WWII, she and her Christian family would hide Jewish people from the Nazis. There were many times that they had to deceive and lie to in order to protect these Jewish people. But lying is a sin. Yet, many of us would probably agree that she and her family did the right thing. So then how does God, who is just, navigate their “sin?” Or was it really sin? Perhaps it was not sin, but love and truth that drove them to lie and deceive. We’ll come back to that.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
This is a fulfillment of a declaration God made to the serpent in Gen. 3.
God promised that one day a Serpent Crusher would arise.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
God was hinting that you’ll both die. What God failed to mention was the resurrection.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
This is how Yahweh, the Creator, God Most High came into His world – this is how He came to us. This is who God is – consistently coming to us. I don’t know of any other god who does this. In my journal I wrote – “How many times has God come to me?” Pursuing, loving ….
V21 is where I want to focus. “He will save his people from their sins.” That implies that people need “saved.” But what does “saved” mean? And “saved” from what? How does one get “saved?” Let’s explore.
The word
Save (sōzō in Greek) has several nuances. It can mean to rescue, to heal from sickness or disease, to deliver, to preserve, or to protect from harm.
It’s a broad word. Jesus covers all that. We need saved from all the above and more. But in v21 it clearly states that Jesus will save people from their sins. So what is sin?
If we define or limit sin to bad or wrong behavior, then all we need to do is change our behavior and we’re saved. But that misses the biblical concept of sin. If all lying is sin, then C.T.B. and her family deserve judgment and Hell.
Regarding the biblical view of sin, behavior is important, but the heart (the motive behind the behavior) is more important.
There are 3 main words for sin in Scripture – iniquity, transgression and sin. Iniquity – crooked behavior. Transgression – breaking faith or crossing boundaries.
Sin (v21) is khata‘ in Hebrew and hamartia in Greek. The most basic means “to fail,” or “miss the goal or mark.”
What’s the goal? From the beginning, Genesis 1, humans were created as image bearers of God.
There is an intrinsic sacredness to being human.
Not only should humans represent the Creator, but we are to love God, others, self, and this world. We are to respond to one another with dignity and respect. So, sin is a failure to meet the goal of properly loving God and others and creation. I believe that nearly every human problem is a breakdown of this issue – we fail to love others as co-imagers, we abuse, misuse, kill, enslave …. This is
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That’s what sin does – it kills, steals, and destroys.
This word sin mostly describes humanity’s internal condition, not external behavior.
Collectively, we live in a perpetual state of failing to love because we live in a perpetual state of disordered love. That is not a behavioral issue – it’s a heart issue. When we make it mostly about behavior, we want to fix people before they meet Christ.
Let’s look at
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let’s think of this verse as describing 2 sets train tracks. One toward life and the other toward death (both physically and spiritually). Bible Project: “Being handed over to my destructive decisions [wages of sin] leads me on a course that organically is connected to a whole life trajectory that leads to death. That’s Romans 1. To say that you’re saved from God’s wrath [natural consequences of failing to love] is to be taken off a set of train tracks and put on a different set of train tracks that leads to life. It’s not just a post-mortem event at the end of your life - God’s wrath is something that begins now. It’s something I need to be rescued from right now.”
What am I saying? Jesus Christ came to save, to deliver, to heal humanity from its sinful condition. To save humanity from being on a path of destruction – tracks that lead to death – and place humanity on a path toward love, joy, peace … tracks that lead to life. This is why salvation and eternal life are not about good or bad – it’s about what tracks you’re on. See, Jesus fulfilled God’s wrath, the natural and earned consequences of our sin Jesus took upon Himself. Not only that, invites us into a new set of natural consequences – righteousness … producing in us eternal life.
“This is why in the Bible, the story of Jesus is such good news. He’s depicted as the Creator become a truly human one, who did not fail to love God and others, that is, He did not sin.
And yet He took responsibility for humanity’s history of failure. [Jesus] lived for others, and He died for their sins. And He was raised from the dead to offer them
the gift of His life that covers for their failures. Or in the words of the apostles, ‘He committed no sin, yet He carried our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to our sins and live to do what is right.’” ~ The Bible Project
This is our primary message to the world – this is the Gospel –
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
So what do we do with a message like this?
First – C.T.B. Was her lying a sin or was it love?
Examine yourself. What tracks are you on? If need be, confess Christ this morning. Get on the right tracks. He loves you!
From my journal: If this is God’s mission – to save – what is my part in His mission?
Blessing: 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
