Matthew 1:18-25 (2)

The birth of Jesus Christ (1:18–20)

From the genealogy’s preparatory details, Matthew passes to a narrative of the event itself.

Immediately he makes clear that this is a supernatural, virginal conception (the birth itself was normal).

Mary was, indeed, — ".... engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit.”

There is no possibility in the biblical record that Joseph was the father of Christ in the physical sense.

It is only after Joseph has discovered the fact of Mary’s pregnancy that he is informed by an angel that what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

— So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Engagement (or Betrothal) was a much more serious matter than a modern engagement is, so Joseph is described as considering divorce.

Joseph can be described as ‘a righteous man’, as well as being shown to be compassionate in not wanting ‘to expose her to public disgrace’.

In fact, the Old Testament itself makes this clear, as the Lord speaks of divorcing Israel because of her sin, thus silently endorsing the commuting of the death penalty for adultery to divorce (; ). Thus Joseph can be described as ‘a righteous man’, as well as being shown to be compassionate in not wanting ‘to expose her to public disgrace’. The assurance by ‘an angel of the Lord’ that Mary’s pregnancy was ‘from the Holy Spirit’ gives Joseph the necessary confidence to proceed with the marriage, although verse 25 tells us that there was no sexual intercourse until after the birth of our Lord. He also tells him the name by which the baby is to be known.

The assurance by ‘an angel of the Lord’ that Mary’s pregnancy was ‘from the Holy Spirit’ gives Joseph the necessary confidence to proceed with the marriage,

although verse 25 tells us that there was nothing sexual until after the birth of our Lord.

He also tells him the name by which the baby is to be known.

Jesus (1:21)

— She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means ‘Jehovah [or, better, Yahweh] saves’ or ‘is salvation’.

The reason for this is also given: ‘because he will save his people from their sins’.

This probably refers back to : ‘He himself [the LORD] will redeem Israel from all their sins.’

It seems likely, therefore, that the name ‘Jesus’ is intended to show that

Jesus is Himself Yahweh who saves,

not just the one through whom Yahweh saves.

With this name the angel makes clear that the primary purpose of Christ’s coming is to bring salvation.

His kingdom is one of redemption, salvation from sin, NOT

some kind of nationalistic deliverance from Rome, or

a moralistic crusade against evil.

Doubtless this will have an effect on the ‘sinful structures’ with which so many are obsessed in these days,

but it is with sin—

its guilt,

power and

corruption

in the individual—that he is primarily concerned,

corruption in the individual—that he is primarily concerned,

not with revolution or social liberation.

The deliverance of creation as a whole must, in the main, await his glorious return.

And this work He will perform.

The words do not suggest an attempt,

dependent on the willingness of man,

a mere making possible

so that man can do the rest himself.

God’s purpose in His coming is actual salvation.

Jesus Himself made this clear: — For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.

This reference to ‘all that he has given me’ links with the next element of the meaning of Christ’s name.

He has been given a ‘people’, a known and specific people for whose salvation he has come.

Just what Joseph understood by this we cannot know, but the rest of Matthew shows that this people is both narrower and wider than national Israel.

It refers first to the believing remnant of the Jews,

but includes also those Gentiles who have been chosen by God and who will in due course believe.

The apostle Paul is told about these people in the words of the Lord at Corinth:

— The Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent. For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”

As in , the people are known in advance, before they actually come to believe.

Messiah’s people are God’s elect, chosen before the foundation of the world, given to the Son to redeem and in time called by God’s grace to repent and believe.

This truth is expressed in various ways in the New Testament.

As well as the idea of Christ saving His people, those given to Him by the Father,

we have the Good Shepherd laying down His life for his sheep (, ) and

the great Bridegroom loving the church and giving himself up for her ().

It is thus apparent that he will save his people by dying for them, but for Matthew’s readers this will only become clear later on.

Immanuel (1:22–25)

— Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.

Here the stress is on the fact that this fulfils the prophecy in .

The biblical doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures is seen in the finely-balanced statement ‘what the Lord had said through the prophet’ (1:22).

This reference poses some difficulties, but a brief consideration of them should show why the quotation is given and what spiritual profit is intended.

The wording of the quotation raises the issue of whether ‘virgin’ or ‘young woman’ (1:23) is the correct translation. There is no doubt about the Greek word; it is ‘virgin’. The meaning of the Hebrew word is more debatable; it is often argued that it means only ‘a young woman’. Evangelical scholars stoutly defend the traditional rendering of ‘virgin’. The argument is not simply one of linguistics; there is also the issue of belief in the supernatural.

Linked with this is the question of whether Isaiah’s words were a directly Messianic prophecy or not. Some argue for a double fulfilment, i.e. first in an ordinary child born to a young woman, possibly still a virgin at the time of the prophecy, as a sign to King Ahaz, and then later in the birth of Christ of a virgin. This comes up against the double difficulty that the initial event was hardly surprising enough to constitute a sign and, on the other hand, that the second fulfilment necessitates a change in the meaning of the word.

In Isaiah the sign prophecy occurs in a lengthy section which culminates in the description of the Messiah’s birth in chapter 9:6.

There he is called ‘Mighty God’. Jesus is God with us.

This reference to Ahaz helps with the last problem: does ‘Immanuel’ refer to Jesus himself as ‘God with us’, or merely to God being with us through Jesus? It also gives a clue to the spiritual point that is being made. In recent years it has become generally accepted that in New Testament quotations from the Old Testament the whole context, not just the quoted words, must be taken into account. In Isaiah the sign prophecy occurs in a lengthy section which culminates in the description of the Messiah’s birth in chapter 9:6. There he is called ‘Mighty God’. Jesus is God with us. In addition, just as the sign condemned Ahaz for refusing to trust God when he was confronted by great enemies, so its fulfilment now comes as an encouragement to God’s people that the Christ has come to defend them against their enemies; they should trust him whatever their need.

In addition, just as the sign condemned Ahaz for refusing to trust God when he was confronted by great enemies, so its fulfilment now comes as an encouragement to God’s people that the Christ has come to defend them against their enemies; they should trust him whatever their need.

Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, states the same thing in his prophecy:

— Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, just as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets in ancient times; salvation from our enemies and from the hand of those who hate us.

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

because he has come and has redeemed his people.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David

(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago)

salvation from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us

().

Taken together with verse 21, this prophecy defines our enemies in terms of sin.

God will deliver His people from spiritual enemies of every kind.

Jesus, the Christ, is truly another David.

The rest of the Gospel will show Jesus defeating all these enemies:

Satan,

demons and

sin itself.

Finally, of course, Satan’s grip on the world will be broken as the disciples go forth to make disciples of all nations.

And the promise which they will take with them? ‘Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ (28:20)—God with us.

God becoming a baby. Biblical evidence for the full deity and humanity of Christ is abundant.

In regard to His humanity, Jesus is presented as

a Jewish man who was born,

underwent the normal process of development (),

who experienced a full range of human experiences (e.g. , ; ; ; )

including growth in knowledge () and

the experience of death.

Apart from his sinlessness, which Scripture unequivocally affirms, Christ was sinless (; ; ),

He is one with us in every way.

However, Scripture also affirms that the man Christ Jesus is also the eternal Son and thus God equal with the Father and Spirit.

From the opening pages of the NT, Jesus is identified and presented as the Lord:

the one who establishes

the divine rule and

who inaugurates the new covenant era

in fulfillment of OT expectation

—something only God can do (e.g. ; ; ; ).

That is why His miracles are not merely human acts empowered by the Spirit; rather

they are demonstrations of His own divine authority as

the one who inaugurates the kingdom,

over creation (e.g. ; ),

Satan and his hosts (), and

all things (, ).

That is why Jesus has the authority to

forgive sin (), to

view the Scripture as that which is fulfilled in Him (), to

view His relationship with the Father as one of equality and mutuality (; ; ), and

to do the very works of God in

Wellum, S. J. (2012). Editorial: Knowing, Adoring, and Proclaiming God the Son Incarnate. The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, 16(2), 2–3.

creation,

providence and

redemption (; ; ; ).

So let’s focus our hearts upon v21

— She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus saves. Jesus is the Savior.

— Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

— And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

— God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

— but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s Jesus and there is no other Savior.

What’s Jesus save us from? Our sins!

I want to connect this thought in your minds and hearts of “sin” and being “saved”.

The word “sin” in v21 means missing the true end and scope of our lives, which is God.

Biblically, our sin is, in relation to God, with the emphasis on being guilty before God because of sin.

Sin is a deviation from the truth and going into error.

Sin is deviation from the law of God. God’s rule or straight edge.

Let me briefly expound the doctrine of sin for a moment.

Ever since the fall man rests under the curse of sin, that he is governed by wrong principles,

and that he is totally and completely unable to love God or to do anything meriting salvation.

Let’s see this in Scripture. Please turn with me to .

Paul starts with a summary statement in v10. “There is no one righteous”.

Righteousness is a legal term which expresses our legal standing with God.

Paul’s earlier teaching in Romans makes it clear that righteousness before God comes through the law.

states, “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

If these are the terms, then we must begin our understanding of salvation by recognizing that everybody needs it.

People have all kinds of needs:

companionship,

employment, and even

training in life skills.

But a far more profound need stands behind all these, and

it is for this need that the gospel is preached

—our need to gain righteousness before God.

Unless we are justified before God, the wrath of God abides on us.

If perfect obedience to the law of God is the divine standard of righteousness—and it is—then there is not a single person who does not need to be justified before God.

And if a single sin is sufficient to condemn us to eternal punishment, as the Bible says it is (see ),

then everyone who has committed sin needs to be justified above all else.

And if a single sin is sufficient to condemn us to eternal punishment, as the Bible says it is (see ), then everyone who has committed sin needs to be justified above all else. And if Solomon was right when he said that “there is no one who does not sin” ()—and our universal experience confirms that he was right—then God sent His Son to the cross to provide the solution to the greatest need of every person.

And if Solomon was right when he said that “there is no one who does not sin” ()

—and our universal experience confirms that he was right

—then God sent His Son into this world and to the cross

to provide the solution to the greatest need of every person.

Jesus shall save His people by providing a righteousness, not of their own (because we have none), but of Christ alone.

There are few things worse than living a lie, yet this is the universal human experience.

Sin has corrupted man’s thinking in such a way that people lack the ability to understand the truth about

themselves,

God, and

the world.

This is why Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” ().

Phillips, R. D. (2008). What’s So Great about the Doctrines of Grace? (pp. 22–23). Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing.

Until we are saved out of our depraved state, we are blind to the reality of God’s glory and righteousness.

Reflecting on Paul’s teaching (in v11) that “no one understands,”. Paul says to the Corinthians:

— But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

The key statement here is not merely that man in sin does not accept the truth of God,

but that man in sin is not able to receive the things of God.

Jesus taught this no less forcefully than Paul. Explaining the Pharisees’ persistent unbelief, He said:

— Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word.

This makes an important distinction, because Jesus explained that man’s unbelief is not a result of the Bible’s obscurity.

The reason “no one understands” does not reside in a lack of clarity of God’s revealed Word.

Jesus explained that His teaching was misunderstood because His message was intolerable to sinful hearts.

At the heart of sinful mankind’s total depravity is his moral and spiritual inability to accept the gospel.

Being rooted in spiritual ignorance, man’s total depravity manifests itself in idolatry.

Phillips, R. D. (2008). What’s So Great about the Doctrines of Grace? (pp. 24–25). Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing.

Paul’s catalog of depravity continues, “No one seeks for God” ().

In his quest for meaning, truth, and salvation, fallen mankind will turn everywhere except to God.

This is why such manifestly foolish ideas as the theory of evolution gain so much traction in our world,

propping up fallen man’s desperate quest to find a replacement for God.

Do we realize all of this?

Our problem is not simply that we have made some bad decisions.

Our problem is not just that we’ve messed up.

Our problem is that we are—at the very core of our being—

sinfully lost,

cut off from God,

condemned by God, and

consequently destined for hell.

The teaching of the depravity of man is what helps us to appreciate the work of Christ.

It helps us to appreciate v21 the phrase: “you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

How does preaching on the total depravity of man help us to appreciate our salvation?

The only way to see the greatness of the gospel is to see how bad is our plight.

Or to put it differently, unless we know what we are being saved from, we really don’t grasp the glory of our salvation.

Indeed, it is when we best see our lost condition that we most treasure the gospel.

This is what the doctrine of total depravity tells us—that the only way someone like this,

someone like you and me,

is going to be made right with God is by radical grace.

And when we combine an accurate appraisal of man’s total depravity with

a biblical vision of the absolute holiness of God,

we see the gospel in all its glory.

It is when we set God’s high and right demands next to our

low and base performance, and

when we compare His glorious being with

our utter corruption,

that we see the true problem of life.

This is the great gulf between us and God, is indeed an infinite one,

as high as the heavens are above the earth.

It is a problem that could be solved, a chasm that could be spanned,

only on a hill far away, on an old rugged cross,

“where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain.”

So it helps us to appreciate the gospel more and produces a deep seated thanksgiving.

Understanding the connection of our sin not only helps us to appreciate the gospel more and produces a deep seated thanksgiving,

It helps all true spirituality. At least, this is what tells us:

— For the High and Exalted One, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this: “I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.

Do you want the high and holy God to dwell in your heart?

Then humble yourself before Him with the truth about yourself, and look in total reliance to His grace for your salvation.

This is what marked the difference between the religious Pharisee and the tax collector of whom Jesus spoke in .

The two men went into the temple to pray.

The one thanked God for how good he had become, though admittedly with some help from the Lord.

The other refused even to look upward, but beat his breast and cried out, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” (). Jesus commented,

— I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Some religious people pride themselves in their long standing church membership and all that they used to do for God!

Pride is evil and blinding. Humble yourself and you have Jesus’s promise, you will “be exalted.”

Likewise, it was when the prodigal son realized what a swine he had become that he finally turned his heart to his father.

Phillips, R. D. (2008). What’s So Great about the Doctrines of Grace? (p. 30). Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing.

His return to spiritual life was marked with the words, “I am no longer worthy” (, ).

Phillips, R. D. (2008). What’s So Great about the Doctrines of Grace? (pp. 29–30). Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing.

This is true spirituality, for it leads us home to God.

So understanding our sin and salvation from sin helps us to

deeply appreciate the gospel more and

it promote true spirituality instead of prideful religion.

Thirdly, understanding sin and our salvation from sin through Jesus exalts Christ and His sacrifice upon the cross.

Without a quickened awareness of our depravity, we are Pharisees at best, though most of us are far worse.

The best we can approach is a religious performance that brings glory to us and leaves us looking down on everybody else,

just the way many Christians today look down on the rest of society,

the Pharisee gazing down on the abortion doctor and the pervert.

Jesus knew Pharisees well, and He didn’t like them.

Far better to Him was the sinful woman who burst in at the home of a Pharisee named Simon and threw herself at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus said to him: “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.… Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little” (, ).

Forgiven people are marked by their love.

Not much love in religious churchmen.

Awe and gratitude drive the true Christian life and draw us joyfully to God’s grace in Christ.

It is from the pit of our lost condition that we gaze up toward a God so high and perfect in His holiness.

But from that vantage point we come to see fully at least one of those dimensions of the cross that Paul would long to have us know: its height.

The cross of Christ then rises up to span the full and vast distance that marks how far short we are of the glory of God,

and that cross becomes exceedingly precious in our eyes.

— On that day you will say: “I will give thanks to you, Lord, although you were angry with me. Your anger has turned away, and you have comforted me. Indeed, God is my salvation; I will trust him and not be afraid, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation.” You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation, and on that day you will say: “Give thanks to the Lord; proclaim his name! Make his works known among the peoples. Declare that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things. Let this be known throughout the earth.

Matthew has begun his Gospel with a clear declaration that the Jesus of whom He is writing is the Messiah/Christ, the son of David.

Matthew has begun his Gospel with a clear declaration that the Jesus of whom He is writing is the Messiah/Christ, the son of David.

Also, He IS the Savior of sinners.

He has already fulfilled Old Testament prophecies and will continue to do so until sin and Satan are finally destroyed.

This is the kind of reign that Christ has come to inaugurate.

And those who gain the benefits of His kingdom are those who trust Him as their Lord & Savior from sin.

Right from the beginning, Matthew is clear that belonging to the kingdom is

not a matter of trying to earn acceptance by obeying God’s laws,

but trusting and serving the Savior-King.

Legg, J. (2004). The King and His Kingdom: The Gospel of Matthew Simply Explained (pp. 23–28). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.