Jesus the Savior

A Scandalous Betrothal

Matthew 1:18–19 CSB

18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

Engaged/Betrothed:

Word Pictures in the New Testament Matthew 1:18

Betrothal with the Jews was a serious matter, not lightly entered into and not lightly broken. The man who betrothed a maiden was legally husband (Gen. 29:21; Deut. 22:23f.) and “an informal cancelling of betrothal was impossible” (McNeile). Though they did not live together as husband and wife till actual marriage, breach of faithfulness on the part of the betrothed was treated as adultery and punished with death.

“Because he was a righteous man, Joseph therefore could not in conscience marry Mary who was now thought to be unfaithful. And because such a marriage would have been a tacit admission of his own guilt, and also because he was unwilling to expose her to the disgrace of public divorce, Joseph therefore chose a quieter way, permitted by the law itself.” — D.A. Carson

A Divine Explanation

Matthew 1:20–21 NASB95

20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

vs 21 This is the fundamental reason for Jesus’ coming, to save His people from their sins.

The Fountain of Youth…search for eternal life, “Rich, Young Ruler” (Matt. 19:16-22)

A Prophecy Fulfilled

Matthew 1:22–23 NASB95

22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

vs 23

Immanuel - “God is in the mess”

“Matthew claims not that God has given us a representation of himself, but that he has come in person to share our situation…He is ‘God with us’. That is the essential claim on which Christianity is built. It is a claim that cannot be abandoned without abandoning the faith in its entirety.” — Michael Green

“Christianity is not good advice about morals. It is good news about God and what he has done for us.” — Michael Green

Matthew (3. The Virginal Conception: God Becomes Human (1:18–25))

Though Matthew expounds nothing of its significance here, the virginal conception has regularly been understood as a way by which Jesus could be both fully human and fully divine. His father, in essence, was God, through the work of the Holy Spirit; his mother was the fully human woman, Mary. As fully God, Jesus was able to pay the eternal penalty for our sins (v. 21) for which finite humanity could not atone. As fully human he could be our adequate representative and substitutionary sacrifice. — Craig Blomberg

“Matthew 1-2 serves as a finely wrought prologue for every major them in the Gospel. We must therefore understand Matthew to be telling us that if jesus is physically Mary’s son and legally Joseph’s son, at an even more fundamental level he is God’s Son; and in this Matthew agrees with Luke’s statement (Luke 1:35). The dual paternity, one legal and one divine, is unambiguous.” — D.A. Carson