She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

The word “saved” implies danger. There is no need to be saved if there is nothing to be saved from. The Jews in the first century wanted deliverance. They wanted to be saved from a secular government, but many did not realize that they first needed to be rescued from something else. They needed to be saved from their sins.

At His first coming, Jesus did not come to rule, but to die. He came to save His people from their sin. The supreme irony was that He came not only to save Jewish people, but also the Gentiles. The wicked heathen people whom the Jews had separated themselves from would be saved by the Messiah! Praise God for His great and wide grace!

Doubtless, Joesph might have confined the words spoken by the angel, “His people,” to include only the Jews. But these words contain a much wider scope of people, these words include the redeemed people of all ages. They include both Jews and Gentiles. They include Enoch and Noah. They include Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They include Moses, Ruth, David, Esther, and all the rest of the redeemed, both in the past and those yet to be born. All of these people are saved by God, saved from their sin, and granted that which they do not deserve.

Jesus came to save His people from their sins! He came to save His people from that which they rightly deserved! The final penalty for sin is eternal damnation. Hell. The wrath of God. But Christ bore His people’s punishment on the cross; He bore the wrath of God in order to make salvation possible!

After the angel of the Lord had finished his explanation concerning the purpose of the Messiah, Joesph’s dream was complete. When Joseph woke up, he obediently acted according to the words of the angel and took Mary as his wife.

Related Posts:
Isaiah’s Prophecy: It’s Fulfillment (Part 1) – Matthew 1:22-23
Joseph, Do Not Be Afraid to Take Mary as Your Wife – Matthew 1:20
Joseph’s Dilemma – Matthew 1:19
The Virgin Birth – Matthew 1:18
The Lineage of the Messiah – Matthew 1:1-17

The virgin birth, in and of itself, was a great miracle, but the child to be born would bring about even greater miracles. In the past few verses, Matthew has mainly focused on Mary and Joseph. The emphasis has been on Mary’s unique pregnancy, but now the emphasis shifts to the infant who is soon to be born:

She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

In a dream, the angel of the Lord told Joseph concerning his wife, “She will bear a Son”. This event would certainly come to pass. Nothing could be done to stop or prevent Mary’s pregnancy. What Joseph may have wished to happen did not matter, for if God deems that something will happen, it will happen.

The angel of the Lord commanded Joseph, “And you shall call His name Jesus”. Jesus means Saviour. He is the Anointed One— the Messiah. Through His life, Jesus would bring about dramatic change, but not the change which many had expected. At His first coming, Jesus did not disturb the world order. He didn’t overthrow the Roman government and restore governing power to Israel. He didn’t launch an assault against the Gentiles, nor did He make Himself the ruling king of the known world. In short, Jesus did not lead an army so that He could reign over the earth.

At His second coming, Jesus will reign over the earth (the book of Revelation describes the bloody scene leading up to Jesus’ reign). However, if Jesus had not come for a different purpose the first time, then no man would be able to dwell in His kingdom. God is perfect in holiness; He requires man to have a perfect record. All men have fallen incredibly short of this standard of perfection. Not even the animal sacrifices offered up to God in the Old Testament times were enough to blot out man’s innumerable sins. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:4)

Jesus did something of infinite greatness at His first coming. No words can fully describe this supreme act of sovereign love. Jesus told His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) That is what Jesus did: He laid down His life— He died. But death did not hold Him, He defeated the grave! He rose again! He did what only God can do, He saved His people from their sins.

Related Posts:
Isaiah’s Prophecy: It’s Fulfillment (Part 1) – Matthew 1:22-23
Joseph, Do Not Be Afraid to Take Mary as Your Wife – Matthew 1:20
Joseph’s Dilemma – Matthew 1:19
The Virgin Birth – Matthew 1:18
The Lineage of the Messiah – Matthew 1:1-17

Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. (Genesis 5:4-5)

This passage is significant for many reasons. It provides the basis for a detailed genealogy (see Genesis 5 Genealogy Timeline). It establishes the fact that Adam and Eve had children which are not specifically mentioned in Scripture— one of these children was likely Cain’s wife (see Who Was Cain’s Wife?). But this passage also contains the following words:

and he died.

These words can be read without much thought. Death is so prevalent in human society that it is easy to accept it as a fact of life. But death isn’t just a fact of life… it’s a tragedy.

God told Adam not to eat from the tree in the garden. He said, in the day that you eat from it you will surely die. (Genesis 2:17) Adam disobeyed God, ate from the tree, and died spiritually— he was severed from God. But God was merciful at the fall. He gave man a second chance. Physical death was delayed.

For Adam, death was delayed hundreds of years. But nonetheless, death still came. Although Adam’s death is the third recorded death in Scripture, it appears to have been the first natural death. Cain killed Abel. Lamech also killed a man. But Adam appears to have been the first man to die due to the natural decay of the body.

This passage should remind every person of the following reality: You will die. You are not eternal and should not live as if you are. Whether you are slain like Abel or die from decay… death will come. Jesus said in Matthew 6:27, And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? Don’t worry about death— instead, concern yourself with living for that which is eternal.

Related Posts:
The Genealogy: Adam to Noah – Genesis 5
Summary of Genesis 5
Man In the Image of Man – Genesis 5:3
The Fall: Merciful Curses – The Christian Worldview
Summary of Genesis 4

Eve was deceived by Satan and sinned, thus humanity fell from perfection. Pain entered the world. Disease and death have wrecked havoc ever since. But what if God had left the world in its perfect state? What if God had not given humanity any apparent consequences of their sinful actions?

While the curses in Genesis 3 were certainly acts of judgment, they were also acts of mercy. The curses are daily reminders that humanity is fallen. Whenever you are sick or in pain. Whenever you look around and see death and destruction. Whenever you can see nothing but the miseries of this world, it is God calling out. It is God reminding you of the horrific consequences of sin.

Without these reminders and God working in us to restrain our wickedness, we would all perish. Imagine what would have occurred if shame had not entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned. They would not have covered themselves. Rather, they would have continued delighting in their sin. The wickedness of their sin would have grown deeper and deeper. There would be no conscience to prevent them from diving into their sin. Humanity would begin to quickly multiply and no man would see any immediate result of sin. All of humanity would joyfully spend all the days of their lives living in sin and upon death would be cast straight into hell.

God has designed the present world in such a way so that pain reminds men they are fallen. True and everlasting joy can never be found in any type of sin in this world. No matter how hard men try, they will never find true satisfaction in sin. But whoever drinks of the water which Christ gives will never thirst again (John 4:14). True and everlasting satisfaction may only be found in seeking and pursuing God, who is the only eternal being, thus He is the only source of perfect and everlasting joy.

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
-John 1:4-7

In Christ was life. He is the source and giver of all life. Nothing that is in existence would be in existence without Him, for all things were created through Him. Christ did not receive or inherit life, but has always had life and is the provider and possessor of all life. Regarding “and the life was the Light of men,” John Gill writes:

“…all his elect are dead in trespasses and sins, and cannot quicken themselves. Christ has procured life for them, and gives it to them, and implants it in them; a life of sanctification is from him; and a life of justification is upon him, and of faith is by him; all the comforts of a spiritual life, and all things appertaining to it, are from him, and he maintains, and preserves it.”
-John Gill

The light shines in the darkness. The better translation would be “the darkness did not overcomethe” Light. In this context, darkness represents anything that sets itself against the One who gives all life. Darkness is the opposite of light. But just as when a candle is set ablaze in a pitch black cave, so the Light, the Christ, cannot be overcome by darkness.

A man was sent from God, John the baptist. God fulfilled His purposes through this man. He was saved through God’s grace and filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15). It is said that he came to testify about the Light, so that all men might might see the life that the Light brings into a world infested with darkness.

Christ is the one who overcomes the darkness. Thus as Christians we are called to be as John, testifiers of the Light. The Gospel is the Light that overcomes the darkness. As Christians filled with the Spirit we possess the only message that brings life and extinguishes the darkness. How ignorant we are when we put a lampshade over the Light and ashamedly mumble the one message that brings hope and light to the world.