Call his name Jesus

In Matthew 1:20 an angel appeared to Joseph and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife and that the child that was in her womb had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. In verse 21 the angel went on to tell Joseph that Mary would bear a son and then told him, “You shall call his name Jesus because He will save his people from their sins.”

In this brief encounter, the angel not only gave Joseph a name for the boy he and Mary would raise, he also showed him the very essence of God’s plan for mankind.

When the angel told Joseph to name Mary’s baby “Jesus” it wasn’t just because it was a popular name (which unfortunately is how many people name their children today.) The name “Jesus” is a Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Joshua or Jeshua, which means “The Salvation of Yahweh” or “Yahweh is salvation” and the angel made it clear to Joseph that Jesus was given this name “because He would save his people from their sins.”

Even though most Christians know that Jesus is the “savior” many do not really understand the salvation that Jesus bought for us.

There are two very real and yet very distinct ways in which Jesus saves us from our sins.

In Romans 6:23 we are told that, “The wages of sin is death.” Death is both the natural consequence and the just punishment for sin. But this verse is not merely referring to physical death but spiritual death. Ultimately death is not the cessation of something, but the separation of something from life. Physical death is what happens when a body is separated from the spirit, which gives it life. (See James 2:26) Spiritual death is what happens when a spirit is separated form the Spirit of God who gives life to all things. (Psalm 104:29-30)

When Jesus died on the cross as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) he provided atonement for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2) The idea behind atonement is to appease or satisfy someone who has a rightful case against you. As a result of our sins, God’s justice demanded that every one of us be sentenced to death – not only physical, but spiritual death. At the cross God chose to carry out this sentence of death upon his own son in our place. Through Jesus, God’s demands for justice were met and his anger was appeased. From this it is easy to see that Jesus has “saved us” from the wrath of God and the eternal consequences of our sins (Romans 5:9) by becoming sin for us, and reconciling us to God, who now does not count our sins against us. (2 Corinthians 5:19-20)

But there is another less understood and unfortunately less talked about way Jesus saves us from our sins. Sin not only affected our eternal future, it affected every day life as well. In Romans 6:6 and 17 Paul said that we were all “slaves of sin.” (Romans 6:6,17) And in John 8:34 Jesus said, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” The grim reality is that all of us were born into bondage to sin, with no hope of becoming free. But in John 8:36 Jesus went on to say, “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we have not only been saved from the eternal penalties of Sin, but from the actual power of sin in our life. Three times in Romans 6 Paul declares that we are “free from sin” (Verses 6,18 & 22). Through the power of His Holy spirit living and bearing fruit inside of us, Jesus has saved us from bondage to sin and made us “slaves of righteousness” instead! (Romans 6:18)

Aren’t you glad God said “his name shall be called Jesus!”