TEXT: Matthew 1:18-21
- 21: “…he will save his people from their sins.”
- “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” – 1 Timothy 1:15
“The Son of God became man to enable men to become the sons of God.”
— C. S. Lewis
TEXT: Matthew 1:18-21
How does He save us? By…
- Taking on humanity (v. 18)
“18 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.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son…” – Isaiah 7:14
“Remaining what he was, he became what he was not.” (Gregory of Naziansen)
“He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” – Psalm 130:8
- Becoming weak (v. 19-20)
“And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 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.”
“…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” – Isaiah 53:2
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
–Hebrews 4:15
“God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
BUT…How can the Holy come near to the unholy?
- Carrying our sin (v. 21)
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
21 “…you shall call his name Jesus…”
Jesus means “Yahweh saves”!
“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” – Martin Luther
TAKEAWAYS: How does Jesus’ coming change us?
By…
- Inviting us to surrender control
- Freeing us to confess our “sin”
- Seeing dignity in all people
“…in the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Henceforth, any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all that bears a human form. Through fellowship and communion with the incarnate Lord, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time we are delivered from that individualism which is the consequence of sin and retrieve our solidarity with the whole human race. By being partakers of Christ incarnate, we are partakers in the whole humanity which he bore. We now know that we have been taken up and borne in the humanity of Jesus, and therefore that new nature we now enjoy means that we too must bear the sins and sorrows of others. The incarnate Lord makes his followers the brothers of all mankind.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us.” – 1 John 3:16 (Message)