“The angel said to Joseph: You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”~Matthew 1:21 The angel clearly tells us the reason for the birth of Jesus Christ—“He will save His people from their sins.” The Greek text has the pronoun at the beginning of the clause for emphasis— “He, and no other, will save His people from their sins.”
Peter declared in Acts 4:12, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
And the Apostle Paul wrote, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Christ’s death on the cross has paid the full penalty, once for all time, for the sins of all who trust in Him.
John reminds us, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins” (1 John 3:5). And we read in Hebrews 9:26 that “He [Christ] has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
This tells us that the death of Jesus Christ did not have mere potential to save but declares the assurance that His death actually saves from sin all those who trust in Him. This means we do not trust the Church to save us. We do not trust our water baptism to save us.
We do not trust the Lord’s Supper to save us. We do not trust what we can do to save us. To trust any of these things would make us an idolater. The only One who can save us from our sins is Jesus Christ! How glorious is the birth of Jesus Christ— for He was born to save His people from their sins! Do you trust Jesus as your Savior, or do you look to another? Jesus is clear when He said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
“Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man [Jesus] is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). May you have a blessed Christmas celebration as you reflect on the birth of our Lord, King, and Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to “save His people from their sins.”
