"Call His Name Jesus"

Matthew 1:21

The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, Mary's espoused husband, and said concerning her divine Son, "Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." Jesus, means Deliverers or Savior. Joshua was the Old Testament name. As Joshua delivered Israel into the land of Canaan, so Christ shall deliver God's elect into their heavenly rest. Three things are clearly revealed in the angel's message to Joseph.

1. JESUS IS GOD. Joseph knew that the child was not his and the angel assured him that the child had no earthly father. He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, God the Holy Spirit prepared a body for God the Son in Mary's womb, according to the decree of God the Father. And that child which Mary brought forth was and is God our Savior. He was not "a god", or "one like God", or even "God in a diminished capacity". He was and is "God over all, blessed forever."

2. JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, HAS A PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD. Before the world was made God gave Christ a people to save, the Father gave his sheep into the hands of his Son as the Good Shepherd; and the Son agreed to save all that the Father had given him. All men belong to Christ as Creator; and he can do with his own as he will. But some out of Adam's fallen race are "his people" by election, by predestination, by covenant agreement, by redemption. And they shall be his people forever. Not one of them shall ever perish.

3. CHRIST SHALL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS. He has saved all his people from the penalty of their sins by his death upon the cross as our Substitute. He is saving his people from the reigning power and dominion of their sins by the power of his Spirit in regeneration, calling, and preservation. And he shall save his people from the presence of their sins by bringing them all home to glory, where there shall be one fold and one Shepherd.

Don Fortner