Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 1:21
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
21. Jesus =Saviour] Jesus represents the Greek form, while Joshua represents the Hebrew form of the same name. The same Hebrew root occurs in the salutation Hosanna: see note, ch. Mat 21:9. Joshua who led the Israelites into the Promised Land, and Joshua or Jeshua, who was high priest at the time of the return from the Babylonish Captivity, are types of Jesus Christ in respect both of work and name.
save his people from their sins ] An announcement of a Spiritual Kingdom. Contrary to the thought of many Jews the salvation which Jesus brought was not to be a saving from the Roman or Herodian rule, but a life protected from sin.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
His name Jesus – The name Jesus is the same as Saviour. It is derived from the verb signifying to save, In Hebrew it is the same as Joshua. In two places in the New Testament it is used where it means Joshua, the leader of the Jews into Canaan, and in our translation the name Joshua should have been retained, Act 7:45; Heb 4:8. It was a very common name among the Jews.
He shall save – This expresses the same as the name, and on this account the name was given to him. He saves people by dying to redeem them; by giving the Holy Spirit to renew them Joh 16:7-8; by His power in enabling them to overcome their spiritual enemies, in defending them from danger, in guiding them in the path of duty, in sustaining them in trials and in death; and He will raise them up at the last day, and exalt them to a world of purity and love.
His people – Those whom the Father has given to him. The Jews were called the people of God because he had chosen them to himself, and regarded them as His special and beloved people, separate from all the nations of the earth. Christians are called the people of Christ because it was the purpose of the Father to give them to him Isa 53:11; Joh 6:37; and because in due time he came to redeem them to himself, Tit 2:14; 1Pe 1:2.
From their sins – This was the great business of Jesus in coming and dying. It was not to save people in their sins, but from their sins. Sinners could not be happy in heaven. It would be a place of wretchedness to the guilty. The design of Jesus was, therefore, to save them from sin; and from this we may learn:
1. That Jesus had a design in coming into the world. He came to save his people; and that design will surely be accomplished. It is impossible that in any part of it he should fail.
2. We have no evidence that we are his people unless we are saved from the power and dominion of sin. A mere profession of being His people will not answer. Unless we give up our sins; unless we renounce the pride, pomp, and pleasure of the world, we have no evidence that we are the children of God. It is impossible that we should be Christians if we indulge in sin and live in the practice of any known iniquity. See 1Jo 3:7-8.
3. That all professing Christians should feel that there is no salvation unless it is from sin, and that they can never be admitted to a holy heaven hereafter unless they are made pure, by the blood of Jesus, here.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 1:21-22
Jesus.
The design of our Saviours coming
I. Consider this as an enemy.
1. Behold sin with regard to God.
2. Behold sin in its names.
3. Behold the effects of sin.
4. That Christ derives from this work His highest title.
II. Consider in what manner he saves his people from their sins.
1. He redeems them by price.
2. He saves them by power.
3. He saves from the guilt of sin.
4. He saves from the love of sin. (W. Jay.)
In old times God was known by names of power, of nature, of majesty; but His name of mercy was reserved till now. (Bishop J. Taylor.)
The name and work of Jesus
I. His name.
II. His work.
1. Whom He saves-His people.
2. From what He saves-their sins.
3. How He saves. By His atonement He saves them virtually; by His spirit, vitally; by His grace, constantly; by His power, eternally. Remarks:
(1) Jesus as a suitable Saviour;
(2) a willing Saviour;
(3) an all-sufficient Saviour. (E. Oakes.)
Christ a Saviour
I. The work he is to accomplish is a most great, glorious, and blessed one. He shall save. Another Scripture says, He shall destroy. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. These characters are consistent. He demolishes the works of Satan because they stand in His way as Saviour.
1. He eaves His people from the penalty of their sins.
2. From the dominion and practice of sin.
3. In the end He saves from the very existence of sin.
4. And from the painful remembrance of their sins.
II. The name our Lord is to bear in consequence of this work of salvation. Learn from this-
1. The character in which God most delights to regard His Son.
2. It shows us that He would have us regard Him chiefly as a Saviour.
3. This name may have been given to Christ to endear Him the more to our hearts.
4. We see here beyond all dispute the real nature and design of Christs religion. (C. Bradley.)
The name of Jesus
I. The name of Jesus.
1. The signification of the name.
2. The appointment of the name. Not left to mens choice.
II. The reason for the name. Some would rather that He had come to save them from poverty, pains, death; not knowing that to save from sins is to save from all these. (J. Bennet, D. D.)
I. A work of most blessed purpose.
1. Sin is itself the greatest of all miseries. It is
(1) deeper;
(2) vaster;
(3) more abiding;
(4) the source of all other miseries.
II. A work of vast magnitude. Its magnitude realized by dwelling-
1. On the multitudes of the saved.
2. On the nature of the salvation.
3. On the fact that this salvation is wrought by Jesus personally. (U. R. Thomas.)
Jesus the Saviour
I. What the gospel shall, bring-Salvation from sins.
II. Jesus is the saviour and his work constitutes our salvation.
1. This word teaches us that salvation is Divine. Because Divine it is
(1) sufficient;
(2) unchangeable;
(3) infinite. It is illimitable, as the air to the bird.
2. He who gives this salvation stands in solitary grandeur-He. Nowhere else can we find salvation.
3. The name gives an immutable pledge that we shall be saved.
III. The text informs us of what this salvation consists. From their sins. Not from the wrath of God primarily.
1. From the guilt, curse, condemnation of sin.
2. From our love, habit, practice of sin.
3. It is not salvation from an abstraction, but from selfishness and self-will.
IV. The character of the people of God. His people; peculiar, chosen, royal. Are you saved from sins? (J. Donovan.)
Jesus the Saviour
I. Jesus is an omnipotent Saviour.
1. The presumption of the fact from the infinite wisdom and goodness of God, who never provides a cause unequal to the effect.
2. The declaration of the fact, He is able to save them to the uttermost, etc.
II. Jesus is a willing Saviour.
III. Jesus is a living Saviour.
IV. Jesus is a present Saviour.
V. Jesus is a personal Saviour.
VI. Jesus is a sympathizing Saviour. (G. H. Smyth.)
I. Let me call your attention to the Saviour. Jesus is Divine; He saves His people from their sins. Not the word, not the ordinances, but Jesus Himself saves.
II. Look at the salvation.
1. Jesus saves from sin by bestowing forgiveness-full forgiveness, free, immediate.
2. Jesus saves His people from the pollution of sin; not in their sins, but from their sins.
III. Let us look at the saved. He shall save His people. Who are His people? They must have been at one time in their sins. Therefore no one need despair. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Jesus only worthy of trust as a Saviour.
A Christian Hindoo was dying, and his heathen comrades came around him and tried to comfort him by reading some of the pages of their theology; but he waved his hand, as much as to say, I dont want to hear it. Then they called in a heathen priest, and he said, If you will only recite the Numtra it will deliver you from hell. He waved his hand, as much as to say, I dont want to hear that. Then they said, Call on Juggernaut. He shook his head, as much as to say, I cant do that. Then they thought perhaps he was too weary to speak, and they said, Now if you cant say Juggernaut, think of that god. He shook his head again, as much as to say, No, no, no. Then they bent down to his pillow, and they said, In what will you trust? His face lighted up with the very glories of the celestial sphere as he cried out, rallying all his dying energies, Jesus!
The name of Jesus.-
This name Jesus, said St. Bernard, it is honey in the mouth, harmony in the ear, melody in the heart. This name Jesus, saith St. Anselm, it is a name of comfort to sinners when they call upon Him; therefore he himself saith, Jesus, be my Jesus. This name is above all names: first, for that it was consecrated from everlasting; secondly, for that it was given of God; thirdly, for that it was desired of the Patriarchs; fourthly, for that it was foretold of the Prophets; fifthly, for that it was accomplished in the time of grace, magnified in the Apostles, witnessed of Martyrs, acknowledged and honoured shall it be of all believers unto the worlds end. This name Jesus, it is compared to oil poured out; oil being kept close, it sendeth not forth such a savour, as it doth being poured out; and oil hath these properties, it suppleth, it cherisheth, it maketh look cheerfully; so doth this name of Jesus, it suppleth the hardness of our hearts, it cherisheth the weakness of our faith, enlighteneth the darkness of our soul, and maketh man look with a cheerful countenance towards the throne of grace. (Christopher Sutton.)
Salvation from sin
You must be saved from sin not in sin as some seem to imagine. The latter is like saving a man from drowning by keeping him under the water which is destroying him; or like recovering a man from sickness by leaving him under the malady which constitutes the complaint. (W. Jay.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. JESUS] The same as Joshua, Yehoshua, from yasha, he saved, delivered, put in a state of safety. See on Ex 13:9; Nu 13:16, and in the preface to Joshua.
He shall save his people from their sins.] This shall be his great business in the world: the great errand on which he is come, viz. to make an atonement for, and to destroy, sin: deliverance from all the power, guilt, and pollution of sin, is the privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus. Less than this is not spoken of in the Gospel; and less than this would be unbecoming the Gospel. The perfection of the Gospel system is not that it makes allowances for sin, but that it makes an atonement for it: not that it tolerates sin, but that it destroys it. In Mt 1:1, he is called Jesus Christ, on which Dr. Lightfoot properly remarks, “That the name of Jesus, so often added to the name of Christ in the New Testament, is not only that Christ might be thereby pointed out as the Saviour, but also that Jesus might be pointed out as the true Christ or Messiah, against the unbelief of the Jews.” This observation will be of great use in numberless places of the New Testament. See Ac 2:36; Ac 8:35; 1Co 16:22; 1Jo 2:22; 1Jo 4:15, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When the usual time of women is accomplished,
she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall not be thy natural son, but he shall be her son, not begot by thee, but brought forth by her, so flesh of her flesh. His name shall be called Jesus by thee, or by his mother. It is the will of God thou shouldest give him that name.
For he shall save his people from their sins. It was the custom of the Jews (Gods ancient people) to give names to their children, either expressive of the mercy which God had showed them in giving them their children, or of the duty which their children did owe unto God. This name was given by God, expressing the mercy of God to his people in giving them this child;
for he shall save his people from their sins, saith the angel. Jesus comes from a Hebrew word, which signifies salvation. Joshua had his name from the same word, because he was to be a temporal saviour to save the Jews, the whole body of the Jews, from the Canaanites their enemies. This Jesus was to save his people, all that should believe in his name, whether Jews or Gentiles, from their sins. Hereby the angel hints the mistake of the Jews, in thinking the Messias should be a temporal saviour, who should save the Jews from their enemies, minding them that he was to save them, not from their bodily, but spiritual enemies, from their sins; the guilt of them, and the power of them, and from the eternal danger of them: and he alone should do it; There is none other name under heaven given among men, neither is there salvation in any other, Act 4:12.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. And she shall bring forth asonObserve, it is not said, “she shall bear thee ason,” as was said to Zacharias of his wife Elizabeth (Lu1:13).
and thouas his legalfather.
shalt call his nameJESUSfrom the Hebrew meaning “Jehovah theSaviour”; in Greek JESUStothe awakened and anxious sinner sweetest and most fragrant of allnames, expressing so melodiously and briefly His whole saving officeand work!
for he shall saveThe”He” is here emphaticHe it is that shall save; Hepersonally, and by personal acts (as WEBSTERand WILKINSON express it).
his peoplethe lostsheep of the house of Israel, in the first instance; for they werethe only people He then had. But, on the breaking down of the middlewall of partition, the saved people embraced the “redeemed untoGod by His blood out of every kindred and people and tongue andnation.”
from their sinsin themost comprehensive sense of salvation from sin (Rev 1:5;Eph 5:25-27).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And she shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Jesus.] For though she was with child, it could not be known any otherwise than by prediction or divine revelation, that she should have a son, whose name should be called Jesus; a name of the same signification with Joshua and Hosea, and may be interpreted a “Saviour”, Ac 13:23 for the word Jesus, comes from which signifies “to save.” And to this agrees the reason of the name given by the Angel,
for he shall save his people from their sins. The salvation here ascribed to him, and for which he is every way fit, being God as well as man, and which he is the sole author of, is to be understood, not of a temporal, but of a spiritual and everlasting salvation; such as was prophesied of, Is 45:17 and which old Jacob had in his view, when he said, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord”, Ge 49:18 which by the Jewish f Targumist is paraphrased thus:
“Jacob said when he saw Gideon the son of Joash, and Samson the son of Manoah, that they would rise up to be saviours, not for the salvation of Gideon do I wait, nor for the salvation of Samson do I look, for their salvation is
“a temporary salvation”; but for thy salvation, O Lord, do I wait and look, for thy salvation is “an everlasting salvation”, or (according to another copy) but for the salvation of Messiah the son of David, who shall save the children of Israel, and bring them out of captivity, for thy salvation my soul waiteth.”
By “his people” whom he is said to save are meant, not all mankind, though they are his by creation and preservation, yet they are not, nor will they be all saved by him spiritually and eternally; nor also the people of the Jews, for though they were his nation, his kinsmen, and so his own people according to the flesh, yet they were not all saved by him; many of them died in their sins, and in the disbelief of him as the Messiah: but by them are meant all the elect of God, whether Jews or Gentiles, who were given to him by his Father, as a peculiar people, and who are made willing in the day of his power upon them, to be saved by him in his own way. And these he saves from “their sins”, from all their sins, original and actual; from secret and open sins; from sins of heart, lip and life; from sins of omission and commission; from all that is in sin, and omission upon it; from the guilt, punishment, and damning power of it, by his sufferings and death; and from the tyrannical government of it by his Spirit and grace; and will at last save them from the being of it, though not in this life, yet hereafter, in the other world, when they shall be without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.
f Targum Jon. Ben Uzziel in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Thou shalt call his name Jesus ( ). The rabbis named six whose names were given before birth: “Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, Solomon, Josiah, and the name of the Messiah, whom may the Holy One, blessed be His name, bring in our day.” The angel puts it up to Joseph as the putative father to name the child. “Jesus is the same as Joshua, a contraction of Jehoshuah (Num 13:16; 1Chr 7:27), signifying in Hebrew, ‘Jehovah is helper,’ or ‘Help of Jehovah'” (Broadus). So Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua (Heb 4:8). He is another Joshua to lead the true people of God into the Promised Land. The name itself was common enough as Josephus shows. Jehovah is Salvation as seen in Joshua for the Hebrews and in Jesus for all believers. “The meaning of the name, therefore, finds expression in the title Saviour applied to our Lord (Luke 1:47; Luke 2:11; John 4:42)” (Vincent). He will save () his people from their sins and so be their Saviour (). He will be prophet, priest, and king, but “Saviour” sums it all up in one word. The explanation is carried out in the promise, “for he is the one who () will save ( with a play on the name Jesus) his people from their sins.” Paul will later explain that by the covenant people, the children of promise, God means the spiritual Israel, all who believe whether Jews or Gentiles. This wonderful word touches the very heart of the mission and message of the Messiah. Jesus himself will show that the kingdom of heaven includes all those and only those who have the reign of God in their hearts and lives.
From their sins ( ). Both sins of omission and of commission. The substantive () is from the verb () and means missing the mark as with an arrow. How often the best of us fall short and fail to score. Jesus will save us away from () as well as out of () our sins. They will be cast into oblivion and he will cover them up out of sight.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Shalt call. Thus committing the office of a father to Joseph. The naming of the unborn Messiah would accord with popular notions. The Rabbis had a saying concerning the six whose names were given before their birth : “Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, Solomon, Josiah, and the name of the Messiah, whom may the Holy One, blessed by His name, bring quickly in our days.”
Jesus [] . The Greek form of a Hebrew name, which had been born by two illustrious individuals in former periods of the Jewish history – Joshua, the successor of Moses, and Jeshua, the high – priest, who with Zerubbabel took so active a part in the re – establishment of the civil and religious polity of the Jews on their return from Babylon. Its original and full form is Jehoshua, becoming by contraction Joshua or Jeshua. Joshua, the son of Nun, the successor of Moses, was originally name Hoshea (saving), which was altered by Moses into Jehoshua (Jehovah [] Salvation) (Num 13:16). The meaning of the name, therefore, finds expression in the title Savior, applied to our Lord (Luk 1:47, Luk 2:11; Joh 4:42).
Joshua, the son of Nun, is a type of Christ in his office of captain and deliverer of his people, in the military aspect of his saving work (Rev 19:11 – 16). As God ‘s revelation to Moses was in the character of a law – giver, his revelation to Joshua was in that of the Lord of Hosts (Jos 5:13, 14). Under Joshua the enemies of Israel were conquered, and the people established in the Promised Land. So Jesus leads his people in the fight with sin and temptation. He is the leader of the faith which overcomes the world (Heb 12:2). Following him, we enter into rest.
The priestly office of Jesus is foreshadowed in the high – priest Jeshua, who appears in the vision of Zechariah (ch. 3; compare Ezr 2:2) in court before God, under accusation of Satan, and clad in filthy garments. Jeshua stands not only for himself, but as the representative of sinning and suffering Israel. Satan is defeated. The Lord rebukes him, and declares that he will redeem and restore this erring people; and in token thereof he commands that the accused priest be clad in clean robes and crowned with the priestly mitre.
Thus in this priestly Jeshua we have a type of our “Great High – Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and in all points tempted and tried like as we are;” confronting Satan in the wilderness; trying conclusions with him upon the victims of his malice – the sick, the sinful, and the demon – ridden. His royal robes are left behind. He counts not “equality with God a thing to be grasped at,” but “empties himself,” taking the “form of a servant,” humbling himself and becoming “obedient even unto death” (Phi 2:6, 7, Rev.). He assumes the stained garments of our humanity. He who “knew no sin” is “made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2Co 5:21). He is at once priest and victim. He pleads for sinful man before God ‘s throne. He will redeem him. He will rebuke the malice and cast down the power of Satan. He will behold him “as lightning fall from heaven” (Luk 10:18). He will raise and save and purify men of weak natures, rebellious wills, and furious passions – cowardly braggarts and deniers like Peter, persecutors like Saul of Tarsus, charred brands – and make them witnesses of his grace and preachers of his love and power. His kingdom shall be a kingdom of priests, and the song of his redeemed church shall be, “unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his own blood, and made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Rev 1:5, 6, in Rev.).
It is no mere fancy which sees a suggestion and a foreshadowing of the prophetic work of Jesus in the economy of salvation, in a third name closely akin to the former. Hoshea, which we know in our English Bible as Hosea, was the original name of Joshua (compare Rom 9:25, Rev.) and means saving. He is, in a peculiar sense, the prophet of grace and salvation, placing his hope in God ‘s personal coming as the refuge and strength of humanity; in the purification of human life by its contact with the divine. The great truth which he has to teach is the love of Jehovah to Israel as expressed in the relation of husband, an idea which pervades his prophecy, and which is generated by his own sad domestic experience. He foreshadows Jesus in his pointed warnings against sin, his repeated offers of divine mercy, and his patient, forbearing love, as manifested in his dealing with an unfaithful and dissolute wife, whose soul he succeeded in rescuing from sin and death (Hos. i – iii). So long as he lived, he was one continual, living prophecy of the tenderness of God toward sinners; a picture of God ‘s live for us when alien from him, and with nothing in us to love. The faithfulness of the prophetic teacher thus blends in Hosea, as in our Lord, with the compassion and sympathy and sacrifice of the priest.
He [] . Emphatic; and so rightly in Rev., “For it is He that shall save his people.”
Their sins [] . Akin to aJmartanw, to miss a mark; as a warrior who throws his spear and fails to strike his adversary, or as a traveler who missed his way. 2 In this word, therefore, one of a large group which represent sin under different phases, sin is conceived as a failing and missing the true end and scope of our lives, which is God.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And she shall bring forth a son,” (teksetai de huion) “And she will bear a son,” give birth to an heir, a man-child, as promised through prophecy, Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6. The Redeemer was to be and was and is a son, a man-child, Jesus Christ, Luk 2:7; Luk 2:21. God was born of man in order that man might be born of God, Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5-6; 1Ti 3:16.
2) “And thou shalt call his name JESUS:” (kai kaleseis to onoma autou lesoun) “And Joseph shall call his name Jesus” or give him the name Jesus, which means “savior” or “deliverer”. And He was named Jesus at eight days of age when He was circumcised, Luk 1:31; Luk 2:21.
3) “For he shall save his people,” (autous gar sosei ton laon autou) “For he personally will save or deliver his people,” the people, of His heir-lineage, the people of Israel specifically. 1) His compassion and love incline Him to save, 2) His power enables Him to save, and 3) His promises bind Him to save or deliver the fallen, and to effect God’s promises to Israel in coming days, Luk 1:32-33.
4) “From their sins.” (apo ton hamartion auton) “From (away from) their sins,” from the consequence of their lawless deeds, as a chosen race, seed of promise, and heir people, according to heaven’s covenants with Abraham, Moses, and David. He was and is and did all that it had been promised of Him, 1Co 15:25; 2Co 1:10. He came first to and for the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Mat 10:7; Mat 15:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
21. And thou shalt call his name JESUS. I have already explained briefly, but as far as was necessary, the meaning of that word. At present I shall only add, that the words of the angel set aside the dream of those who derive it from the essential name of God, Jehovah; for the angel expresses the reason why the Son of God is so called, Because he shall SAVE his people; which suggests quite a different etymology from what they have contrived. It is justly and appropriately added, they tell us, that Christ will be the author of salvation, because he is the Eternal God. But in vain do they attempt to escape by this subterfuge; for the nature of the blessing which God bestows upon us is not all that is here stated. This office was conferred upon his Son from the fact, from the command which had been given to him by the Father, from the office with which he was invested when he came down to us from heaven. Besides, the two words ᾿Ιησοῦς and יהוה , Jesus and Jehovah, agree but in two letters, and differ in all the rest; which makes it exceedingly absurd to allege any affinity whatever between them, as if they were but one name. Such mixtures I leave to the alchymists, or to those who closely resemble them, the Cabalists who contrive for us those trifling and affected refinements.
When the Son of God came to us clothed in flesh, he received from the Father a name which plainly told for what purpose he came, what was his power, and what we had a right to expect from him. for the name Jesus is derived from the Hebrew verb, in the Hiphil conjugation, הושיע, which signifies to save In Hebrew it is pronounced differently, Jehoshua; but the Evangelists, who wrote in Greek, followed the customary mode of pronunciation; for in the writings of Moses, and in the other books of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word יהושוע, Jehoshua, or Joshua, is rendered by the Greek translators ᾿Ιησοῦς, Jesus But I must mention another instance of the ignorance of those who derive — or, I would rather say, who forcibly tear — the name Jesus from Jehovah They hold it to be in the highest degree improper that any mortal man should share this name in common with the Son of God, and make a strange outcry that Christ would never allow his name to be so profaned. As if the reply were not at hand, that the name Jesus was quite as commonly used in those days as the name Joshua Now, as it is sufficiently clear that the name Jesus presents to us the Son of God as the Author of salvation, let us examine more closely the words of the angel.
He shall save his people from their sins The first truth taught us by these words is, that those whom Christ is sent to save are in themselves lost. But he is expressly called the Savior of the Church. If those whom God admits to fellowship with himself were sunk in death and ruin till they were restored to life by Christ, what shall we say of “strangers” (Eph 2:12) who have never been illuminated by the hope of life? When salvation is declared to be shut up in Christ, it clearly implies that the whole human race is devoted to destruction. The cause of this destruction ought also to be observed; for it is not unjustly, or without good reason, that the Heavenly Judge pronounces us to be accursed. The angel declares that we have perished, and are overwhelmed by an awful condemnation, because we stand excluded from life by our sins. Thus we obtain a view of our corruption and depravity; for if any man lived a perfectly holy life, he might do without Christ as a Redeemer. But all to a man need his grace; and, therefore, it follows that they are the slaves of sin, and are destitute of true righteousness.
Hence, too, we learn in what way or manner Christ saves; he delivers us from sins This deliverance consists of two parts. Having made a complete atonement, he brings us a free pardon, which delivers us from condemnation to death, and reconciles us to God. Again, by the sanctifying influences of his Spirit, he frees us from the tyranny of Satan, that we may live “unto righteousness,” (1Pe 2:24.) Christ is not truly acknowledged as a Savior, till, on the one hand, we learn to receive a free pardon of our sins, and know that we are accounted righteous before God, because we are free from guilt; and till, on the other hand, we ask from him the Spirit of righteousness and holiness, having no confidence whatever in our own works or power. By Christ’s people the angel unquestionably means the Jews, to whom he was appointed as Head and King; but as the Gentiles were shortly afterwards to be ingrafted into the stock of Abraham, (Rom 11:17,) this promise of salvation is extended indiscriminately to all who are incorporated by faith in the “one body” (1Co 12:20) of the Church.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) Thou shalt call his name Jesus.There is nothing strange in this being to Joseph the first knowledge of the name, which St. Luke tells us (Luk. 1:31) had been previously imparted to Mary. The customs of the Jews were, as we have seen, against any communications between the bride and bridegroom during the period of betrothal, and the facts of the case (including Marys visit to Elizabeth) would make it more improbable than ever.
The name Jesus was one full of meaning, but it was not as yet a specially sacred name. In its Old Testament form of Jehoshua (Num. 13:16), Joshua, or Jeshua (Num. 14:6; Neh. 8:17), it meant Jehovah is salvation; and the change of the name of the captain of Israel from Hoshea, which did not include the divine name, to the form which gave this full significance (Num. 13:16) had made it the expression of the deepest faith of the people. After the return from Babylon it received a new prominence in connection with the high priest Joshua, the son of Josedech (Hag. 1:1; Zec. 3:1), and appears in its Greek form in Jesus the father, and again in the son, of Sirach. In the New Testament itself we find it borne by others (see Note on Mat. 1:1). It had not been directly associated, however, with Messianic hopes, and the intimation that it was to be the name of the Christ gave a new character to mens thoughts of the kingdom. Not conquest, but salvationdeliverance, not from human enemies only or chiefly, nor from the penalties of sin, but from the sins themselves. As spoken by the angel to the dreamer it was the answer to prayers and hopes, going beyond the hope, and purifying it from earthly thoughts. As recorded by the Evangelist it was a witness that he had been taught the true nature of the kingdom of the Christ.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus We have already remarked, in our note on Mat 1:1, that the name JESUS is equivalent in Greek to the Hebrew name of JOSHUA, who was his type, as being the deliverer of Israel into the promised land. The original name of Joshua was Hoshea, and Moses (doubtless by divine inspiration) changed his name to Joshua, in order to make it signify the salvation of God. Num 13:16. Thus the name was given to indicate the reality of the thing. The reality was that Joshua should be God’s saviour of Israel from their enemies, and their establisher in Canaan. As antitype to this, the same name is given, by the same divine direction, to the Lord our Saviour, because he shall save his people from their sins. As Joshua is redeemer of Israel from their enemies, and their establisher in Canaan, so Jesus is the Redeemer of believers from their sins, and their establisher in the heavenly Canaan. Whence we have the typical parallels:
Redeemer. The Redeemed. The Evil. The Result. Joshua Israel Enemies Canaan. Jesus Believers Sins Heavenly Canaan. We here also see Scripture instances in which the name is divinely imposed to signify the reality of the thing. The name of Jesus signifies saviour, and is given because he IS Saviour; from which we shall in the proper place infer that he is called Emmanuel, (Mat 1:23,) signifying God with us, because he truly IS God manifest in the flesh. So that we may forcibly maintain against the doctrine of the mere humanity of Christ the sublime truth of the Incarnation.
For he shall save his people from their sins From these words it is plain that however the Jews may have expected a political Messiah to save the nation from the Romans, the angel promised a Jesus, who should save his people from their sins. Modern neologists, who maintain that Jesus started at first with the purpose of forming a temporal kingdom, are contradicted by the very earliest declarations in the Gospels to the contrary.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS, for it is he who will save his people from their sins.”
Mary is to bear a son and His name is to be called Ye-sus, ‘YHWH is salvation’, for he will save His people from their sins. We can compare here Psa 130:8, where it is said, ‘and He (YHWH) shall redeem Israel from all her iniquities’. So Jesus is to act on behalf of YHWH as a Saviour. As in Luke the emphasis is on a Saviour acting on behalf of God the Saviour (compare Luk 1:47; Luk 2:11). Here at the very commencement of the Gospel then we have the declared purpose of His coming. It is for the salvation of people from their sins (from their comings short, their missing the mark), and from the consequences of their sins. Its deliberate connection with His name means that the idea is thus to be seen as emphasised throughout the whole Gospel wherever the name of Jesus is mentioned. We can always therefore replace the name ‘Jesus’ with ‘God the Saviour’ (see especially Mat 20:28. Also Mat 10:22; Mat 18:11; Mat 24:13; Mat 24:22).
While saving from sin was undoubtedly a trait of the ‘popular Messiah’, it was not a prominent one, certainly not as prominent as it is made to be here where it is pre-eminent. It was certainly a part of the future hope in general (Isa 1:18; Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22), but not as a major aspect of Messiah’s work, for Messiah was seen as coming to establish justice and to judge (Isa 11:1-4; Psalm of Solomon 17:28-29, 41), although that would necessarily involve a measure of forgiveness. But the thought of forgiveness was not prominent, and that is why Jesus had to emphasise that as the Son of Man He had the right on earth to forgive sins (Mat 9:6). Thus it is made clear that this was to be a different form of Messiah from the One Who was usually expected, One Who would equate with the Servant, Who would suffer on behalf of His own. Compare Mat 9:2; Mat 9:5-6; Mat 26:28; and see Isaiah 53; Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:24-31. We note from the Lord’s prayer (Mat 6:12; Mat 6:14-15; see also Mat 18:21-35) how central forgiveness was to the ministry of Jesus. Forgiving and being forgiven were both essential aspects of the Kingly Rule of Heaven.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The climax of the angel’s message:
v. 21. And she shall bring forth, a son, and thou shall call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins. It was thus ordained in God’s counsel: She will give birth to a son, she is to become a mother, not only by supernatural interposition, not merely by God’s giving new life to organs that were past the age of bearing, as was true in the case of Sarah and Elizabeth, Gen 18:10-14; Luk 1:7-18, but by a miraculous suspension of the usual process of nature, according to which men are born of the will of the flesh and of the will of man, both sexes being active. And this son of Mary he, Joseph, was to call Jesus. This is a command in the form of a prediction. By giving to the child His name, Joseph would publicly recognize and formally adopt Him as his legal son. Jesus is to be the child’s name, not indeed as a mere appellation to distinguish Him from other people, as in the case of the Hebrew synonym Joshua, Num 13:17; Zec 3:1, but as an expression of the very essence of the divine personality, through which the salvation of men would be gained. For the angel explains the name: He shall save His people from their sins That, in a sentence, is the end and object of His coming, that alone is His errand and mission: He, and no other. He alone, and He completely, saves. He brings full pardon, free salvation, complete deliverance, not only from the pollution and power, but also from the guilt of sin. To His people He brings this priceless boon, not merely to the members of His nation according to the flesh, to the Jewish people, but to all that are in need of a Savior, Mat 18:11. This is the Gospel-message, not that Jesus makes allowances for sin, but that He has made atonement for it; not that He tolerates sin, but that He destroys it.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 1:21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus That is, He shall be God the Saviour; for he shall prove that glorious and divine Person, the long-expected Messiah, intended by God to save his people, even all that truly and perseveringly believe in him; by procuring an ample pardon for them, and raising them, after a life of holiness on earth, to a state of consummate perfection and eternal happiness. Bishop Pearson seems to have set the etymology of the name Jesus in the clearest light in his large discourse upon it, where he endeavours to prove that Jah, one of the names of God, enters into the composition of the Hebrew name Joshua, to which Jesus answers; a derivation, which plainly shews how Christ’s being called Jesus, that is to say, God our Saviour, was in effect an accomplishment of the prophesy, that he should be called Emmanuel; for what else, says the bishop, is God with us, than God our Saviour? Well, therefore, has the Evangelist conjoined the prophet and the angel, asserting that Christ was therefore named Jesus, because it was foretold he should be called Emmanuel. See Pearson on the Creed, p. 69-71 and Doddridge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 1:21 . ] and she will bear . “Non additur tibi , ut additur de Zacharia, Luk 1:13 ,” Bengel.
] literally: thou wilt call His name “ Jesus .” Comp. LXX. Gen 17:19 ; 1Sa 1:20 ; Mat 1:23 ; Mat 1:25 ; Luk 1:13 ; Luk 1:31 ; Luk 2:21 . Exactly so in Hebrew: . The Greeks, however, would say: (or also ) ; Matthiae, p. 935 [E. T., Kenrick, p. 675 ff.]; Heindorf, ad Plat. Phaedr. p. 238 A.
] the future serves in classical writers to denote the softened idea of the imperative. Bernhardy, p. 378; Khner, II. 1, p. 149. In the LXX. and in the N. T. it is especially used of divine injunctions, and denotes thereby the imperative sense apodeictically, because it supposes the undoubted certainty of the result; comp. Winer, p. 296 [E. T. 396 f.]. So also here, where a divine command is issued. When Fritzsche would here retain the proper conception of the future, it becomes a mere prediction, less appropriate in the connection; for it is less in keeping with the design of the angelic annunciation, according to which the bestowal and interpretation of the name Jesus is referred to a divine causality, and consequently the genus of the name itself must, most naturally, appear as commanded.
] He and no other.
] The people of Israel: because for these first, and then also for the heathen, was the Messiah and His work intended, Joh 4:22 ; Rom 1:16 ; Gal 3:14 . As certainly, moreover, as the manner and fashion in which the promised one was to accomplish the salvation, and by means of His redemptive work has accomplished it, is to be conceived as being present to the eye of God at the sending of this news, as certainly must Joseph be conceived as regarding it only in its national definiteness, consequently as referring to the theocratic liberation and prosperity of the people (comp. Luk 1:68 ff.), along with which, however, the religious and moral renewal also was regarded as necessary; which renewal must have presupposed the antecedent forgiveness of sin (Luk 1:77 ). , therefore, is to be taken, not as punishment of sin, but, as always, simply as sins.
, not to be written (for the angel speaks of Him as a third person, and without any antithesis): His people, for they belong to the Messiah, comp. Joh 1:11 ; on the plural , see Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 114 [E. T. 130].
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1278
THE IMPORT OF THE NAMES GIVEN TO CHRIST
Mat 1:21-23. Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for He shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
THE dispensations of Providence are extremely dark and intricate: the things which appear most afflictive often prove to be the richest mercies that could have been vouchsafed to us. This was remarkably verified in the history before us. Joseph was espoused to a virgin of consummate piety; but, before their nuptials, she proved to be in a state which gave him reason to suspect her fidelity. Desiring to exercise all the lenity which the case would admit of, he determined to put her away privily. How distressing must such an event have been to this holy man! But God sent an angel to unfold to him the mystery, to declare the ends for which the child should be born, and to impose on the infant a name, that should mark his office in the world.
I.
The appointment of the name
God had often condescended to assign names to men
[Sometimes he had made an alteration in their names [Note: Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah.]; and sometimes totally changed them [Note: Jacob to Israel.]. Sometimes he had assigned a name before the child was conceived [Note: John, Luk 1:13.]. In these things he always acted with unerring wisdom. When men have attempted to give significant appellations, they have only manifested how ignorant they were of futurity [Note: Eve named her first child Cain, which signifies getting: thinking perhaps that she had now gotten the promised Seed: having probably soon discovered her mistake, she called her second son Abel, which signifies vanity. But how misnamed were both! This proved a martyr for his God; and that, a murderer of his own brother.]. But God sees all things from the beginning to the end. And his designation of Christs name was a prognostic of his character.]
The appellation given to the Virgins son was peculiarly suitable
[Jesus simply means a Saviour [Note: Act 13:23.]; and was a common name among the Jews. It was sometimes assigned to those who were great deliverers [Note: Neh 9:27.]. It had been given in a peculiar manner to the son of Nun [Note: Num 13:16. Which name is precisely the same with Jesus and is so translated, Act 7:45 and Heb 4:8.]. He was eminently a Saviour, as leading the Israelites into the promised land, which Moses was not permitted to do [Note: Deu 1:37-38.]. But Christ, whom he typified, is a far greater deliverer. He does that for us which the law could not do [Note: Rom 8:3. Act 13:39.]. He leads the true Israel of God into the heavenly Canaan.]
So remarkable an event may justly lead us to inquire into,
II.
The reason of that appointment
Waving all other reasons, we notice two before us:
1.
To fulfil a prophecy
[Isaiah had foretold that the Messiah should be called Emmanuel [Note: Isa 7:14.]. From the event it appears, that God did not intend this prophecy to have a literal accomplishment. We may expect however that the spirit of it should be accomplished. Now the name Jesus was in fact equivalent to Emmanuel. Jesus means Divine Saviour; and Emmanuel, God with us [Note: See Bishop Pearson on the Creed, p. 70, 71.]. And the Evangelist himself tells us, that the imposition of that name was in order to the fulfilment of this prophecy [Note: Mat 1:22-23.].]
2.
To declare the infants office and character
[The virgins child was to be the Saviour of the world. He was to save his people by price, and by power. They were under sentence of eternal condemnation. His life was the ransom to be paid for their souls [Note: Mat 20:28.]. Hence they are called his purchased possession [Note: Eph 1:14. See also 1Co 6:20 and 1Pe 1:18-19.]. They were also in bondage to sin and Satan [Note: Luk 11:21. 2Ti 2:26.]. And he was to make them a peculiar people, zealous of good works [Note: Tit 2:14.]. Yea, he was ultimately to place them beyond the reach of all the penalties and pollutions of sin. It was of importance that this great work should he represented in his very name. And the text informs us that the name was given him for this very purpose.]
III.
The interest we should take in it
[Surely most precious should the name of Jesus be to all his followers. What benefit can be bestowed like salvation from sin? A deliverance from its dominion is an unspeakable blessing. The godly desire it no less than deliverance from hell itself. Deliverance too from its penalties is an inconceivable mercy. O, how delightful is pardon to a burthened conscience How sweet is a sense of Gods favour in a dying hour! What joy must the glorified soul possess in the day of judgment! Yet Jesus has bought it all for us with his own most precious blood, and has bestowed it freely on all his faithful followers. He will impart it liberally to all who will believe on him. Is there not reason then for that divine anathema [Note: 1Co 16:22.]? Will not the very stones cry out against those who refuse to praise him? Let Jesus then be precious to us all. Let us adopt the grateful strains of that sweet Psalmist of Israel [Note: Psa 103:1-4.].]
I cannot conclude without a short address, to those who make this a season of carnal mirth
[The great majority of Christians seem to think that the incarnation of Christ gives them a greater licence to commit sin. And this impious thought greatly aggravates their guilt. But what madness is it to imagine that they can ever be saved in such a state. If they could, the angel should have assigned a very different reason for the appointment of Jesus name [Note: He should rather have said, He shall save his people in their sins.]. In that case, Christ would have been a minister of sin. But who must not, with the Apostle, express his abhorrence of such a thought [Note: Gal 2:17.]? Our Lord has plainly told us what shall ere long be his address to self-deceiving sinners [Note: Mat 7:23.]. Let us then improve the incarnation of Christ for the ends for which he came; and tremble lest we provoke the Saviour himself to become our inexorable destroyer.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Ver. 21. And she shall bring forth a Son ] Shiloh, the son of her secundines: that Son, that Eve made account she had gotten when she had gotten Cain: for said she, “I have gotten a man from the Lord;” or, as others read it (and the original rather favours it), “I have gotten the man, the Lord.” But how far she was deceived, the issue proved. Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo. Hope comes halting home many times.
And then shalt call his name Jesus ] Not of , to heal, as some Hellenists would have it; although it be true that he is Exo 15:26 the Lord the Physician, “by whose stripes we are healed,” Isa 53:5 ; but of Jashang, whence Jehoshuah, Jesus. Two in the Old Testament had this name. The first when he was sent as a spy into Canaan, Num 13:16 , had his name changed from Oshea, “Let God save,” to Jehoshuah; “God shall save.” Under the Law (which brings us, as it were, into the wilderness of Sin) we may wish there were a Saviour, but under the Gospel we are sure of salvation, since our Jehoshuah hath bound himself to fulfil all righteousness, and had therefore this name imposed upon him at his circumcision. For he assumed it not to himself (though, knowing the end of his coming and the fulness of his sufficiency, he might have done it), nor received it from men, but from God, and that with great solemnity, by the ministry of an angel, who talked with a woman about our salvation as Satan sometime had done about our destruction.
For he shall save his people from their sins ] This is the notation and etymon, or reason for his name, Jesus, -a name above all names, Phi 2:9 . , saith the heathen orator, a is a word so emphatic, that other tongues can hardly find a word fit to express it. Salvation properly notes the negative part of a Christian’s happiness, viz preservation from evil, chiefly from the evil of sin (which is the mother of all our misery); from the damning and domineering power thereof, by his merit and Spirit, by his value and virtue. Jesus therefore is a short Gospel, and should work in us strongest affections and egressions of soul after him who hath saved us from the wrath to come, 1Th 1:10 . The Grecians, being set free but from bodily servitude, called their deliverer a saviour to them; and rang it out, Saviour, Saviour, b so that the fowls in the air fell down dead with the cry. Yea, they so pressed to come near him and touch his hand, that if he had not timely withdrawn himself, he might have beseemed to have lost his life. c The Egyptians preserved by Joseph, called him Abrech, or tender father. The daughters of Jerusalem met David returning from the slaughter of the Philistines with singing and dancing. When the Lord turned again the captivity of his people, they were like those who dream, Psa 126:1 . And Peter enlarged, could scarcely believe his own eyes, with such an ecstasy of admiration was he rapt upon that deliverance. Oh, then, how should our hearts rejoice and our tongues be glad, Act 2:26 ; and how should we be vexed at the vile dulness and deadness of our naughty natures, that can be no more affected with these indelible ravishments! Jacob wept for joy at the good news that Joseph was yet alive. Joannes Mollius, whensoever he spake of the name of Jesus, his eyes dropped. And another reverend divine among us, being in a deep muse, after some discourse that passed of Jesus, and tears trickling abundantly from his eyes before he was aware, being urged for the cause thereof, confessed ingenuously, it was because he could not draw his dull heart to prize Christ aright. Mr. Fox never denied beggar that asked in that name; and good Bucer never disregarded any (though different in opinion from him) in whom he could discern aliquid Christi. “None but Christ,” said that blessed martyr at the stake. And another in the flames, when judged already dead, suddenly, as waked out of sleep, moved his tongue and jaws, and was heard to pronounce this word, Jesus. (John Lambert, Julius Palmer. Acts and Mon.)
Here also we have an excellent argument of our Saviour’s Divinity and omnipotence; forasmuch as the angel ascribeth unto him that which the Psalmist affirmeth of Jehovah, that he shall “redeem Israel from all his iniquities,” Psa 130:8 ; cf. Hos 13:4 . . Christus autem, non Pater, factus est .
a Cicer. in Verrem.
b , . Plut. in Vita Flamin.
c Tyndale in his Annotat.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. ] The same name as Joshua, the former deliverer of Israel. It is written in the Law and Prophets, but in the Hagiographa. Philo says, , . De mut. nom. 21, vol. i. p. 597.
] He, emphatically: He alone: best rendered, perhaps, ‘ it is He that .’
] (not , any where, except when a special emphasis is intended: and there is none here, no distinction between His people, and the people of any other , being made). In the primary sense, the Jews , of whom alone Joseph could have understood the words: but in the larger sense, all who believe on Him: an explanation which the tenor of prophecy (cf. Gen 22:18 ; Deu 32:21 ), and the subsequent admission of the Gentiles, warrant. Cf. a similar use of ‘Israel’ by St. Peter, Act 5:31 .
] It is remarkable that in this early part of the evangelic history, in the midst of pedigrees, and the disturbances of thrones by the supposed temporal King of the Jews, we have so clear an indication of the spiritual nature of the office of Christ . One circumstance of this kind outweighs a thousand cavils against the historical reality of the narration. If I mistake not, this announcement reaches further into the deliverance to be wrought by Jesus, than any thing mentioned by the Evangelist subsequently. It thus bears the internal impress of a message from God, treasured up and related in its original formal terms.
Meyer understands the words of a political emancipation and prosperity of the Jewish people, and strangely enough refers to Luk 1:68 for confirmation of this idea; adding, however, that a religious and moral reformation was considered as intimately connected with such a change.
is not put for the punishment of sin , but is the sin itself the practice of sin, in its most pregnant sense. ‘How suggestive it is,’ remarks Bishop Ellicott, ‘that while to the loftier spirit of Mary the name of Jesus is revealed with all the prophetic associations of more than David’s glories to Joseph, perchance the aged Joseph, who might have long seen and realized his own spiritual needs, and the needs of those around him, it is specially said, Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for He shall save his people from their sins .’ Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord, p. 56.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 1:21 . : Mary is about to bear a son , and He is to bear the significant name of Jesus . The style is an echo of O. T. story, Gen 17:19 , Sept [3] , the birth of Isaac and that of Jesus being thereby placed side by side as similar in their preternatural character. : a command in form of a prediction. But there is encouragement as well as command in this future. It is meant to help Joseph out of his doubts into a mood of heroic, resolute action. Cease from brooding anxious thought, think of the child about to be born as destined to a great career. to be signalised by His name Jesus Jehovah the helper. : interpretation of the name, still part of the angelic speech. emphatic, he and no other. ., sins , implying a spiritual conception of Israel’s need.
[3] Septuagint.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
bring forth. Not the same word as in verses: Mat 1:1, Mat 1:2, Mat 1:16, Mat 1:20. Greek. tiklo. Not “of thee” as in Luk 1:35, because not Joseph’s son.
His name. Figure of speech Pleonasm. App-6= Him.
JESUS. For this type see App-48. The same as the Hebrew Hoshea (Num 13:16) with Jah prefixed = God [our] Saviour, or God Who [is] salvation. Compare Luk 2:21. See App-98.
he = He, and none other, or He is the One Who (emph.)
sins. Greek. hamartia. See App-128.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21. ] The same name as Joshua, the former deliverer of Israel. It is written in the Law and Prophets, but in the Hagiographa. Philo says, , . De mut. nom. 21, vol. i. p. 597.
] He, emphatically: He alone: best rendered, perhaps, it is He that.
] (not , any where, except when a special emphasis is intended: and there is none here, no distinction between His people, and the people of any other, being made). In the primary sense, the Jews, of whom alone Joseph could have understood the words: but in the larger sense, all who believe on Him: an explanation which the tenor of prophecy (cf. Gen 22:18; Deu 32:21), and the subsequent admission of the Gentiles, warrant. Cf. a similar use of Israel by St. Peter, Act 5:31.
] It is remarkable that in this early part of the evangelic history, in the midst of pedigrees, and the disturbances of thrones by the supposed temporal King of the Jews, we have so clear an indication of the spiritual nature of the office of Christ. One circumstance of this kind outweighs a thousand cavils against the historical reality of the narration. If I mistake not, this announcement reaches further into the deliverance to be wrought by Jesus, than any thing mentioned by the Evangelist subsequently. It thus bears the internal impress of a message from God, treasured up and related in its original formal terms.
Meyer understands the words of a political emancipation and prosperity of the Jewish people, and strangely enough refers to Luk 1:68 for confirmation of this idea; adding, however, that a religious and moral reformation was considered as intimately connected with such a change.
is not put for the punishment of sin, but is the sin itself-the practice of sin, in its most pregnant sense. How suggestive it is, remarks Bishop Ellicott, that while to the loftier spirit of Mary the name of Jesus is revealed with all the prophetic associations of more than Davids glories-to Joseph, perchance the aged Joseph, who might have long seen and realized his own spiritual needs, and the needs of those around him, it is specially said, Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for He shall save his people from their sins. Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord, p. 56.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 1:21. , shall bring forth) The word (to thee), which is added (Luk 1:31) concerning Zachariah, is not introduced here;[58]-, thou shalt call) By the use of the second person singular, the duties and obligations of a father are committed to Joseph. St Matthew records more particulars than the other evangelists regarding him; afterwards, when men had become acquainted with the truth, the first place is given (in Luk 1:31) to Mary.-, Jesus) Many names of the Messiah were announced in the Old Testament; but the proper name JESUS was not expressly announced. The meaning and force of it are, however, proclaimed everywhere, namely, SALVATION; and the name itself was divinely foretold in this passage before our Lords birth, and in Luk 1:31, even before His conception. The name (Jeshua), which occurs in Neh 8:17, is the same as or (Jehoshua, commonly called Joshua): both of which are rendered (Jesus) by the LXX. And in so far, learned men have been right in declaring that the name Jesus contains the Tetragrammaton, [] or ineffable name of God.-See Hillers Syntagmata Hermeneutica, p. 337, where the name of Jesus is thus interpreted, HE WHO IS is SALVATION: yea, the angel interprets it (He shall save), where (He) corresponds with the Divine Name.-Cf. Gnomon on Heb 1:12. Nor does the name Jehoshua differ from the original. Hoshea (See Num 13:16) in any thing else, except the addition of the Divine Name, which transforms the name from a prayer, Save (Salva), into an affirmation, Jehovah Salvation. And, since the name Emmanuel mentions GOD most expressly together with SALVATION, the name Jesus itself, the force of which, the Evangelist of the Old Testament, Isaiah (whose own name signifies the same thing) clearly indicates by the synonym Emmanuel, requires much more the mention of the Divine Name: for Emmanuel and Jesus are equivalent terms.-See notes on Mat 1:22-23. Nay, even if the in be considered as merely the sign of the third person, still, as is frequently the case with Hebrew names, GOD must be understood, and here with especial force.-, He) The pronoun , in the nominative, is always emphatic; here it is peculiarly so. In the oblique case, it is frequently a mere relative.-, shall save) As often, therefore, as the words, to save, Saviour, salvation, salutary,[59] occur with reference to Christ, we ought to consider, that the name of JESUS is virtually mentioned.- , , His people) sc. Israel, and those who shall be added to the fold of Israel.[60]-, His) and at the same time Gods.-Cf. ch. Mat 2:6.
[58] i.e. Because our Lord was not the child of Joseph.-(I. B.)
[59] Salutare-conducive to health, whether of body or soul: it is frequently difficult, sometimes impossible, to give at once the full and exact force of these words in an English translation.-(I. B.)
[60] The gathering in of the Gentiles to the Church was at that time a mystery even to the angels.-Vers. Germ.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
save See note, Rom 1:16 (See Scofield “Rom 1:16”)
sins See note, Rom 3:23 (See Scofield “Rom 3:23”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
The Name of Jesus
And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins.Mat 1:21.
1. At the beginning of history, names must be invented; in the course of ages, they become hereditary. The Baptist was about to be called Zacharias, for that was his fathers name. But in early times the Hebrews made names for their children. The name was often a memorial of some circumstance connected with the birth, or descriptive of the childs appearance, or expressive of the hopes entertained of him. In this last case, the name might turn out to be most inappropriate, and become a sad record of blighted expectations. The first child born into the world was called by a name which betokened the fond hope of his mother that he would prove a treasure to her; but the infamy of his evil life bitterly put to flight that bright dream. Our eyes are dim; we cannot see through the mist of the future, and foretell what our children shall be in after years. We may bestow on them beautiful names, but, to use the striking comparison of Solomon, this fine name may be as a jewel of gold in a swines snout, the symbol of qualities of which they are wholly destitute.
2. Had it been left to human wisdom to invent a name for the Child of the Virgin, we can hardly form a guess of what the result would have been. Not a little friendly discussion is sometimes excited by the difficulty of fixing on a name. But this case was peculiar. Here was a Child unlike any that had ever been born of woman. How perplexing it would have been to find a name sufficiently expressive and obviously appropriate. But the point was settled by God Himself. The right to determine the name of the child belongs to the parent; and how infinitely competent in this case was the Father to give His Son the most suitable name. None knew the Son but the Father, and His decision must be accepted, not only as final, but as the best that could have been come to. The name selected was beautifully simple. A child may be taught to lisp it, and the dullest memory can retain it. Divine greatness is unostentatious. The simplest word in our language is God, and the next to it is Jesus.
If thou wilt be well with God, and have grace to rule thy life aright; and come to the joy of love: this name Jesus fasten it so fast in thy heart that it never come out of thy thought. And when thou speakest to Him, and sayest Jesus through custom, it shall be in thine ears joy, in thy mouth honey, in thy heart melody.1 [Note: Richard Rolle.]
I
The Associations of the Name
1. The name Jesus was no new name, coined in the courts of heaven, and carried to earth for the first time by the lips of the angel messenger. A new name is cold and meaningless, and stirs no memories of the past. There is a warmth about an old familiar name which no new combination of letters can ever hope to rival, and so it was an old name, a name with a history behind it, that the angel gave to the unborn Son of Mary. There was more than one little Jewish boy who bore that name at that very time. In the high priests family alone there were no less than three, each of whom would one day be high priest in his turn. There was Jesus, son of Sapphia, who would one day become a famous brigand chief, and, still more famous, Jesus surnamed Barabbas, whom the people would prefer one day to Jesus surnamed Christ. There was Jesus Justus, who would one day become the trusted helper of St. Paul, and Jesus the father of Elymas, the sorcerer, St. Pauls opponent in Cyprus. There was Jesus the friend of Josephus, and Jesus Thebuti the priest, and Jesus the peasant, who would one day terrify Jerusalem with his cries. Over many a little living Jesus a mothers head was bending on the day when Mary clasped her new-born baby to her bosom. How came it that so many boys were called by the same name? We know what makes a name popular at the present day; it is because that name is borne by the popular hero of the hour. How many girls were christened Florence, after the lady with the lamp! The Boer war produced a never-ending crop of little Roberts. And so it has always been. Those Jewish boys were all called Jesus after two great national heroes who had borne that name in the past.
2. Who were those heroes? Where do we find the name Jesus in the Old Testament? We do not find it anywhere, nor do we expect to find it; for we are all familiar with the way a name changes as it passes from one language to anotherhow, for example, the Hebrew Johanan becomes in English John, and in German Hans, and in Russian Ivan, and in Spanish Juan, and in Italian Giovanni; the name is the same, but the form varies according to the language. Now the Old Testament and the New Testament were written in different languages. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in Greek; and thus the same names appear under different forms. Elijah, for example, in the New Testament is always called Elias. And so when we search the Hebrew Old Testament for the Greek name Jesus we shall expect to find some change in the spelling.
(1) As a matter of fact we meet the name for the first time in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Numbers and the sixteenth verse, where we read that Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua (which means Jehovah is salvation). Jesus and Joshua are exactly the same name, only one is the Greek form and the other is the Hebrew. Joshua the son of Nun the commander-in-chief of the Lords people, under whom they conquered their inheritance, the leader who brought them out of the desert to the land of milk and honey, the captain who ever led them to victory, though foes were strong and crafty, the ruler who settled every family in the precise position which God appointed for it, and there gave it resthe is the first who bears the name Jesus in the pages of history.
(2) But this Jesus died, and the centuries passed on, and a time came when the people lost the land that had been given them, when for their sins they were carried away captive to Babylon, and then, after forty miserable years, the second Jesus cameJeshua the high priest, who led the people back to the land that had been lost by sin; Jeshua, who rebuilt the Temple and restored the worship of God; Jeshua, who was crowned with gold by the prophet Zechariah, as the type and forerunner of a greater High Priest who was to come; Jeshua, the son of Jehozadak, was the second Jesus in history.
3. And now we can appreciate something of the associations of the name; we can realize a little of what the message, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, would mean to a pious Jew like Joseph. Thou shalt name Him after the great captain who drove the Canaanites from the land. Thou shalt name Him after the great high priest who brought back the people out of bondage. Thou shalt call Him Jesus; for He, too, shall be a Saviour. He shall save his people from their sins.
Man is the principle of the religion of the Neo-Hegelians, and intellect is the climax of man. Their religion, then, is the religion of intellect. There you have the two worlds: Christianity brings and preaches salvation by the conversion of the will,humanism by the emancipation of the mind. One attacks the heart, the other the brain. Both wish to enable man to reach his ideal. But the ideal suffers, if not by its content, at least by the disposition of its content, by the predominance and sovereignty given to this or that inner power. For one, the mind is the organ of the soul; for the other, the soul is an inferior state of the mind; the one wishes to enlighten by making better, the other to make better by enlightening. It is the difference between Socrates and Jesus. The cardinal question is that of sin. The question of immanence or of dualism is secondary. The Trinity, the life to come, paradise and hell, may cease to be dogmas and spiritual realities, the form and the letter may vanish away,the question of humanity remains: What is it which saves?1 [Note: Amiels Journal (trans. by Mrs. Humphry Ward), 11.]
II
The Meaning of the Name
1. In one sense, there is nothing in a name. The nature of the thing is independent of it. It is not in the power of any name to make evil good, or good evil; and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, would have been what He is, by whatever name He had been called. But in another view there is something in a name. It stands for the thing, and, through frequent use, comes to be identified with it. It is therefore of the highest moment that the name should correspond with the thing, and convey a correct idea of it. Exactness of thought requires exactness of language. Knowledge depends for its accuracy on the right use of words, and the great instructors of mankind are as careful of the expression as of the idea. Words are things. We deal with them, not as sounds but as substances, and look not so much at them as at the verities in them. Names are persons. When one is mentioned in our hearing, it brings the man before us, and awakens the feelings which would be excited if he were present himself.
Now, we may see this, above all, in the adorable name of Jesus. That name, above all others, ought to show us what a name means; for it is the name of the Son of Man, the one perfect and sinless man, the pattern of all men; and therefore it must be a perfect name, and a pattern for all names. And it was given to the Lord not by man, but by God; and therefore it must show and mean not merely some outward accident about Him, something which He seemed to be, or looked like, in mens eyes; no, the name of Jesus must mean what the Lord was in the sight of His Father in Heaven; what He was in the eternal purpose of God the Father; what He was, really and absolutely, in Himself; it must mean and declare the very substance of His being. And so, indeed, it does; for the adorable name of Jesus means nothing else but God the SaviourGod who saves. This is His name, and was, and ever will be. This name He fulfilled on earth, and proved it to be His character, His exact description, His very name, in short, which made Him different from all other beings in heaven or earth, create or uncreate; and therefore He bears His name to all eternity, for a mark of what He has been, and is, and will be for everGod the Saviour; and this is the perfect name, the pattern of all other names of men.
When Adam named all the beasts, we read that whatsoever he called any beast, that was the name of it. The names which he gave described each beast; they were taken from something in its appearance, or its ways and habits, and so each was its right name, the name which expressed its nature. And so now, when learned men discover animals or plants in foreign countries, they do not give them names at random, but take care to invent names for them which may describe their natures, and make people understand what they are like. And much more, in old times, had the names of men a meaning. If it was reasonable to give names full of meaning to each kind of dumb animal, much more to each man separately, for each man has a character different from all others, a calling different from all others, and therefore he ought to have his own name separate from all others. Accordingly in old times it was the custom to give each child a separate name, which had a meaning in it which was, as it were, a description of the child, or of something particular about the child.1 [Note: O. Kingsley.]
2. The name Jesus, then, means Saviour. What does He save men from?
(1) Jesus saves from ignorance. If we consider the incarnate life of the Son of God as a theophany and a revealing, we see at once what power it had, and still has, to rescue man from the blind error which is a part of sin. In Jesus, man sees God as He is. And awakened by this vision, he sees time and the world as they really are. The false theories of life on which he proceeds are all contradicted in Him. Every falsehood which the worlds enchantment tells, every delusion which it weaves with its Circean spell, finds its refutation in Him. Part of the power of sin lies in its specious delusions. Among these delusions is the lie that the world is all; the lie that sensual pleasure is good, that passion is strong, that pride is majestic, that disobedience is wise. Jesus came and refuted all these immemorial lies.
(2) But if He is only a lawgiver, or a teacher of Divine truth, or a finger-board to direct us in the way of righteousness, He is insufficient for our needs. The man who teaches me the truth is not himself the truth. And if Jesus is only a teacher of the way of salvation, He is not Himself salvation. It is true that man is sadly and fearfully ignorant both of himself and of the infinite God to whom he must give account for the deeds done in the body; and it is also true that by coming to Christ he can be relieved of this ignorance. But if Jesus is only a pedagogue or schoolmaster, He does not touch the deepest necessities of mans condition. Such a view of Him may improve a mans morals, and elevate him somewhat in other respects, but it can never save him from the power and consequences of sin. Jesus is Himself the salvation which He taught, and which He commissioned His disciples to preach. He is the wisdom, the grace, the mercy, and the power that save men from their sins.
As Laurence Oliphant lay dying, the dear and sacred name of Jesus was ever on his tongue. There had been times in his life when he had spoken it with an accent of perhaps less reverence than was congenial to listeners probably less devout than he, but holding a more absolute view of our Lords position and workas there had been times when he had called himself not a Christian, in the ordinary meaning of the word. But no one could doubt now of his entire and loving reception of that name as his own highest hope as well as that of all the world. A day or two before his death he called his faithful nurse early in the morning, probably in that rising of the energies which comes with the brightness of the day, and told her that he was unspeakably happy. Christ has touched me. He has held me in His arms. I am changedHe has changed me. Never again can I be the same, for His power has cleansed me; I am a new man. Then he looked at me yearningly, she adds, and said, Do you understand? 1 [Note: M. O. W. Oliphant, Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant, 403.]
Many years ago there was a great famine of water in a town in the south of France. It was a hot summer, no rain fell for months, and as the people always suffered from the want of water, this dry, hot season greatly increased their sufferings, and many of them died. A few miles away from the town was a range of hills; in the hills were some beautiful springs of water, but the labour and expense of bringing the water from the springs to the town was so great that very little of it could be brought. In this town there lived a young man whom we shall call Jean. He was industrious and good, and was shortly to be married to a beautiful young woman, whom he dearly loved. But all at once the marriage was put off, the young man began to go about in old clothes, took very little to eat, gave up his pleasant home and went to live in a garret, and, in short, became a thorough miser. He went to bed in the dark to save candle, begged other peoples cast-off clothing, and very soon became changed from a blithe and happy young man into a wretched-looking old one. Nobody loved him now. His charming bride forgot him, and married another man; the children called him names in the streets, and everybody shunned his house. After many years of wretchedness he died. When his relatives went to search his room they found him almost wasted to a skeleton, and all his furniture sold, while the old mans body was lying upon a heap of straw. Under his head they found a will, and what do you think was in it? This: that in that dreadful summer, forty years ago, Jean had been so saddened by the dreadful suffering of the peopleespecially of the childrenfor want of water, that he had given up his young bride, his pleasant home, his happy prospects, and had devoted himself day and night all through the weary years to working and saving, so that the people might have the beautiful water brought to them from the distant springs in the hillside. Oh, how everybody blessed that old man! A reservoir was made in the hills, pipes were laid under the ground, and the water was brought into the town so freely that its inhabitants never thirsted any more. The old man did not create the water, neither did he make the people thirst, he simply brought the living water and the dying people togetherand he sacrificed himself in doing it. Now that is just how Jesus saves men. He did not make God love themGod always loved them. He did not create Gods love or mercythose great springs of blessing were and always are in the great heart of God. He did not make men sinful and sad so that they needed these things; but He brought these springs of love and blessing down to the men that were dying for the need of them. He is the channel through which Gods love comes to us. From God, but through Christ, we receive all the blessings of salvation. Jesus brought all these good things to us, and sacrificed Himself in doing Song of Solomon 1 [Note: J. Colwell.]
(3) But if man is to be saved, he must be saved not only from sins guilt, and sins defilement, but from sins power. If man is to be fully saved, not only must he, in the infinite mercy of God, be treated as righteous, he must become actually righteous and holy and good. This is the ultimate purpose of God. He removes mans condemnation, He forgives mans sin, in order that he may become holy. Forgiveness and justification are in order to holiness. But man cannot be personally holy until he is set free from the enslaving power of sin. He, therefore, who would be the Saviour of man must deal with this. How does Jesus deal with it? He deals with it as our Lord and King, dwelling and reigning within us by the Holy Ghost. Remember, the Jesus who shall save His people from their sins is One who lives. He is One who is possessed of all power. He takes men so into union with Himself that they are within the circle of His life. They are in Him as the branch is in the vine. So their weakness is turned into might, by the advent of His strength into their lives. The sin which strives to enslave the believer finds that it has to deal with the believers Lord. And by that Lord it is defeated; its power is broken and its dominion for ever overthrown. The disease which we cannot shake off flies before Him; the fire which we could not quench is by Him put out; the evil root is eradicated, the mighty current stemmed. The strong man armed meets the stronger than he, and is despoiled. In Him we conquer sin. His power turns the scale of battle in our favour. Sin has not dominion over us. The law of the spirit of life makes us free from the law of sin and death. So we not only will the will of God, but also do it. He makes us perfect in every good work to do His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The one cure for any organism is to be set rightto have all its parts brought into harmony with each other; the one comfort is to know this cure in process. Rightness alone is cure. The return of the organism to its true self is its only possible ease. To free a man from suffering, he must be set right, put in health; and the health at the root of mans being, his rightness, is to be free from wrongness, that is, from sin. A man is right when there is no wrong in him. The wrong, the evil, is in him; he must be set free from it. I do not mean set free from the sins he has done; that will follow; I mean the sins he is doing, or is capable of doing; the sins in his being which spoil his nature, the wrongness in him, the evil he consents to; the sin he is, which makes him do the sin he does. To save a man from his sins is to say to him, in sense perfect and eternal, Rise up and walk. Be at liberty in thy essential being. Be free as the Son of God is free. To do this for us Jesus was born and remains born to all the ages.1 [Note: George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel, 5.]
III
The Power of the Name
1. The angel said to Joseph, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, and to-day what name is there so great as this? What other so enduring? It has lived through anarchy and revolution, through storm and change, decay and death. Other names since then, and many of them accounted greatnames which held the world in awe, which blanched the cheek, and made men tremblehave passed into oblivion; but this name is as fresh as ever, and far more powerful than it was of old. It is the earliest name that Christian parents breathe into their childrens ears; the first they teach them to lisp, as they lie in their lap, or stand at their knee. It is the gracious name woven into all our prayers and mingling with all our praises.
It is the great name which many a learned and holy man has felt it his highest privilege, his most sacred duty, to proclaim. It is the precious name which the evangelist takes to the poorest and most wretched alleys of our cities and towns, knowing that it can lift the burden of sin and sorrow from the soul, and fill it with peace and purity and strength. It is the all-powerful name which the Church is occupied in sending to the farthest places of the earth, that the nations may be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. It is the hallowed name in which the civilized peoples of the globe enact their laws, crown their kings, fight their battles, and celebrate their victories. It is the Divine name on whose authority we sanctify the dearest relationships of life, baptize the child at the font, bless the union at the marriage altar, and commit our dead to the grave. And wherever this name is proclaimed, it is inspiring faith, hope, and love. Many who hear it place their trust in the Saviour, and look to Him as the Source of all blessing, the Well-spring of all joy.
Who does not know what is the power of the name of father or mother, sister or brother? What visions they bring back upon us: what a stream of memories; of years long passed away, of careless childhood, bright mornings, lingering twilights, the early dawn, the evening star, and all the long-vanished world of happy, unanxious thoughts, with the loves, hopes, smiles, and tenderness of days gone by. Who does not know what visions of maturer life come and go with the sound of a name, of one familiar wordthe symbol of a whole order now no more? The greater part of our consciousness is summed up in memory; the present is but a moment, ever flowing, past almost as soon as come. Our life is either behind us or before; the future in hope and expectation, the past in trial and remembrance. Our life to come is little realized as yet; we have some dim outlines of things unseen, forecastings of realities behind the veil, and objects of faith beyond the grave; but all this is too Divine and high. We can hardly conceive it; at best faintly, often not at all. Our chief consciousness of life is in the past, which yet hangs about us as an atmosphere peopled with forms and memories. They live for us now in names, beloved and blessed.1 [Note: H. E. Manning, Sermons, iv. 46.]
2. There is nothing which His name has not hallowed and glorified. The commonest things of earth have now a higher and holier meaning than they ever had before, or ever could have had without Him. A virtue has flowed out of Him into everything He has touched. Has not labour become nobler since He sat at Nazareth on the carpenters bench? Has not childhood become more sacred since He took little children up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them? Has not woman been elevated since He lay in a womans arms, and was clasped to a womans heart? Has not penitence become more holy since the Magdalen fell at His feet to wash them with her tears, and wipe them with the hairs of her head? Has not sorrow been more heavenly since the Man of Sorrows wept bitter tears, cried out in the agony of His bloody sweat, and suffered on Calvary? Has not death changed its character since He died and, robbing the arch-fiend of his sting and turning the tide of battle, wrested from the last enemy the victory? Has not the grave become brighter since He lay in the rocky tomb under linen napkin and shroud? The very cross itself, that accursed tree, that symbol of shame, has been transfigured into an emblem of all that is dearest to the Christian heart or that is holiest in the Christian faith. And not only things but persons also have been transfigured by contact with Jesus. Sinners have become saints; fishermen, apostles; publicans, disciples. A persecuting and blaspheming Saul has been changed into a holy and loving Paul. It may be recorded of all who drew near Him that as many as touched were made perfectly whole. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
The Saviour of the world must heal not only the breach between God and man, but the sickness of human nature itself. And this He does by implanting in man, through union with His own perfect nature, a supernatural principle of regeneration; a germ of new life which may destroy the cause of corruption, and arrest its progress, and make human nature again capable of union with God. The corrupt nature struggles still, seeks for its separate life away from God, a life that is no life. But the moment the new life is given, the helplessness, the hopelessness of the struggle is past. The cry of human nature, I cannot do the things that I would, becomes the thankful utterance of the regenerate soul, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.1 [Note: Aubrey L. Moore, Some Aspects of Sin.]
3. The name still works as a charm. As long as there is sin in the world, and sorrow, broken hearts and wounded spirits; as long as there are chambers of sickness and death-beds, so long will the name of Jesus have power. The saving wonders wrought by Him who bears the name are continued to-day. They are continued in the thousands of assemblies which are met in toiling cities, crowded towns and scattered villages, in solitary hamlets and on heath-clad moors, and in lonely ships ploughing the mighty deep. Everywhere where men of like passions with ourselves have gathered to worship God, Christ has thrown open the doors of heaven, and has sent down His Spirit to renew, to sanctify, to strengthen, and to console. Many shall be born again into the Kingdom of God, and be saved from their sins, and, receiving pardon, shall be given power to wrestle down strong temptations, and shall go forth inspired with a new hope and girt with a new strength, to be purer, better, wiser, more humble, more peaceful; and all the week shall be brighter because of the worship of His name on His own day.
It was in the course of these sermons delivered at Venice, and in the cities of Venetia, that Bernardines zeal for the propagation of devotion to the holy name of Jesus first began openly to assert itself. This devotion, which may be said to date back to the Pauline saying, In nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur, had been specially fostered by the Franciscan order. We find St. Francis of Assisi making it the theme of many pious exhortations, while the holy name never crossed his lips without his voice faltering as though he were inwardly entranced by a heavenly melody. Nor was his example lost on St. Bonaventure, the author of a leaflet, De laude melliflui nomini Jesu. Bernardine was, therefore, no innovator in striving to rekindle popular fervour towards a devotion which, though heretofore greatly in vogue, had, in his day, been cast somewhat into the shade. In his sermons our saint was for ever extolling the beauty and majesty, the mystery and efficacy of the name of Jesus, and, in order outwardly to embody the sentiments of piety he sought to instil into their hearts, we find him calling upon his hearers to inscribe the holy Name or one of its customary abbreviations on the walls alike of public buildings and of private houses. He himself had adopted the monogram I.H.S., which he loved to see surrounded by a circle of golden rays. And the adoption of this symbol he deemed particularly opportune in a land so overrun by paganism, since he hoped to see the same substituted for the Guelf and Ghibelline emblems with which the walls then literally swarmed, and so to set an outward seal on inward peace of heart. And the practice was adopted, and spread like wildfire throughout Venetia, where both officials and private individuals vied with one another in everywhere printing or carving the sacred monogram, encircled by rays, until it finally became significant of Bernardines passage and of the popular assent to his word.1 [Note: P. Thureau-Dangin, Saint Bernardine of Siena (trans. by Baroness G. von Hgel), 66.]
The Name of Jesus
Literature
Bell (C. D.), The Name above Every Name, 1.
Butler (W. J.), Sermons for Working Men, 26.
Calthrop (G.), Pulpit Recollections, 115.
Cottam (S. E.), New Sermons for a New Century, 187.
Deshon (G.), Sermons for the Ecclesiastical Year, 74.
Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Servants, 25.
Edmunds (C. C.), Sermons on the Gospels, 77.
English (E.), Sermons and Homilies, 43.
Grant (W.), Christ our Hope, 175.
Gregg (J.), Sermons Preached in Trinity Church, Dublin, 142.
Gwatkin (H. M.), The Eye for Spiritual Things, 179.
Harris (S. S.), The Dignity of Man, 122.
Hawthorne (J. B.), in The Southern Baptist Pulpit, 91.
Kingsley (C.), Sermons for the Times, 42.
MacDonald (G.), The Hope of the Gospel, 1.
Macgregor (G. H. C.), The All-Sufficient Saviour, 9.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: St. Matthew i.viii., 12.
MacNicol (D. C.), Some Memories and Memoirs, 79.
Manning (H. E.), Sermons, iv. 44.
Masterman (J. H. B.), The Challenge of Christ, 62.
Ramage (W.), Sermons, 54.
Smith (G. S.), Victory over Sin and Death, 1.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxiv. (1878), No. 1434.
Watson (J.), Respectable Sins, 163.
Wilson (J. M.), Truths New and Old, 41.
Christian World Pulpit, lvi. 186 (L. Abbott).
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Record, Jan. 8, 1909 (G. R. Balleine).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
she: Gen 17:19, Gen 17:21, Gen 18:10, Jdg 13:3, 2Ki 4:16, 2Ki 4:17, Luk 1:13, Luk 1:35, Luk 1:36
thou: Luk 1:31, Luk 2:21
Jesus: that is, Saviour, Heb
for: Psa 130:7, Psa 130:8, Isa 12:1, Isa 12:2, Isa 45:21, Isa 45:22, Jer 23:6, Jer 33:16, Eze 36:25-29, Dan 9:24, Zec 9:9, Joh 1:29, Act 3:26, Act 4:12, Act 5:31, Act 13:23, Act 13:38, Act 13:39, Eph 5:25-27, Col 1:20-23, Tit 2:14, Heb 7:25, 1Jo 1:7, 1Jo 2:1, 1Jo 2:2, 1Jo 3:5, Rev 1:5, Rev 1:6, Rev 7:14
Reciprocal: Gen 3:20 – Adam Gen 16:11 – shalt Gen 17:5 – but thy name Gen 49:10 – until Gen 49:18 – General Exo 2:10 – Because Exo 3:13 – What is his name Lev 15:28 – General Num 13:16 – Jehoshua 1Sa 1:20 – when the time was come about Psa 39:8 – Deliver Psa 72:17 – His name Psa 111:9 – sent Psa 118:14 – is my strength Psa 119:146 – and I shall keep Pro 30:4 – and what Son 1:3 – thy name Isa 33:22 – he will Isa 35:4 – behold Isa 49:1 – The Lord Jer 31:22 – A woman Eze 36:29 – save Hos 1:4 – Call Hos 1:7 – will save Mic 5:3 – she Luk 1:27 – General Luk 1:75 – General Luk 2:11 – unto Luk 19:10 – General Rom 6:14 – sin Rom 7:25 – thank God Rom 11:26 – and shall 1Co 1:30 – sanctification Gal 2:17 – is 1Th 1:10 – Jesus 1Ti 1:15 – that 1Ti 2:15 – she 2Ti 1:9 – hath Heb 4:9 – people
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
PENALTY PAID, POWER CRUSHED
Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.
Mat 1:21
The name above every nameJesus, Saviour; a name sounding like music in our ears, and of the deepest significance.
I. Who are His people?His people are those who are given to Him of the Father, or those who are willing to be saved from their sins. Or again, those who, having come to Him by faith, are made one with Him by the possession of a common Spirit.
II. What does Christ save from?From the penalty of sin, and from its power. From the penalty. Yet not altogether. The spendthrift does not regain his lost property when he becomes a Christian. The converted drunkard suffers from the shaking hand and unstrung nerves, of his former excess. Men who have been brought to God late in life find the shadow of the past pursuing and darkening their souls. But there is one thing from which Christ saves His people, and that is what is commonly called Hell. The essence of hell consists in alienation from the Divine nature in antagonism to God, in hatred of His name. Hell is, therefore, an impossibility to those who have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, and who have been brought to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. To them, suffering becomes disciplinary. From the power of sin. If a man is in Christ, he cannot indeed be said to have entirely done with sin: sin is in him, though he is not in sin: he has been removed out of the element, but not as yet out of the reach of sin. The infection of nature, says our Ninth Article, doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated. We may compare sin, as far as the Christian is concerned, to a monster, slain by a deadly wound, whose dying struggles are indeed much to be dreaded, but who cannot slay his antagonist. Christ hath killed the monster. Sin hath no more dominion over you.
III. How does Christ save?As to the penalty, Christ hath put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He hath obtained eternal redemption for us. As to the power, when He saves His people from the power perhaps we may say that the Christian conflict of which Scripture speaks, and of which we are all conscious in ourselves,that conflict which the Spirit of God enables us to maintain successfullyis, when we closely examine it, a Spirit-inspired inclination and effort to resist our own natural inclination to save ourselves. To a man struggling in deep water, and drowning, an expert swimmer approaches. He says, Keep quiet, and let me save you. Thats your best chance. And it is in the effort to keep quiet and let oneself be saved that the conflict consists. We do not save ourselves from the power of sin by our own resolution or force of will; it is Christ who saves us; and the Christians struggle iswe say againto let Him do it.
Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE FULNESS OF SALVATION
The Lord Jesus Christ has many glorious names. But there is no name like the name of Jesus. It is the name which is above every name (Php 2:9). Salvation is ascribed to Jesus, and to Him only. This is the foundation truth of the Gospel.
I. How He saves His people.
(a) By dying for them (Rom 5:8). Unless He had died none could have obtained life.
(b) By sending His Holy Spirit as the fruit of His death (Psa 68:18).
(c) By protecting them. They have many enemies (Psa 31:2-3).
(d) By bringing them to glory (St. Joh 17:24; Heb 2:10). To present glory in enjoying the glorious privileges of the Gospel. To future glory in heavenjustified, sanctified, glorified (Rom 8:30).
II. From what He saves His people?From their sins.
(a) From the power of sin. Sin has great power over men. But Sin shall not have dominion (Rom 6:14; Rom 5:20-21).
(b) From the love of sin. Love of sin is overcome by love to the Saviour.
(c) From the practice of sin (Heb 12:1-2).
(d) From the punishment of sin (Rom 6:23; Eze 18:4).
III. The marks of His people.
(a) They are a holy people (Isa 60:21; Heb 12:14). Their bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost (2Co 6:16; also Eph 1:4).
(b) They are a happy people (Heb 11:25; Psa 144:15; Heb 4:9; Isa 40:1-2).
(c) They are a contented people (Php 4:11).
(d) They are a wise people (St. Mat 25:4).
(e) They are an important peoplethe salt of the earth.
Illustrations
(1) A blind man was sitting at the corner of a street, reading a Bible in the raised characters of Moons System. He slowly passed his finger over the raised words and readThere is none other namethen he lost his place. A second time he passed his finger along and readThere is none other name, under heaven,a second time he lost his place. A third time he recommenced, and as he slowly passed his finger along, he readThere is none other name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. A gentleman who was passing had paused to listen, and three times he heard the words. He passed away, but those words clung to him; nor could he get any rest of mind, till he found peace and salvation through that Name.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE
I. Trace the history of the Name: In Deu 32:44Hosea, the son of Nun. Hosea signifies help, or salvation. Name changed (Num 13:16): Jehoshua, or Joshua, which signifies God our salvation, denoting that the man who bore the name was indeed Gods instrument. Greek form is Jesus, as in Act 7:45; Heb 4:8. See the elevation of the name as applied first in Mat 1:21. For while Joshua meant, This is he through whom Jehovah shall save His people from their enemies, Jesus (same name, yet with higher significance) meant God the Saviour in the directest application of the words, and not as denoting salvation instrumentally; for He Himself shall save His people from their sins. So also Mat 1:23.
II. His people.How Joseph would understand it, we know: the people of Gods choice. So Mary (Luk 1:54); Zacharias (Luk 1:68; Luk 1:77); the announcement of the angel: Luk 2:10 (R.V.). Consider why the chosen people: to constitute a channel for the communication of Gods saving truth to the world. Concentration first; diffusion afterwards. Is not this the way of Gods working always: the fountain-head, the river-course, then the wide sea? The process of concentration was not complete when our Lord Himself was born (see St. Mat 10:5-6; Mat 15:24). But the expansion came. The very rejection of Christ by the Jews was overruled to further the acceptance of His salvation by the world. So Joh 12:32; Rom 11:11-12; Rom 11:15; and so the great work began (Act 13:46; see also Mat 14:27). And now, who are His people? See Gal 3:9; Rom 4:9-18. Yes, a people, not of natural descent, but of spiritual sympathy. And these a peculiar people, or rather, His very own. By the claims which He has upon us, truly (1Co 6:20). But by actual response to those claims also (Eph 1:13). Yes, His people, in virtue of the great redemption; His people, by the attachment of a spiritual loyalty through faith!
III. He shall save.As regards the Jewish race; what is its salvation now? Alas, it did not know its real evil! Looking for gains and glory in this present world, it has found destruction! So terribly have those words been fulfilled (St. Mat 16:25). But may there not be a future of true salvation for the salvation-people? (2Co 3:16; Rom 11:26). As regards the larger world, Christ is the worlds hope; He alone can smite the sin, and heal the worlds griefs and woes (see 1Co 1:8-31).
Illustrations
(1) God has given this Name, given it in writing to be read, given it by preaching to be heard, given it Himself that it may never be forgotten, and that it may be above every name, given it among men, that men may read and hear it, learn and repeat it, incorporate it with their prayers and their songs, and that it may become as familiar in their mouths as any household word, as the words mother and father.
(2) Apropos of the naming of the newly-arrived infant, it may not be out of place to recall a few curious customs which prevail in some countries in regard to selecting a name for the baby. A Hindoo baby is named when twelve days old, and usually by the mother. Sometimes the father wishes for another name than that selected by the mother; in that case two lamps are placed over the two names, and the name over which the lamp burns the brightest is the one given to the child. In the Egyptian family the parents choose a name for their baby by lighting three wax candles; to each of these they give a name, one of the three always belonging to some deified personage. The candle that burns the longest bestows the name upon the baby. The Mohammedans sometimes write desirable names on five slips of paper, and these they place in the Koran. The name upon the first slip drawn out is given to the child. The children of the Ainos, a people living in Northern Japan, do not receive their names until they are five years old. It is the father who then chooses the name by which the child is afterwards to be called. The Chinese give their boy babies a name in addition to their surname, and they must call themselves by these names until they are twenty years old. At that age the father gives his son a new name. The Chinese care so little for their girl babies that they do not give them a baby name, but just call them Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four, and so on, according to their birth. Boys are thought so much more of in China than girls are, that if you ask a Chinese father who has both a boy and a girl how many children he has, he will reply, Only one child. German parents sometimes change the name of their baby if it is ill; and the Japanese are said to change the name of their children four times.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1:21
Verse 21. The angel not only told Joseph the cause of Marys condition, but even told him what to call the child when born. Proper names in ancient times usually had some specific meaning, hence the name Jesus, meaning Saviour,” was to be given to this son to be born of Mary, because he was designed to save his people from sin.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Observe here, 1. A prediction of our Savior’s birth; the virgin shall bring forth a son.
2. A precept for the imposition of his name; Thou shalt call his name Jesus, that is, a Savior.
3. The reason why that name was given him; because he should save his people, not temporarily, as Joshua did the Israelites from their enemies, but spiritually and externally from their sins; not in their sins but from them; that is, from the guilt and punishment, from the power and dominion, of them.
Observe, 4. The peculiar subjects of this privilege; his people: He shall save his people from their sins.
Learn, 1. That sin is the evil of evils; or that sin considered in itself, is comparatively the greatest and worst of evils.
2. That the great end of Christ’s coming into the world, was to be a Savior from this evil.
3. That Christ’s own people do want and stand in need of a Savior as well as others; if he does not save them from their sins, they must die in and for their sins, as well as others.
Therefore he saves them from sin in three ways;
1. By obtaining pardon for sin, and in reconciling us to God. 2. By weakening the reigning power of sin, and implanting a new principle of holiness in the heart. 3. By perfecting and accomplishing all these happy beginnings at the end of this life in heaven.
Dr. Hammond’s Pract. Catech.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 1:21. She shall bring forth a son Hers, not thine, for he does not say to thee, Christ being , without father, as man. And thou shalt call his name Jesus It belonged to Joseph, as being reputed his father, and the person under whose protection Christ was placed during his infancy, to give him his name. Six men, says Rabbi Eliezer, have been named before they were born; viz., Isaac, Ishmael, Moses our lawgiver, Solomon, Josiah, and King Messiah. To these we may add, Cyrus and John the Baptist: and observe, that those persons to whom a name has been given by God before their birth, have always been remarkable persons. The name Jesus, in Greek, answers to Joshua, or rather, Jehoshuah, in Hebrew, which signifies Jehovah shall save; for Jah, or Jehovah, enters into the composition of the name, as Bishop Pearson has largely and clearly shown in his most learned and instructive Exposition of the Creed, pp. 69-71. So that Christs being called Jesus, was in effect an accomplishment of the prophecy that he should be called Emmanuel. It was not without reason that the successor of Moses was called by this name; for, by subduing the Canaanites, and putting the tribes of Israel in possession of the promised land, he showed himself to be, under God, the Saviour of his people. But this name agrees much better to our Jesus, who both delivers his followers from much more dangerous enemies, and divides unto them a much more glorious inheritance. Thus, in the next clause, he shall save his people from their sins Joseph, by his people, could not understand any other than the Jewish nation, which is generally signified by that name in the Scriptures; and to them he was peculiarly sent, and them he will at length fully gather, save, and restore. We know, however, that all the true Israel of God, including even the Gentiles that should believe in him, are included. All these, it is here said, he should save from their sins, i.e, from the guilt, power, and pollution of them, by procuring, through his death, and receiving, in consequence of his ascension into heaven, an ample pardon for them, and the Holy Spirit to write that pardon on their hearts, and renew them after the divine image, that, in consequence of a life of holiness on earth, they might be raised to a state of complete perfection and felicity in heaven. How plain it is from hence that, although the gospel offers us salvation by faith, and not by works, yet it effectually secures the practice of holiness, since holiness is a part of that salvation wherewith Christ came to save sinners; for he came to save them from their sins. It is worth observing, on this occasion, what an excellent example of gentleness and prudence is here set us by Joseph! In an affair which appeared dubious, he chose, as we should always do, rather to err on the favourable than on the severe extreme. He is careful to avoid any precipitate steps; and, in the moment of deliberation, God interposes to guide and determine his resolves. Let us reflect, with what wonder and pleasure he would receive the important message from the angel, which not only assured him of the unstained virtue and eminent piety of her he loved, and confirmed his choice of her, as the partner of his future life, but brought him tidings of a divine Saviour, a Jesus, an Emmanuel, who should be God with men, and should save his people from their sins; and assured him, moreover, that the object of his affections, his beloved, espoused Mary, should, by a miraculous conception, be the happy mother of this heavenly offspring, and should therefore through all generations be entitled blessed. Let us also receive these glad tidings of great joy, designed for the consolation of all people, with suitable humility and gratitude, and seek unto this Jesus that he may answer his divine name in us, and save us, his people, from our sins. Let our souls bow to this Emmanuel, our incarnate God, and, while with holy wonder we survey the various scenes of his humiliation, let us remember, too, his native dignity and divine glory, and pay him the worship and service which are his undoubted due.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:21 And she shall bring forth (3) a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save {i} his people from their sins.
(3) Christ is born of the same virgin who never knew a man: and is named Jesus by God himself through the angel.
(i) Save, and this shows us the meaning of the name Jesus.