Call His Name Jesus

Matthew 1:18-25

December 23, 2001

 

In the early centuries of the Church, the fate of Christianity hung on the smallest Greek letter, an iota. The difference between the prefix homo- (same) and homoi- (similar) determined whether generations of Christians that followed would believe that Jesus Christ is the same substance as the Father (homoousios-of the same nature) or only similar (homoiousios-of a similar nature). The first declares the equality of the Son with the Father, the latter makes him part of the creation not the Creator. Everything related to the gospel depends upon this truth.

 

All along the way in the early days of gospel proclamation, there were those who denied either the deity or humanity of Jesus Christ. Paul certainly addressed such skepticism in Colossians, as did John in his first epistle. But the controversy did not end in the first century, and for that matter, it has not ended today. The church must be ever vigilant to stand for "the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" (Jude 3).

 

The 4th century was the high water mark for the swirling controversy concerning the nature of Jesus Christ. A popular Alexandrian bishop named Arius (A.D. 325) taught that Jesus Christ's nature or substance was only similar to the Father. In Arius' thought, Jesus existed before creation and was greater than all creation, but was himself a created being who was not equal to the Father and therefore not divine. Many embraced this teaching as a show of intellectualism, known as Arianism, without grappling with its implications. If Christ is not God then God alone cannot receive the glory for salvation. If Christ is not God then there is no qualified mediator between God and men. If Christ is not God then there is no infinite value to his sacrifice at the cross to satisfy God's righteous demand for justice. If Christ is not God then there is no gospel of salvation.

 

A twenty-nine year old named Athanasius stood against this false teaching, first at the Council of Nicea where he served as secretary to Alexander, the leading Bishop of Alexandria, and later as the Bishop of Alexandria himself (A.D. 328). "He was hounded through five exiles embracing seventeen years of flight and hiding," writes one historian, but with unflagging zeal, "almost single-handedly Athanasius saved the Church from pagan intellectualism" [S.J. Mikolaski, quoted by Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 245]. Later, the Athanasian Creed, though not written by him but named for him, declared,

It is necessary, however, to eternal salvation that he should also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the right faith is that we should believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is equally both God and man.

 

He is God from the Father's substance, begotten before time; and He is man from His mother's substance, born in time. Perfect God, perfect man composed of a human soul and human flesh, equal to the Father in respect to His divinity, less than the Father in respect of His humanity.

 

Who, although He is God and man, is nevertheless not two but one Christ. He is one, however, not by the transformation of His divinity into flesh, but by the taking up of His humanity into God; one certainly not by confusion of substance, but oneness of person. For just as soul and flesh are one man, so God and man are one Christ.


So as we may take for granted the magnificent celebration of Christmas as God entering the world to take on the nature of man that He might" save His people from their sins," the 4th century Church waged theological war to ultimately conquer on the side of Holy Scripture. Had the side of truth fallen, we would not be celebrating Christmas today as "Immanuel-God with us." There would be no gospel story proclaimed through the joyous hymns and reading of the birth narratives.

 

Christmas celebrates the reality that God entered the human race to redeem His people from their sins. With the angel and Joseph, we call His name Jesus, for it is He alone that saves His people from their sins. How does the Christmas story relate the gospel story?

 

I.  Jesus Christ: an explanation

 

While we have theophanies in the Old Testament, appearances or manifestations of God as He did with Abraham and Moses, God never became a man. God did manifest himself to these ancient brethren, but in the Incarnation, God became one of us. He entered humanity so that forevermore, the Second Person of the Trinity is the God-Man, the divine-human Head of the redeemed people of God.

 

1. Birth not beginning

 

The angel did not tell Joseph everything but he did tell him enough for his faith and obedience. No finely detailed explanation of the Incarnation was given. When God speaks He does not need to explain His actions to sinful men! Yet the shock of the divine words began to dawn upon Joseph: "for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." Joseph wrestled with sending Mary away secretly (v. 19), which means that as a couple that was engaged he would have to legally end their relationship in Jewish custom. The news of her pregnancy stunned him, yet "being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her," Joseph sought for a quiet dismissal of their betrothal. How did this happen? "For the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit," thus the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary's womb so that she conceived the Child without the contribution of man. What would happen? "She will bear a Son," and thus an actual birth would take place so that God would enter humanity as one of the human race he came to redeem. How was Joseph to respond? "And you shall call His name Jesus," that is, Joseph would legally adopt Jesus by naming him, and thus identifying him with the kingly/messianic genealogy of David (1:1-17, which is the reason for the genealogy in showing Jesus to be a legal heir to David's throne). Joseph understood this to be a Messianic designation. Why would this happen? "For He will save His people from their sins;" the birth of the Child encompassed the whole redemptive plan of God for His people in every age.

 

The Incarnation vividly demonstrates that God initiates and carries to completion our salvation. For the Incarnation is always set forth ultimately in light of the redemption secured at the cross. Thus in announcing the birth of Christ, the angel declared, "For He will save His people from their sins."

 

2. Conception by the Holy Spirit

 

We are left to ponder how such a thing can take place. Matthew introduces this narrative by telling us, "When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit." The angel further explains to Joseph, "For the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." To Mary, the angel adds, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God" (Matt 1:35).

 

Several facts are obvious: first, an actual birth took place with Mary giving birth to a Son. Second, for a birth to take place there had to be a conception. Third, the explanation given for Mary's conception in her womb apart from the contribution of man points to the Holy Spirit as the source ("by the Holy Spirit" uses the preposition ek, carrying the idea, "the source from which something arises"). Fourth, the conception of Jesus took place without the contribution of a man but not without a contribution-the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Mary was no surrogate mother, so that the Holy Spirit merely implanted a substance in Mary's womb foreign to her genetic makeup. She was not an incubator that waited the removal time of the "foreign body" that had invaded the darkness of her womb. "She will bear a Son," the angel declares, one who was of her own genetic material and who is of the same substance as Mary.

 

Some in church history state that Jesus Christ was conceived in Mary but He was not of Mary. The idea is that the Holy Spirit produced a totally separate nature for Jesus that had nothing to do with her or the rest of humanity. He was born as a human-at least in kind-but not in any respect of the same substance as Mary and the rest of the human race. In this line of thinking, the infant Jesus simply passed through the body of Mary without assuming any of her substance. His conception is considered a miracle, but Mary was only a surrogate that incubated the child until delivery [cf. William Cunningham, Historical Theology, vol. I, 313]. He could be called human because of his physical features, but not part of the human race.

 

But the Scripture speaks otherwise: "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things [lit. 'in all respects'], that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Heb 2:17). Without being an actual part of the human race Jesus would be unqualified to redeem us. The Incarnation declares God's intention to save "His people from their sins." But why was the Incarnation necessary?

 

(1) Scripture affirms that "salvation is from the Lord" (Jonah 2:9). In both Testaments, God is always seen as the initiator and provider of salvation. So God therefore must be the One who effectively saves sinners, otherwise man could boast in his achievements (I Cor 1:26-31). As Herman Witsius expressed it in the 17th century, "None but God can restore us to true liberty.... None but God can give us eternal life.... None but God can give God" [The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man, vol. 1, 198].

 

(2) The measure of the divine penalty against man for his sin required that someone of infinite capability satisfy God's wrath. The penalty declared befits the crime of the Fall. So a finite man cannot bear or satisfy an infinite demand for justice: "but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb 9:24-28). The Incarnation explains the infinite capability of the God-Man as our Substitute and Sin-bearer.

 

(3) The ones needing salvation are men; the penalty for sin is against men; therefore moral justice requires that the penalty be satisfied either by all the human race or by One who is qualified to represent men before the justice of God (Heb 2:10-11). We find this qualification in the Incarnation, as God became a man.

 

(4) For a human to satisfy the penalty for sin requires that he be qualified in (a) nature and (b) moral constitution as one who perfectly keeps the divine law. He must be one who feels fully the effects of sin yet be without sin (Heb 2:14-18). Jesus qualified.

 

(5) The Redeemer must be capable of dying since the penalty for sin is death. Yet He must be of such value as to secure by His death pardon for all whom God would redeem. Thus Jesus, qualified in every respect, declares, "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4).

 

3. God with us

 

So how does Matthew explain all this amazing story of the Incarnation? "'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which translated means, 'God with us'." The obvious meaning is not that God is with us spiritually, but that through the Incarnation, God has come in the flesh! Anything less would be inadequate to secure the salvation of God's people through the ages. God came in the flesh to satisfy his own just requirements to declare sinners to be righteous before him.

 

In the process of the Incarnation God did not abandon His divine nature, i.e., God did not quit being God in order to become man. He could not do this anymore than you can quit being a human. Nor did God fuse together the divine and human natures, thus creating a strange hybrid that is neither fully divine nor fully human. Nor did God simply appear to be a man, but whom was really only a divine spirit masquerading in human clothes (the error of Docetism). Nor was there an illusion involved in which Christ was really not who He appeared to be. Nor was the human nature absorbed into the divine nature so that its human properties were lost to the divine and a third nature emerged (the error of Eutychianism). Nor did He assume a human person or else there would have been two persons (the error of Nestorianism); rather He assumed a human nature so that He might redeem those who are partakers of this same nature.

 

The divine nature and the human nature of Christ remain two distinct natures in one personality. We do not appeal to Christ as God without appealing to him as the Man Christ Jesus (I Tim 2:5). When the disciples spoke to the Man Christ Jesus, they were speaking with God. When the followers of Christ worshiped Him they were not committing blasphemy by worshiping someone other than God. This is why the writer of Hebrews declares, "Let all the angels of God worship Him" (1:6). And it is why John's vision in Revelation 5:13 refers to the simultaneous worship of the Father and the Son, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." "God with us," provides the simplest way of explaining the wonder of the Incarnation. Peter Lewis sums it up best, "Though He became what He was not, He did not cease to be what He was. He who continued to fill all things and to sustain all things, also became contained in a virgin's womb, and was sustained by a human mother; living simultaneously the massive life of Godhead and the creaturely and painful life of humanity" [The Glory of Christ, 133-134].

 

II. Jesus Christ: a declaration

 

Having seen the necessity of the Incarnation explained we must now turn our attention to the message declared by the angel who announced the Incarnation of Christ.

 

1. Certain destiny

 

The birth of Christ and His death at the cross are inseparable. One loses meaning and effectiveness without the other. Both the Incarnation and crucifixion took place because of the certain destiny of mankind. It is unveiled in the words, "For it is He who will save His people from their sins." It is apparent that Jesus Christ came to "save His people," but from what enemy? In Jewish history we find the nation crying out to God over and over to save them from various enemies, Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. And in the first century many Jews would have welcomed a messiah who would save them from the Romans! But the angel's declaration points to a greater foe than all the nations and military hardware combined: "from their sins."

 

We locate sin's origin into humanity at the Garden of Eden, as our representative, Adam, fell prey to the serpent's temptation and sinned. As the father of the human race, all of us were in Adam. His actions carried weighty results for all of his posterity. His sin separated mankind from God the Creator. God who is altogether holy and righteous, who cannot sin nor approve sin, justly declared the whole of humanity condemned. Such was the gravity of Adam's sin against the infinite righteousness of God that the weight of eternal judgment fell upon all men. And like Adam, all of us "have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23).

 

Who can deliver us from the destiny of judgment? Who can rise to the top of the human race and qualify to represent us, as a Mediator without being under the same condemnation that humanity deserves? The prophecy quoted by Matthew from Isaiah 7:14 refers to a period when the ungodly King Ahaz sought deliverance for Judah against Aram and Israel through the Assyrians and not from the Lord. So Isaiah spoke of a temporal deliverance against the enemies of Aram and Israel, but had a greater deliverance in mind for future generations. Indeed, in three years Judah was delivered. But it was eight more centuries before the virgin bore a Son, Immanuel, who would deliver God's people from the greater enemy-our sins. The sign of God's saving work for sinful men would be found in the virgin bearing a Son: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel...God with us."

 

2. Christ alone

 

The angel makes a point in describing the reason for the Incarnation that we must not slide over. "For it is He who will save His people from their sins." The Greek has the pronoun at the beginning of the clause for emphasis, "He and no other will save His people from their sins," is the message. Or in the language of the Reformation, "Christ alone." Has this truth shaken loose every excuse and idolatrous reliance in your life? Everyday people are trying to add something to what Christ has done for their salvation. We see this frequently at Christmas, as men do not mind making some mention of Jesus Christ in hope of finding temporal blessing, but they fail to trust in Christ alone as their only hope for eternity.

 

Jesus alone can save us from our sins. The angelic messenger points to the perfect obedience of Christ and his atoning death at the cross on behalf of sinners so that we can be reconciled to God. Divine justice was satisfied, not by the Incarnation nor without it, but by the death of the Incarnate Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

 

3. The implications

 

So, what are the implications declared by the angel? First, there is salvation from the penalty of our sins through Jesus Christ. "For it is He who will save His people from their sins." Our sins defile the image of God, and thus the glory of God in our lives. But Christ's death on the cross has borne the penalty due us for our sins, and begins a sanctifying work of conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ. John reminds us, "You know that He appeared in order to take away sins" (I John 3:5). And Hebrews affirms, "But now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (9:26).

 

Second, this same statement tells us of a definite, securely accomplished work of Jesus Christ for all of the redeemed in every age, "For it is He who will save His people from their sins." We hear a lot of argument about Jesus Christ dying for everyone and for the whole world, but that is really a mute argument. The bottom line is that there is no effectiveness in the death of Christ for those who do not believe. Here we find the declaration of the effectiveness of the death of Christ for all who will be called children of God. It tells us that the death of Jesus Christ did not have mere potential to save, but declares the assurance that His death will save His people-all who believe, from their sins.

 

Third, this statement declares that every detail of our salvation resides in one person, "He who will save His people from their sins." We do not look to the Church to save. We do not look to our parents or godly heritage to save. We do not look to ourselves, and the whole measure of our good deeds. "He who will save" is Jesus Christ alone. The exalted Human now seated on His throne, who invaded humanity in the Incarnation though existing from all eternity, awaits the day when all whom He has saved will be gathered together as His Bride for eternity.

 

Conclusion

 

There is really one final implication in this whole story: you. God became a man so that you might be delivered from your sins, and brought into relationship to Him. It does matter that you believe God became a man. But the message does not stop with the manger scene. It points to a cross where Christ fulfilled the reason for his coming in the Incarnation, and to an empty tomb that declares the effectiveness of his death on the cross. Do you believe this?

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