According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ name was given to Him by His Father. Recall that the angel Gabriel, whom He sent to Mary, said to her, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
The name “Jesus” is an English translation of the Greek “Iesous,” which is a translation of the Hebrew “Jehoshua” which means “Jehovah saves,” or “Yaweh saves,” or more simply, “God saves.”
And that explains the angel’s explanation regarding the naming of Mary’s baby. Jesus’ name revealed, in one sense, both His identity and His mission. He was, of course, God in the flesh, and He came to “save His people from their sins.” So, in essence, the angel told Mary, “You shall name Him “God Saves,” because He is God, and He will save His people from their sins.”
Supporting this is the fact that, immediately after Matthew told the story of the Mary’s angelic visitation, he continued: “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘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’” (Matt. 1:22). Matthew did not want his readers to miss the point that Jesus was God, or that He came to save people from their sins.
Note that Gabriel did not say Jesus would only forgive people of their sins, although forgiveness of sins is certainly part of being saved from sins. Note also that the angel did not say that Jesus would only save people from the penalty of their sins, although being saved from the penalty of sin is certainly part of being saved from sins.
There is more that was included in Jesus’ saving work than just those two wonderful benefits. And it would certainly seem odd that Jesus would forgive people of their sins and save them from the ultimate penalty of their sins but do nothing to deliver them from sinning! Which is why the angel didn’t say that Jesus would “save His people in their sins,” but rather that He would “save His people from their sins.”
In fact, the Greek word translated “save” in the angel’s words recorded in Matthew 1:21 is “sozo,” of which one connotation is “to deliver.” For example, writing about the hemorrhaging woman whom Jesus healed, Matthew wrote that Jesus said to her, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well,” and then Matthew added the commentary, “At once the woman was made well” (Matt. 9:22). In both of those sentences, the phrase “made well” is “sozo” in the original Greek. Jesus delivered the woman from her illness. She was saved from it. She was no longer ill.
And that is what is implied by what the angel told Mary that Jesus would do for His people. He would save/deliver/sozo them from their sins. They would no longer be people characterized by sin.
JESUS!!! Every time we say His name, we declare that He is the God who delivers us from our sins!
And from reading the rest of the New Testament, it is obvious how Jesus does just that. He frees all who believe in Him from their bondage to sin; He regenerates their spirits and makes them into “new creations;” and He empowers them to obey His commandments by His indwelling Spirit. And, amazingly, He made it all possible by taking our sins upon Himself and suffering an agonizing death. What a Savior!
The one thing Jesus does not do for us is remove our free will and make us into robots. We must therefore cooperate with the God who saves us from our sins, which is why Paul wrote: “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation [Greek: “soteria” which is ultimately derived from “sozo”] with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). We work because God is at work in us.
Drifting, however, is possible, because we have a role to play. The author of Hebrews (probably Paul) wrote, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation [soteria]?” (Heb. 2:1-3). It is indeed a “great salvation,” but we can, tragically, drift from it or neglect it. How might God feel if, after providing so great a salvation at such a great price, we drift from or neglect it? Surely that would not please Him.
The author of Hebrews later warns his readers: “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries” (Heb. 10:26-27). He is not referring to believers occasionally stumbling into sin, for which they feel remorse and ask forgiveness, or even of struggling against sin and falling to temptation. Rather, he is referring to careless, ongoing indulgence in sin, the following of the same course as prior to before one “received the knowledge of the truth.”
That warning certainly provides little solace for “backsliders,” and it flies in the face of the false grace so often proffered through various doctrines that “turn the grace of God into licentiousness” and that therefore effectively “deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).
Our Savior is our Lord! According to Jude, our Savior “is able to keep us from stumbling,” and because of that, He is also able to “make us stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy” (Jude 24). That being so, we can only exclaim with Jude: “To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever”! (Jude 25).
What a Savior! And what a salvation!
