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‘Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.’
Mat_1:21
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 successfully—is, 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. That’s 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 Christian’s struggle is—we say again—to let Him do it.
Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.
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.
(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 heaven—justified, 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 people—‘the 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 “Moon’s System.” He slowly passed his finger over the raised words and read—“There is none other name”—then he lost his place. A second time he passed his finger along and read—“There 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 read—“There 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.’
CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE
II. His people.—How Joseph would understand it, we know: the people of God’s 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 God’s saving truth to the world. Concentration first; diffusion afterwards. Is not this the way of God’s 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 world’s hope; He alone can smite the sin, and heal the world’s 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.’