Overall I tend to be pretty handy and can handle a lot of maintenance and repair projects around our home. And most of the time, I actually enjoy doing that. But there are also some repairs that are beyond my ability to tackle. For instance, when the “check engine” light goes on in my car, I know that it means there is a problem. But since I have neither the expertise nor the required equipment to diagnose and fix the problem I take my car to someone who does.
Over the years I’ve definitely bitten of a few projects that turned out to be a bit beyond my ability to handle. Several months ago a plastic piece on our floor cleaner cracked and so I figured I would just go ahead and order a new piece and fix it myself. But when the part arrived I discovered that replacing this part was no simple matter since that particular piece had about 25 other small parts attached to it and that removing those and putting them back into the new part was pretty much impossible. As I worked at that for well over an hour with no success I began to wonder who put these things together in the first place. I’ll make the story of that particular project really short by just saying that we now have a new floor cleaner.
When it comes to our salvation, I think many of us go through a process that is very similar to that. We begin by thinking that is something we can figure out and accomplish on our own. And while we might even feel like we’re making some headway for a while, we eventually come to the place where we realize that is something that we just can’t do on our own, so we finally do what we should have done in the first place and turn to God.
One significant aspect of the good news of Christmas is that God has done everything required to provide for our salvation. Last week, we began this short series on the good news of Christmas by discovering that Christmas is good news because it means that we can fear not. Christmas is proof of God’s sovereignty and His grace and when we humbly seek God and join Him where He is already at work, He makes it possible for us to live a life that is free from fear. Next week we’ll wrap up this series by focusing on the good news that God is with us. These three aspects of the good news of Christmas are inextricably linked. They all work together. So if you missed last week’s message I encourage you to go to the website and listen to or read it.
Just like we saw with the message to fear not, the good news that there is a savior is woven throughout the birth narratives of Jesus in Matthew and Luke. But before we get to those, let’s set the stage by seeing why it is that we need a savior in the first place.
WHY I NEED A SAVIOR
1. God is holy
Whenever we are given a glimpse into the throne room of God, as in Isaiah 6 or Revelation 4, it is always God’s holiness that is on display. I love the way the A.W. Tozer defines God’s holiness in his book Knowledge of the Holy:
We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered…Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard, He is that standard.
When we understand God’s holiness like that, the next point becomes pretty obvious, God is holy, but…
2. I am not
I think that most of us here would consider ourselves to be pretty good people. But I’m also pretty sure that all of us would readily admit that we’re not perfect. Even if we’ve never murdered anyone or robbed a bank or cheated on our spouse, we’ve almost certainly been angry with a brother, or taken something that doesn’t belong to us or lusted after someone or something or failed to do good when we had the ability to do that. And God defines all of those things as sin. That’s why Paul wrote this to the churches in Rome:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(Romans 3:23 ESV)
That little word “all” there makes it clear that every one of us is in the same boat. We are all sinners. And when we consider that fact in concert with the fact that God is holy, we understand why…
3. My sin separates me from God
Most of us are probably familiar with Paul’s succinct summary of the consequences of my sin:
For the wages of sin is death…
(Romans 6:23 ESV)
In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul gives us a further explanation:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
(Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)
In the Bible, death is always defined as a separation, not a state of non-existence. Physical death is the separation of body from soul and spirit. The book of Ecclesiastes is just one place the Bible teaches that idea:
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
(Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV)
The kind of spiritual death that Paul is describing in the passages we just looked at is also a separation. Since God is holy and I am not, I am not capable of having a relationship with Him based on my own merit. God’s holiness and my sin are like oil and water – they just won’t mix. The prophet Isaiah describes that separation:
but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
(Isaiah 59:2 ESV)
So we all have a problem. We have a sin problem that means we are separated from God. And as much as I would like to think I can…
4. I am incapable of fixing my sin problem
There is absolutely nothing I can do on my own to fix my sin problem that leads to being separated from God. But in spite of that, most people do make a futile attempt to handle their sin in many different, but equally ineffective ways. Let’s look at two of the most common.
• Ineffective ways people try to handle sin:
o Ignore it
Let’s go back to my illustration of the “check engine” light in my car. We all know that light indicates that there is a problem, but it is certainly possible to just ignore that light and pretend there really isn’t a problem at all. I’ve even heard of people using a piece of tape to cover up that light on the dashboard or finding the wire to the light and cutting it so that it no longer comes on. But just ignoring or disabling that light won’t make the underlying problem go away.
Unfortunately, a lot of people do the same thing with their sin. They do that in several different ways. One way is to just hope that God doesn’t really exist and that therefore their sin really doesn’t have any consequences. While I could give you all kinds of evidence this morning that God really does exist, this picture that someone posted on Facebook recently does a pretty good job of summing up why this is such a dangerous approach:
I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t and find out there is.
Another way to ignore my sin is to just pretend it doesn’t exist or try to cover it up in some way. But that is no more effective than just covering up the “check engine” light in my car. It doesn’t do anything to deal with the underlying problem.
Another common approach is to call my sin something else – a mistake, a lapse in judgment, an error. But doing that doesn’t change the fact that sin is still sin in God’s eyes. There are a number of other ways we can ignore our sin, but I think we’ve spent enough time here to get the idea.
o Hope God grades on a curve
I think this is probably the most common approach to sin in our culture. I certainly know this is the way I thought of my sin for many years. Again this can take many forms, but all of them basically view God as keeping score and that as long as the good things I do in my life outnumber the bad things I do, I’ll get a passing grade from God.
But if we really consider that idea for long, we soon find out that really doesn’t make sense. It would be like thinking that when my “check engine” light goes on in my car that it probably means that there is only one defective part in my engine and there are hundreds of other parts that are working just fine, so I don’t need to do anything.
Neither of these ways of attempting to deal with my sin nor any other approach I can take on my own can possibly fix my sin problem.
So far this is far from good news. But it is exactly why Christmas is such good news. The good news of Christmas is that there is a savior – one who is capable of doing what I cannot do and taking care of my sin problem and overcoming my separation from God. That is the message that God sent to Joseph, Mary and the angels. Let’s take a brief look at each of those messages and then see what principles we can draw from them so that the good news of Christmas can be our good news.
Let’s look first at the angel’s message to Joseph:
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
(Matthew 1:20-21 ESV)
I think most of us understand that in Biblical times names had a lot more significance than they generally do today. A person’s name often indicated something important about his or her relationship to God or a task that God had given to that person.
And that is certainly true with Jesus’ name. You’ll notice here that the angel gave specific instructions to name the child Jesus. We’ll see Gabriel give this same command to Mary in just a moment. So let’s take a minute to understand why that name is so significant.
Jesus (English) =
Iησοῦς (Iesous) (Greek) =
Yeshua (Hebrew) =
shortened form of Yehoshua (Joshua) =
Yeho (prefix form of YHWH) + yasha (“to save” or “to deliver”) =
YHWH delivers
The angel confirms the meaning of the name when he says that Jesus will save his people from their sins. Now that’s good news isn’t it? Jesus is going to do what man can’t do himself – He is going to save, or deliver, his people from their sins and thus fulfill His name.
You’ll also notice that the angel proclaims that Jesus will save “his people” from their sins. We talked a lot about what that phrase – his people – means on Monday morning.
Since we know that Matthew is writing to a predominantly Jewish audience the first thought is that perhaps he is describing the Jewish people with that phrase. But the salvation that Jesus offers is certainly not limited to just the Jews, nor is it true that all the Jews are going to place their faith in Jesus and thus be saved from their sins.
It is also obvious that “his people” cannot be describing all of mankind. Although Jesus is indeed, as the people of Sychar called him “the savior of the world” (John 4:42), the Scriptures are clear that not everyone who has ever lived is saved by Jesus since those who refuse to place their faith in Him do not receive the salvation he offers to all.
Although we obviously don’t have time today to get into a detailed discussion of the idea of election and predestination, I think we would be safe to conclude that “his people” refers to those who Jesus described with these words:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
(John 6:44 ESV)
These words of Jesus are certainly consistent with what we’ve seen this morning. Our sin separates us from God and makes us all spiritually dead. And a dead person can do nothing to bring himself back to life. I know none of us have ever seen a dead person perform CPR on himself. In the same way, one who is spiritually dead is incapable of doing anything to bring himself back to life spiritually. So the only way we can become alive spiritually is for God to draw us to Jesus and give us the ability to repent and put our faith in Jesus. So “his people” here must refer to those whom God the Father has drawn to His Son and who have responded to that drawing by placing their faith in Jesus alone as the means for their salvation.
That same good news is repeated in a slightly different way when Gabriel appears to Mary:
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
(Luke 1:30-33 ESV)
Although Gabriel focuses here on Jesus as the fulfilment of God’s promise to David of a king from his line who would reign forever, we see that he repeats the command to name the child that is to be born Jesus. And there is little doubt Mary would have understood the meaning and significance of that name. That is confirmed just a few verses later when Luke records the song that Mary sang in response to God’s revelation that she was going to bear the Son of God. In that song Mary not only recognizes Jesus as the savior, but also as her savior:
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
(Luke 1:46-47 ESV)
Even though God had chosen Mary to be the mother of His Son, she was just like all of us in that she was a sinner who needed a savior. And if she needed a savior, then so do we.
Finally, let’s look at the proclamation of the angel to the shepherds:
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
(Luke 2:10-11 ESV)
As we saw last week, the birth of a savior was indeed good news of great joy. And while that is potentially good news for “all the people” not everyone chooses to appropriate that good news into their lives.
You’ll notice here that the angel refers to Jesus with three terms that are all so interrelated that they can’t be separated. The baby who has been born in Bethlehem is Savior, Christ and Lord. And in order for anyone to be saved from his or her sins and thus make Christmas good news, he or she must embrace all three of those aspects of who Jesus is.
We’ve spent a lot of time already talking about Jesus as Savior. By leaving the glory of heaven and being born as a human baby and then living a sinless life, giving up His life on the cross and then being raised from the dead, Jesus provided the only way for us to be saved from our sins. And frankly, a lot of people don’t have a problem with viewing Jesus like that. I think most people recognize deep inside that they are sinners and if Jesus can save them from the consequences of that sin, then that’s OK with them.
The second aspect of who Jesus is is that He is Christ. Far too often I think we miss the significance of that title because we tend to use the word Christ almost like it was Jesus’ last name. But it is actually a title, not a name. In Greek, it means “Anointed One” and it is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word we transliterate as Messiah. This corresponds closely with Mary’s understanding of Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promise to David that a king from his line would one day reign forever.
As the “anointed one”, Jesus is the only way that God has chosen to make it possible for man to be saved from His sins. This is where some people begin to have a problem with Jesus. They don’t mind viewing Him as Savior, but if He is the only way for their relationship with God to be restored, a lot of people reject that idea. In a culture where we have a variety of choices in almost every area of life, many people view the idea that Jesus is the only way to God as too restrictive.
Finally, if we are going to be saved from our sins, Jesus must be Lord. And I’m convinced this is where most people end up missing out on the good news of Christmas. They don’t mind Jesus being Savior and they may even be willing to accept that as the Christ he is the only way to God, but they balk at giving up control of their life to Jesus and living life on His terms rather than their own.
Notice that the angel didn’t say that Jesus can be Savior or Christ or Lord and that we get to pick which of those aspects of his character we want and just ignore the others. If Christmas is going to be good news because Jesus is Savior, He must also be Christ and Lord at the same time. And when we yield our lives to Jesus like that, then He has promised to save us from our sins. But exactly what does that look like?
What does it mean to be saved from my sins?
We’ve talked before about the three different aspects of salvation – past, present and future. So it is not surprising that being saved from my sins also has three aspects:
• I have been saved from the penalty for my sins
Earlier, we read the first part of Romans 6:23, but let’s add the last part of that verse and look at the entire verse now:
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 ESV)
The penalty for my sins is death – separation from God. But when I make Jesus my Savior, Christ and Lord, then that penalty is removed and I receive eternal life. From that point forward I am no longer separated from God because of what Jesus has done for me.
• I am being saved from the power of sin
I think this is the aspect of salvation that is least understood and applied in our lives. Paul summarized this idea in Romans 6, particularly in these two verses:
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
(Romans 6:6-7 ESV)
Before placing our faith in Jesus, we were slaves to sin. We couldn’t keep from sinning no matter how hard we tried. I know that before I committed my life to Jesus, I could avoid some of the sins that I struggled with for a short time just by my own willpower. But that never lasted very long.
Even after making Jesus my Savior, Christ and Lord, I still sin. But what I find now is that I am no longer enslaved to that sin. And when I die to self and allow Jesus to be in control of my life I find that he is able to set me free from those sins that once controlled my life.
• I will be saved from the presence of sin
One day, all who have chosen to make Jesus Savior, Christ and Lord will receive a new resurrection body and life forever physically in the presence of Jesus. And when that occurs, we will live in a state in which we are completely free from the presence of sin.
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
(1 John 3:2 ESV)
At the return of Jesus we are going to be transformed along with the rest of all who belong to Him. And at least one of the ways that we will be like Jesus is that we will no longer sin. And we’ll be living alongside others who have also experienced that same transformation. So that means we will live in a place where we will be completely free from the presence of sin.
As much as we might like to think we’re capable of obtaining salvation on our own, at some point in our lives we’ll all come to the same point I did with that floor cleaner and with the check engine light in my car and realize that there are some things I am just not equipped to do on my own and that my salvation is one of those things.
Christmas is good news because it means that I don’t have to do it on my own because there is a Savior – one who is also Christ and Lord. And if I’ll just accept Him into my life on those terms, he will do what I can’t possible do and save me from the penalty, power and presence of sin.
