Jesus Was Born to Die for His People
Matthew 1:21
Expectancy When a Child Is Born
In 2012, when Suzy told me that she was pregnant with Elisha, my first feeling was sheer terror. I remember thinking, “Oh no, this can’t be happening, I’m not ready for this.” I was sick as a dog when she told me. I had a virus that’d kept me on the couch for three or four days, but on a Friday night Suzy made me go out with her.
She wanted to go to Outback, which is usually a no-brainer for me, but I didn’t want to go at all. So, we went to Outback. As I was still complaining about not wanting to be there, Suzy told me that there was a reason that she wanted to go out that night, then handed me a Father’s Day card.
After I found out we were pregnant, I was consumed with thoughts about our child. Would they be a boy or a girl? Would they be healthy? What will they be like? What will they look like? What will they grow up to be? Will they love Jesus? When a child is born, we’re consumed with thoughts like this, thoughts of their life.
When a child is born, we think and dream about their life, not their death. There was, however, one child whose birth was directly connected to his death. This morning, as we reflect on the birth of Jesus, I want to remind us that Jesus was born to die. Matthew 1:21 points us to this truth.
Jesus the Next Joshua
Though it’s not stated explicitly in verse 21, that Jesus was born to die is certainly implied. The angel could’ve just said to Joseph, “You shall call his name Jesus” and left it at that. But that probably would’ve created some confusion for Joseph because the name “Jesus” comes from the Hebrew name “Yeshooah” or “Joshua,” which means “deliverance” or “salvation.”
Who was Joshua? In the Old Testament, Joshua was the guy who followed Moses as the leader of Israel. He’s the one who led the people of Israel into the Promised Land. He led them across the Jordan River and then in battle against all their enemies. Joshua “delivered” the people of Israel from a wilderness of death and led them to a land of life.
If the angel would’ve simply said to Joseph, “You shall name him Jesus,” then Joseph might’ve been led to believe that this son that Mary was carrying was going to be like the next Joshua – the next great political leader and military commander of Israel. But this isn’t why Jesus came.
Our Greatest Problem at Christmas
This is why the angel quickly qualifies why Joseph needs to name the boy Jesus. Verse 21, “For (or “because”) he will save his people from their sins.” Notice that the angel didn’t say anything about Jesus dying here. He just says that Jesus will “save his people from their sins.” So what’s the connection between Jesus saving his people from their sins and his death?
The answer to this question is rooted in the character of God. Because God is holy, he is separated from sinners like us. As John Piper says, “Our main problem at Christmas and every other season (is)…how shall we get right with a just and holy God?”
There’s no impurity in God, no evil, just total perfection. Since God is holy and pure in every way, he cannot overlook the things that go against his character in people he created. The greatest conundrum in Scripture is this: how can a perfect God accept imperfect people? How can a holy God forgive unholy people?
The answer of the Bible is simple: something has to die in order for God’s wrath toward sinners to be appeased. Something has to die in order for sins to be forgiven. This may seem like an odd way of saving people, but consider the fact that forgiveness always comes at great personal cost. When we forgive someone who’s wronged us, there’s cost involved. We give up our right to retribution and we give them what they don’t deserve. Forgiveness always costs something.
In the same way, our forgiveness came at great personal cost to God. In order for God to forgive us, to “save us from our sins,” he became a man in order to offer himself as the sacrifice for our sins. A man can’t save us from our sins, only God can. But because God can’t die, he would have to become a man so that he could. So God himself put on human flesh in order to die for the sins of his people. Jesus was born in order to die for sinners. Christmas is for the cross.
To Purchase a People
I want us to notice one more thing about Jesus’ death from Matthew 1:21. It says that Jesus “will save his people from their sins.” Jesus came and died for “his people.” His death doesn’t mean that everyone gets to go to heaven now. He was sent by the Father to purchase, through his death, a people for himself. Titus 2:13-14, “Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…gave himself for us…to purify for himself a people for his own possession.”
Jesus died to purchase his bride, not to make his marriage to her a possibility. He died to give her salvation, not just to give her a chance. At Christmas, parents don’t give their children the possibility of gifts, they give them real gifts that have already been purchased. In the same way, God sent his Son to purchase a people, to save his people, not just to give them a chance.
Follower of Christ, be reminded that God sent his Son to die for you. Be reminded this Christmas that Jesus loves you, that he loves you in particular, not who you’ll be one day when you get your life cleaned up, but that he loves you right now, and he loves you so much that he came after you, so much that he died for you.
How do you see yourself? Do you see yourself fundamentally as a messed up person or as a child of God? Is confusion, doubts, shame, or self-hate pushing your Christian identity into the background? If you’ve trusted in Christ, you’re a child of God – whether you sense that or not. If your hope is in Christ alone and you’re fighting to repent of sin, you’re a child of God, and this is your most fundamental, deepest, and truest identity. God sent Jesus to save you from your sins. By grace and through faith, you are his. This is who you are.
Hosea and Gomer
There’s a powerful story in the Old Testament that illustrates this. It’s the story of Hosea and Gomer. Turn with me to Hosea 3. In Hosea 1, the Lord tells Hosea to go and marry a promiscuous woman named Gomer and to have children with her. Hosea obeys. He marries Gomer and has a son with her, but he knows that she’ll be unfaithful to him because of what God told him.
Sure enough, Gomer is unfaithful to Hosea. She commits adultery and has two children who’re not fathered by Hosea. In chapter two, Gomer leaves Hosea for another man. By chapter three, we learn that Gomer has become a slave (3:1-3).
We know that Gomer had become a slave because Hosea has to go and buy her in order to get her back (v. 2). In that day, there were three ways to become a slave. You could become a slave by conquest. When your army lost, the victor would keep the soldiers as slaves. You could become a slave by birth. If you were born to a slave, you became a slave. Or you could become a slave if you weren’t able to pay off your debts. This is probably how Gomer became a slave.
It’s important to know that slaves were sold naked. So Gomer is on the auctioneer’s block in the middle of the marketplace in the middle of the town, totally naked. She can barely hold back the tears because of the shame and humiliation that she feels. The guilt is overwhelming because she knows that she’s there because of a series of bad decisions that she’s made.
There are dozens of perverted men standing there whistling at her and mocking her and bidding for the right to take her home. And there in the middle of the crowd is her husband Hosea. He is yelling his bids for her at the top of his lungs. He is determined to outbid everyone there. He will pay whatever he has to in order to get his wife back. He stands there and listens to the other men yell obscene things at his bride. He patiently yet firmly keeps upping his bid. He will not go home without Gomer. He knows what she’s done, but God told him to go and get her, so he will not leave the marketplace until he’s purchased her.
We Are Gomer, Jesus is Hosea
The story of Hosea and Gomer is our story. We are Gomer, Jesus is Hosea. God sent Jesus into the marketplace of sin with clear orders, “Purchase your bride.” Jesus was obedient to his Father. He came into the dark and dirty marketplace of sin and purchased his bride at the cost of his own life. He took her off the auction block and covered her shame with the robe of his righteousness. He cancelled her debt and gave her his righteousness.
Some of you think this is a nice story but you don’t feel the weight of what it means to be Gomer. You spend much of your time comparing yourself to other people instead of looking in the mirror. This prevents you from feeling the weight of your sin and shame and guilt before a holy God.
Some of you do understand and feel the weight of being Gomer. But you’ve convinced yourself that you can’t approach Jesus because of your sin. You think he’s an unapproachable King. But Jesus isn’t just any ole king, he’s the King of Grace. He’s a King who loves sinners. As King he has the resources to purchase them, the ability to clothe them, and the power to keep them.
In Jesus, God has done the truly unthinkable. Instead of waiting on us to clean up our lives and make our way back to him, he came to us. He became a man and died for our sins.
None of us deserve his grace, but if we come on bended knee to the crucified King, if we come with repentance and faith, admitting that we’re disqualified from his kingdom and can’t save ourselves and ask him to save us, he will. The only way into Jesus’ kingdom is through the blood of the King.
His Father sent him into the world to deliver his people from the land of darkness and to bring them into a land of light. Jesus was sent to be the new and true Joshua. He came into the world to save his people from their greatest enemy, to “save his people from their sins,” by dying on the cross. Jesus was born to die so that his people could live. Christmas points us to the cross.
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