Mattheüs 1:21

The angel gives at the same time the name of Jesus (that is, Jehovah the Saviour) to the child that should be born. He applies this name to the deliverance of Israel from the condition into which sin had plunged them. ... It is written, "For he shall save his people," thus plainly showing the title of Jehovah contained in the word Jesus or Jehoshua. For Israel was the people of the Lord, that is, of Jehovah.

Here then is that which the Spirit of God sets before us in these few verses: Jesus, the Son of David, conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost; Jehovah, the Saviour, who delivers Israel from their sins; God with them; He who accomplished those marvellous prophecies which, more or less plainly, drew the outline that the Lord Jesus alone could fill up.

He had a title greater than any which Joseph could transmit even from David or Abraham; and this was to be attested in His name, His lowly name of Jesus, Jehovah, the Saviour. "Thou shalt call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins." Jehovah's people were His people; and He should save them, not merely from their enemies, but from their sins. What a testimony to Him and for them! Blessed for any sinful soul to hear; how especially needed for a people then inflated with boundless hopes of earthly aggrandizement in their expected Messiah!

He should save His people from their sins, therefore Saviour is to be His name. Only God is able to name in view of future accomplishments. He can do so, and how fully has this great name been justified! What a harvest of saved humanity will be garnered in days to come, all of them saved from their sins, and not merely from the judgment which their sins deserved! Only "His people" are saved thus. To know His salvation one must be enrolled amongst them by faith in Him.

The two names are intimately connected. To have God with us, apart from our being saved from our sins, would be impossible: His presence would only overwhelm us in judgment. To be saved from our sins, without God being brought to us might have been possible, but the story of grace would have lost its chief glory. In the coming of Jesus we have both. God has been brought to us and our sins being removed, we have been brought to Him.

What a wonderful name is His; it is fragrant with meekness and gentleness, grace and truth, holy love and great compassion; it is His human and personal name; the name given to Him in the manger at His birth, and nailed to His cross as His accusation at His death; a name of reproach among men, but carrying with it Divine glory for its full meaning is "Jehovah the Saviour." We cannot doubt this when we see the reason for which the Name was given Him. "Thou shalt call His name JESUS for He shall save His people from their sins." Israel are His people; He came to save them, and He will yet do it. It was written by the prophet that He was the Lord of His people, "and the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of His people" (Zech. 9:16). He had said to these people, "Thou art Mine… I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour… I, even I, am the Lord and beside Me there is no Saviour" (Isa. 43).

When, therefore, the angel said, "He shall save His people from their sins," he looked onward, or at least the mind of the Spirit in the words had respect to a time beyond the cross. For Israel could not be saved, as the prophets plainly testified, apart from repentance and the efficacy of the atonement. ... The sufferings of Christ must precede His glories, whether in heaven or on the earth; even as He Himself said to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?"

While it is true that this promise refers primarily to Israel, let it not be forgotten that the same glorious work, which constitutes the foundation on which their sins will be removed, is the only ground on which any of us can know forgiveness. Through Israel's fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles.

His name, Jesus, or Joshua ("Jehovah the Saviour") is declared to be no mere name, or indicative of some abstract truth, or of some principle to be developed in relation to His history. Nay, Jehovah's people are His people, and He therefore is Jehovah and Saviour, He is the full reality of His name: "He shall save His people from their sins."

God, feeling the sin of His own people to be the worst of all sin, yet having introduced in this very Messiah the only One who could save His people from their sins, does not hesitate to bring their sin into the presence of the grace that could and would put it all away. ... He came to "save His people from their sins," not to find a people that had no sins. He came with all power to save.