What does Jesus' name have to do with the fact that He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21)?

But 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!

This will be very clearly seen by a consideration of the meaning of the name Jesus, which Joseph was instructed to give to the Child when He should be born. As may be seen from Hebrews 4:8, Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, or Jehoshua, which signifies "Jehovah is salvation," or "whose salvation is Jehovah." There is therefore ample justification for the common observation that the name Jesus means Jehovah the Saviour. If so, what a subject for contemplation, yea, and for adoration, is thus brought before our souls! A child born into the world, of lowly parentage in man's esteem, is declared, divinely declared, to be Jehovah the Saviour! Yes, the God who heard the groaning of His people Israel in Egypt, who saw their affliction, heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, knew their sorrows, and came down to redeem them out of Egypt, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; He who said unto Moses, "I am JEHOVAH: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty, but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known to them" (Ex. 3:6-8; Ex. 6:2-3); it was He, the same God, the same Jehovah, the El Shaddai known to the patriarchs, who now came into this world as a Babe. But if a Babe, He came, blessed be His name for ever, as the Saviour of His people. Surely we may say that the shadows were fleeing away, and that the darkness, which had hitherto shrouded God from His people, was fast disappearing. It was indeed the blessed dawn of the day of grace.

"Thou shalt call His Name JESUS," said the angel of the Lord to Joseph when explaining to him that the child that Mary would bring forth was conceived of the Holy Ghost. And this name is of infinite preciousness to us because it is His personal, human name: the name which tells us of His grace and tenderness, His lowly life, His sorrow, and His death: but this name also carries with it divine glory, for it signifies JEHOVAH THE SAVIOUR. Yes, the very name of His humiliation, that which was written in derision on His cross, declares to us the greatness of His person and the love of His heart: He is Jehovah the Saviour.

The name of Mary's child has been decided beforehand by God. Jesus means "Jehovah Savior," for, it is added, "He shell save His people from their sins." How much more important was this than His saving Israel from Roman bondage! He is King, for He has "his people"; but He is more than this: He is Savior: and yet more, He is Jehovah.

The angel addresses him as son of David with the confirmatory announcement of the divine origin of the Child that is to be born, and whose work requires no less than a divine Person to perform. 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."

The name Jesus was given in connection with His work, "for," it was added, "He shall save His people from their sins." The term "His people" will, in this gospel, undoubtedly mean Israel; and indeed, in the angelic announcement to the shepherds in Luke, it says that the good tidings of great joy were for all the people; i.e. for the Jews. Not that the object of the Lord's coming into the world is in either case to be limited to the chosen people, but in these scriptures they only are in view. The wider aspect is stated by John when, in allusion to the prophecy of Caiaphas that "Jesus should die for that nation," he adds, "And not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." This makes it plain, moreover, that the death of Christ — His finished work, which He accomplished in, and through, His death — is the alone foundation on which He will save His people from their sins. We thus read in Leviticus 16, after the details given concerning the rites and sacrifices, together with the confession of the people's sins by the high priest on the great day of atonement, "For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord." (v. 30) Nor can this foundation truth be too constantly insisted upon; for as it is written concerning sins in the old dispensation, "Without shedding of blood is no remission," so now it is equally true that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, alone cleanseth from all sin.

Passing to the New Testament, we find this glorious and eternal God manifested in flesh—we see “Emmanuel”—“God with us”—in its opening pages. Born of the virgin, as Isaiah had foretold, His Name was called JESUS. This means Jehovah the Saviour. And in connection with that Name, in this very first chapter, salvation is first spoken of in the New Testament, and we are told that this is the reason why the Name was given, “for He shall SAVE His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Now Israel are the Lord’s people, and here, as elsewhere, we find salvation is for the Jew first. It is for “His people.” Israel are Jehovah’s people, and He had come in this way to save them; but, notice carefully, it is “from their sins” they are to be saved. Those sins, therefore, necessitated His death for them. His Blood must be shed for their remission. He must be wounded and bruised for them on the Cross as Isaiah 53 shows. This atoning work having been finished, a day is drawing near when “all Israel shall be saved” (Rom. 11:26). There will not be one Jew on the earth unsaved in that day! Nearly all of them are now enemies of Jesus, their true Messiah, and they are unsaved; but a change will take place when, as Jehovah said, “They shall look upon ME whom they pierced” (Zech. 12:10), when He comes again, “having salvation” (9:9), as their King.

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matt.1:21)

When the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ was announced to Joseph concerning the virgin Mary the Scripture says, “she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”. Jesus is a compound name meaning Jehovah-Saviour. When Jesus came it was the first great move in the mighty work that had to be accomplished, that there might be wrought salvation from sins - from their power in the life that is and their penalty in the life to come. Yes, we Christians know that wonderful name of Jesus, He has made God known to us and He has wrought the work which avails to the putting away of sins as a matter of judgment.

Still, though there is this comprehensiveness of meaning about the word, we must not miss the fact that it always carries the thought of deliverance from peril; and inasmuch as sin lies at the root of every peril that threatens us, the New Testament very appropriately opens with salvation from sins. This salvation is not merely from the penalty of sins, but from the power of sins, and even from the love of them. The Gospel does not offer an exemption from sin's penalty while leaving us free to continue under the power of sin, or in the enjoyment of sin's temporary pleasures. Were it to do so, it would be no true salvation, for it would just encourage us to continue in sin: which God forbid!

Considering then this scripture in its application to Israel, it will refer to the salvation of the earthly people from their sins — from their sins and their consequences — and to their restoration and blessing in a future day in the land of promise. It is indeed in one aspect what Zacharias prophesied, when his tongue was loosed at the circumcision of his child, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David … that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us … that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life." (Luke 1:68-75.) First, then, Jesus will save His people from their sins before God; for a part of the new covenant runs, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34); and, moreover, He will save them from the consequences of their sins in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies, in gathering them out from every land where they have been scattered, and in establishing them in their own land in blessing under His own peaceful and glorious reign. All this would have been fulfilled to them at once had they but received their Messiah; and even after they had crucified Him, had they but owned their guilt, and bowed in heart to the testimony of the apostles, their sins would have been blotted out, and the times of refreshing would have come from the presence of the Lord in connection with the return of Christ (Acts 3); but, alas! through their unbelief they forfeited all these blessings, and they have now to wait until, wrought upon by the Spirit of God, they will cry, in the gladness of their hearts, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."

Still, beloved reader, 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, and hence it is that the apostle could write to the Corinthians that it was delivered to him that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Well then may we praise God continually for His wondrous grace, the grace which took occasion through the unbelief of Israel to reveal all His purposes concerning those who should be heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ; and well, too, may our hearts be filled with gratitude at the mention of the name of JESUS, for He it is who has secured everything for us.