Who is Jesus - Day 5 - Jesus the Savior

The name then, is personal to him who bears it, and when it was divinely given it exactly suited him: thus, the Lord said to one of the apostles, “Thou art Peter." The name expresses what a person is; the title describes what a person does. “Savior ' is a title of the Lord: “unto you is born... a Savior “(Luke 2:11). But His personal name is “Jesus," meaning Jehovah the Savior (Matt. 1:21). The idea of salvation underlies both the name and the title, but the title, " Savior," describes the work of Him Who came that the world through Him might be saved, while " Jesus" expresses Who that incarnate Person is-Jehovah the Savior. So, in celebrating the salvation of Israel, Moses sang, “Jehovah is a man of war; Jehovah, His name” (Ex. 15:3).

The name then is personal to him who bears it, and when it was divinely given it exactly suited him: thus, the Lord said to one of the apostles, "Thou art Peter." The name expresses what a person is; the title describes what a person does. "Saviour" is a title of the Lord: "to you is born … a Saviour" (Luke 2:11). But His personal name is "Jesus," meaning Jehovah the Saviour (Matt. 1:21). The idea of salvation underlies both the name and the title, but the title, "Saviour," describes the work of Him Who came that the world through Him might be saved, while "Jesus" expresses Who that incarnate Person is — Jehovah the Saviour. So, in celebrating the salvation of Israel, Moses sang, "Jehovah is a man of war; Jehovah, His name" (Ex. 15:3).

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.

But what did this jailor know about the Lord Jesus Christ? Till then nothing, so "they spake to him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." The Lord Jesus Christ he was bade to believe on. His full name was given. Why was it not believe on Jesus; or believe on Christ? It was the Lord Jesus Christ he was to know: He was the Lord; the Lord of all. Is He not your Lord? If not, oh! let Him have dominion over you in future. He was also Jesus! What does that mean? Jehovah, the Saviour! "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." And further, He was the Christ, the anointed One, the exalted One.

“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.

Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died for the ungodly. Prophets had repeatedly declared that "salvation is of the Lord," and had long spoken of Jehovah as "a just God and a Saviour." The gospel prominently sets this forth. He was called Jesus or Saviour, because He would "save His people from their sins;" and when the angel of the Lord announced His birth to the shepherds, he said, "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Jesus Himself taught His disciples that He came, "not to destroy men's lives, but to save them;" and when a sin-convicted woman received Him as such, He pronounced her "saved;" and when another joyfully received Him, He declared, "This day is salvation come to this house." Paul testified that the grace of God bringeth salvation, and He counted it "a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." How blessed is the contemplation of the fact, that God still proclaims salvation for the chief of sinners, through the atoning death of Christ! Well may we sing — "Salvation! let the echo fly The spacious earth around; While all the armies of the sky Conspire to raise the sound. "Salvation! O thou bleeding Lamb, To thee the praise belongs; Salvation shall inspire our hearts, And dwell upon our tongues."

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.

But the New Testament speaks so plainly that we may turn profitably to a few scriptures in illustration. Take the earliest that can be in order, the first chapter of Matthew: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for it is He that shall save His people from their sins." "Save His people" does not mean save everybody. By "His people" is not meant those of all nations. Jesus is shown to be the divine Messiah. Jehovah's people are His people whom He will save from their sins, and not merely come to govern, as a Jew might have thought. His glory is divine; He is truly Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, God with us. Yea, if possible, He is more than Emmanuel, He is Jehovah. He was therefore to be called Jesus, which involves the ineffable name of Jehovah, "For He shall save His people from their sins." Thus all is definite. The Saviour accomplishes the gracious purpose of God.

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!

Let us now consider this, “Fear not,” said the angel of the Lord to Joseph, “to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” He did not say that He would save sinners, Jew and Gentile, though that is most blessedly true, and comes fully to light as the truth unfolds, but in perfect keeping with this first Gospel, to “save His PEOPLE.” The people of Israel were in view in the angel's announcement, and the fulfilment of the Word of God by His prophets to them. They were Jehovah's people, a people chosen of God as His own peculiar possession, even though they had departed far from Him. Their sins had separated them from Him, but He would not, He could not, abandon His rights in them, He would undertake their salvation. And Jesus was to appear to do this, because as the angel said, these people chosen of God were His PEOPLE. There are many Old Testament passages addressed to Israel which bind up their salvation with God's personal intervention on their behalf and that prove conclusively that He only could save them. I will quote a few of them, “I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour” (Isa. 43:3). “I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Saviour” (v. 11). “There is no God else beside Me, a just God and a Saviour” (45:21). “All flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob” (49:2). “I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt , and thou shalt know no god but Me; for there is no Saviour beside Me” (Hos. 13:4). It has often been said that the name Jesus carries divine glory with it; that it means Jehovah the Saviour; it is certainly clear from these great texts that none but God could save His people, and if any others pretended to be able to do this, their pretence only proved them to be thieves and robbers (John 10), but of Jesus, the angel said, “He shall save His people from their sins.” Then who else could He be but God?