REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XI, December 2003, Number 12
Jesus Savior
Meditation by Rev. M. Schipper
from the December 15, 1973 issue of The Standard BearerSee more articles by this author
Also in this issue: The Birth of The Savior - by Rev. G. Vos
"And thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." - Matthew 1:21b.
Such was the word which the angel of the Lord declared unto Joseph the carpenter, who was engaged to a virgin, whose name was Mary and who was to become the mother of the long awaited Messiah.
All through the Old Dispensation there was the promise of His coming, beginning already with the protevangel, pronounced in the Garden of Paradise to Adam and Eve (our first parents), reaffirmed through all the patriarchs, reiterated by all the prophets, foreshadowed in all the sacrifices and ritual, and brought to fulfillment in the birth of Christ in the cattle stall of Bethlehem. It is the purpose of Matthew's gospel to show this fulfillment. This is clear from the verses that immediately follow our text, "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
What a marvelous revelation to Joseph, and to all those who look for salvation in Israel!
Joseph was engaged to Mary, a virgin of the lineage of David, and Mary was great with child, of which Joseph knew that he was not the father. The only thought that could cross his mind; therefore, was that Mary must be considered an adulteress. Jewish law required that such cases should be publicly dealt with and would serve as legal grounds for divorce or separation. Before the law engaged couples were as good as married. Consequently, were he vindictive enough, he could legally and publicly be separated from her forever. But he was a just man, one who feared God, and besides he loved Mary so much that he would spare her this publicity. Therefore, he was of a mind to have this separation done secretly, which according to some was also permissible.
Just at the moment when his soul was heavy with these thoughts, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, exhorting him not to do this contemplated thing; saying unto him: "Fear not to take unto thee Mary to be thy wife; for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Ghost." (This should allay all his fear.) Besides being informed in our text that Mary shall surely have a Son, Joseph is commanded to call His Name Jesus, 'for He shall save His people from their sins'.
Jesus, Saviour!
There is no more fitting theme for meditation in this season in which we celebrate the Saviour's birth! Theologically these words contain profound truths. Practically there lies hidden in them the faith and hope of many hearts. The Apostle Paul puts it this way: "It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!"
That's what Christmas is all about! Yet, in the midst of all the tinsel, bell-ringing, and frivolity, this is precisely what is forgotten in our modern manner of celebration. O indeed, there is room for joy and thanksgiving on this occasion. For did not the angel say: "Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people"? But remember, that joy rests only on the fact that we rejoice in the fact that He Whose birth we celebrate is the Saviour from sin.
"He shall save His people from their sins!", and their sins are many and great! For not only are they conceived and born in sin, burdened with the original sin and guilt of their first parents, Adam and Eve in Paradise; but from the moment of their birth to the day of their death, they constantly add to their sin and guilt. As an insurmountably high mountain has the pile of their sin become, crying out as it were for the judgment of God's holy wrath.
When man sinned in the beginning, he missed the mark, the goal that God had set up for him, namely: to love the Lord God with all his heart, mind and strength, and ever since that first sin, man's nature has become so corrupt that all he does is miss that mark. God, Who is unchangeably good and holy, cannot rescind His law, remove the goal, relinquish His demand, lest He deny Himself. Consequently, all men are pronounced sinners and guilty before God and subject to His righteous judgment. Scripture pronounces all men sinners. "All, have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The natural man is foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, hateful and hating one another. All have gone astray. There is none righteous, none that understandeth and seeketh after God. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Such is the undisputed declaration of the Word of God.
Not only is this so, but also because of sin man is subject to all the attending miseries of sin. For with sin came also death. Man is not only desperately wicked, but he is also desperately miserable. He is pressed down under the curse of God and the Divine law. God shackles him in the prison of sin and death. In that confinement he is a slave of sin. He lost his real freedom, which is the privilege to do the will of God. He became by nature spiritually blind, deaf and dead. 'As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.'
No mere man is able to extricate himself from such a plight. No mere man is able to deliver himself from such a prison-house of death. A dead man can no more rise up from physical death, than can a spiritually dead man make himself alive. He does not save himself, neither can he will to save himself. He is without God, without hope in the world.
But God, Who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, while we were His enemies, sent His Son made of a woman, without the will of man, born under the law, in order to redeem those who all their life time were subject to bondage.
Jesus, Saviour! That is His Name! That name Jesus signifies: Jehovah is salvation, or Jehovah saves!
There is no other Name given among men whereby we must be saved. Salvation is only in Him, and He only can save. Salvation is that act of Jehovah-God whereby He delivers from the deepest woe and brings us to the highest bliss, from the deepest hell unto the highest heaven.
Jesus-Saviour! Jehovah saves! None other than the living God Himself, the eternal and unchangeable One, saves!
This He does through the sending of His Son into the world, Who is united to our nature through an operation of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, the last of the royal line of David, the end of the covenant generations that must bring forth the promised Saviour. This He does by the miracle of grace which causes the Person of the Son to be conceived without the will of man. This He does by causing this Son to be born under the law, and under our sin and guilt, while He remained the sinless One. This He does by sending this beautiful Saviour to the cross of Calvary laden with our sin and guilt, where He bore all the vials of Jehovah's holy wrath over against our sin, until no more wrath remained for us. This He did when He made Him sin for us Who knew no sin, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. This He did when He washed us from all our guilty stains in His precious blood, the blood of atonement. But even so, the gospel of salvation is not complete. He does much more to save us!
Jehovah causes Jesus, our Lord, to be raised from the dead, and He was raised in order to show to us that we are now justified before God and acquitted from all our unrighteousnesses. Yea, He even exalts the Saviour to the highest heavens, and gives unto Him all power in heaven and earth, and fills Him with His Spirit by which He returns to our prison and opens its doors, and liberates us from the bondage of sin and death. O indeed, He is Jehovah Who saves unto the uttermost! He makes us, who once were His bitter enemies, to become His covenant friends. He calls us from darkness, and makes us to walk in His marvelous light. He makes us His sheep who will follow Him whithersoever He leads, and at last into the realm of everlasting glory.
Beautiful Saviour! Whose salvation cannot fail! For He SHALL save His people from their sins! Jesus, Jehovah saves, is the Saviour of His people!
Contrary to the popular belief that He is the Saviour of all men, or that He makes salvation possible for all men, the text specifically teaches that He saves His people and His people only. Jehovah, which is that Name of God whereby He revealed Himself to His people, as to none other, has made a covenant with His people in Christ from before the foundation of the world. With them He established this covenant, and for them He maintains it. The purpose of that covenant is that He may bring to Himself through the way of sin and grace this people, whom He has predestinated to be conformed to His image. Jesus called them His sheep, for whom he laid down His life. These He efficaciously calls out of darkness into His marvelous light. These He justifies in the blood of atonement, and sanctifies by His Spirit. In them He implants saving faith, and gathers them by His Spirit and Word. Them will He also at last present without spot or wrinkle in the assembly of the elect in life eternal. This people He forms for Himself and they shall show forth His praise.
Indeed, this is not a popular doctrine, and modern evangelism will not have it so. In this Christmas season a different doctrine will be proclaimed that contradicts the truth of our text. But understand it well, a Jesus for all is a Saviour of none!
The gospel in our text is not a gospel of man, but it comes directly from the throne of God. It speaks to His servant Joseph, and through him to all His people: Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins, and with the grace of salvation in our hearts, we will embrace this gospel with a true and living faith, Yea, we will embrace Him Who is of God our only Saviour.
The good work which He had begun in us He will finish it unto the end! and when His work of salvation shall be finished we with all His people shall exclaim:
Beautiful Saviour! Gracious God!
The Birth of The Savior
A meditation by Rev. G. Vos,
from the December 15, 1957 issue of The Standard BearerSee more articles by this author
"And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." - Luke 2:6,7.
We are inclined to pity both Jesus and Mary! Here we have the eternal Miracle about to be revealed - God manifested in the flesh - but we have to go into a dirty stable to see it!
Here is the most blessed of all women: the mother of God according to the flesh, but she has not even a layette for the little Jesus! and just a sour-smelling manger for a cradle.
I have seen humble homes in my day, but never have I seen such misery as we meet here. Even if there is no more than a reed basket, it is at least lined with pretty cloth.
Yes, our thoughts turn to the pitiful picture once more, and yet - what a mistaken pity.
If you must pity, then pity the hostelries, the inns and taverns of Bethlehem. Yes, and also all the wicked inhabitants of Bethlehem. There were others. Here they have the birth of God in their midst, and no one lays it to heart.
What wondrous circumstances surround the miracle of all miracles! Yes, and every one of these circumstances is Divinely ordained.
It was of God that Augustus desired the tally of his subjects, and so his messengers went out into all the world. It was of God; therefore, that Joseph and Mary went on their way to the city of David. It was of the Lord that this little city was over-crowded so that there was no room for this little group.
No, Joseph and Mary did not know of all these Divinely ordained circumstances. I would not be at all be surprised if Joseph and Mary often said: How unfortunate that exactly in these days we have to make such a journey! But the angels smiled! They had their instruction, and they knew.
* * * * *
And so it was, that, while they were there... There you have it: God's time had come. The time in His counsel which is called: the fulness of time. The time had come that she should be delivered.
That is proper: there are a certain number of days that are set for a mother to deliver her child. God is an orderly God, and He certainly had reckoned with that order of His Own creation.
And so she brought forth her firstborn Son. She was the end of the line of David, and what a line! It had been a most miserable line: the seed of the woman.
It had been a most tortuous line, a line which was influenced by all the wiles of the devil. He had exhausted all his devilish resources to stifle the issue of that line at every juncture. From generation to generation he had stood before that WOMAN, ready to kill the seed as soon as it would appear. See Revelation 12.
What a line: it includes murderers, harlots and miserable deceivers and liars.
And now? All we have left is a virgin who knows not a man! What can a virgin do with reference to the line of coming, ever coming seed, without a man?
It's against all God's ordinances of genetics!
But wait: here is the fulfilment of the woman of Revelation 12. Mary is in pain; she is in pain to be delivered! And so it was that the virgin who knew not a man is nevertheless in pain to be delivered of a Man child; and she did! She did bring forth the song of the angels. Hallelujah!
* * * * *
And what was God's part?
Mary's part we know. This Baby is not any different from any other baby that was born then or now, sin excepted. But what was God's part?
This was God's part first of all: He supplanted the will of man in the genesis of this Man child. The almighty power of God overshadowed Mary, and that Holy Thing that was born of her was consequently called: The Son of God!
That was God's part.
But there is more. Although this Baby did not differ from others as far as we could see, He was nevertheless God's Only Begotten Son. He was, is personally God out of God.
Let us put it this way. If you had been present at this deliverance; and if you had seen the swaddling of this Infant, and the laying down in the manger; you would have been absolutely right if you had cried out at that time: There lies the living God in that manger! There lies the Son of the living God!
Yes, we agree with the text: And she brought forth her firstborn Son..., but it is also true that at the same time the living God said in heaven: Thou art My Son: this day I have begotten Thee!
That is the marvel of Christmas: God manifests Himself in the flesh: I Timothy 3:16.
From that truth come super-abounding riches of salvation.
* * * * *
Attend to this: God brings forth His eternal Son, and Mary brings forth her Son. That means this: His name is Immanuel: God with us. He is both God and man.
Oh, beloved reader, that name means unspeakable riches for you and me.
This miracle of the Incarnation spells innumerable riches for God's people. It is the manifestation of the sweetest mercy and pity for us.
Here we are: filthy and corrupt, and that is bad, but it is not the worst of our horrors. Such filth and corruption makes us guilty before God. Do you know what guilt is? It is liability to punishment. Do you know what the punishment is? It is eternal desolation in hell for all eternity.
But the birth of the God-child means that God has identified Himself with all these horrors which are the portion of every elect son and daughter of Adam. The Incarnation means that God enters our prison, that God takes upon Himself all our damnation.
Is that not mercy? Is that not pity? Oh, beloved, how happy must have been the church that this God-man came down to us!
* * * * *
No, His reception is cold. There is no room for Him. Here is the Son of the King, but his cradle is a manger.
He came to His own, but His own received Him not.
He came to do good. (What poverty in this little sentence: He came to do good! Forsooth! Read the last two chapters of Revelation, and then come back to my little sentence! I wish that I had command of all the words, all the music, all the wondrous melody of the Universe. Then I would again say and sing: He came down to do good!)
Again: He came to earth to do good, but everyone turned away from Him. Judas sold Him after prudent appraisal: he came to the conclusion that 30 pieces of silver was enough!
Peter was ashamed to be named in one breath with Him ("I know not the Man")!
All the disciples fled, and were offended at Him. He was fully announced, but no one organized a reception.
* * * * *
And yet, we can understand it. There is no place in Bethlehem, the world, the human heart.
First of all: the fact that there was no room for Jesus and His parents was not because they hated Jesus. The inn keeper knew nothing about the coming of Jesus. The fact that there was no room in the inn was a God-ordained sign.
No, the fact that there was no room for Jesus in the inn tells you the following: This occurrence announces a program, a program which will end on the Cross.
This occurrence announces the truth that for our sake Jesus became poor. Only remember this: the poverty you see in Bethlehem in stable, manger and swaddling cloths is a sign of our spiritual poverty. We do not like to be reminded of it.
This occurrence tells us that Jesus is born lying on the very edge of the world, and that we will finally push Him off that edge. Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!
They serve a different god in Bethlehem. They serve self, humanity, sin and corruption.
Consciously or unconsciously, everyone says no to Jesus.
Mary says no: How can this be seeing I know not a man?
Joseph says no: he was going to put Mary away privily.
Zechariah says no: he even has to be made dumb for his sin.
And now Bethlehem says no: and this no is your and my no, the no of all the world, the elect included. If you say: but the shepherds were glad and obedient to the heavenly vision, were they not? Then I would take a phrase out of your very objection: heavenly vision. If it were not for that phrase, they also would have said no.
Oh yes, if you have the heavenly vision, the matter becomes entirely different. Then you worship; then you worship; then you worship! Hallelujah!
* * * * *
How blessed a fact that He was rejected! For His rejection is our acceptance. Remember that He became poor for us. He became poor in order to make us fabulously rich, and as far as place, room, is concerned: He captivates a place, and what a place!
That place is now a broken and contrite heart: there He dwells and feels at home.
Oh yes, He captivates a place.
And that place will be a new heaven and a new earth. There will be ample room for Jesus and His own in that wondrous new heaven.
Blessed night when Jesus was born!
G. V.
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