Bible Commentaries

TWO GREAT TRUTHS

‘Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise … He called His Name Jesus.’

Matthew 1:18-25

The verses (18 to 25) begin by telling us two great truths. They tell us how the Lord Jesus Christ took our nature upon Him, and became man. They tell us also that His birth was miraculous: His mother Mary was a virgin.

I. A great mystery.—These are very mysterious subjects. They are depths which we have no line to fathom: they are truths which we have not mind enough to comprehend. Let us not attempt to explain things which are above our feeble reason: let us be content to believe with reverence, and let us not speculate about matters which we cannot understand. Enough for us to know that with Him who made the world nothing is impossible. We may safely rest in the words of the Apostles’ Creed: ‘Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary.’

II. The conduct of Joseph.—It is a beautiful example of godly wisdom, and tender consideration for others. He did nothing rashly: he waited patiently to have the line of duty made clear. In all probability he laid the matter before God in prayer. The patience of Joseph was graciously rewarded. He received a direct message from God upon the subject of his anxiety, and was at once relieved from all his fears.

III. The two names.—One is ‘Jesus’: the other ‘Emmanuel.’ One describes His office: the other His nature. Both are deeply interesting.

(a) Jesus means ‘Saviour.’—This is His special office. He saves them from the guilt of sin, by washing them in His own atoning blood; He saves them from the dominion of sin, by putting in their hearts the sanctifying Spirit; He saves them from the presence of sin, when He takes them out of this world to rest with Him: He will save them from all the consequences of sin, when He shall give them a glorious body at the last day.

(b) ‘Emmanuel’ signifies ‘God with us.’—There was a union of two natures, the divine and human, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a point of the deepest importance. We should settle it firmly in our minds that our Saviour is perfect man as well as perfect God, and perfect God as well as perfect man. If we once lose sight of this great foundation truth we may run into fearful heresies. The name Emmanuel takes in the whole mystery. Jesus is ‘God with us.’

IV. The two natures.—If we would have a strong foundation for our faith and hope we must keep constantly in view our Saviour’s divinity. He in whose blood we are invited to trust is the Almighty God; all power is His in heaven and earth. None can pluck us out of His hand. If we are true believers in Jesus our heart need not be troubled or afraid. If we would have sweet comfort in suffering and trial we must keep constantly in view our Saviour’s humanity. He is the Man Christ Jesus, who lay on the bosom of the Virgin Mary as a little infant, and knows the heart of a man. He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

—Bishop J. C. Ryle.

Illustration

‘More than seven hundred years before Christ’s birth, the prophet Isaiah had announced that a Saviour should be born, and that His name should be called Emmanuel. Of course the prophet’s knowledge came to him from God. But is it not very wonderful that all this should have been known and spoken of so many years before it happened? In the middle of the seventh chapter of Isaiah we find it all plainly written down. Not much notice probably was taken of it, at the time. Ahaz, the King of Judah, to whom the words were spoken, could not have understood their meaning. The prophet who spoke them passed away from earth, without any sign of the coming Messiah. Hundreds of years rolled by until the prophecy itself must have been almost forgotten. And then at last God’s Word came true. The hour for its fulfilment had arrived. Christ was born at Bethlehem, of a Virgin Mother. Now here we see how true the Bible is. God’s Word cannot fail. Generations lived and died, the seasons came and went, and at length in God’s good time that promise was performed. His revealed Word can stand against time and change. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand for ever.”’

PENALTY PAID, POWER CRUSHED

‘Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.’

Matthew 1:21

The name above every name—‘Jesus,’ Saviour; a name sounding like music in our ears, and of the deepest significance.

I. Who are ‘His people’?—His people are those who are given to Him of the Father, or those who are willing to be saved from their sins. Or again, those who, having come to Him by faith, are made one with Him by the possession of a common Spirit.

II. What does Christ save from?—From the penalty of sin, and from its power. From the penalty. Yet not altogether. The spendthrift does not regain his lost property when he becomes a Christian. The converted drunkard suffers from the shaking hand and unstrung nerves, of his former excess. Men who have been brought to God late in life find the shadow of the past pursuing and darkening their souls. But there is one thing from which Christ saves His people, and that is what is commonly called ‘Hell.’ The essence of hell consists in alienation from the Divine nature in antagonism to God, in hatred of His name. Hell is, therefore, an impossibility to those who have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, and who have been brought to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. To them, suffering becomes disciplinary. From the power of sin. If a man is in Christ, he cannot indeed be said to have entirely done with sin: sin is in him, though he is not in sin: he has been removed out of the element, but not as yet out of the reach of sin. ‘The infection of nature,’ says our Ninth Article, ‘doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated.’ We may compare sin, as far as the Christian is concerned, to a monster, slain by a deadly wound, whose dying struggles are indeed much to be dreaded, but who cannot slay his antagonist. Christ hath killed the monster. ‘Sin hath no more dominion over you.’

III. How does Christ save?—As to the penalty, Christ hath put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He hath obtained eternal redemption for us. As to the power, when He saves His people from the power perhaps we may say that the Christian conflict of which Scripture speaks, and of which we are all conscious in ourselves,—that conflict which the Spirit of God enables us to maintain successfully—is, when we closely examine it, a Spirit-inspired inclination and effort to resist our own natural inclination to save ourselves. To a man struggling in deep water, and drowning, an expert swimmer approaches. He says, ‘Keep quiet, and let me save you. That’s your best chance.’ And it is in the effort to keep quiet and let oneself be saved that the conflict consists. We do not save ourselves from the power of sin by our own resolution or force of will; it is Christ who saves us; and the Christian’s struggle is—we say again—to let Him do it.

Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE FULNESS OF SALVATION

The Lord Jesus Christ has many glorious names. But there is no name like the name of Jesus. It is the name which is above every name (Philippians 2:9). Salvation is ascribed to Jesus, and to Him only. This is the foundation truth of the Gospel.

I. How He saves His people.

(a) By dying for them (Romans 5:8). Unless He had died none could have obtained life.

(b) By sending His Holy Spirit as the fruit of His death (Psalms 68:18).

(c) By protecting them. They have many enemies (Psalms 31:2-3).

(d) By bringing them to glory (St. John 17:24; Hebrews 2:10). To present glory in enjoying the glorious privileges of the Gospel. To future glory in heaven—justified, sanctified, glorified (Romans 8:30).

II. From what He saves His people?—From their sins.

(a) From the power of sin. Sin has great power over men. But ‘Sin shall not have dominion’ (Romans 6:14; Romans 5:20-21).

(b) From the love of sin. Love of sin is overcome by love to the Saviour.

(c) From the practice of sin (Hebrews 12:1-2).

(d) From the punishment of sin (Romans 6:23; Ezekiel 18:4).

III. The marks of ‘His people.’

(a) They are a holy people (Isaiah 60:21; Hebrews 12:14). Their bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost (2 Corinthians 6:16; also Ephesians 1:4).

(b) They are a happy people (Hebrews 11:25; Psalms 144:15; Hebrews 4:9; Isaiah 40:1-2).

(c) They are a contented people (Philippians 4:11).

(d) They are a wise people (St. Matthew 25:4).

(e) They are an important people—‘the salt of the earth.’

Illustrations

(1) ‘A blind man was sitting at the corner of a street, reading a Bible in the raised characters of “Moon’s System.” He slowly passed his finger over the raised words and read—“There is none other name”—then he lost his place. A second time he passed his finger along and read—“There is none other name, under heaven,”—a second time he lost his place. A third time he recommenced, and as he slowly passed his finger along, he read—“There is none other name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.” A gentleman who was passing had paused to listen, and three times he heard the words. He passed away, but those words clung to him; nor could he get any rest of mind, till he found peace and salvation through that Name.’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE

I. Trace the history of the Name: In Deuteronomy 32:44—‘Hosea, the son of Nun.’ Hosea signifies help, or salvation. Name changed (Numbers 13:16): Jehoshua, or Joshua, which signifies God our salvation, denoting that the man who bore the name was indeed God’s instrument. Greek form is ‘Jesus,’ as in Acts 7:45; Hebrews 4:8. See the elevation of the name as applied first in Matthew 1:21. For while ‘Joshua’ meant, ‘This is he through whom Jehovah shall save His people from their enemies,’ ‘Jesus’ (same name, yet with higher significance) meant ‘God the Saviour’ in the directest application of the words, and not as denoting salvation instrumentally; for ‘He Himself shall save His people from their sins.’ So also Matthew 1:23.

II. His people.—How Joseph would understand it, we know: the people of God’s choice. So Mary (Luke 1:54); Zacharias (Luke 1:68; Luke 1:77); the announcement of the angel: Luke 2:10 (R.V.). Consider why the chosen people: to constitute a channel for the communication of God’s saving truth to the world. Concentration first; diffusion afterwards. Is not this the way of God’s working always: the fountain-head, the river-course, then the wide sea? The process of concentration was not complete when our Lord Himself was born (see St. Matthew 10:5-6; Matthew 15:24). But the expansion came. The very rejection of Christ by the Jews was overruled to further the acceptance of His salvation by the world. So John 12:32; Romans 11:11-12; Romans 11:15; and so the great work began (Acts 13:46; see also Matthew 14:27). And now, who are ‘His people’? See Galatians 3:9; Romans 4:9-18. Yes, a people, not of natural descent, but of spiritual sympathy. And these ‘a peculiar people,’ or rather, His very own. By the claims which He has upon us, truly (1 Corinthians 6:20). But by actual response to those claims also (Ephesians 1:13). Yes, His people, in virtue of the great redemption; His people, by the attachment of a spiritual loyalty through faith!

III. He shall save.—As regards the Jewish race; what is its ‘salvation’ now? Alas, it did not know its real evil! Looking for gains and glory in this present world, it has found destruction! So terribly have those words been fulfilled (St. Matthew 16:25). But may there not be a future of true salvation for the ‘salvation-people’? (2 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 11:26). As regards the larger world, Christ is the world’s hope; He alone can smite the sin, and heal the world’s griefs and woes (see 1 Corinthians 1:8-31).

Illustrations

(1) ‘God has given this Name, given it in writing to be read, given it by preaching to be heard, given it Himself that it may never be forgotten, and that it may be above every name, given it among men, that men may read and hear it, learn and repeat it, incorporate it with their prayers and their songs, and that it may become as familiar in their mouths as any household word, as the words mother and father.’

(2) ‘Apropos of the naming of the newly-arrived infant, it may not be out of place to recall a few curious customs which prevail in some countries in regard to selecting a name for the baby. A Hindoo baby is named when twelve days old, and usually by the mother. Sometimes the father wishes for another name than that selected by the mother; in that case two lamps are placed over the two names, and the name over which the lamp burns the brightest is the one given to the child. In the Egyptian family the parents choose a name for their baby by lighting three wax candles; to each of these they give a name, one of the three always belonging to some deified personage. The candle that burns the longest bestows the name upon the baby. The Mohammedans sometimes write desirable names on five slips of paper, and these they place in the Koran. The name upon the first slip drawn out is given to the child. The children of the Ainos, a people living in Northern Japan, do not receive their names until they are five years old. It is the father who then chooses the name by which the child is afterwards to be called. The Chinese give their boy babies a name in addition to their surname, and they must call themselves by these names until they are twenty years old. At that age the father gives his son a new name. The Chinese care so little for their girl babies that they do not give them a baby name, but just call them Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four, and so on, according to their birth. Boys are thought so much more of in China than girls are, that if you ask a Chinese father who has both a boy and a girl how many children he has, he will reply, “Only one child.” German parents sometimes change the name of their baby if it is ill; and the Japanese are said to change the name of their children four times.’

THE DIVINE PRESENCE

‘They shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.’

Matthew 1:23

This glorious statement is made on the basis of a glorious prophecy which Isaiah uttered at an important era in Jewish history (Isaiah 7:14). The name of Jesus was exceedingly wonderful—‘Emmanuel,’ ‘God with us.’

I. With us in human form.—This is a mystery which no created mind can explain; yet it is no myth soever: it is a fact as sublime as it is mysterious. ‘Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh.’ And there was absolute necessity for this. Man naturally craves for a God. In Emmanuel there is all that man yearns for (Exodus 33:18; St. John 14:8-9). Thus the infinite Jehovah has subjected Himself to finite laws for this essential purpose. ‘This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent.’

II. With us in Divine sympathy.—And sympathy is that which man needs next to God Himself. This also is to be found in Jesus; indeed, this was one prime reason why He became incarnate (Hebrews 2:16-18). His path in life was accordingly made as rough as ours; His foes were as many as ours; His temptations were as fierce as ours; and for three-and-thirty years His cup of sorrow was as full and bitter as ours. All this became Him (Hebrews 2:10-13).

III. With us in redeeming love.—All men are sinners, and no man can redeem his own soul. God must provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering; and He did this by sending Jesus, and Jesus was willing to do His Father’s will.

IV. With us in Heavenly glory.—His own words overflow with consolation and hope: ‘Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.’ Whatever He is in person, and whatever in bliss, His redeemed will share with Him.

Illustrations

(1) ‘In Legh Richmond’s story of “The Young Cottager,” in his Annals of the Poor, he tells how, when he visited the dying girl, he said to her: “My child … Where is your hope?” She lifted up her finger, pointed to heaven, and then directed the same downward to her own heart, saying successively as she did so, “Christ there, and Christ here.” These words, accompanied by the action, spoke her meaning more solemnly than can easily be conceived. She realised the abiding Presence of Christ.’

(2) ‘Simonides, a heathen poet, being asked by Hiero, King of Syracuse, “What is God?” desired a day to think upon it. At its end, he desired two. Then begged for four. The king inquired the reason. The poet replied, “The more I think of God, He is still the more unknown to me.” But Christ is Emmanuel, God with us.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

A NAME OF COMFORT

If we know anything of Jesus and His love, it is not by chance such knowledge has come. When we were enrolled under Christ’s banner at the Font, it was God’s hand that led us there. When we knelt at a mother’s knee, and lisped our earliest petitions to the throne of grace, it was God’s voice that prompted those prayers. In the hour of Confirmation—or the sacred season of our first Communion—it was not chance, but God who was leading us on. And it is the same all through life. The word Emmanuel is a Hebrew one, and expresses the double nature of Christ. What a comforting word! An ever-present God always with us.

I. In poverty and obscurity.—When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, what humble surroundings were His! Christ’s coming down to earth has sanctified poverty and obscurity. ‘Though He was rich yet for our sakes He became poor,’ and He has thus taught us that earthly position and wealth are as nothing in His sight, unless there be true goodness as well.

II. In our work and labour.—When Jesus lived on earth, His was a hard and busy life. Christ’s coming has also sanctified toil. He is with us in our labour, whatever it may be. And there is no disgrace in being a working-man—whether we toil with our hands or our head. The busiest workers are always the happiest.

III. In our joys and sorrows.—When Jesus dwelt among us, we know how ready He was to rejoice with mankind in their happiness, and to weep with them in their sorrow. The Saviour’s life on earth teaches us that religion need not make us grave and gloomy. There is such a thing as innocent Christian enjoyment, and Christ has given the sanction of His presence to every pleasure and happiness that is without sin. There are enough dark days in life without increasing their number, and Christ meant His followers to get all the sunshine and brightness possible.

IV. In our Christian warfare.—As a man Jesus knew what temptation meant. Now—as God—He looks down from above, and ‘ever liveth to make intercession’ for us. How cheering this is, to have ‘God with us’ in all our struggles and difficulties.

Rev. Philip Neale.

Illustrations

(1) ‘There is a touching incident recorded of a Highland chief who was fighting bravely in the battle of Prestonpans. In the midst of the struggle he fell mortally wounded. And when his soldiers saw what had happened and that their chief had fallen, the clan began to waver and gave the enemy an advantage. Badly wounded though he was, the old chieftain noticed this, and raising himself up, exclaimed, “I am not dead, but looking on to see my warriors do their duty.” And these stirring words from the dying man revived the sinking courage of the brave Highlanders. There is a more powerful charm than this on the great battlefield of life. It is Emmanuel, “God with us,” an ever-present Saviour, watching over us as we fight under His banner, looking on to see His warriors do their duty.’

(2) ‘The fact of our Lord’s abiding presence ought to make us good to each other. Look on your fellow-men, and learn from the Incarnation to respect man, every man, as wearing the flesh which Jesus wears. Learn to look upon all men as brethren, who have a claim upon us in their need. There is a noble family in Italy whose name of Frangipanni means breakers of bread, that is, for the poor. We who are bound together in one family with Him who gives us our daily bread, not only bread for the body, but bread for the soul, should all be breakers of bread with our brethren, helping those who have need to a share of our blessings; for thus alone can we give something to Him who freely giveth all things—our Emmanuel, God with us.’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

TRUTH STATED AND APPLIED

I. The truth stated.—The word ‘God’—what does it mean? God is; He exists, and God is good; His power is good, His righteousness is good, all He does is good—supremely good. Even when He gives sorrows His chastisements are blessings in disguise. Let men say what they will, there is a God; and we are not mistaken about it. It is ‘the fool’ who pleads the contrary. Everything that God has made speaks and says there is a God. At night, looking at the awful lightnings flashing and at all the heavenly host, can you in your hearts say there is no God? And this ‘God is with us.’ It does not simply mean that God is present with us; it means more than that: it means God is with us to share with us, to partake with us in the closest way. Strength is with us, love is with us, happiness is with us, for God is with us. To bring out the full meaning and truth of these words we need to look at the prophecy (Isaiah 7). ‘Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.’ That expression is intended to point out the fact that it shall be a real, human Child, not a child of an angel’s nature, not a child that can live on angels’ food, but a Child that shall be fed on butter and honey. All this was fulfilled when Jesus Christ was born. What a wonderful illustration of God’s condescending grace that He should come thus to live with us!

II. The truth applied.—It is a truth that will apply to seekers, if they really seek and want to understand with all their heart. They have this truth for their own. They have been seeking for years, and yet they have not found it. How strange it is! There are some whom God loves with an everlasting love and who love Christ; but they do not feel as if they can grasp such a wonderful truth as this—that God is with us. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus wept and lamented that Jesus Christ was gone, and all the while He was talking to them. You say, ‘Where is God?’ He is with us. ‘Open, O God, the eyes of Thy blind children! Let every one believe and take hold of the fact that God is with us.’ The same truth of the abiding Presence of Christ can be applied to all missionary workers, whether (a) in the foreign field or (b) amongst the slums of our own homeland.

Illustrations

(1) ‘When Napoleon was on one of his voyages to Egypt, as he was pacing up and down the deck one night, he overheard two men discussing about God’s existence. One affirmed that there was a God; the other denied it. Napoleon addressed them and, pointing to the firmament of heaven, said, “Who made that?” John Duncan, one of the most original thinkers the world ever saw, at one time thought there was no God, thinking that which was, to be a mystery. Ah, this thought takes away all the meaning from history, from creation, from man, and even from morality. When a man feels that sin offends nobody, that there is no Being above him called God, that he is answerable to no human tribunal about it, then that man will not think much about sin. Oh, it is a dismal creed, but even John Duncan had it. Sometimes God makes men pray before they believe in a God! And so John Duncan prayed and prayed, and suddenly the thought came like a flash of electricity, and he tells us that on the night when he thus thought he danced with delight. He said, “There is a God! There is a God! There is a God!”’

(2) ‘There is a passage in Livingstone’s journal about the doctrine of Christ and God’s presence with missionaries. “How soon I shall be called before God I know not.… O Jesus, grant me resignation to Thy will. On Thy word I lean. Wilt Thou permit me to plead for Africa, because it is Thine? See, O God, how the heathen rise up against me as they used to do against Thy Son. I trust in Thee. Thou givest wisdom to all who ask; give it to me, my Father! Oh, be gracious, and all our sins do Thou blot out. I cast myself and all my cares down at Thy feet. They will not furnish me with more than two guns.… I leave all my friends in the hands of Christ.—Evening: Felt much turmoil of spirit in having all my plans knocked on the head by savages; but I know that Jesus came and spoke to His disciples, saying, ‘All power is given unto Me, in heaven and in earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.’ ‘I am with you’—it is the word of a gentleman.… I will not cross furtively by night; it will appear like flight, and shall I fly? I will take observations of longitude and latitude.… I feel calm in the Lord God.” Could we find a grander statement in the whole annals of Christian heroism than this statement, which he never knew anybody would read?’

THE ANGEL AND THE GUARDIAN

‘Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him.’

Matthew 1:24

I. The Divine Child.—If to a person of tolerably good nature any little child is an interesting object, how much more, when we are invited devoutly to consider the cradle and swaddling bands of our Lord, to watch Him growing ‘in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man,’ and to pray that by God’s infinite mercy it may not yet be too late, even for such as we are, to become so far like that little child that we may not be cast out of the kingdom of Heaven.

II. The entrusted guardian.—The same Gospels which show us Jesus Christ in His cradle show us also certain holy persons waiting round that cradle, and all those persons are intended to be our examples. The first is the blessed Virgin; another is Joseph, who, from Christ’s birth to his own death, which was at least more than twelve years, and very likely a good deal longer, was the entrusted guardian of our Lord: the minister of God, especially called and raised up to watch over that holiest childhood and youth, and to protect His blessed mother. He must have been, more than almost any one, prepared and made meet for God’s Kingdom, who was permitted for so long a time to exercise a ministry so near to God Himself.

III. The lesson of obedience.—Poor as Joseph and Mary were, they managed to afford one journey every year—and not a very short one—to Jerusalem, to the Feast of the Passover. It was the law of Moses, and they knew that obedience is blessed: therefore they contrived somehow to keep that law. Obedience to the Divine will was the keynote of Joseph’s character. From the very first ‘he did as the angel of the Lord bade him.’

The Rev. John Keble.

Illustration

‘A lesson in obedience may be drawn from an incident of the war in Egypt. The enemy was strongly encamped at Tel-el-Kebir. Lord Wolseley determined to attack them by night, and entrusted to a young naval officer, Lieutenant Rawson, the important duty of leading the Highland Brigade to a certain point in the enemy’s entrenchment, directing the line of march by the stars. The plan was successful, but not without a fearful struggle. One of the first to fall mortally wounded was the noble-hearted young Rawson. Lord Wolseley galloped to the place where he was lying, and took his hand. “General, I hope you are satisfied; I did my best to lead them straight?” said the dying man. “Nothing could have been done better,” was the reply, and poor young Rawson passed away.’