Name Him Jesus, He Will Save Us From Our Sins

The angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph and Mary individually, telling them to give the Christ (Christ is the title of the one God revealed through the prophets in the Jewish Scriptures who would come as Savior-King) the name Jesus (Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31).

Why did Gabriel tell Joseph and Mary to give the Christ the name Jesus?

Matthew quotes Gabriel, writing, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

The name Jesus in the original Greek language means the Lord saves.

The name Jesus reveals exactly what he came to do…to save us from our sins.

Gabriel used the phrase, his people, referring to the Jewish people.

But later in the writings contained in the Bible, we see that Jesus came to save all people from their sins.

John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, writes in 1 John 2:2, “He is the full sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours [Jewish people] but also for the sins of the whole world [all people].”

Paul, the one Jesus appeared to on the road to Damascus, wrote “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all…God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-19).

Paul also wrote in 1 Timothy 1:15, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

The Christ was given the name Jesus because he came into the world to save us from our sins.

Everyone has sinned, meaning we have all had thoughts and desires that are immoral and unloving (who would want their thoughts and desires placed on social media for all to see…no one!).

Not only have we had sinful thoughts and desires, but we have all made sinful decisions.

Our sins result in death.

Romans 5:12 states,

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.”

Yet the good news about Jesus is that he came to save us from our sins by dying for our sins.

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus died our death.

Not only does sin result in death, but sin creates distance between God and people.

However, through Jesus’ death, God removed the sins separating us from him.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:19 that, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.”

The word reconcile means that God removed the barrier of sin that separated people from him by placing our sins upon Jesus, the one who came to save us from our sins - just as Gabriel said he would do.

So, through Jesus, God has removed our sins that caused death and he has removed our sins that caused distance between himself and people.

This is the meaning of the word save, as used by Gabriel.

Jesus saves us by dying for our sins, taking away the death caused by our sins and taking away the distance from God caused by our sins.

God did this for us through Jesus because he loves us and wants us to live eternally and to be close to him eternally (see John 3:16).

Not only did Jesus die for our sins to remove our death and reconcile us to God, but he also rose from the dead to give us eternal life (Romans 5:21).

Through faith in Jesus, we receive eternal forgiveness and experience eternal life and eternal closeness with God.

If you have never placed your faith in Jesus, or are not sure if you have, you can do that now through the simple prayer below.

Jesus, thank you so much for dying for my sins to remove death and to reconcile me to God. Today, I place my faith in you by believing what you did for me in your death and resurrection. I receive forgiveness of all my sins - past, present, and future. I am now eternally close to God, and I have eternal life.

Now that you have placed your faith in Jesus, no sins of your past, in your present, or in your future can cause death, because Jesus died your death.

Also, now that you have placed your faith in Jesus, no sin can cause you to be distant from God, because Jesus has brought you eternally close to God by taking all of your sins upon himself in his death.

Because you have placed your faith in Jesus, you have received eternal forgiveness of all your sins, you are eternally close to God, and you have eternal life with God.

If you made the decision to believe in Jesus today, we would love to know. Send us a message from the Contact Us page letting us know you have believed in Jesus.

If you would like to learn more about Jesus, Brad has many resources on this website that can be accessed from the Home page.

If you would like to know more about eternal life with God, you may enjoy reading a series of articles Brad wrote called, The Coming Utopia!

Or, if you feel your sins are too bad for you to place your faith in Jesus and be saved, Brad wrote an article you may find helpful, Am I Too Sinful To Be Saved?