Saving His People: Matthew 1:18-25

While reading about the birth of Jesus, a phrase stood out to me that I never noticed before. I don’t know how many times I have read this, but I guess God keeps showing me new things when I open up the Bible to read with His guidance.

In the second half of verse 21, we read the angel telling Joseph, “For He [Jesus] will save His people from their sins.”

This is the big overall mission of Jesus’ life as told to Jesus’ earthly father, but something interesting that I never saw until now is the phrase “His people” in this statement: “for He will save His people from their sins.”

The angel could have said Jesus would save all of humanity from their sins, but he doesn’t. The angel could have said Jesus would save all of “God’s people” from their sins, but he doesn’t. Instead, the angel tells Joseph that Jesus will save all of Jesus’ people from their sins.

So who exactly are “Jesus’ people”?

When reading this, and seeing what could have been vs. what is, I am lead to believe that saying “Jesus’ people” means all of those people who have put their faith and hope in Jesus, as their “sacrificial lamb” to pay the price for their sins. Those living before the cross had the symbol of the crucifixion and of Jesus through the sacrifice/death of a lamb, and all of us living after the cross have the crucifixion event as an even clearer picture of this truth.

By accepting the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice, we align ourselves with Him and become one of His people. This can be summed up with the phrase “trust and obey”: We trust in His sacrifice, and we show that we love and accept Him by obeying what He has told us to do.

In the angel’s message, we see Jesus creating a new group of people: His people – and this group of people would overlap but also be distinct from all groups of people before it.