Matthew 1:21 "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

• The Expulsive Power of a New Life

The salvation that we have is radical. It goes to the root, killing and making alive. Jesus delivers us from our sins not in some peripheral, superficial way, but by dealing with the very root of the problem. He gives us new life, which ensures that the sins of the old man are continually dropped from our lives.

When Christ died we died with Him. When He was buried we were buried with Him. When He rose to newness of life, so did we. He rose victorious from the grave and has no more union with the sin that He bore on the cross. And if He has no more union with sin, neither have we. We therefore have no desire to sin, for we are now dead to sin. Philip Graham Ryken explains it this way:

On that day at least four things were nailed to Calvary’s cross: One was a sign announcing that Jesus of Nazareth was the King of the Jews. Another was Jesus Himself, who was fixed to the cross with hammer and nails. Third ... was the debt of our sin, which God cancelled by nailing it to the cross. The last thing that was nailed to the cross with Christ was every Christian: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him” (Rom. 6:6).

It cost Jesus tremendous pain and us nothing, and yet our old man was crucified with Him. Therefore, we walk in newness of life and are freed from bondage to sin. As Paul stated it elsewhere, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). We have the ability, by Christ’s sacrificial power, to overcome sin.

• The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

Thomas Chalmers, a Scottish preacher in Edingurgh in te 1800s said in one sermon,  “The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner’s conscience, and to purify his heart ... The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one; and by the love of what is good, to expel the love of what is evil.”

Chalmers encouraged preachers that all they really need is the ability to preach the gospel. Painting a powerful picture of the worthlessness of the world may be helpful to a degree, but only the gospel can deliver people, and therefore the highest aim of the preacher, if he will help people overcome the love of the world, is to point them to the cross of Christ.

Matthew 1:23 tells us that Jesus would be called “Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” The Bible then tells us that “Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him” (Matthew 1:24). It was not an easy thing for Joseph to obey the Lord. He had to suffer scorn and mockery from others. He had to withhold his marital rights until Jesus was delivered. He had to persist in claiming the truth when no one believed him. But he was able to obey because of Emmanuel, because God was with him.

Believer, you are not alone in your responsibility to obey God and overcome sin. God is with you, and regardless of the nature of the specific sins with which you struggle, the promise remains firm: “He shall deliver his people from their sins.” May we take seriously this gospel promise and thus live gospel-centered lives. May we thus see increasing victory over sin, daily experience growth in holiness because we have God with us in His Son, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.