What are “their sins?”

I have been reviewing the angelic proclamation to Joseph about the name of the child that Marry is pregnant with by the work of the Holy Spirit and not from consummating a marriage with her husband in Matthew 1:21, “She will give birth to a son. And you will name him Jesus, because he will deliver his people from their sins.”

In the previous post, I tried to figure out just who are “his people” in Matthew 1:21. In summary, I believe that it is those Jews and Gentiles who are convinced that Jesus is the Messianic Davidide Shepherd-King who has come to restore Israel and give up their lives to follow their king. They seek his kingdom first and their lives reflect that of the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew 5-7, as either Jew or Gentile. In this post, I want to understand what Matthew has in mind for his readers when he says Jesus “will save his people from their sins?”

There are several factors that I think play into understanding “their sins” in Matthew 1:21. I look back at the context of the verse, both before and after, and see that one theme keeps coming up again and again is that God is going to end Israel’s and Judah’s exile.

Remember the genealogy and how Matthew ends it. Matthew moves from Abraham to King David in Matthew 1:2-6. Then from David to exile in Matthew 1:6-11. He concludes the genealogy by moving from exile in Babylon to Jesus the Messiah in Matthew 1:12-16. The image that is painted in the genealogical record of Jesus is that while in exile succession to David’s throne has not been broken. But Israel and Judah are still in exile until Jesus arrives on the scene. So it seems to me, initially, that saving his people from their sins is linked to the sin that put Israel and Judah in exile.

This hypothesis is further strengthened by the observation that with the exception of Isaiah 7:14, the fulfillment texts of Matthew’s narrative that leads into Jesus’ Galilean ministry all point to Jesus coming to end Israel’s exile. Micah 5:2 (cf. Matthew 2:6); Hosea 11:1 (cf. Matthew 2:15); Jeremiah 31:15 (cf. Matthew 2:18); Isaiah 40:3 (cf. Matthew 3:3); Isaiah 8:23-9:2 (cf. Matthew 4:15-16) all deal with God sending a new Davidide to end Israel’s exile.

When one looks into the context of Isaiah 7-8 and the Immanuel child, the issue that boils to the surface is one of faithlessness on the part of God’s people. They do not trust in Yahweh, there is no faith there. There is no loyalty to their covenant God and reliance upon him to protect them and bless them. Rather they look to other nations and their gods for protection. And this unbelief and faithlessness disqualified them from participating in God’s redemptive purposes for the world and functioning as God’s kingdom under the Davidic monarchy. Both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah were disqualified and as consequence, spelled out in Torah (cf. Deuteronomy 28), were sent into exile by God through Assyria and Babylon.

Therefore “their sins” from which Jesus will save his people” is their faithlessness that has exiled them from the Creator and covenant God of Israel. For Israel it is the faithless nationalism, trusting not in God but in their status as God’s people–much like in Jeremiah 7–to keep them from Rome while the leadership utilizes the Torah to oppress the people and live selfishly. They have turned God into a deity which accomplishes their own personal gain. They seek for Roman rule to be thrown off not to bring God’s redemption to the world but so that the Gentiles will be destroyed and they can continue to fleece the flock that is God’s people.

For Gentiles the unbelief and faithlessness is the wholesale rejection of their creator to worship the creation. It is fashioning idols and false gods and goddesses to worship from their own imaginations. They take the true God and reshape him into an image that they can worship. Then they will seek to oppress their fellow human beings in order to take selfish power and live in pride.

And in living in such faithlessness that does not seek to bring God’s beauty and honor into the world which redeems and restores and blesses the creation, God will bring his wrath and judgment upon the unbelief and those who exercise unbelief. The exile that God places humanity under in Genesis 3, as well as the exile of all twelve tribes of Israel, picture the full judgment that God will unleash when he brings forth his wrath, permanent exile from God and his glorious presence, an eschatological exile into the fires of hell. And it is from this exile that all of humanity needs to be ultimately “saved” from.

But what is that salvation? And what does it have to do with Jesus coming, dying, and being resurrected? That is for the next post to answer.