Jesus Came to Save His People from Sin – Love Has Come
Jesus Came to Save His People from Sin
Together Church | Pastor Brandon Werner
December 7, 2025 | Series: Love Has Come
SERIES INTRODUCTION (Jerry)
This morning, we will start a new Christmas series called Love Has Come. This series will focus on the doctrine of the incarnation and what God has done to show us His great love. Through the coming of Jesus, God’s love has been revealed to us!
1 John 4:9
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
In this first message, we’ll hear the angel’s announcement to Joseph; and we will remember that Love Has Come, and He came to save His people from sin.
Let’s pray.
INTRODUCTION
In your mind’s eye, imagine this scene with me…
A mother is standing by the curb on a dark, cold night. She is frantic and filled with agony and concern. Just beyond her is a house that is blazing with fire. The mother made it out, but her child is still inside.
At that moment, red and blue lights quickly approach around the corner. Firefighters in uniform pour out of their vehicle and rush to the scene. The mother is still terrified, but her terror begins to give way to feelings of hope and anticipation.
She waits eagerly as the firefighters disappear into the flame. Suddenly, a firefighter emerges, carrying her child in his arms. The woman rushes to meet him, discovering that her child is alive; breathing and free of serious injury.
Amid elation, tragic news reaches her ears… one of the firefighters who entered the building did not come out; he laid down his life in the line of duty so that the child could be saved.
Our hearts are moved by stories of heroism and sacrifice.
If our hearts are soft, stories like this have a profound impact on our souls…
- They cause us to empathize with others and consider the cost.
- They make us wonder what we would do if we were called upon to make such a sacrifice.
- They cause us to deeply admire those who are willing to answer the call.
- They remind that our lives, comfort, and safety are preserved through the sacrifices of others.
- The story I just told you is one example.
- There was a real-life example of this that happened this week. If you haven’t heard, Shane Tackett… Hugh and Mary’s son in law, has been reported as MIA and almost certainly killed in action as he bravely served our country in Ukraine.
- Shane was married to Amariah and, together, they had one daughter under the age of one.
- Amariah is grieving. She broke silence this week on social media to pay tribute to Shane. She remembered him as a champion for the weak and a sacrificial servant to others.
- Shane is a real-life hero. He paid the ultimate price to defend our freedoms, our country, and our way of life.
- (And at our business meeting after the service, we will create an opportunity for a love gift for Shane’s family.)
It’s in our nature to be drawn to stories of rescue and sacrifice.
At Christmastime, we as Christians turn our attention to the greatest rescue story the world has ever known. At this time of year, we remember the incredible sacrifice of God and what He has done so that we could be saved from our sins.
At Christmas, we remember the birth of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of the incarnation.
BODY
The story of the birth of Jesus is powerful! But the doctrine of the incarnation can be tricky. Why? Because it’s extremely hard for us to relate to God so that we can truly understand and appreciate His sacrifice and what He has done to save His people from their sins.
So, let’s take nothing for granted.
This morning, let’s walk through the doctrine of the incarnation so that we can better understand and appreciate Jesus as Savior.
If you’re taking notes, the main idea of this message is: Love has come, and He is Savior. Jesus came to save His people from their sins.
That main idea is exactly what the angel revealed to Joseph when he came to him in a dream. If you have your Bible, open with me to Matthew 1:18-25. Let’s read the pronouncement of the angel…
Matthew 1:18-25
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
There are so many rich theological truths related to the doctrine of the incarnation in this passage. But together, let’s focus on one particular line from the angel. The angel said…
“[Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
The name Jesus literally means “Savior” or “Yahweh is Savior”.
In Hebrew culture, names are significant. Of all the names God could have selected for the birth of His Son, He chose the name “Jesus”. Every time the name Jesus is spoken, He is being recognized as “Savior” and the One who “saves His people from their sins”.
The story of the angel’s pronouncement to Joseph reveals several insights about the doctrine of the incarnation. Here’s what we need to understand: without the incarnation, Jesus could not and would not be our Savior from sin.
How significant is that? If you know Jesus, how significant is it to you that Jesus is your Savior and the one who saves you from your sins?
God has done it, and He did it through the incarnation. That’s a doctrine we need to grasp: the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son of God.
Let’s understand it, and let’s debunk some myths along the way…
What is doctrine?
Doctrine simply means “teaching”. Doctrines are teachings pertaining to God and to God’s Word.
The doctrine of the incarnation is an essential doctrine; that means this doctrine is essential to salvation and to the faith of the believer.
What is the doctrine of the incarnation?
The word “incarnation” literally means “to take on flesh” or “to be made in flesh”. So the doctrine of the incarnation is the teaching that reveals God’s decision to take on human flesh.
Theologically speaking, the doctrine of the incarnation is among the most mind-blowing, baffling, awe-inspiring works that God has ever done.
At the same time, the doctrine of the incarnation is among the trickiest doctrines in scripture; few doctrines invite the believer to slip into heresy faster than the doctrine of the incarnation.
What makes this doctrine so tricky?
Several factors make it easy for believers to misunderstand this doctrine and stumble into heretical ideas.
For example, the doctrine of the incarnation can cause confusion about who Jesus really is.
It is easy for people to assume that – like every other human being – Jesus came into existence when He was conceived and entered the world when He was born.
But that is heresy!
Jesus never came into existence at all!
Jesus has existed eternally with God and as God. Before the creation of the universe, before the foundations of the earth were laid, before God made time and the clock as we know it started ticking, Jesus Christ is, and was, and always will be.
Jesus is the Second Person in the Godhead.
He is the eternal Son of God.
There is only ONE God. He has always existed as God, and He has never and will never change. And God has always existed as One in Three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Three Persons, One God.
Enter common heresies…
Don’t try to make the Three Persons, one person!
That is heresy (Modalism).
Don’t try to make the One God three Gods!
That is heresy (Tritheism).
How do we understand God as One God eternally existing in Three Persons? To an extent, we don’t! As the psalmist declares…
Psalm 113:5
Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high
And as God said through His prophet…
Isaiah 55:9
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
The Lord is NOT LIKE US. He is God and we are not.
And Jesus is God! He is the Second Person of the Godhead. He is the eternally existing Son of God.
So, one reason the doctrine of the incarnation can be tricky is – if not carefully studied – it can create confusion in our minds about who Jesus really is.
Jesus is God. He did not come into existence when He was conceived; He did not enter the world when He was born; He is the eternal God incarnate – God became a man to dwell with us.
Another tricky piece of this doctrine flows out of that.
The doctrine of the incarnation can create confusion about what really happened when Jesus was conceived.
Enter more heresy.
Some have incorrectly believed that Jesus stopped being God when He became a man; or that He stopped being a man when He rose from the dead; or that He is half a man and half God.
All these are heresies! As Hebrews says…
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Through the miracle of the incarnation, Jesus may have set His glory aside, but he NEVER set His deity aside.
Jesus is 100% God and 100% man!
Who could do that but God? Think of it! The audacity of a member of the Godhead – God Himself – taking on our form and likeness.
As RC Sproul put it, “The incarnation is not the subtraction of deity but the addition of humanity.”
The Apostle John said it plainly in John 1…
John 1:1,14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus was with God and is God…
and Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us.
Theology has a term for this mystery of two distinct natures inseparably existing simultaneously in the Second Person of the Godhead: it is called “the hypostatic union”. Jesus is fully God and fully man. What a mystery… and what a sacrifice.
Let that sink in… what a SACRIFICE. That God set aside His glory, became a man, entered our broken world, and took on our frailty, our condition, and our weaknesses.
That reality has caused some to draw the wrong conclusions. Some have assumed that, because Jesus was fully God and fully man, His experience in the flesh must have not been like ours.
The doctrine of the incarnation can create confusion about what Jesus really experienced when He took on flesh like ours.
Make no mistake about it – He got the full experience! And that makes His sacrifice the greatest sacrifice the world has ever known…
In His deity, He is the God of all glory!
In His humanity, He set His glory aside & left the glories of heaven.
In His deity, He is the Creator and owner of all things!
In His humanity, He was born poor, naked, and lowly.
In His deity, He is the ageless God and knows no limits!
In His humanity, He was born into time & space with our limitations.
In His deity, He cannot be tempted and He tempts no one.
In His humanity, He was tempted in every way we are, yet without sin.
The sacrifice of Jesus in the incarnation is truly beyond our comprehension! But we have to try.
We have to try to understand the great price Jesus paid. And why? So He could become our representative and take our sins upon Himself.
He took on hands so they could be pierced.
A back so it could be thrashed.
Shoulders to carry our cross.
Feet to walk the path of shame that we deserved.
A head to wear our crown of thorns.
And a heart and lungs that could stop so that He could die for our sins.
Paul exalts the significance of the sacrifice of Jesus our Savior in…
Philippians 2:5-8
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Before Jesus became a man, He never felt physical pain; He never knew hunger; He never knew thirst; He never had to breathe; He never had to sleep.
He gave it all up willingly to become our Savior.
Through the incarnation, Jesus set His glory aside to take on flesh like ours and to be born in the likeness of men. He stooped down; He descended into our broken world and into our frail condition; so that He might become our qualified representative and save us from our sins. Who is like the Lord our God!? Praise forever to the King of Kings.
That leads to the next potential pitfall in the doctrine of the incarnation…
Some have concluded that the incarnation wasn’t necessary for
Jesus to be our Savior.
That’s what some have thought. What does God say?
The scriptures teach that Jesus was promised by God, and that…
2 Corinthians 1:20
“All the promises of God find their Yes in Him.”
Throughout scripture, there are many covenants God has made with people. Some of the most significant, most impactful covenants are the ones God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David.
These covenants all have share something in common: they are all about God’s love; they are all about inviting people back into right relationship with Him; and they are all foreshadowing God’s coming salvation through the Person of Jesus Christ.
These covenants reveal that all God’s promises find their “yes” in Jesus! But perhaps the most significant covenant God ever made was a covenant that was established before any of these men were alive; a covenant God made within Himself before the foundations of the world were laid.
Theologians have called this covenant “The Redemption Covenant”. This covenant is deep, but the basis of the covenant is simple…
Before God ever made the first people, God made this agreement within Himself:
- The Father agreed to create people in His image and to send the Son to become our representative and to redeem us from our sins.
- The Son was delighted to be sent by the Father and willingly obeyed the Father and laid down His life to save us from our sins.
- The Holy Spirit agreed to apply God’s redemption to every believer so they would be redeemed from sin and born again as children of God.
All because of God’s love and to the praise of His glory!
Perhaps the clearest single passage of scripture that celebrates this covenant is what Paul wrote in…
Ephesians 1:3-14
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
In Ephesians 1, Paul pays tribute to God! To the praise of the glory of the Father! To the praise of the glory of the Son! To the praise of the glory of the Spirit! Through Jesus, God has done what was necessary to redeem us from sin so that we could be called children of God.
The ONLY WAY God could redeem us from our sins and adopt us into His eternal family was through the incarnation.
Love Has Come, And He Is Savior.
Jesus HAD to become a man so He could be our representative and die a substitutionary death for our sins.
Jesus HAD to be born of a virgin so that He would not inherit the fallen condition from the seed of Adam.
Jesus HAD to be born of a woman so that He would have flesh like ours and be tempted in every way we are yet without sin.
There was no other way. The incarnation is necessary and essential doctrine for Jesus to be our Savior and to save us from our sins. God, in His infinite wisdom, determined to do it; it and it marvelous in our eyes… to the praise of His glory!
CONCLUSION
If someone is going to become a firefighter, there’s a process they must go through to be qualified to do that job and to rescue people from the fire.
To save someone from a fire, a firefighter must qualify by…
- Putting on a fire suit.
- Meeting the necessary training requirements.
- Willingly risking their lives by entering into the flames.
- Accept they may suffer the fait of the flames.
To save us from our sin, God determined Jesus had to qualify by…
- Putting on flesh like ours.
- Meeting the necessary requirement of being tempted in every way we are yet without sin.
- Willingly entering our broken world to lay down His life.
- Accept that He would lose His life to the flames – He would die our death on the cross so that we could be saved.
Jesus met the necessary requirements, and He qualified to be our Savior, through the doctrine of the incarnation.
And when Jesus died on the cross, the wrath of God for sin was poured out on Him, and the sins of the world were laid upon Him.
“He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus is the righteous Lamb of God, the all sufficient sacrifice, the One who takes away the sins of the world.
And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.
Jesus died for our sins, and He was buried so that He could take our sins to the grave.
BUT!
Death could not hold Him
The grave could not keep Him!
On the third day, Jesus Christ rose from the dead!
To the praise of the glory of God!
In His resurrection, Jesus proved that everything He said was true: that He is God, and that He alone has the power to forgive our sins.
Through the incarnation, and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God has made a way for all your sins – past, present, and future – to be atoned for and for you to be born again as a child of God!
Through Jesus, God saves you from your sins. He puts to death the old, sinful nature you once had, and you are born again a new creation in Christ by the Spirit of God!
God did a miracle in Mary when the Holy Spirit caused her to conceive a child.
But God does an even greater miracle in you when He puts to death your old, dead, sinful spirit and births in you a new spirit that is conceived by the Holy Spirit of God!
Speaking of the miracles of God, Charles Spurgeon famously said:
“The conversion of a soul is the greatest miracle of all.”
What a thing God has done!
And He did it through the incarnation of God the Son.
INVITATION
God has done this; and it is marvelous in our eyes.
The doctrine of the incarnation is one of the most profound, mysterious, and glories works of God the world has ever known!
And if you will believe this teaching right now, Jesus will change your life. Will you believe…
- Your sin separates you from God.
- That the wages of sin is death – not only are you separated from God now, but you will experience eternal judgement and separation because of your sins.
- That you cannot rescue yourself and that you need a Savior.
- That Jesus is the One and ONLY Savior.
- He left the glories of heaven.
- Came to this earth and took on human flesh.
- Lived the sinless life we failed to live.
- Died the sinners death we deserve to die.
- Took our sins upon Himself and took them to the grave.
- Was raised again on the third day.
- Ascended into heaven.
And will you believe that, through faith in Jesus Christ, God will save you from all your sins and make you right with Him?
This is not a work we perform! Salvation cannot be earned through our goodness. We all fell short, Jesus did not.
Love has come, and He is Savior. Jesus came to save His people from their sins.
Will you believe that this morning? If you will, you will be saved.
Let’s pray.
Invitation to baptism.
Invitation to the church: Rejoice! He is your Savior! This Christmas, celebrate the mighty works of God who saves you from your sin!
Song: Hark the Herald Angels Sing (carol)
Song: King of Kings (Praise Team)