Matthew 1:21
Matthew 1:21
“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Question: Who are “His people”?
Answer: His chosen people, Israel, the Jews:
“He came to His own, and those who were
His own did not receive Him.” (John 1:11) If
you presume that there are also instances where
“His people” intends to convey the meaning of
spiritual Israel, that is, the faithful among Israel,
then yes, Jesus has come to deliver the faithful.
But it is God’s will and desire that all Israel,
both physical and spiritual, turn to Him and be
saved. (Matthew 23:37)
Matthew 2:6: “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For our of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.”
Romans 11:1: “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”
Deuteronomy 29:10-13: “You stand today, all of you, before the LORD your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water [Gibeonites, Joshua 9:27], that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath which the LORD your God is making with you today, in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
You may view “His people” as His saved people, that is, spiritual Israel (to the extent that those under the Old Covenant could be saved), or physical Israel, both saved and lost, to whom God had said to Pharaoh: “‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.’” (Exodus 3:7) “‘Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.’” (Exodus 3:10)
Question: Who does “His people” imply?
Answer: Jews. “‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.’” (Hosea 4:6)
God reached out to His people: “‘I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thought.” (Isaiah 65:2)
God made promises to His people: “‘If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’” (2nd Chronicles 7:13-14)
God longed for the salvation of His people: “‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!’” (Matthew 23:37-38)
John Calvin: “Doubtless, by Christ’s people the angel intends the Jews, over whom He was set as Head and King, but as soon after the nations were to be ingrafted into the race of Abraham, this promise of salvation is extended openly to all who gather by faith into the one body of the Church.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. I, p.65, emphasis mine)
If some wish to interpret Calvin’s reference to “the Jews” to only mean believing Jews, of spiritual Israel, rather than all physical Jews in general, realize that Calvin also interpreted John 1:11 to mean the Jews in general: “I prefer the view of those who refer to Christ’s coming to the Jews only.” (John: The Crossway Classic Commentary on John, p.21, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, James White, writes: “Will He? Will He save His people, or only make salvation a theoretical possibly?” (Debating Calvinism, p.176, emphasis mine)
James White: “The text does not say that ‘He will try, but often fail, to save’ but that He will save His people from their sins.” (Debating Calvinism, p.270, emphasis mine)
James White: “Does He accomplish His purpose? Does He actually save, or only make savable?” (Debating Calvinism, p.176, emphasis mine)
To a Calvinist, however, Jesus cannot even rightly be called “Savior,” unless He saves unilaterally:
James White: “I suggest to you, to call Jesus ‘Savior,’ and at the same time, say that He can fail in His task, is an oxymoron.” (An Introduction to Reformed Theology, emphasis mine)
If man should reject Christ, how would that make Christ the failure? This is a rather bizarre concept, and an illustration can be used to explain how odd it really is. Imagine
Imagine if the shipwrecked man in this picture
had yelled out to his rescuer, “I’m an Irishman,
and I will not be rescued by an Englishman,”
and then perished beneath the waves.
By Calvinist standards, we would have to say
that it would be an “oxymoron” to call this
person a rescuer, and even go so far as to call
him a failure. That is the result of Calvinist
logic and I cannot believe that intelligent
people could seriously teach it.
James White raises a similar argument at Luke 19:10 which states: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
White asks concerning Luke 19:10: “If He actually saves, does this not limit the scope of the ‘lost’?”
(Debating Calvinism, p.176, emphasis mine)
So you can see the pickle that Calvinists are in. By limiting the scope of “My people” at Matthew 1:21, they must also limit the scope of “the lost” at Luke 19:10, because both passages speak of Jesus saving. That’s the consequence of inferring unilateralism into Christ’s words. Taking “will save” at Matthew 1:21 requires an understanding that Jesus only meant the “elect lost” at Luke 19:10. On the other hand, if you take “the lost” at Luke 19:10 simply mean the lost in general, then apply that to Matthew 1:21 and you will see Matthew 1:21 as a provision for salvation, in terms of Jesus having become their Savior.
Question: Why not turn it the other way around and ask: Does the scope of the lost identify who Jesus has come to seek and to save?
Answer: This is reinforced by John 1:29: “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
James White: “Jesus ‘will save His people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:21). That is not the same thing as saying ‘Jesus will make a way for those who exercise their free will, despite being dead in sin and a slave, to be saved through theoretically bearing their sins.’ Either Jesus can, and will, save His people from their sins or He will not.” (Debating Calvinism, p.190, emphasis mine)
First, Jesus will save, but not without believing in Him. To a Calvinist, this means that salvation is conditioned on the human act of faith, which is in direct opposition to the unilateralism of Monergism. So be it. Second, the provision of Numbers 21:6-9, as it relates to John 3:14-15, is an actual, rather than a theoretical, atonement. Jesus really has taken upon Himself, the sins of the world, but men must look upon Him, in order to receive what He has done for them.
Question: Does Jesus save without faith?
Answer: Just because Jesus died for you, doesn’t mean that you are saved, or else you would have to toss out numerous verses that establish salvation being through faith. What Jesus did at Calvary was His provision for salvation, so that if you look to Him, you will be saved, which is analogous to Numbers 21:6-9, which Jesus used to illustrate the Cross of Calvary. (John 3:14)
James White: “God the Father decreed the salvation of an elect people, Christ died with the intention of redeeming those people through their union with Him and accomplished that task, and without fail the Holy Spirit brings that accomplished work to fruition in the life of the elect at the time and in the manner determined by God.” (Debating Calvinism, p.170, emphasis mine)
God the Father decreed the salvation of those in Christ. Jesus died with the intention of redeeming those people, and desires that all men become in Christ. The failure is none of God, and all of those who reject His free gift of grace.
James White: “Christ’s substitutionary death in behalf of His people is a real and finished work: It is not dependent upon the human act of faith for success or failure.” (Debating Calvinism, p.191, emphasis mine)
Calvary is indeed a “finished work” because God has accepted it, and men need only to come to Christ in order to receive the atonement God has accepted.
James White: “Yes, if God intended to save all, all would be saved. God intended to save His elect people (Matthew 1:21), and He did that through the union of those elect with Christ on Calvary.” (Debating Calvinism, p.191, emphasis mine)
This is the concept that the reason why all are not saved, is because God doesn’t want to save all. This is how Calvinists seek to defend the sovereignty of God, but it is not God that they are defending, but rather their own, narrow requirement for divine sovereignty. For regardless of what man does, God is still sovereign regardless. Why? Because God gets the last word: “So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)
Dave Hunt replies: “White interprets ‘His people’ in Matthew 1:21 as the elect. This is ‘consistent exegesis of the entirety of Scripture’? ‘His people’ is found 150 times in the Old Testament. Most often the phrase means Israel or physically related; never does it mean Calvinism’s elect. It occurs nine times in the New Testament; eight times it means Israel (Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:68, 77; Romans 11:1-2, 15:10; Hebrews 10:30) and one time the redeemed (Revelation 21:3).” (Debating Calvinism, p.182, emphasis mine)
