(Don Fortner)
"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21
The promise here given is that the Lord Jesus Christ "shall save His people from their sins." Who are His people? Who are these people specifically designated "His people," whom He came into this world specifically to save?
It's the inescapable, destructive commitment of every person that was ever born. It marches down a pathway of separation from God and our ultimate doom. None of us successfully avoid it. We see it in others and it bothers us, but somehow we are blind to it in ourselves. It shapes what we think, desire, say, and do. It shapes our unwritten law for the people we live with and a host of unrealistic expectations for the situations we live in. It explains why we are so often irritated and impatient. It describes why some of us are perennially unhappy and some of us trudge through life depressed. It causes us to want what we will never, ever have and to demand what we do not deserve. It puts us at odds with one another and in endless fights with God. It is one of the deep diseases of our sin nature and a core reason for the birth of Jesus.
