Hope of Salvation

Luke 1:26-33 “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!’ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.’ And behold, you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

We all know the Christmas story, we recite it every year around this time. Sometimes though, if we are not careful we can get into the habit of just going through the motions and not really pay attention to the significance of what this story brings. 

Often, we treat the Bible as a bunch of different books instead of a complete story. We go to one book to find out about salvation, another to find how to live, another to find stories of God’s redemption throughout history. But what we can miss out on is that the Bible is really one story, His story. 

From Genesis to Revelation, God is telling his story, He is telling us who he is, why we are here, how sin entered into the world, and ultimately how he redeemed us from our sin and gave us a hope for eternity.

Notice, in the Book of Matthew, a book written to a predominately Jewish audience, he goes into great detail of the lineage of Joseph and Mary to show that the Messiah coming was both prophesied in the Old Testament and is now being fulfilled. But I want to focus on Luke for now because there is a fascinating detail in this passage that most of us simply miss.

In Luke 1:33 The Bible says, “And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

This makes sense when you realize that Joseph is from the lineage of King David. But Let’s go back to the story of David to see how this unfolded.

2nd Samuel 7:1-17 “Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, ‘See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.’ And Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.’ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, ‘Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 

In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. 

And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. 

Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.”

Notice what is happening, David is embarrassed. He is living comfortably in a house of cedar, while the ark of God is sitting in a tent outside. He wants to build a house for God to dwell in to honor Him but God instead flips the request around and tells David that he will build him a house. 

Why would God say he was going to build David a house instead? This is a foreshadow of what God's ultimate plan was. He never intended to dwell in a physical temple that was built with human hands. That is not where the Lord intended to live. Instead, he always desired to dwell in a temple that was made by God himself. Us.

Now, this prophecy given to David by Nathan the prophet is usually seen as referring to Solomon. After all, he was the one who built the Temple after David passed away. But is this really referring to Solomon? Let's look at what the Lord says,

"I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom." So far this could be referring to Solomon, but the term offspring is not always referring to immediate children. Next, the Lord says, "He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son."

Does this still sound like Solomon? Where else does Scripture repeat this phrase?

Hebrews 1:1-5 "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you?' Or again, 'I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son?'

So the writer of Hebrews pulls from 2nd Samuel 7:14 and uses it as a reference to Jesus. 

So when the Lord says, I will establish his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son, he's not referring to Solomon. He is referring to Jesus. Solomons kingdom did not last forever. Eventually, the nation of Israel was carried away into exile by Babylon. If his kingdom was established forever why is Joseph, who is a direct descendant of David, a day laborer?

Obviously, this is a prophecy of Jesus. But that brings up more questions, how can the Lord say in verse 14 "When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him,"?

How can this be about Jesus when it says he will commit iniquity? Jesus never sinned! Jesus lived the perfect life, fulfilling the law of God perfectly, so there seems to be a problem here. 

Did Jesus commit sin? No! So how do we make sense of this?

Isaiah 53:3-6 "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from who men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced form our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one- to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Most of us are familiar with Isaiah 53 as a prophecy about Christ. But we don't always think about why it had to be that way. When man fell in the Garden of Eden it created a rift between God and man. Sin separated us from God, it put division between us. We needed a savior, we needed someone to save us from our sinful condition but God said in Nahum 1:2-3 

"The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty."

The King James version says, "The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked:"

So how can this be? We are sinful, we are wicked, God says he will not acquit the wicked. This means that God does not allow the wicked to go unpunished, this is really bad news for us. We have all broken his laws, according to Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

So what hope is it, when we realize that we are wicked, that we have all fallen short, and that God will not leave us unpunished? How can we be right with God?

This is what the story of Christmas is all about. God sending the hope of salvation to us. Fulfilling the prophecy given to David in 2nd Samuel 7. But how did Jesus' birth bring hope? Because his birth laid the groundwork for his eventual death, which would fulfill all the requirements of sin.

When Paul wrote Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," he didn't stop there. He continues and says,

Romans 3:24-25 "and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins."

We are justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This means that because of what Christ did, we are justified because he has redeemed us. How did his death redeem us? 

He was the propitiation of our sins, huh? Propitiation is a fancy way of saying, appeased the wrath of God. This means that Jesus took the sins of all the world, died on the cross on our place, and appeased the wrath that God had to pour out for sin. this word propitiation is sometimes translated as mercy seat, meaning Jesus literally became the mercy seat, which is where the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices was sprinkled on the day of atonement, this is Pauls way of saying that God displayed Jesus as the 'mercy seat' or the place where propitiation was accomplished.

This means that all the Old Testament sacrifices that Israel had to perform once a year on the day of atonement to roll their sins away were pointing to this moment. the scapegoat they laid their hands on and sent into the wilderness was pointing to Jesus. He was the fulfillment of all things. That is why Paul wrote what he did in 2nd Corinthians 5,

2nd Corinthians 5:18-21 "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Sin had created a division between us and God, Christ came to bridge the gap and deliver us from the power of sin and reconcile us back to God. He literally took our sins and although he never committed a single sin, he hung as a sinner. Our sins were imputed (or assigned) to Christ, and through our faith in him, his righteousness is imputed to us, justifying us (or making us right with God) in the sight of God. 

He reconciled us, this is why 1st Timothy 2:5 says, For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" 

So when I look at the birth of Jesus it gives me hope, because I know that this season is a reminder that he brought me the greatest gift I could ever receive. Salvation.

And most importantly, not only did Christ bring salvation to us, David was told that God would establish his kingdom forever. No matter how messed up things get, no matter how bad it looks in our world today, we are a part of an everlasting kingdom, we serve a king whose reign will never end. His kingdom is established forever! 

If you are hopeless this season, remember why Christ was born, remember what his death means for you, and remember how he will never be defeated and his kingdom is everlasting.

Ephesians 1:13 "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, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."

Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."