In Matthew 1:21 we read the angels words of reassurance to Joseph regarding Mary — “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Notice that the angel didn’t say Jesus would save his people from the consequences of their sins, but from the sins themselves. Something is amiss if our main concern is with the consequence of a sin over against the sin itself. Sin, not its consequence, is our main problem.
So how does Jesus deliver us? One way is through revealing the truth to our hearts. “You will know the truth,” he said, “and the truth will set you free.”
What truth? The all-important truth regarding what God is like, specifically, that he is thoroughly good — pure self-sacrificial helpfulness.
The more this truth comes home to our hearts, the more we will abandon any and all sin. Why? Because we will increasingly know that because of who our God is, all is well. He will never fail to meet our every need and help us with even the smallest of troubles every moment of our lives.
Once we know that truth with a rock-like confidence, we are saved from sin because every sin is instigated by faithlessness. We sin because, in the area in question, we simply don’t believe that “the Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.” So Jesus comes and speaks that truth to our hearts day by day, situation by situation. And the more we believe it, the more we turn away from our sins.
