“And she will bear a son; and you shall call his name Yeshua, for he shall save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

From – “Jesus Saves!”  I remember that billboard on the side of Interstate 5 between Olympia and Centralia.  It was there for years.  Ten foot letters in black on a white background.  Everyone knew about it.  But I wonder if we really thought about what it means from Matthew’s perspective.  Most of us think that “Jesus saves” means salvation from eternal punishment for our sins.  Most of us think the “Jesus saves” is the equivalent of saying “Jesus forgives me.”  That’s the usual interpretation in our evangelistic efforts.  But Matthew, and most Hebrews, would have thought about it a little differently.  For Matthew, the man Yeshua is connected to the Hebrew verb yasha.  It is not primarily about forgiveness.  That would be the verb salah.  When the Hebrew text uses the verb salah, the subject is always God.   God forgives.  But Jesus saves.  (Oh, I know.  Jesus forgives too, but don’t get worried, there is another word for that.)

So, since Matthew is employing a play on words in Hebrew, he must have in mind the Hebrew verb yasha.  What does yasha mean if it’s not about forgiveness?  Ah, it means to deliver, to rescue, to help, to defend and to bring to a safe place.  What’s the difference between forgiveness and salvation?  Put simply, salvation is about what happens here and now, not what happens in the bye-and-bye.  The idea that Jesus would save His people from their sins by providing them entrance into heaven would never have occurred to the average Jewish reader of the first century.  For Matthew’s audience, being saved meant being rescued from immediate danger.

In the Greek translation of Matthew’s gospel, the preposition that introduces this phrase is apo.  Greek prepositions are basically words about motion and in this case, the motion described is going forth from one object to another.  Unlike ek which means going out of, apo is about the separation between two things.  It is motion away from something or someone.  Ek is something coming out of another thing.  Apo is one thing moving away from something else.  So, what is it that is “moved away” when Yeshua comes on the scene?  Consequences!  Yeshua “saves” us by moving the consequences of our sins away from us.  We deserve punishment, not only in the eternal judgment of God but in the day-to-day disclosure of our unholy acts.  Yeshua rescues us from those consequences, both eternally and temporally, by taking them away from us.  He delivers us.  He defends us.  He brings us to a safe place.  He saves us – in the Hebrew sense of the word.

Does that mean that we are always spared the outcomes of our sins?  Of course not!  Consequences still happen, but they are transformed in two ways.  First, God’s hand of mercy overrides our disobedience.  He is long-suffering and compassionate.  Second, God uses consequences as a means of correction, not punishment.  He loves us.  So, He allows our disobedience to bring about its inevitable results, tempered by His mercy, in order that we may grow up into holiness.  And all because “Jesus saves.”

Topical Index:  saves, yasha, salvation, from, apo, Matthew 1:21