And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins. – Matthew 1:21
In this Bible study we cover three things.
The Meaning of the Name of Jesus
The Double Cure
Calling on the Name of the Lord to be Saved
The material is comprised primarily of verses. The fellowship in the groups when going over this Bible study together should bring out the depths, the riches, and the application for us today.
On the last slide, you’ll find a charge to sing Psalm 116:12-13. Here is the music and lyrics:
What shall I give unto the Lord
For all, for all, for all He’s done for me?
I’ll take the cup of salvation,
And call, and call, and call upon the name
of the Lord.
Please download the full Bible study in your preferred format.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Matthew 1:21 And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, / So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Fellowship
When we sin, there is a separation between us and God; we just can’t look Him in the eye so easily because there is a real guilt of sin with us. By confessing we can be free from this guilt and this separation. This is something we should deal with as soon as we can. When we come to the Lord in the morning and are conscious of any sin we’ve committed, we should confess to the Lord right away and receive His forgiveness.
Notice how 1 John 1:9 says, “that if we confess our sins, HE IS FAITHFUL and RIGHTEOUS to forgive us…” In other words, His forgiveness is based on who He is and what He’s done. All we have to do on our side to receive His forgiveness is to confess. This is the best news of the day! For anyone who confesses, Jesus Christ is there to forgive. Hallelujah!
God actually has to forgive us – not only because He said that He would and He would surely not go against His own word, but because He is even righteously obligated to forgive us. To see this, we must understand God’s righteousness. God required the shedding of blood for our sins. God is righteous, altogether just. He cannot simply turn a blind eye to injustices. He judges sinners righteously, and, because He cannot tolerate any sin, the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
In His great mercy and wisdom, God made a plan to save us from the wages of sin. He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, this One who is God, Jehovah, the Great I Am (John 8:24, 58), to die in our stead and to pay the price for our sins. Isaiah 53:5 says: “But He was wounded because of our transgressions; / He was crushed because of our iniquities; / The chastening for our peace was upon Him, / And by His stripes we have been healed.” and verse 8 of the same chapter says that, “He was cut off out of the land of the living / For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due”.
Jesus Christ was the sinless one. He did not have to die for Himself because He had no sin. Yet he paid the price for all the sins of mankind. The debt that we owed was fully paid. By His death on the cross, all of God’s righteousness could be fulfilled. God required the blood, and Jesus’ blood satisfied God’s requirement. Matthew 1:21 says: “And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.” Had you realized that Jesus was born to come and die for us? How we praise and thank Him! We were supposed to die for our sins, but God gave us Jesus as the provision to satisfy God’s righteous requirement. (UUCOC.org, Forgiven because God is Faithful and Righteous , Dec 23, 2020)
And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever—Then Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. 3:22-24)
He then says, “And their sins and their lawlessnesses I shall by no means remember anymore.” Now where forgiveness of these is, there is no longer an offering for sin. Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus, Which entrance He initiated for us as a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh, (Heb. 10:17-20)
Genesis 3 describes how Adam and Eve were driven out from the Garden of Eden. What happened to the way to the tree of life?
In Hebrews 10 we can see that we have the way to enter into the Holy of Holies. Compare the way that was lost in Genesis in the Old Testament to the New Testament way that was regained and is presented in Hebrews.
For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin. Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help. (Heb. 4:12, 14-16)
Tell us something about this great High Priest presented in Hebrews. We’ve covered many aspects of Jesus Christ as the tree of life but how can we enjoy Him and even eat Him as the tree of life?
Further reading: The Tree of Life, chapter 9, published by Living Stream Ministry
