The Circumcision and Naming of Jesus – “The name Jesus ...

The Circumcision and Naming of Jesus

January 1, 2017

"The name Jesus"

Luke 2:21

And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision of the child, His name became referred to as Jesus, the identify given through the angel before He changed into conceived in the womb. Luke 2:21

We number all our years based on the start of Jesus.  The dates earlier than Jesus' birth are lettered, BC: before Christ.  Even people that don't be aware of Jesus or confess that he is the Christ have to acknowledge this.  The years before he became born are numbered through his beginning, and the very initials, BC, train that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior promised by the ancient testomony prophets.

The years after Christ's start are even more explicitly Christian.  We write, ad which is the initials for the Latin words, Anno Domini, which skill, "year of our Lord."  in case you examine advert, you're studying a confession of Jesus as Lord, and not somebody else's Lord, however "our Lord."

these days, historians use the designation BCE – earlier than the usual period – in area of BC and the letters CE – commonplace era, in region of ad.  apparently, they don't want to confess Jesus as the Christ or Jesus as Lord after they date hobbies.  but they are going to confess that Jesus is Lord.  St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Philippians:

That on the identify of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those below the earth, and that each tongue should still confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the daddy. Philippians 2:10-11

at the name of Jesus each knee shall bow.  no matter if the angels and saints in heaven or the Christians and even unbelievers here in the world or the devils and the damned in hell, all and sundry shall bow the knee before the name of Jesus, each person shall confess that Jesus is Lord, that's, JHWH, the i'm, the Lord God of Israel, the simplest God, the LORD.

The Church's celebration of Christmas starts off on Christmas Eve, December 24, and ends on Epiphany, January 6.  We are now celebrating Christmas, when the most effective begotten Son of God become incarnate by way of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and became made man.  When God grew to be a man he didn't stop to be God.  taking on a human nature under no circumstances restrained, restricted or compromised the complete deity of God the Son.  As St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae:  "For in Him [that is, in Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."  That turned into just as actual when Christ turned into laid within the manger because it is nowadays.

God is man, man to convey.  here's the explanation for Christmas.  The complete world should acknowledge it.  God grew to become a man.  We date the years, even if with BC and ad or with BCE and CE in keeping with this vital miracle of all human background.  When the infinite and eternal God joined himself to flesh and blood, he didn't limit himself.  He took into the human nature of Jesus the fullness of his deity.  because the hymnist wrote, "He whom the worlds cannot enclose doth in Mary's lap repose."

God grew to become a man.  The legislations-giver selected to area himself to the legislation.  The legislation didn't apply to him.  The legislation became made for sinners.  He turned into not a sinner.  He selected to publish himself to the calls for of the legislation, starting with the shedding of his blood on the eighth day after his birth when he changed into circumcised.  On that day he became given the identify, Jesus.

Jesus subjected himself to the legislations of God in an effort to do what no one had achieved or had been able to do.  He took the area of those that had failed.  Ever for the reason that the time of Abraham, God had commanded circumcision, surroundings it down because the sign of his covenant, the sacrament of his grace.  Yet now not one man, now not one child who had been circumcised in God's name had ever faithfully fulfilled the demands of God's covenant.  Blood turned into shed in lots, hundreds of thousands of circumcisions.  It changed into the blood of sinners, and that blood couldn't remove sin.  only a sinless newborn, a sinless man, may shed blood that would put off sin.  it is why Jesus became born.  it is why he shed his blood.  On the day he became circumcised, he shed his blood, pointing back into historical past and ahead to the longer term, pointing returned to the signal of the covenant, giving it its actual validity, and pointing ahead to his cruci fixion, where he would shed his blood for all individuals, the circumcised and the uncircumcised.

that's how he obtained his identify, Jesus, which capability, the Lord saves.  The Lord God, who mandatory no law, become not content to develop into flesh and blood.  He went beyond that and subordinated himself to the legislation, shedding his blood in obedience to the law, in order that the complete world that changed into condemned through the law can be let loose.  Jesus' identify tells us who he's: the Lord.  Jesus' identify tells us what he does: he saves sinners with the aid of taking their area under the legislations.  he is our substitute.  He alone met the requirements of Sinai.  He fulfilled man's part of God's covenant with Israel.  He alone may do it and he on my own did it.

The legislation could make no calls for on Jesus, however Jesus met its calls for anyway, no longer for himself, however for these he came to keep.  For the saint, who through holy baptism has put on Christ, the legislations has nothing to assert.  It can't accuse.  It cannot convict.  It can not threaten.  It must stay silent.  Christ has executed what the legislations requires.  His circumcision turned into just the beginning.  His total life became a lifetime of humble submission to God's legislations.  A flawless existence provided via the perfect man, the perfect replace, the ideal Savior.  Did Jesus depart the rest undone?  changed into his circumcision mere outward obedience, an empty sign?  No, it obligated him to do exactly what he then did.  Does the law have any claims on Jesus?  No.  he is sinless.  Does the law have any claims on God's saints?  No, they are as sinless as Jesus, for they are covered with Jesus' own sinlessness.

The Bible says, "you're all sons of God through religion in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have placed on Christ." (Galatians three:26-27)  We don't develop into babies of God by way of doing.  We develop into children of God by receiving what Christ has performed for us.  here is why it have to be via religion by myself.  Christ is the one who has made us God's children and heirs of God's blessing.

So overlook the legislations, saint, it has nothing to say to you.  You didn't get to be a saint via doing what the legislation says you must do.  rather, the legislations advised you that you just were no longer a saint, and you needed Christ.  You crucial to be baptized into Christ, you necessary to be clothed, lined with Christ before the law would leave you by myself.  And now you are free from its demands, accusations, and threats.

here's what Jesus our Lord has executed.  What do you think of should you feel of Jesus as your Lord?  hearken to how the Catechism explains it:

I accept as true with that Jesus Christ – genuine God, begotten of his Father from eternity and also actual man, born of the Virgin Mary – is my Lord.  Who has redeemed me, purchased and received me from all sins, from death, and from the vigour of the satan, now not with gold or silver, but together with his holy valuable blood and his innocent suffering and demise.

Jesus does not turn into our Lord with the aid of telling us what to do.  Jesus becomes our Lord with the aid of giving his lifestyles for us.  When God became flesh and blood, he did as a way to set the world free.  He got here in meekness to reside for us and to die for us.  here's what he did.  here's how we met him – in his lowliness, as a result of in spite of the fact that he stands in glory on the correct hand of the father, yet he comes to us here in lowliness.  He comes through the speaking of mere guys.  He comes through a washing that seems to the senses to be simply water.  it is the Lord God who speaks to us throughout the phrases of men.  it's the Lord God who washes us at the font.  it's the Lord God who gives us to consume and to drink of his physique and blood for the forgiveness of all our sins.

Jesus is the Lord God.  There are two the right way to confess him: right here and now as sinners set free by his valuable blood, or later in terror and compelled submission when he returns to display the complete world that he is indeed Lord.  academics can evade the usage of the initials BC and ad however no person will keep away from calling Jesus Lord.

What does one do with a Lord equivalent to Jesus (besides numbering the years according to his start)?  One serves a Lord.  You don't make him your Lord; he has made himself your Lord.  however you serve him.  How?  via doing what he says.  "in case you love me, you're going to obey my commandments," Jesus noted.  What are they?  That we love God and that we love one a further.  As we depart twelve months and enter a different, our Lord calls on us to love the Lord our God in what we are saying, consider, and do and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

suppose back on the year just gone and the yr just arrived and agree with what this legislations of love requires:

You shall have no different gods.

You shall not misuse the identify of the LORD your God.

bear in mind the Sabbath day by preserving it holy.

Honor your father and your mother.

You shall now not murder.

You shall now not commit adultery.

You shall no longer steal.

You shall not supply false testimony in opposition t your neighbor.

You shall now not covet your neighbor's condominium.

You shall now not covet your neighbor's spouse, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

i know of no more suitable clarification of what these commandments require of us than that provided in Luther's Small Catechism.  once we assess our lives in gentle of this legislations, we should confess that we haven't cherished God or one one more as our Lord requires.  We come to church to admit this failure to God and to listen to the absolution of our Savior, Jesus, who forgives us all our sins.  He, who shed his blood for us as a baby and as a person, obeying the legislations of affection, gives us the forgiveness that he gained through his perfect obedience.  we're right here to receive the gospel that covers our sins.  And we are here to commit our lives to the One who gave his existence for us.  We give him our lives this coming year.  Our years are numbered according to his birth.  Our lives are described with the aid of his lifestyles.  We are living in hope.  we are able to die in peace.

We continue to be assured he'll return to take us domestic when the time of this world has come to an conclusion.  For that day we pray, "Come Lord Jesus, come straight away."

Amen.

Pastor Rolf Preus