Most of us know the story: a carpenter named Joseph, engaged to Mary, struggled to believe her story that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. He planned to break the engagement quietly. In a dream, an angel told him to believe Mary, and to name the child Jesus (Greek form of Hebrew “Joshua,” meaning “Yahweh is salvation”). Salvation ran much deeper than just the Roman army. This child brought salvation from humanity’s greatest enemy: sin. The earliest Christians echoed that, as they defied the leaders trying to silence them.

• Scholar N. T. Wright wrote that “Matthew sees Jesus as the one who will now complete what the law of Moses pointed to but could not of itself produce. He will rescue his people, not from slavery in Egypt, but from the slavery of sin, the ‘exile’ they have suffered not just in Babylon but in their own hearts and lives.” In what ways has missing God’s path led your heart and life into a kind of “exile”? What are the benefits of letting Jesus save you from that exile?
• Wright also observed that in Acts 5 Peter spoke of Jesus as Savior “because he has broken through the power of death itself and is therefore ready to rescue people not only from that ultimate enemy but from such other enemies, whether sickness, oppression, persecution or imprisonment, as they may face from time to time.” What “enemies” of that sort are you facing? How confident are you that Jesus can ultimately save you from all of them?