Why was Jesus born?
We know where he was born. We know when he was born. We sing songs celebrating that he was born. But why was he born?
One of the simplest answers is this: Jesus was born to be the Savior. This is why the angels in Luke 2:11 proclaimed, “Today in the city of David there has been born for you a savior.”
Before the angels spoke in Luke 2, Mary herself sang, “My soul exults the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46–47). Shortly after this, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied that God “has raised up a horn of salvation for us” (Luke 1:69). Then a righteous man named Simeon saw Jesus and said to God, “My eyes have seen Your salvation” (Luke 2:30).
Mary, Zacharias, Simeon, and the angels all recognized that Jesus was born to bring God’s salvation. They understood this because they knew that God Himself is a savior.
In his sermon “God, the Savior of Men,” John MacArthur explains,
It’s not, as some people say, that God is the bad guy and Jesus is the good guy and, that Jesus gets up there and really, really pleads with God, trying to soften Him up. It’s not that. As much as Jesus is a savior, so much is God a savior, and so much is the Holy Spirit a savior. There’s no diminishing of that saving nature in any member of the Trinity.
He continues,
In the Old Testament, God is a savior, and over and over again His salvation is spoken of; I’m going to resist the opportunity to point out innumerable Scriptures. Deuteronomy 20 verse 3, “The Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you” to save you. I mean, by nature God did that. That’s just in the very fabric of His eternal being. The psalmist says of God in Psalm 25:5, “Thou are the God of my salvation.” They knew Him as a savior. In fact, David in Psalm 51 was praying to God; and he lost the joy because of his disobedience, and he says to God, “Restore to me the joy of thy salvation.” They know God as a Savior God. And the Old Testament is just filled with indications of that.
From beginning to end, Scripture presents God as a savior. And the culmination of His saving work began with the birth of Jesus Christ.
Click here to listen to John’s sermon, “God, the Savior of Men.”
