Matthew 1:18 - Meaning and Application

The mystery of Christ’s incarnation is meant to be adored, not examined too closely. If we do not know how the Spirit works in the formation of ordinary people, or how bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman (Ecclesiastes 11:5), we know even less about how the blessed Jesus was formed in the womb of the blessed virgin. When David marvels that he was made in secret and skillfully formed (Psalm 139:13-16), he may be speaking with Christ’s incarnation in view.

Matthew gives some details about Christ’s birth that Luke does not, though Luke tells the story more fully in other ways. Here we first see Mary’s engagement to Joseph. Mary, the mother of our Lord, was pledged to Joseph, not fully married yet, but formally promised in marriage. It was a solemn promise about the future, made on the condition that God would allow it to go forward. Scripture speaks of a man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her yet (Deuteronomy 20:7).

Christ was born of a virgin, but of a betrothed virgin. This helped honor marriage and showed that it is honorable among all, against any teaching that forbids marriage and says holiness is found only in being single. Who was ever more highly favored than Mary in her engagement? It also protected the good name of the blessed virgin. Her conception needed the covering of a marriage relationship, so that it would be judged rightly in the eyes of the world. An old writer said it was better for people to ask, “Is not this the son of a carpenter?” than, “Is not this the son of a woman who has sinned?”

This arrangement also gave the blessed virgin someone to guide her in young womanhood, to share her loneliness and travels, to help carry her cares, and to be a suitable partner for her. Some think Joseph was a widower, and that those called the brothers of Christ (Matthew 13:55) were Joseph’s children by an earlier wife. That was the opinion of many of the early church writers. Joseph was a righteous man, and Mary was a virtuous woman. Believers should not be unequally matched with unbelievers, and those who are godly should choose marriage partners who are godly too, if they want comfort in that relationship and God’s blessing on it.

We also learn from this example that it is wise to enter marriage with careful thought, not in a hurry. It is better to take time to consider before marriage than to find time to regret it afterward.

Next, we see Mary’s pregnancy with the promised child, before she and Joseph came together as husband and wife. She was found to be with child, and the child was truly from the Holy Spirit. Because the marriage was delayed so long after the engagement, she appeared to be pregnant before the marriage was publicly completed, even though she had been promised to Joseph before she conceived. It was probably after her return from her relative Elizabeth, with whom she stayed three months (Luke 1:56), that Joseph noticed she was with child, and she did not deny it.

Those in whom Christ is formed will show it. It will be seen as a work of God, and God will own his own work. We can imagine what distress this must have caused the blessed virgin. She knew this conception came from God, but how could she prove it? She would be treated as if she were guilty of shameful sin.

After great honor, we should expect something that humbles us, so we do not become proud. Sometimes that means disgrace, like a thorn in the flesh, or even like a sword in the bones. No daughter of Eve was ever so honored as the Virgin Mary, and yet she was in danger of being accused of one of the worst crimes. Still, we do not find her tormented by it. Because she knew her own innocence, she kept calm and gave her case to the one who judges righteously. Those who keep a good conscience can trust God to guard their good name too. We have reason to hope that he will make plain not only their integrity, but also their honor, like the brightness of the sun at noon.

Then we come to Joseph’s distress and his careful thought about what to do. We can imagine how deeply troubled and disappointed he was to find the woman he respected so highly under suspicion of such a terrible sin. “Is this Mary?” he may have thought. “How easily we can be deceived in the people we think best of, and how disappointed we can be in the ones we trust most.” He was unwilling to believe such a bad thing about someone he thought so well of, yet the matter was too serious to excuse and too clear to deny. This must have stirred a hard conflict in his heart, between the jealousy that can be fierce and cruel, and the affection he still had for Mary.

Joseph tried to avoid the harshest course. He was not willing to make her a public example. By law, a betrothed virgin who was found guilty of sexual sin was to be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:23-24), and he could have acted on that law. But he would not use the law against her if he could avoid it. If she was guilty, he did not want it made known through him. His spirit is very different from Judah’s in a similar case, when Judah quickly said, “Bring her out and let her be burned” (Genesis 38:24). It is a good thing to think matters through, as Joseph did here. If there were more careful thought in our judgments, there would be more mercy and restraint in them.

To make someone a public example was to punish them in a way that warned others. Punishment was meant to make people fear and learn, so that the simple would take warning and turn aside from evil. Some severe people might blame Joseph for being so gentle, but Scripture praises him for it. Because he was a just man, he was not willing to expose her. He was a good and religious man, and so he was inclined to show mercy, as God shows mercy, and to forgive as one who has been forgiven.

In the case of a betrothed young woman, if she was attacked in the field, the law kindly assumed that she had cried out for help (Deuteronomy 22:26). In the same way, Joseph wanted to put the kindest possible reading on this matter. In this, he was a just man, careful of the good name of one who had never before done anything to stain it. In many cases, we should be gentle toward those who seem to have offended. We should hope the best about them and make the best of what first looks bad, in the hope that things may turn out better.

The strictest justice is sometimes the greatest wrong. That is why we have courts of equity, to soften the severity of the law where mercy is needed. Those who are found guilty may have been caught in a fault, and they should therefore be restored with a spirit of gentleness. Even when warning is right, it should be given with moderation.

He was minded to put her away quietly, that is, to give her a divorce paper before two witnesses and keep the matter private. As a just man, meaning a strict keeper of the law, he would not go on with the marriage. Yet, in kindness to her, he wanted to do it as quietly as possible.

Note, when people must be corrected for wrongdoing, it should be done without a public uproar. The words of wise people are heard in calmness. Christ himself will not quarrel or shout. Christian love and Christian wisdom will cover a multitude of sins, even great sins, as far as this can be done without joining in them.

Joseph’s relief from this trouble came by a clear message from heaven, Matthew 1:20, 1:21. While he thought about these things and did not know what to decide, God kindly showed him what to do and put his mind at rest. Note, those who want guidance from God must think carefully for themselves first. God guides thoughtful people, not careless ones. When Joseph had gone as far as he could in his own reasoning, God stepped in with advice.

This is often when God’s instruction comes to his people, when they are at a loss and cannot go any farther. God’s comforts most satisfy the soul when its thoughts are crowded with worries. The message came to Joseph by an angel of the Lord, probably the same angel, Gabriel, who had brought Mary the news of the conception. Now the fellowship with heaven through angels, which had honored the patriarchs long ago but had not been used for a long time, begins to be renewed. When the Firstborn Son was to come into the world, the angels were told to attend his coming. We cannot say how far God may still use angels, unseen by us, to help his people out of trouble. But we do know that they are all serving spirits for the good of God’s people.

This angel appeared to Joseph in a dream while he was asleep, as God sometimes spoke to the fathers of old. When we are quiet and settled, we are in the best condition to receive notice of God’s will. The Spirit moves over calm waters. No doubt this dream carried clear evidence in itself that it came from God and not from a foolish imagination.

First, Joseph is told to go forward with his planned marriage. The angel calls him “Joseph, son of David,” reminding him of his link to David so he would be ready for the surprising news that he was connected to the Messiah, who was known to come from David’s line. Sometimes people who inherit great honor but have little wealth do not value it enough, so they need to be reminded of their noble place. In the same way, this poor carpenter is reminded of his royal line: “Joseph, value yourself. You are the son of David through whom the Messiah’s line will be carried on.” We may say something like this to every true believer: “Do not fear, son of Abraham, child of God. Do not forget the honor of your birth, your new birth.”

Fear not to take Mary as your wife. Joseph, thinking she had become pregnant through sin, was afraid to marry her, lest he bring guilt or shame on himself. But God says, “Do not fear, the matter is not as you think.” Perhaps Mary had already told him she was with child by the Holy Spirit, and he may have heard what Elizabeth said to her, calling her “the mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43). If so, he may have feared he was being presumptuous in marrying someone so far above him. Whatever the source of his fear, it was silenced by this word: Fear not to take Mary your wife. Note, it is a great mercy when our fears are removed and our doubts are settled, so we can go on in our work with peace.

Second, he is told what is true about the holy child now growing in his engaged wife. What has been conceived in her has a divine origin. Far from being in danger of sharing in impurity by marrying her, he will share in the highest honor he could receive. He is told two things.

One, she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by the power of nature. The Holy Spirit, who made the world, now produces the Saviour of the world and prepares a body for him, as had been promised when Christ said, “I have come” (Hebrews 10:5). That is why he is said to be made of a woman (Galatians 4:4), and yet also to be that second Adam, the Lord from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47). He is the Son of God, and yet he shares enough of his mother’s human nature to be called the fruit of her womb (Luke 1:42). His conception needed to be different from ordinary human birth, so that, while he truly took human nature, he would escape its corruption and stain, and would not be conceived and formed in sin. Some stories speak of people who falsely claimed to have been conceived by a divine power, like the mother of Alexander. But no one truly was, except the mother of our Lord. In this, as in all things, his name is Wonderful.

We do not read that the virgin Mary herself went about telling of this honor given to her, but kept it in her heart. So God sent an angel to confirm it. Those who do not seek their own glory will receive honor from God. It is kept for the humble.

Two, she would give birth to the Saviour of the world, Matthew 1:21. She will bear a Son. What he will be is shown in the name given to him: “You shall call his name Jesus,” that is, Saviour. Jesus is the same name as Joshua, with only the ending changed to fit the Greek language. Joshua is called Jesus in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8, following the Greek translation used by the Seventy. There were two men with that name in the Old Testament, both clear pictures of Christ, Joshua who led Israel when they first settled in Canaan, and Joshua the high priest when they returned after the captivity (Zechariah 6:11, 12).

Christ is our Joshua, both the Captain who leads our salvation and the High Priest who represents us before God, and in both ways he is our Saviour. He is a Joshua who comes in place of Moses and does for us what the law could not do, because it was weak. Joshua had first been called Hosea, but Moses added the first part of the name Jehovah, making it Jehoshua (Numbers 13:16), to show that the Messiah who would bear that name would be Jehovah himself. Because of this, he is able to save completely, and there is salvation in no one else.

The reason for that name is this: he will save his people from their sins, not just the Jewish nation, since he came to his own people and they did not receive him, but all those given to him by the Father’s choice, and all those who have given themselves to him in faith. He is a king who protects his subjects, and like the judges of Israel in the old days, he brings them salvation. Note, those whom Christ saves, he saves from their sins, from guilt by the worth of his death, and from sin’s power by the Spirit of his grace.

In saving his people from sin, Christ saves them from wrath, the curse, and every misery in this life and the next. He came to save his people not in their sins, but from their sins. He did not buy for them a freedom to keep sinning, but freedom from sin’s power. He gave himself to redeem them from all lawlessness (Titus 2:14), and to redeem them from among people for himself, who is separate from sinners (Revelation 14:4). So those who turn from their sins and give themselves to Christ as his people are included in the Savior and in the great salvation he has achieved (Romans 11:26).

The next point is the fulfilling of Scripture in all this. Matthew, writing especially for Jewish readers, often stresses this more than the other Gospel writers. The Old Testament prophecies came true in the Lord Jesus, which shows that he is the one who was to come, and we should expect no other. He is the one all the prophets bore witness to.

The prophecy fulfilled in Christ’s birth was the promise God gave King Ahaz (Isaiah 7:14): “Behold, a virgin shall conceive.” In that setting, the prophet was encouraging God’s people to hope for deliverance from Sennacherib’s attack, and he pointed them ahead to the Messiah, who would come from the Jewish people and the house of David. That made it plain that, however troubled that people and that house might become, they could not be left to ruin while God still had such a blessing prepared for them.

The deliverances God gave the Old Testament church were pictures of the great salvation that comes through Christ. If God will do the greater thing, he will not fail to do the lesser. The prophecy is rightly introduced with “Behold,” which calls for attention and wonder. Here we have the mystery of godliness, truly great, that God was made known in the flesh.

The sign given is that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. “A virgin shall conceive,” and through her he would be revealed in the flesh. The word used means a true virgin, such as Mary said she was (Luke 1:34), “I do not know a man.” If it meant anything else, it would not have been the great sign it was meant to be. From the beginning it was hinted that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, when he was called the seed of the woman, meaning the seed of the woman and not of any man alone.

Christ was born of a virgin not only because his birth was to be supernatural and extraordinary, but also because it was to be holy, pure, and without any stain of sin. He was not born of an empress or queen, because he did not come in outward pomp or glory. He was born of a virgin to teach us spiritual purity, to die to the pleasures of the senses, and to keep ourselves unstained by the world and the flesh, so that we may be presented as chaste virgins to Christ.

The truth proved by this sign is that he is the Son of God and the Mediator, the one who stands between God and human beings. They shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. It is a mysterious name, but a precious one. It means God among us in the flesh, and therefore God ready to be at peace with us, to receive us into covenant, and to bring us into fellowship with himself.

The Jews had God with them in shadows and symbols, dwelling between the cherubim, but never in such a full way as when the Word became flesh. That was the blessed presence of God among his people. What a great step this is toward peace between God and human beings, that the two natures are joined in the person of the Mediator. By this he became the fitting go-between, able to lay his hand on both sides, since he shares the nature of both.

In this we see the deepest mystery and the richest mercy ever known. By nature’s light, we see God as above us. By the law, we see him as against us. But by the gospel, we see him as Immanuel, God with us, in our own nature and, even more, on our side. In this the Redeemer showed his love.

With the name Immanuel, we may compare the name given to the gospel church, “The Lord is there” (Ezekiel 48:35). “Jehovah Shammah” means the Lord is there, the Lord of hosts is with us. It is also fair to say that the prophecy saying he would be called Immanuel was fulfilled in its purpose when he was called Jesus, for if he had not been Immanuel, God with us, he could not have been Jesus, a Savior. This is the heart of the salvation he worked out, bringing God and human beings together. He designed to bring God to be with us, which is our great happiness, and to bring us to be with God, which is our great duty.

Joseph obeyed the divine command (Matthew 1:24). When he woke from sleep, moved by the dream, he did as the angel of the Lord had told him, even though it went against his earlier thoughts and plans. He took Mary as his wife. He did it quickly, without delay, and gladly, without argument. He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

We should not expect such direct guidance now. Still, God has ways of making his will known in doubtful matters, through hints in providence, the judgments of conscience, and the counsel of faithful friends. By all of these, while applying the general rules of Scripture, we should seek direction from God in every step of life, especially in major turning points like Joseph’s. We will find it safe and comforting to do what he says.

The divine promise was fulfilled (Matthew 1:25): she gave birth to her firstborn son. The details are told more fully in Luke 2:1 and following. What is conceived by the Holy Spirit does not fail, but will surely be brought forth in its season. What comes from human will often comes to nothing, but if Christ is formed in the soul, God himself has begun the good work, and he will complete it. What is conceived in grace will surely be brought forth in glory.

It is also noted here that Joseph, though he completed the marriage with Mary, his promised wife, kept apart from her while she was with child of this holy child. He did not know her until she had given birth to her son. Much has been said about our Lord’s perpetual virginity. Jerome strongly opposed Helvidius for denying it, but Scripture does not prove it. Dr. Whitby thought that when it says Joseph did not know her until she had brought forth her firstborn, it suggests that afterward, since the reason had passed, he lived with her according to the law (Exodus 21:10).

It is also noted that Christ was the firstborn, and he could be called that even if his mother had no other children afterward, according to the way Scripture uses the term.

It is no accident that Christ is called her firstborn. He is the firstborn of every creature, meaning he is the heir of all things, and the firstborn among many brothers, so that in all things he may have first place.

Joseph then named him Jesus, just as he had been told. Since God had appointed him to be the Savior, and that was hinted at in the name Jesus, we must receive him as our Savior. In agreement with God’s appointment, we should call him Jesus, our Savior.