Matt 1:18–25 — The Savior’s Virgin Birth: God With Us

Two weeks ago, we considered Matthew’s genealogy of the Messiah in Matthew 1:1–17. Matthew presents Jesus as the fulfillment of redemptive history, from the first promise of the gospel to Adam and Eve after the fall, through the promises God made to Abraham and David. Jesus is the promised Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head.

Matthew now moves from the genealogy of Jesus to the account of his birth. The principal focus of Matthew 1:18–25 is the utter uniqueness of that birth. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary without a human father. Although he would grow up to be the servant of the Lord, he was no ordinary man. He is the divine Son of God who assumed human nature, so that he is both God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. This qualifies him to save his people from their sins.

Joseph and the Davidic Line

The eight verses of our passage fall into four groups of two. Verses 18–19 describe Joseph’s perplexing situation. Verses 20–21 contain the angel’s explanation and commands. Verses 22–23 give Matthew’s fulfillment quotation. Verses 24–25 recount Joseph’s decisive action.

Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant. Matthew immediately tells his readers that the child was from the Holy Spirit, although Joseph did not yet know this. Betrothal in Jewish society was a binding commitment, which explains why Matthew calls Joseph her husband and why Joseph would have needed to divorce her. Being a just man and unwilling to expose Mary to public shame, he resolved to divorce her quietly.

Matthew presents the story through Joseph’s eyes. This differs from Luke’s account of the nativity, which presents events largely through Mary’s eyes. Joseph’s perspective matters because of his role in the genealogy. Matthew 1:16 identifies him as the descendant of David to whom Mary was betrothed, and in verse 20 the angel addresses him as “Joseph, son of David.”

The Jews expected the Messiah to be a descendant of David. Yet because Jesus was born of a virgin, Joseph was not his biological father. Jesus is genuinely the Son of David and heir to David’s throne, but he did not receive his Davidic credentials through ordinary biological descent from Joseph. Instead, Joseph adopted Jesus as his legal son.

The angel commanded Joseph to do two things. First, rather than divorcing Mary, he was to take her as his wife. Second, he was to name the child Jesus. When Joseph awoke, he obeyed both commands: he took Mary as his wife, and after she gave birth, he named the child Jesus. By these actions, Joseph publicly received Jesus as his son and brought him legally into the royal line of David. The story is told through Joseph’s eyes to establish the Messiah’s Davidic credentials.

Matthew then supplies his own commentary in verses 22–23: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.” The virgin birth shows that Jesus is not merely another descendant of David. He is the divine Son of God.

Why the Messiah Was Born of a Virgin

Jesus was born to a virgin betrothed to a man from David’s family. He could therefore be called the Son of David through Joseph’s legal fatherhood. Why, however, was it necessary for him to enter the Davidic line by adoption? It showed that although he is David’s son and heir, he is also David’s Lord. He has no ordinary human father because God is his Father.

Jesus develops this truth in Matthew 22:41–46. After his opponents attempt to trap him with their questions, he asks the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They answer, “The son of David.” Jesus then quotes Psalm 110: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.’” If David, speaking by the Spirit, calls the Messiah “Lord,” Jesus asks, how can the Messiah be merely his son? No one is able to answer him.

In one sense, Jesus had to be the Son of David to qualify as the promised Messiah. In another sense, he had to come from beyond the Davidic line because he is greater than David. He is David’s Lord, and he must save David and all the sinful kings who followed him.

J. Gresham Machen expressed the significance of this miraculous entrance into the world:

If we believe, as the Bible teaches, that all mankind are under an awful curse, then we shall rejoice in knowing that there entered into the sinful race from the outside One upon whom the curse did not rest save as He bore it for those whom He redeemed by His blood. . . . [Christ is] a supernatural Person come into the world from the outside to redeem the sinful race.

Jesus had to enter this sin-cursed world “from the outside” because no one arising merely from fallen humanity could rescue it. God’s providence arranged for the Messiah to be born to a virgin who was betrothed, but not yet married, to a descendant of David. He could thereby be the legitimate Davidic King while entering the world supernaturally to save his people from their sins.

At first, the Messiah’s entrance into David’s dynasty through adoption rather than biological descent may seem surprising. Looking back, however, we recognize that this was precisely what Isaiah had prophesied. The virgin birth was not an arbitrary miracle or an isolated prediction checked off a list. It revealed the identity of the person who came to save.

Jesus had a human mother and is therefore fully human. He had no human father because he is the eternal Son of God. Through the virgin birth, the divine Son assumed a true human nature and became man without ceasing to be God. He is both God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. This unique birth corresponds to his unique person and saving mission.

The Two Names of the Messiah

The meaning of the virgin birth is unfolded through the two names in the passage: Jesus and Immanuel.

Jesus: The Savior from Sin

The angel directed Joseph to call the child Jesus “for he will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, meaning “Yahweh saves.” The virgin-born divine person came to save sinners.

He did not come primarily as the political hero many expected. They wanted a military deliverer who would overthrow Roman oppression and restore Israel’s national glory. Many assumed that Israel’s standing with God was secure. The Pharisees had classified the law in exacting detail—what might be done on the Sabbath, how hands should be washed, and how ritual purity should be maintained. They did not think Israel needed a Savior from sin.

Matthew declares that although Jesus is Israel’s Messiah, he came not to save his people from Rome but from their own sins. The fundamental problem was Israel’s violation of God’s law and inability to keep it.

Verse 21 reaches back to the deportation to Babylon mentioned in verse 17. The northern kingdom of Israel was taken into exile in 722 BC, and the southern kingdom of Judah fell in 586 BC. This judgment came because Israel and her kings repeatedly broke God’s law, worshiped false gods, and rejected the warnings of the prophets. Joram, Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon, and Jechoniah were notoriously wicked kings who led the people into idolatry. Even David committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged her husband’s death.

Although the Babylonian captivity had formally ended and some exiles had returned to rebuild the temple, Israel’s deeper exile continued. It was no longer chiefly political but spiritual: captivity to sin and alienation from God. Israel needed the obedient Son who would be born under the law, keep it where Israel had failed, suffer the curse in his people’s place, and take away their guilt.

The words “he will save” also recall Genesis 3:15: “He shall bruise your head.” They place the saving action upon Christ. We are dead in trespasses, but God makes us alive. Jesus does not merely make salvation possible and wait for sinners to complete it. He saves his people. Salvation is the sovereign work of God from beginning to end.

Who are “his people”? In the immediate context, the expression evokes Israel. As Matthew’s Gospel unfolds, however, Jesus makes clear that his people are not limited to the Jewish nation. In the parable of the tenants, Israel’s leaders reject and kill the owner’s son. Jesus therefore tells them, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matt. 21:43). Earlier, after Peter confesses him as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus promises, “On this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). His people are the true Israel of God, the church composed of Jews and Gentiles who believe in him.

The salvation he brings addresses both aspects of sin: guilt and pollution. Guilt concerns our objective legal standing. Because we have sinned, we stand condemned beneath God’s wrath. Pollution concerns our corrupt hearts, desires, affections, and wills. We do not merely commit sinful acts; apart from grace, we desire sin and resist God.

The new-covenant prophecies address both problems. In Jeremiah 31, God promises, “I will forgive their iniquity,” and, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” Ezekiel 36 likewise promises cleansing, a new heart, and the gift of the Spirit. These two aspects of sin correspond to justification and sanctification.

Christ justifies us because he bore God’s wrath, took away our guilt, and established our righteous standing before God. Matthew repeatedly emphasizes this legal dimension. Jesus tells the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” and demonstrates that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins (Matt. 9:2–6). He says that the Son of Man came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). At the Last Supper, he speaks of his blood poured out “for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28).

Christ also sanctifies us by giving us his Spirit and renewing our hearts. The Sermon on the Mount exposes anger as the root of murder and lust as adultery in the heart. In Matthew 15, Jesus applies Isaiah’s rebuke: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” He then teaches, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality,” and other sins. Defilement arises from within, not from unwashed hands.

Jesus saves his people from both the guilt and the pollution of sin. He lays down his life to atone for their guilt, and he gives them his Spirit to create new hearts that love God and neighbor. The name Jesus declares both the divine sovereignty and the comprehensive scope of his saving work.

Immanuel: God With Us

The second name is Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” Jesus embodies and mediates God’s presence among his people. He is not merely a human representative of God. He is the eternal divine Son, and therefore his presence with us is God’s presence with us.

Verses 22–23 contain the first of Matthew’s fulfillment quotations: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.” Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”

Isaiah originally spoke during the reign of the wicked King Ahaz. The kings of Israel and Syria had allied against Judah, and Ahaz sought security through political maneuvering and Assyrian military power. God called him to trust the divine promise and invited him to ask for a sign “as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” Ahaz refused, not from humility but unbelief. Isaiah therefore announced that the Lord himself would give a sign: a young woman would conceive and bear a son called Immanuel.

The oracle had an initial fulfillment in Isaiah’s own time, perhaps in the birth of a royal child such as Hezekiah or one of Isaiah’s sons. The Hebrew word almah can refer to a young woman, and the birth signaled that Judah’s immediate enemies would not prevail. Yet the promises surrounding this child were too great to be exhausted by an ordinary royal son born in the eighth century before Christ. That child was not truly “God with us.”

The prophecy receives its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. He alone was born of a virgin, and he alone truly deserves the name Immanuel. As the Son of God incarnate, he brings God’s own presence among us.

This theme frames Matthew’s entire Gospel. At the beginning, Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.” At the end, the risen Christ commissions his disciples to make disciples of all nations and promises, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). Through Christ and by his Spirit, God remains present with his people.

The Names Belong Together

Matthew uses parallel language to reveal the two names. Verse 21 says, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” Verse 23 says, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.” This verbal parallel shows that the names interpret one another.

Which comes first logically? Is he Immanuel so that he can be Jesus, or is he Jesus so that he can be Immanuel? In one sense, he must be Immanuel in order to be Jesus. He can save because he is the divine Son who entered the world from outside fallen humanity. Isaiah declares, “Besides me there is no savior” (Isa. 43:11), and, “There is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior” (Isa. 45:21). When the Lord saw that there was no one to save, “his own arm brought him salvation” (Isa. 59:16). Only God can save; therefore, only Immanuel can be Jesus.

In another sense, he is Jesus so that he may be Immanuel for us. Sin excludes us from the presence of the holy God. By shedding his blood, forgiving our sins, and renewing our hearts, Jesus brings us back into fellowship with God. He saves us so that God may dwell with us forever in the new creation.

Both directions are true. Because Jesus is God with us, he is qualified to save us. Because he saves us, he brings us into the presence of God. The two names are inseparably intertwined: the divine Son became incarnate to save his people from their sins and to be Immanuel, God with us forever.