Today we begin 2024 by the way we reckon time in this country. Happy New Year. I pray you will have a new year blessed by God in which you grow in your faith and relationship with Him.

In the church year calendar, this is Octave, or the eighth day of Christmas. According to God’s instructions given to Abraham (Gen. 17:10 ff.), it was on the eighth day that all male children were to be circumcised. This marked them as God’s chosen people, the ones through whom He would bring the Messiah to the world. And in the time of Jesus, it had become the custom to name a child on the day He was circumcised. We find this to be the case for Jesus and John the Baptist. So this day is observed in our church as “The Circumcision and The Name of Jesus.”

Luke 2:21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.

Throughout Advent and Christmas you probably encountered a lot of different names for our Lord: Unto us a child is born! Unto us a Son is given! And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince Of Peace, Son of David, Son of God, Prophet, Priest, and King; Root of Jesse, Key of David, Rock of Ages, Cornerstone, Dayspring dawning from on high, Light of the world, Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End; the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Bread of Life, Redeemer, Emmanuel, God With Us, A Savior Which Is Christ The Lord.

All of those names are descriptive and revealing. Yet as lengthy a list as that may be, that is not all of the names given our Lord in the Scriptures. The most obvious omission from that list would be the name most familiar to us, that name that sounds so sweet in a believer’s ear: Jesus. That name is the most revealing and the most descriptive, for it tells us exactly who He is. The angel, in telling Joseph to name Him this, put it this way:

You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins  (Matt. 1:21). 

The name Jesus, or YESHUA in Hebrew, literally means “Savior.” His name tells us exactly who He is and why He came to this earth. He did what we had not done. His life was in total compliance with the laws that we so regularly break. And because He was without sin, because He did everything required by God, He was able to offer His perfect life as the only acceptable sacrifice for sin. He was executed, although He had done no wrong. And through this brutal and horrible act, He saved you from eternal death. He rose again from death to tell you that the saving was finished. By accepting and believing in Him, you are truly saved from your sins and from death.

If you believe this, and remember this in this New Year that begins today, it will truly be a Happy New Year.