The angel Gabriel gives the reason why Christ should bear this name when he announces to Joseph, Matt. 1:21: “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” This name we must study with diligence, and carefully remember that this Child is called Jesus because He is a Savior who delivers from the severest and greatest misery, namely, from sin, and not from the insignificant troubles and petty anxieties which this life has in store for this or that individual, and which can but affect our body, our possessions, or some other temporal matter. God has instituted other means by which such perplexities as these are solved or averted. He has given us rulers and authorities to protect and defend their subjects against lawlessness; He has appointed parents to support and to educate their children; He has given physicians to advise us and assist us in our bodily infirmities, etc. These, however, are all miserable helpers compared with Him who is a Savior and can save His people from sin. He who would possess this Child as his Savior, as Jesus, must ever remember that He is a Helper, not chiefly in the concerns of this life, which are otherwise provided for, as we have stated, but above all a Savior from sin and death unto eternal life. For where sin no longer rules, there death must also yield up his power. (Luther’s House Postil, Sermon for the 2nd Sermon for New Year, Volume 1, p. 142-143)