The Gospel according to Joseph of Nazareth

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

— Matthew 1:25

In the holy family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Jesus reigns supreme, as He should. Mary gets a lot of press, though. But Joseph, poor Joseph, gets the short end of the stick. And while three Gospels virtually ignore him, the Gospel according to Matthew tells the brief, brave, and beautiful story of the Gospel according to Joseph.

The Gospel according to Joseph is about grace. Luck is good, it can single you out and make you a big winner of a short-term prize. I say short-term because luck, like money and material things it brings, eventually runs out. Grace is much better. Grace means gift from God. Grace means God has chosen you, among the billions of people who have ever inhabited planet Earth, for an important purpose that will gain you a great prize of eternal value.

Joseph of Nazareth got his part in the original Christmas play, not by luck, not by his own works, but by the grace of God. Ultimately, it was by God’s sovereign grace that Joseph was chosen by God to be a descendant of King David, to be born and raised by faithful Jewish parents, to become a believer in his own right, to meet a beautiful little Jewish girl named Mary, and to become the earthly father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Grace makes Joseph, and anyone for that matter, a part of the Gospel story. Such grace is an eternal blessing that comes with great earthly responsibility. How would Joseph respond to this amazing grace?

The Gospel according to Joseph is about faith. We do not know a lot about Joseph, but one thing we do know, he was “a just man.” “Just” is a big word in the Bible. It literally means “right” or “righteous,” or, more specifically, to be right with Almighty God and righteous in His sight.

One of the greatest doctrines of the Christian faith is justification by faith. It is poured out in the Old Testament and mixed into the cement of the New Testament. “The righteous shall live by his faith (ref. Habakkuk 2:4 and Romans 1:17).”

Notice that just people, saved people, people right with God, do not just have faith, they “live by faith.” Faith is not a mere human decision about God, it is a gift from God that produces a lifestyle of faithfulness to God. When faith is real it guides the mind, tempers the heart, and frees the will to do God’s will.

Consider Joseph’s faith. At first, he could not wrap his mind around Mary’s story. Frankly, it broke his heart. What would he do, how would he know and do God’s will?

Joseph gathered God’s word from “an angel of the Lord” in a midnight dream, although today God normally communicates His word to us in the completed Bibles we hold in our hands. Mary’s story was actually confirmed by both, the dream and the word of God (ref. Isaiah 9:6).

So it was by grace that Joseph was brought into this picture in the first place. Then, by faith, Joseph demonstrates how grace empowers faithful, often difficult, obedience.

The Gospel according to Joseph is about Christ. Jewish culture called for fathers to name the children. The Heavenly Father revealed His choice of name to the earthly father. Joseph, recipient of grace, man of faith, proclaimed the name.

“And he called His name Jesus.” “Jesus” means “God saves.” From what? “He will save His people from their sins.”

All we know about Joseph is that he had a real, important, eternal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was real to Him, the most important thing in his life, and his life is now eternal in the Heavens with the Great Shepherd, whom he shepherded through the early years of His life. The main thing anyone should know about any Christians is their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the Gospel according to Joseph. God has come to us, in “Jesus,” in Christ, and this is grace. We can come to God, become “his people,” through “Jesus,” through Christ, and this is faith. And “Jesus,” because of who He is and what He has done in His life, death, and resurrection, “will save His people from their sins.” This is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in “Jesus” Christ alone.