Joseph a Just Man
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.” - Mathew 1:18
Most of the times we execute plan thinking we are on the right path only to fail at the end. When we fail, pain comes and takes over our hearts. This leads to stress and mental illness which affects our daily life for many years, sometimes causing death. If this is the case then we have to find a lasting solution to all our problems.
When an evil thought comes into our hearts, we don’t carry it out immediately. There is always unseen war in our mind. “Should I steal or not! It is not right, let me abort! No, it is alright, just go on!” Most often, we triumph over these thoughts and live an upright life. When these thoughts get into someone else and he fails to control them, we become judges and condemn them with passion.
This is hypocrisy! We should realize that we are all evil according to Genesis 6:5 and that no one does what is good. You might consider helping people or even having a good heart toward others is a good thing. This is wrong; the word of God says no one does what is good. This is because everything starts from the heart, and our hearts are evil in nature. Even that good you think of is as evil as prostitution and killing but only washed outwardly to appear angel-like behavior.
This was the nature of Pharisees and that why Jesus condemned them in every way. Mathew 23:27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which looks beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 in the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
This was Joseph’s type of life. He planned to divorce his wife secretly when he realized she was pregnant. The bible says “Joseph being a just man”. He was just by the observance of the law. He was just only by his sight. He considered his actions more righteous than those of Mary. This was just hypocrisy on his side. God wanted Joseph to be free from his own righteousness and He sent him angels in his dream to explain to him why Mary was pregnant since Jesus had to be born of the house of David.
The word of God had to come true. Joseph isn’t the only person under this deceit, we also live this way. We think we are good than others through observance of the law. By our good deeds, we become proud and need not associate with those who are morally decaying. We can never be justified to God through our actions because we are evil all the time Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Like Joseph, we have to come to terms with the reality that we need Jesus to make us Holy as the only way to be accepted by God. With our own effort we can never go to heaven, rather hell will be the only destination. Jesus sole purpose why he came to earth was to wash away our sins. Whether we have good or bad behavior, sin is the only thing that separates us from God. He came to bring us together so that we can share God’s greatness together with him in heaven. Accepting Jesus means believing he washed all your sins away and that you are Holy and Righteous just like him. When we realize this then we can comfortably go to heaven through his work ONLY.