- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
HIS NAME IS JESUS.
By J.C.Metcalfe.
Every hymnbook witnesses to the fact that the Name of Jesus has been the joy and wonder of His people down through the ages. There is Bernard of Clairvaux’ lovely hymn “Jesus, the very thought of Thee“, John Newton’s, “How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds”, Charles Wesley’s, “Jesus, the Name high over all”, Frederick Whitfield’s “There is a Name I love to hear“, Maria Noel’s, “At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow” and many others. The Name He bore on earth has been carried to the highest Heaven and is the believer’s most precious possession, but in a world of which Satan is prince it is hated. What was true of the Jewish rulers, that they commanded the apostles not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus, is equally the case of many rulers, political and religious, today. And yet His is the only Name “under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”.
Out of about 600 occasions when the name Jesus is used it is impossible to do more now than glance at a few significant pointers to the reason for His coming into the world. We see Him moving amongst people, touching and healing a leper (Matt. 8 v3), walking on the water and giving His impetuous disciple power to do the same (Matt. 14 v25-33). He fed the hungry multitudes, consciously using the Divine power which was His because of His compassion for their need (John 6 v5-14), cleansing the Temple of those who defiled it (Matt. 21 v12) and exercising so many acts of mercy and goodness that we can only repeat John’s final comment, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21 v25).
There are some references which we must not pass by because they point forward to the fulfilment of His purpose in living amongst us, and accepting the death of the Cross. Among the earliest verses of the New Testament we find the simple explanation of His Name, “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1 v21). It is interesting that Jesus is the New Testament counterpart of the name Joshua, who after the death of Moses, the representative of the Law, was commissioned to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land and to establish them there. The land was God’s gift to them, all they had to do was to enter it. So the One who went before us into that new life which is also the gift of God, purchased for us by His death the right to enter into possession of our promised inheritance.
John the Baptist saw this and said to his followers about Jesus, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1 v29 and 36). When an ardent hearer of His teaching professed his readiness to follow Jesus wherever He went, he was shown that the Saviour had no lasting home in this life. “Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’ ” (Matt. 8 v20). He Who created the world had no abiding-place in it. He was only on His way through it so that He might lead the way into the new life from above (John 3 v3-6). For this reason He continually instructed His disciples, “that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matt. 16 v21).
On one great occasion He was seen by Peter, James and John in the full splendour of Divine glory, a sight Peter could never forget (2 Peter 1 v16-18). In Luke’s account of this event we are told that the subject which He discussed with Moses and Elijah was ‘’His decease or exodus, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem”. When we turn to the account of the happenings at the Cross, we witness the deliberate accomplishment of this exodus. Again the terms used are such that do not describe the death of ordinary men. After hours of intense suffering, followed by the agony and thirst caused by crucifixion we read, “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the spirit” (Matthew 27 v50). It is left to John to tell us the word that was uttered in that loud cry, “Finished”. Here was not the last gasp of the martyr, but the triumphant proclamation of a completed redemption and a glorious exodus.
We close this particular section of our study with one or two selected extracts from John’s Gospel. In the fourth chapter there comes a moment when the bewildered woman, to whom the Lord Jesus had been giving such profound teaching at the side of the well said, “I know that Messiah, called Christ, is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us”. Note the reply Jesus gave her, “I who speak to you am He” (John 4 v25-26). During the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles, “Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink’ ” (John 7 v37).
When facing the angry questions of the priests He said, “ ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day: and he saw it and was glad’. ‘You are not yet fifty years old’, the Jews said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham !’ ‘I tell you the truth’, Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was, I am !’ “(John 8 v56-58). The reaction of the priests was to seek to stone Him for blasphemy, showing that they understood His claim, ‘’For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5 v18). Look at His defence of Mary, when she was accused of waste in anointing Him with the valuable perfume after He had raised Lazarus from the tomb, “ ‘Leave her alone’, Jesus replied, ‘It was intended that she should have saved this perfume for the day of my burial’ “ (John 12 v7). See once again the royal dignity with which He moved towards the Cross, “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. . . and began to wash his disciples’ feet”. (John 13 v3-5). And yet again before Pilate, “ ‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ Pilate said. ‘Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above’ “ (John 19 v10-11).
Finally we see the return of the Victor. “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’. After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord” (John 20 v19-20). So the atoning sacrifice was offered, the triumph over death accomplished and we are ready to move on to see Jesus continuing His royal progress through the remaining books of the New Testament.
In Acts 8 v35 we read that when Philip sought to explain Isaiah 53 to the Ethiopian nobleman, he “began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus”, the Suffering Servant, who by way of the Cross became the Man on the Throne of God. So we are not surprised that when Saul of Tarsus was blinded on the Damascus road his cry was, “Who are you, Lord?” and that he receives the answer, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”. He discovers that the hated Nazarene is now the Lord of Glory. For this reason he later lays down in Romans 10 v9 the basis of the Christian confession, “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”.
As one writer has expressed it, ‘the word Lord, is used instead of Jehovah in the Greek version of the Old Testament. To say Jesus is the Lord, is to acknowledge Him to be truly God. The name Jesus is used of the historical person who was born of the Virgin Mary, and to say that Jesus is Lord is to acknowledge that He is God come in human form. In other words, the confession includes the acknowledgement that He is truly God and truly man. It also means that no one can truly believe and openly confess that Jesus is God come in human form unless he is enlightened by the Spirit of God’. To be truly at one with God, Jesus must be given His rightful place. This passage should be compared with 1 John 5 v1, and especially with 1 John 2 v21-22, and 4 v1-3, where putting Jesus aside is ascribed to the direct influence of antichrist. 2 Corinthians 11 v1-15 underlines this same peril of receiving a humanistic picture of the man Jesus, instead of a glorious, living Saviour revealed to the heart by God Himself. Let us never forget that all truth is enshrined in the person of Jesus and for this reason Paul again writes, “You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4 v20-21).
No such study would be at all complete without the magnificent passage in Philippians 2 v5-11, which must be carefully and prayerfully read. It shows not only the path He trod for us, but also something of His glory, ending as it does with the thrilling promise, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’’.
The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of the failure of human nature to reach the God-given standard, but then adds, “But we see Jesus . . . crowned” (Heb. 2 v6-9). Later it lays down the one necessary aim of the Christian, “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus” (Heb. 12 v1-3). Then in the same chapter we are told that we have not come to the demands of the Law, which we are unable to keep, but “to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant”’ (Heb. 12 v18-24), and we cannot do better than to end by quoting the magnificent benediction, “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen”. (Heb. 13 v20-21).
From: ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’.