The Name of Jesus Christ

 All scripture references, unless otherwise noted, are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. The Hebrew and Greek meaning of the words mentioned are from Strong's Hebrew Greek Dictionary.

I have been much in thought lately about the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It would seem that in our anxiousness to be sure we give credence to Him as God that we lose sight of the fact that the great God robed Himself in flesh to save us. I believe that this is what the prophet meant in Isaiah 9:6 when he said, "For 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, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." It's almost as if we were afraid to mention the  humanity of the Lord Jesus. Please note the phrase, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given..." He could not be a child or a son without a father, and His Father was God. This was the revelation given to Apostle Peter when he said in Matthew 16:16 "...Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." The Lord Jesus responded and, "...said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (see Matthew 16:17)  The Lord Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:24, "God is a Spirit..." If God is a Spirit and cannot die, then He had to come in the  flesh so He could die. The Son of God is the Father, it seems somewhat contradictory doesn't it. Yet Isaiah 9:6 seems to say that very thing!

The Lord Jesus told the Jews in John 8:58, "...Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." But if God is a spirit and Jesus was a man, how could He say to the Jews "Before Abraham was, I am," certainly not as the man. The Jews saw the man, they did not see nor believe that Jesus was God or the Son of God. The situation was that He was the Spirit of God manifested as a man. (See 1st Timothy 3:16) Because the Jews didn't understand that in their midst was the fulfilment of Isaiah 7:14, (which speaks of a virgin conceiving and bringing forth a son who would be called Immanuel or God with us) the Bible says in John 8:59,  "Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." The Bible says in John 12:39  "Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." It was God's plan that as a man the Lord Jesus should be rejected and put to death by the Jewish nation that God's will of saving the world should be brought to pass. But I digress, this posting is about the name of the Lord!

God, as a Spirit, said on numerous occasions such as Deuteronomy 12:5,  "But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come..." and in 1st Kings 5:2-3,  "And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet," and others of such like. The last place God chose to put His name was in the Lord Jesus. In Acts 4:10-12 the Bible says, "...Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." 

The Man Christ Jesus said in John 5:43, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." This is the same God who said in Deuteronomy 12:5 that He would "put his name there..."  and "...his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come..." Friend why do you wait? Repent and be baptized in Jesus name as they did in the Bible in Acts 2:38 to have your sins forgiven and let the Almighty God put His name in your life. The Bible says that we are the temple of God (see 1st Corinthians 3:16) and God wants to dwell in both you and me.