Names of God – Jesus

Names of God – Jesus

I realize I said that El Shaddai would be the last Name of God that I was going to write about, but I would be remiss in leaving out this name. “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11.

I grew up singing a very simple, yet profound, chorus by Bill Gaither called There’s Something About That Name, it goes:

“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

There’s just something about that name

Master, Savior, Jesus

Like the fragrance after the rain

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

Let all heaven and earth proclaim

Kings and kingdoms shall all pass away

But there’s something about that name.”

Jesus means “Jehovah the Savior”, and as we learned before, Jehovah means I Am, so the name Jesus actually means, “I Am the Savior”. One of the first things we must realize is that His name isn’t Jesus Christ…Christ isn’t His last name. Jesus is His name, and Christ, meaning Messiah, is his title. Technically, He should be called Jesus, the Christ. The name of Jesus is only used in the New Testament, and yet, it is used 1,477 times, while His title, Christ, is used another 537 times. I don’t want to bore you with numbers, I just want you to realize that His name and title are used over 2,000 times in 27 books, that’s an average of almost 75 times per book.

I urge all of you to read Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Christ. In this book Lee, a former investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune, interviews experts from the fields of science, philosophy, and history about the evidence for Christ. I love this book because it’s full of facts that, first of all, prove that Jesus wasn’t some made up deity, but that He really existed, and secondly it shows Him as the Christ.

But, back to the name. When Mary conceived Him, the angel told Joseph, “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21. Going back to that first passage I mentioned. Notice that it says that God gave Him a name that was above every name. Okay, I’m going to say this one more time. All religions do NOT lead to the same place. We are not all on different roads to the same God. God gave Jesus a name that was above every other name! His name is above Buddha, His name is above Mohamed, and it goes on to say, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Did you get that? Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord…EVERY…that includes Buddha and Mohamed, and every other false god there ever was will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that will glorify God the Father. Acts 4:12 tells us, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” There is no other name that will save you! Romans 10:9 tells us, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;” And, then it goes on to say in verse 13, “for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” Salvation only comes through Christ. The world wants us to be all-inclusive, but the truth remains that those other religions will not save your soul.

In today’s society, people keep saying that Christians aren’t tolerant of other religions, but the problem is that they have redefined tolerance. If I tolerate another religion, that means I agree to disagree and go on with my life, it does not mean that I give validity to their belief…that’s lunacy. If I say that all religions are right, then I have just nullified the death of Christ. In fact, Galatians 2:21 says, “I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” So, other religions aside, even if I try to get to heaven by keeping God’s law, I have nullified the death of Christ. Hebrews 10:29 puts it this way, “Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be one of those people. I don’t want to insult and disdain the Holy Spirit. You see, God loves us so much, that He gave His only Son to die on the cross for us. Jesus, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, died in our place, and to give validity to other religions is a great insult. You see, Buddha did not die for me, Mohamed did not die for me, in fact, Mary did not die for me! Jesus, the Christ…the Messiah was the only one worthy to die for me. He was God in the flesh, He came to earth and lived a sinless life, then He died on the cross. He was the perfect sacrifice. But wait, it doesn’t end there. Three days later, He overcame death and the grave. He rose from the dead and was seen by hundreds of people. This is what I’m trying to say, there is only one name given under heaven, by which we MUST be saved…Jesus!

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there’s just something about that name.