When my son was born, he already had a surname ‘Hughes’ and a given name ‘Isaiah’ not to mention his middle name ‘Michael’ which was his father’s name. Now that he is two years old he has developed a name for himself in the nursery at our church. We call him names too, such as; buddy, the boy, honey, sweetie, bub and little guy. When he is in trouble my wife, in the classic mother style, uses his full name, “Isaiah Michael Hughes!” I must admit, hearing my name in there, in that tone, makes me feel like I am in trouble too.

A name is a descriptive term whether it is something you are called, something you represent, or something you are known for. When I was a new believer I took a class on Christian basics. In this class, while studying the person of Jesus Christ, I remember the teacher telling us distinctly that “Lord Jesus Christ” was not Jesus’ first, middle and last name. Instead Lord was His title, Jesus was His name and Christ was His position. This made sense to me, and that probably would have been the end of the discussion. That is, until a woman from India raised her hand and shed some new light on the subject, at least in my mind.

When the teacher called on her she explained that ‘title and position’ were often equal to ‘name’ in her understanding. That often times, in her country, people were named, not only after their family, but sometimes they were named after the job that they preformed, or the office that they held. It didn’t take much for me to realize that this is pretty common all over the world. Surnames could be ‘Michelson’ meaning son of Michael or ‘Hughes’ which is Scottish for son of Hugh. There are other types of surnames such as ‘Smith’ meaning you were from a family of blacksmiths or ‘Butler’ meaning your family was in the trade of stewardship. I know a guy who’s last name is Slaughter, I often wondered what the origin of that name was. Relating all of this back to our Lord Jesus Christ, I realized, that though in our ‘American’ understanding of the word ‘name’ these would not be classified as His first, middle, and last names. However, in His culture, they were equivalent to ‘name’, but they carried the full weight of their meaning as titles of authority.

I remember sitting in that class as my mind swirled with so many things that had confused me in the past. In fact, a scripture passage we had just studied in that class came to mind. John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. NKJV(emphasis mine). This passage had always bothered me in the past, because many religions use the name of Jesus in their teachings. They would say, “we are Christians, because we believe in Jesus Christ.” I was beginning to understand that believing in ‘His name’, and believing in a historical figure named Jesus, were two very different things. Another passage that came to mind was Matthew Chapter 1 vs. 23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."NKJV (emphasis mine). Here is a beautiful fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. There is only one problem, they didn’t name Him Immanuel, they named Him Jesus. This always bothered me as a kid. Of course a few verses earlier the angel instructed Mary to name Him Jesus, for the specific reason, that He would save the people from their sins. Interestingly enough, the name Jesus means God is salvation.

To solve these mysteries I turned to the Strong’s Concordance and Zodioties Word Study of the New Testament Greek. Both sources told me that the Greek word is onama pronounced on-am-ah in the English. I learned that this word meant; surname, authority, or character, in the Strong’s, and further that it could mean title, reputation, or person in Zodioties. It all became clear, He wasn’t to be named Immanuel, but rather His authority would be that He is “God with us” Matthew 1:23. And that they were condemned already because they did not believe in the authority of the only begotten Son of God. That is, that He was “God with us” God in the flesh (See John1:1 &14).

This also brought many other passages to light. It turns out that the Hebrew word ‘shem’ meaning ‘name’ has a similar definition. According to Strong’s Concordance it can mean; position, honor, authority, character, fame, infamous, renowned or name. This brings Isaiah 9:6 to life, which, prophesying of Jesus, reads; “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 NKJV(emphasis mine). The word translated ‘name’ here obliviously speaks of title, authority and character. That Jesus will be Wonderful, the Counselor, The Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This also brought up questions about practices concerning prayer. It is interesting that we often end our prayers with the phrase ‘in Jesus name, amen’ or ‘I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen’, as if this is some sort of send button to make sure my prayer is delivered to the right address. I don’t have a problem with this practice, but I think it misses the point. We do it, no doubt, because of passages like John 16:26 where Jesus instructs His disciples to ask in His name. Have you ever noticed that no prayers in the Bible end with “in Jesus Christ name, amen”? The reason being is that they understood that Jesus was telling them to pray in His authority. The same authority that gives us the right as Children of God to come boldly before His throne of grace for His mercy and to obtain grace and help in time of need, see Hebrews 4:16. It is not so much that I say my prayer is in ‘Jesus name’ as much as it is whether or not I have accepted Him for who He said He is, and believed Him for His promise of salvation that He offers through His sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary. Ultimately, faith in His ‘name’ gives me the authority to enter the Father’s presence, nothing else.

In the Old Testament in the account of the Burning Bush, Moses is confronted by God, who tells Moses to go and deliver the children of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh and from the bondage they suffer in the land of Egypt. We will pick up the story in Exodus 3:13-15 NKJV,” Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'” Here, God declares this to be “His Name” a name that was so Holy that the Jews would refuse to say it out loud. Orthodox Jews to this day will say, ‘Ha shem’ meaning simply ‘the name’ or ‘Ado shem’ meaning The Lord’s Name, lest they be guilty of blasphemy. It is interesting that Jesus would use this same phrase to describe Himself, in John 8:58, “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM.” It was because of this claim of being ‘God by Name’ that the Jews, who heard Him say this, tried to kill Him for the sin of blasphemy. Many times Jesus would use this name ‘I AM’ concerning Himself, John 8:24 & 28 and finally in John 18:5&6.

Remember John 3:16-18? It tells us that if we believe on Jesus we will have everlasting life, but if we don’t believe then we are condemned already… why? Because we did not believe in the name, authority, title, and person, of the only begotten Son of God. Jesus was and is ‘God with us’. It is neat how God reveals these things to us, but you don’t have to know Hebrew and Greek to understand all of this. It says in John 1:1-3 &14 NKJV, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Vs14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is one of the most beautiful descriptions of Jesus and it clearly says, He was with God and He Was God.

We live in a day of deception, there are many who claim that Jesus was not God, the “Word who dwelt among us”, that He was not “God with us”. If we do not believe in the Jesus Christ, who was creator of all things, and God in the flesh, we don’t believe in the Jesus of the Bible. And if the Jesus we believe in is not the Jesus of the Bible, then we don’t know Him. "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Matthew 7:22 &23 NKJV. If you read last month’s article you will remember that those who don’t know Him are cast into outer darkness.

The good news is that you can know Him, you only need to believe what He said about Himself and believe that He died on the cross for your sins, was buried and on the 3^rd day rose from the grave, conquering sin and death. If you put your trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation, the bible says, you will be saved. Don’t wait, turn from your sin to God. Read your bible and believe what you read. Your eternity depends on it!