The Name of the Lord Jesus

Matthew 1:21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

This is the first of 144 references to the name of Christ in the New Testament. The word “name” (Greek “noma”) occurs only about 95 times when referring to any or all other names. This fact is itself a sort of commentary on Philippians 2:9: “God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.”

In biblical times, a person’s name expressed the character or attributes desired for a child by his or her parents. The reason for the name “Jesus,” which means “Jehovah saves” or simply “salvation,” was given by the angel: “He shall save his people from their sins.” There is only one Savior, “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); but His name does save! “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).

Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. Those who do receive Christ are thenceforth associated with His name—and therefore with His person and work of redemptive salvation. First, they are to be baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”. Romans 6:4 “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” They are then to order their lives in a way that honors His name. “Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19). Jesus said in John 8:11, “Go and sin no more.” The Apostle Paul clarifies in 2 Corinthians 1:12 “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God.”

He has given many gracious promises of answered prayer if we pray in His name, “that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” (John 15:16). Yet, the Apostle James explains in James 4:2-3 “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” When the desire of our hearts aligns with the desire of God’s heart, then God will give us “whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name”. 

Blessings in Christ’s name.