God’s Word for You – Luke 1:31 The name of Jesus

GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 1:31

31 Listen! You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.

We know that Joseph also received a message from an angel about the coming child, but that was sometime later (Matthew 1:18-21). At this moment, the message was for Mary alone.

The name of Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew word Joshua, which means “The Lord Saves,” or even “the Lord is the Savior.” At least four Old Testament men had this name: Joshua, Moses’ assistant who became the leader of Israel when they first entered Canaan (Joshua 1:1), Joshua of Beth Shemesh, who owned the field where the cart holding the ark of the covenant stopped when it was returned to Israel by the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:14-18), Joshua the city governor (mayor) of Jerusalem in the days of King Josiah (2 Kings 23:8), and Joshua the high priest at the time of Haggai and Zechariah (Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 3:1).

The name of Jesus saves. Why is this? It’s because we are saved through the gospel, in word and sacrament, and the name of Jesus is the gospel in its simplest form. When an unbeliever hears the name of Jesus, it is merely a name. But when someone has heard the message of forgiveness and salvation, all through the love and sacrifice of Jesus, then the name of Jesus is the reference point for all of our faith. All the names and titles of God tell us about God, but there is a special significance to Jesus’ name because it is our direct connection to his work on our behalf.

So we believe in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23). Proclaiming and confessing our faith in his name is a form of worship (Hebrews 13:15). We give glory to his name with our lives (2 Thessalonians 1:12). “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). In the end, at the resurrection, “at the name of the Lord Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:10), and we will stand before God’s throne, “justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). In John’s Revelation, everyone in heaven is depicted with the name of Jesus on our foreheads (Rev. 14:1; 22:4), which doesn’t mean we will have tattoos or brands, but that it will be clear to any and all that we belong to Christ and to no other.

God also invites us to pray in Jesus’ name. This is a privilege we should never forget. Jesus himself said, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13-14). And we also invite God into our worship: “For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them” (Matthew 18:20).

God could have given his Son any name at all, and we would appreciate it. The name he chose was ideal and fitting because of its meaning, “The Lord is the Savior” or “The Lord Saves,” and so within his very name, our Lord brings salvation. It is not our choice or our own worthiness that saves us, but rather God’s sovereign choice and the worthiness of his Son that has accomplished everything for us, and in our place. Remember that whenever you use or speak his name. And remember, too, the meaning of the Second Commandment:

We should fear and love God that we do not use his name to curse, swear, lie, or deceive, or use witchcraft, but call upon God’s name in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

Note: We should add a comment about the name of Jesus as it appears in our liturgical art, especially in the paraments and other decorations in our churches. We often see the letters IHΣ, IHS, or IHC. These are Greek, not English, letters, and they are the first three letters of Jesus’ name in Greek: iota, eta, and sigma. In Greek, his name is pronounced yesu, and depending on its position in a sentence, it can be spelled in a number of different ways, with our without an article (Greek uses an article where we sometimes might omit it in English). As the subject (nominative case), it is Yesous (ὁ ᾽Ιησοῦς, Luke 4:4). When it indicates possession or some other relationship (genitive case), it is Yesu (τοῦ᾽Ιησοῦ, Luke 5:19). When it is the indirect object of a sentence (dative case) it is Yesou (technically Yeso-o, τῷ ᾽Ιησοῦ, Luke 6:11), or sometimes Yesoi (τῷ ᾽Ιησοῖ, Deut 3:21). When it is a direct object or the subject of certain verbal forms (accusative case) it is Yesoun (τoν ᾽Ιησοῦν, Luke 5:12). Finally, when someone calls to Jesus (the vocative case), it is once again Yesous (ὁ ᾽Ιησοῦς, cp. Zechariah 3:8). Since all of these are spelled in different ways, the early Christians adopted only the root word (the first three letters) as a symbol in worship, which can be spelled IHS, IHC, or even IHΣ.

Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota

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