The Name of Jesus
THE NAME OF JESUS,—GOD-GIVEN. The first angel, who appeared to the shepherds, gave them this message, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." That word "Saviour" reminds us of what the angel of the Lord said to Joseph, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His Name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." The condition of Joseph, when he heard this Name for the first time, is not altogether without instruction. The angel spake to him "in a dream." That Name is so soft and sweet that it breaks no man's rest, but rather yields a peace unrivalled,—"the peace of God." With such a dream, Joseph's sleep was even more blessed than his waking. The Name of Jesus has evermore this power, for, to those who know its preciousness, it unveils a glory brighter than dreams have ever imaged. Under its wondrous spell, young men see visions, and old men dream dreams; and these do not mock them, as ordinary dreams do, but they are faithful and true prophecies of what shall surely come to pass. This Name brings before our minds a vision of glory, in the latter days, when Jesus shall reign from pole to pole; and yet another vision of glory unutterable when His people shall be with Him where He is, and shall reign with Him for ever and ever. The Name of Jesus was comforting at the first mention of it by the angel of the Lord, because of the words with which it was accompanied; for they were meant to remove perplexity and anxiety from Joseph's mind. The angel said to him, "Fear not;" and, truly, no name can banish fear like the Name of Jesus; it is the beginning of hope, and the end of despair.
It is worthy of note that the angel commenced his message to the shepherds in a similar way: "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." Let the sinner but hear of "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," and, straightway, he hopes to live, he rises out of the deadly lethargy of his hopelessness, and, looking upward, he sees a reconciled God, and fears no longer. This Name of Jesus appears to us even more full of rare delights when we meditate upon the infinite preciousness of the glorious Person to whom it was assigned. Ah, here is a Jonathan's wood dripping with honey from every bough, and he that tasteth it shall have his eyes enlightened! We have no common Saviour, for neither earth nor Heaven could produce His equal. At the time when the Name was given to Him by God, Jesus had not been seen by mortal eyes, for He lay as yet concealed from human gaze; but soon He came forth, having been born of Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost,—the matchless Holy Child Jesus. He bore our nature, but not our corruption. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but yet in His flesh there was no sin. He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." This Holy One is the Son of God, and yet He is the Son of man; this surpassing excellence of nature makes His Name most precious.
THE, NAME OF JESUS,—PRIZED BY HIS PEOPLE. The Name of Jesus, chosen by God for His Son, is also given to Him by all who truly know Him, and they give it to Him heartily, zealously, boldly. All of us call Him Jesus if we really know Him, and we are resolved to publish His Name abroad as long as we live. If He was Jesus in the cradle, what is He now that He is exalted in the highest heavens? As Emmanuel, God. with us, His very Incarnation made Him Jesus, the Saviour of men; but what shall we say of Him now that, in addition to His Incarnation, we have His Atonement; and beside His Atonement, His Resurrection; and beyond that, His Ascension; and, to crown all, His perpetual Intercession?
How grandly does the title of Saviour befit Him now that He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them! If in the arms of His mother He was the Saviour, what is He now that He sitteth upon the throne of God? If wrapped in swaddling-bands He was Jesus, the Saviour, what is He now that the heavens have received Him? If in the workshop of Nazareth, and sitting in the temple among the doctors, He was Jesus, the Saviour, what is He now that His infancy and childhood are over, and He is exalted far above all principalities and powers? If He was Jesus when on the cross, presenting Himself as an offering for His people, what is He now that He hath by one sacrifice perfected for ever them that are set apart? What is He now that He sits at the right hand of God, expecting till His enemies be made His footstool?
Let all who trust in Him unite in calling our Lord by this tender human Name of Jesus. Did He not call all believers by the endearing titles of mother, and sister, and brother? Then we, too, will call Him Jesus.
"Jesus, Name all names above, Jesus best and nearest;
Jesus, fount of perfect love, Holiest, tenderest, dearest:
Jesus, source of grace completed, Jesus holiest, sweetest;
Jesus, Saviour all Divine, Thine's the Name, and only Thine." THE NAME OF JESUS,—COMMON, YET UNIQUE. The name Jesus was not at all uncommon among the Jews. Josephus mentions no less than twelve persons who bore that name. Salvation of a certain kind was so longed for by the Jews that their eagerness was seen even in the choice they made of their children's names. Their little ones were, because of their hopes concerning them, called saviours, yet they were not really saviours.
How common are nominal saviours! "Lo, here," say some, "is a saviour!" "Lo, there," cry others, "is another saviour!" All these have the name, but not the power; and now, our Lord Jesus Christ has claimed the title exclusively for Himself. His Name shall be called Jesus, for He alone is a Prince and a Saviour, and He only saves His people from their sins.
Other so-called saviours do but mock the hopes of mankind; they promise fairly, but they utterly deceive all who rely upon them. But this Holy Child, this blessed, glorious "God with us," has truly brought us salvation, and He saith, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." This Jesus of Nazareth, the King of kings, and Lord of Lords, is the one and only Saviour. He, and none but He, shall save His people. He, and not another, shall save them by His own act and deed. Singly and unaided, He shall save His people. Personally, and not by another, in His own Name, and on His own behalf, He shall, by Himself, purge away His people's sins.
He shall do all the work, and leave none of it undone; He shall begin it, carry it on, and complete it; and therefore is His Name called Jesus, because He shall fully, entirely, and perfectly, save His people from their sins. The name Jesus has been, in a minor sense, applied to others aforetime; but now, henceforth, no one else may wear it, since there is no other Saviour but Christ the Lord; "neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." THE NAME OF JESUS INDICATES HIS WORK.
"Thou shalt call His Name JESUS: forHe shall save His people from their sins." He is not called Jesus because He is our Exemplar, though indeed He is perfection itself, and we long to tread in His footsteps; but He is called Jesus because He has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
He is Christ, too, or the Anointed, but then He is Christ Jesus; that is to say, it is as a Saviour that He is anointed. He is nothing at all if He is not a Saviour. He is anointed to this very end. His very Name is a sham if He does not save His people from their sins.
It is a gracious but very startling fact that our Lord's connection with His people lies in the direction of their sins. This is amazing condescension. He is called Saviour in connection with His people, but it is in reference to their sins, because it is from their sins that they need to be saved. If they had never sinned, they would never have required a Saviour, and there would have been no Name of Jesus known upon earth. That is a wonderful text in Galatians i. 4,—did you ever meditate upon it?—"Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." It is true, as Martin Luther says, He never gave Himself for our righteousness, but He did give Himself for our sins. Sin is a horrible evil, a deadly poison, yet it is this which gives Jesus His title when He overcomes it. What a wonder this is! The first link between my soul and Christ is, not my goodness, but my badness; not my merit, but my misery; not my standing, but my falling; not my riches, but my need. He comes to visit His people, yet not to admire their beauties, but to remove their deformities; not to reward their virtues, but to forgive their sins.
O ye sinners,—I mean you real sinners,—not you who call yourselves by that name simply because you are told that is what you are, but you who really feel yourselves to be guilty before God, here is good news for you! O you self-condemned sinners, who feel that, if you are ever to get salvation, Jesus must bring it to you, and be the beginning and the end of it, I pray you to rejoice in this dear, this precious, this blessed Name, for Jesus has come to save you, even you! Go to Him as sinners, call Him "Jesus," and say to Him, "O Lord Jesus, be Jesus to me, save me, for I need Thy salvation!" Doubt not that He will fulfil His own Name, and exhibit His saving power in you. Only confess to Him your sin, and He will save you from it. Only believe in Him, and He will be your salvation.
What does Paul mean when he says "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"? He means, first, that Jesus came to save them from the punishment of their sin. Their sin shall not be laid to their charge, so that they shall be condemned for it, if they do but trust in Him who was punished in the place of those who were really guilty. That is one thing that Christ Jesus came into the world to do for sinners.
He came, also, to save them from the pollution of their sin, so that, though their mind has been debased, and their taste degraded, and their conscience deadened by sin, He came to take that evil away, and to give them a tender heart, and a hatred of sin, and a love for holiness, and a desire for purity. That is a great work for Him to accomplish, yet Jesus came to do even more than that.
He came, also, to take away our tendencies to sin, those tendencies which are born in us, and which grow up with us. He came by His Spirit to eradicate them, to pluck them up by the roots, and to put within us another principle, which shall fight with the old principle of sin, and overcome it, till Christ alone shall reign, and every thought shall be brought into captivity to Him.
Further, Jesus came to save His people from apostasy. He "came into the world to save sinners," in the fullest possible sense, by keeping them faithful to the end, so that they shall not go back unto perdition. This is a very important part of the work of Divine grace. To start a man right, is but little; but to keep that man holding on even to the end, is a triumph of almighty grace, and this is what Christ has come to do.
"Christ Jesus came into the world," not to half save you, not to save you in this, direction or that, and in. this light or that, but to save you from your sin, to save you from an angry temper, to save you from pride, to save you from strong drink, to save you from covetousness, to save you from every evil thing, "and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." This is a glorious truth, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." He came to Bethlehem's manger, and afterwards to Calvary's cross, with this as His one business, that He might save sinners. Is He not able to save? Is He not just the Saviour that we need? God and yet man in one adorable Person, He is able to sympathize because He is man, and He is able to save because He is God. Blessed God-man, Jesus Christ, Thou art able and willing to save me, and Thou art able and willing to save all other sinners who will believe in Thee!