For the Sake of the Name Jesus Has and Is the Name Before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prays: “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:11). The Gospels are clear that the name given to Mary’s child was “Jesus”—and that is not God’s name. The idea is that the very essence of the Father was in Jesus. They were one. For John, ministering “for the sake of the name” meant spreading the news of Jesus. By using this simple phrase, he linked Jesus with the name of the Old Testament—the very presence of God Himself. God’s name had come “in the flesh” (John 1:1–3, 14; 1 John 4:2; 2 John 7). It now abides in us—the children of God in the form of the Spirit (1 John 3:24; 4:4).
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 11:10:44 +0000