Eclectic Christian

Christ on the throne

By Michael Bell

This is Part 10, of a multi-part series looking at the deity of Christ. Here are the links to the Introduction and Table of Contents.

In Judaism, someone’s name carries much more significance than it does in Western thought. For example an introduction to Judaism tells us that:

In Jewish thought, a name is not merely an arbitrary designation, a random combination of sounds. The name conveys the nature and essence of the thing named. It represents the history and reputation of the being named.

This is not as strange or unfamiliar a concept as it may seem at first glance. In English, we often refer to a person’s reputation as his “good name.” When a company is sold, one thing that may be sold is the company’s “good will,” that is, the right to use the company’s name. The Hebrew concept of a name is very similar to these ideas.

An example of this usage occurs in Ex. 3:13-22: Moses asks God what His “name” is. Moses is not asking “what should I call you;” rather, he is asking “who are you; what are you like; what have you done.” That is clear from God’s response. God replies that He is eternal, that He is the God of our ancestors, that He has seen our affliction and will redeem us from bondage…

Because a name represents the reputation of the thing named, a name should be treated with the same respect as the thing’s reputation. For this reason, God’s Names, in all of their forms, are treated with enormous respect and reverence in Judaism.

We should then understand that what the Bible says about the name of Jesus is something that we should pay very close attention to, as it is something that the audience of the day would have paid very close attention to as well. Let us first look at what Paul had to say:

Philippians 2:9 (NIV) – “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.”

What is the highest place, and what is the name above every name? If it is the place of God and the name of God, does this mean that God the Father is restoring to Christ to the equality that he had with the Father before the incarnation? This seems to be the case as the equality we see in verse 9 parallels the equality we see in verse 6. The idea that Christ has received God name is in fact stated by Christ himself.

John 17:11 (NIV) – “…Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you have me – so that they may be one as we are one.”

As discussed earlier, this concept of Christ sharing God’s name is not merely a symbolic thing, but one that shows that Christ has God’s attributes, his eternity and his power.

As discussed in a previous post that is why it is at the name of Jesus that every knee will bow and tongue confess, just as it will bow and confess to God.

There is another very significant scripture that speaks of God’s name being shared by both Father and Son which we should not overlook.

Matthew 28:29 (NIV) – “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Notice how the verse uses “name” and not “names”. Matthew, writing primarily to a Jewish audience, would have been the one most likely to realize the significance of what Jesus was saying. If the original quotation was about three completely different beings, he would have said either “the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” or “the name of the Father and the name of the Son and the name of the Holy Spirit.” The fact that neither of the these two options were chosen, was not as a result of bad grammar, but that Matthew recognized that Christ was referring to one name of one being revealed in three persons. The name above every name is God (in Hebrew Yahweh or Jehovah), and this name is shared by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus Christianity talks of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, not three distinct entities, but one!

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.