A More Excellent Name

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
[Hebrews 1:1-4 NKJV]

Mosaic of Jesus Christ in Hagia Sofia in Istanbul (detail)

As the song says there is no other name but the name of Jesus. These first few verses in the Epistle to the Hebrews do not mention Jesus by that name. In fact, the name ‘Jesus’ does not appear in the book until Chapter 2, verse 9, which begins “But we see Jesus...” He is given several other names in the preceding verses, but when we see Him, we see Jesus, because it was Jesus, who became The Christ, who is the conduit — the intercessor — between man and God.

In the verses from 1:1 to 2:9 we see seven (the number representing completeness, wholeness or perfection) names --

1. His Son
2. Heir of all things
3. The brightness of His Glory
4. The express image of His person
5. The firstborn
6. The son of man
7. Jesus

This introduction to Hebrews begins very much in the same way as John’s Gospel, with God’s perspective, gradually focussing in on man’s place in things, which is as it should be; but we should not forget that names represent the nature of the bearer of that name, especially in The Bible, and it is Jesus nature — His name means “Jehovah is salvation” — that we who follow Him have as our hope — to be like Him; to be complete in Him. Hallelujah!

Friday 12th February 2021

The reason there is so much going off on side issues is because of spiritual insubordination that refuses to wed itself to Jesus Christ and His Word.

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