Happy Name-of-Jesus Day!

January 1, 2009 by 7 Comments

Also Happy New Year! But today is also the ancient feast celebrating The Circumcision and Name of Jesus. The week after Christmas, the Christchild was circumcised, thus taking upon Himself the fulfillment of the Law, a rite in which He was also officially given His name.

“Jesus” means “God saves” (literally, to put it even stronger, “YHWH saves”). Notice how the very name of Jesus attests to His divinity and to the Gospel.

Several years ago, we went to church on New Years Day and heard one of the most memorable sermons on the Name of Jesus. The pastor went through the different places in the Bible that talks about doing things “in the name of Jesus,” then bringing in the meaning of that name, that God saves. We are told to pray in the name of Jesus, because “God saves” gives us full access to the Father. When even two or three meet in the name of Jesus, He is with them, because “God saves” makes a new kind of worship possible. Disciples could cast out demons in Jesus’ name; that is, in the reality that “God saves.” At the name of Jesus, “God saves,” every knee shall bow and every tongue that Jesus is LORD. (Try that correlation yourself in your own devotions.)

Filed Under: Christ, Holidays 7 Comments

About Gene Veith

Professor of Literature at Patrick Henry College, the Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary, a columnist for World Magazine and TableTalk, and the author of 18 books on different facets of Christianity & Culture.

  • http://theoldadam.wordpress.com/ Steve Martin

    Thanks for the reminder. One can never hear that “God saves” (in Jesus) too much.

    My pastor did a nice little article for the New Year titled ‘Happy New You’ (about resolutions and baptism). It’s a short piece…but very good.
    http://www.lightofthemaster.com/Pastor/Entries/2008/1/29_Happy_New_You!.html

  • http://theoldadam.wordpress.com/ Steve Martin

    Oops. I tried the link on the comment I just left and it didn’t work.

    Anyone interested can get it at http://www.lightofthemaster.com
    go to ‘Pastor’ and click on Pastor’s Perspectives and scroll down till you come to it.

  • http://themrb.com Chris Bryans

    I read your article “The Secular Canon” in October’s Tabletalk and was fascinated by your statement “A collection of the Great Christian Books would be worth assembling.” You’ve given me an idea – As a teacher in a Christian school, I am toying with the idea of structuring an English course around this very theme. I’d be interested to know what you would include in such a canon of Great Christian Books. Perhaps this would also be an excellent blog topic (unless I’ve already missed it since this is my first visit to your blog). Thanks for your ministry!

    Chris

  • Peter Leavitt

    Happy New Year and Name of Jesus Day to you. God through Christ does save indeed and He is well represented by the excellence of this blogsite.

  • http://www.geneveith.com Veith

    Good question, Chris. I’ll put up a post about this next week. Keep reading!

  • Pingback: Big Family Christmas » Blog Archive » Happy Name-of-Jesus Day! — Cranach: The Blog of Veith()

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