What Does the Name “Jesus” Mean?
Focus on God’s Names: Mystery Series of Jehovah, Jesus and the Almighty:
Episode II—What Does the Name “Jesus” Mean?
In the last fellowship, we shared the origin and meaning of God’s name “Jehovah.” Afterward, we received letters from some brothers and sisters in the Lord enquiring: “Since the name of Jehovah God will endure forever, it should be perpetuated onward. But, why did God’s name change to ‘Jesus’ in the Age of Grace? Is there any deeper significance that lies herein?” Presumably most brothers and sisters want to seek the truth of this question. So, today let’s fellowship about the reason why God took the name of Jesus instead of Jehovah in the Age of Grace and the meaning of the name of Jesus.
As is known to all, God’s deeds are immeasurable. Neither any of God’s names can represent God fully, nor can it express what God has and is. God originally has no name and He is called God. It is because God needs to guide, redeem and rescue mankind and He does different works that He takes different names in different ages. As we all know, the Old Testament of the Bible records that Jehovah God decreed the laws and commandments to lead man in their lives. So that they realized that God would bless them if they abided by the laws and commandments, or they would be condemned and cursed by God. Jehovah God expressed the disposition of wrath and curse. At the end of the Age of Law, people couldn’t keep the law, so they were in the danger of being condemned and executed under the law. In order to redeem the entire human race, God was incarnated for the first time to do the work of redemption under the name of the Lord Jesus. Provided that man prayed to Him to confess their sins and repent, they could be forgiven of their sins and enjoy the abundant grace bestowed upon them by God. The New Testament of the Bible records that the Lord Jesus was full of love and mercy, which precisely represents the disposition God expressed in the Age of Grace. It can be seen that when doing different works, God expresses His different dispositions and His names change accordingly, which is the principle of His work that is always new and never old.
For example, when someone works as a teacher in a school, people call him teacher. When he has a new job in a factory one day, others will be unfit to call him teacher when they encounter him. For teaching is his former work and teacher is his former Appellation. So it is most suitable to call him a master worker in accordance with his present work. Therefore, with God’s work always progressing forward, His disposition and what He has and is are unceasingly revealed to us. At the same time, God’s name changes according to the needs of His work.
However, no matter how God’s name alters, His disposition and substance will never change, much less the aims of His work. Like a passage of God’s words says: “‘Jehovah’ is the name that I took during My work in Israel, and it means the God of the Israelites (God’s chosen people) who can take pity on man, curse man, and guide the life of man. It means the God who possesses great power and is full of wisdom. ‘Jesus’ is Emmanuel, and it means the sin offering that is full of love, full of compassion, and redeems man. He did the work of the Age of Grace, and represents the Age of Grace, and can only represent one part of the management plan. That is to say, only Jehovah is the God of the chosen people of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, and the God of all the people of Israel. And so in the current age, all the Israelites apart from the tribe of Judah worship Jehovah. They make sacrifices to Him on the altar, and serve Him wearing priests’ robes in the temple. What they hope for is the reappearance of Jehovah. Only Jesus is the Redeemer of mankind. He is the sin offering that redeemed mankind from sin. Which is to say, the name of Jesus came from the Age of Grace, and existed because of the work of redemption in the Age of Grace. The name of Jesus existed to allow the people of the Age of Grace to be reborn and saved, and is a particular name for the redemption of the whole of mankind. And so the name Jesus represents the work of redemption, and denotes the Age of Grace. The name Jehovah is a particular name for the people of Israel who lived under the law. In each age and each stage of work, My name is not baseless, but holds representative significance: Each name represents one age. ‘Jehovah’ represents the Age of Law, and is the honorific for the God worshiped by the people of Israel. ‘Jesus’ represents the Age of Grace, and is the name of the God of all those who were redeemed during the Age of Grace” (“The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’” in the Word Appears in the Flesh).
Now we are more able to comprehend that God’s name in each age has the extraordinary significance, containing His disposition, the principle of His work and the work He does in that age. If people cannot understand the meaning of God’s names, they will be unlikely to have a knowledge of God, and then they will merely have a confused kind of faith. Belief in God means neither receiving grace and blessings from the Lord nor sacrificing and giving up things for God. What is important is that man should have a knowledge of God, knowing how God has led and saved us step by step since His creation of the world. Only in this way can we somewhat read God’s intention of saving mankind and better welcome the return of the Lord Jesus. When people know that God’s name in one age represents His work and disposition in that age, do they still have any misgiving about what name the returned Lord Jesus will use?
Please watch the next episode—What is the Name of the Returned Lord Jesus in the Last Days?
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