What does it mean to believe in the NAME of Jesus Christ? As I sat in the still and quiet morning recently reading my Bible I began wondering this. As I considered the significance of names in Biblical culture I began to understand the importance of believing in the NAME of Jesus. A name carried far more significance in the days of Christ, and that by intention, than in our modern age. A name was meant to describe or perhaps even define a person. Yet, most people failed miserably to live up to the noble names given them. Or they seemed to succomb to the disappoinment and hurt of common, sometimes vulgar, names and lived down to them. In Jesus however we see for the first, and only, time in history someone who was not only able to live up to the full meaning of His righteous name, but lived it out so well that we could really begin to understand who He was. He was both defined by and defined His name.
Now when the name of Jesus Christ is spoken, whether in honor or dishonor, it is done so with unmistakable clarity of the person spoken about. More than this, He showed the world through His life, death, and resurrection what it meant to be God with Us, our Savior, and the Prince of Peace. Jesus allows us to see up close and with historic intimacy the heart and love of the Father for us all. So to believe in the name of Jesus Christ is to give Him your trust, to give Him your very heart, because He is trustworthy. He is faithful. Then can we also love others as His life so beautiful displayed.
1 John 3:23
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us.
