Name Above All Names

By Adolph Saphir

    “And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS:  for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).

    During His life the Lord revealed the meaning of His blessed name.  His whole life was an exposition of His name.  It was manifested in all the gracious words which flowed from His lips, in all the miracles of love and healing with which He blessed the afflicted and needy.  From the first sermon which He preached in Nazareth, from the first word of consolation which He addressed to the guilty and lost, to the royal assurance of pardon and acceptance which He gave on the Cross to the repentant sinner at His side; from Bethlehem to Golgotha; from His baptism in Jordan to His agony in Gethsemane:  all His words and acts declared His name Jesus.  “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them” (Luke 15:2).  And yet it is only on the Cross that the name Jesus shines forth in all its beauty, power, and glory.  And it was only through His death that He obtained the full right to that greatest of all names.  Thus the Apostle Paul teaches us that, because the Son of God (in His Incarnation) “humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name:  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8-11).  When saints and angels adore Jesus, they behold and worship the First and the Last; Him that liveth and was dead; the Lamb that was slain.  Jesus crucified is Jesus indeed.