“There’s just something about that name.” The Scriptures tell us a lot of things about the name of “Jesus.” There’s salvation in the name (Acts 4:12). It’s a “name above every name” (Phil.2:9). We find that we are baptized “in the name of Jesus,” sanctified in this name, and healed in this name. There is, indeed, something about that name. In his earthly ministry, however, Jesus did not make a name for himself, rather He submitted to the will of God that he might be named by God and in so doing rename us. Jesus’ redemptive work secures new identity for all who are in Him.
The name “Jesus” was specifically given to the child of promise. We read in Luke’s Gospel that the angel informed Mary that she was to call her child “Jesus” (Luke 1:31), and she was to call him that for a specific reason. So the angel clarifies for Joseph the importance of this baby, saying:
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Jesus’ name is an indicator of his identity. He is savior! But interestingly enough, with rare exceptions, that is not how Jesus is perceived in his earthly ministry.
Jesus on earth does not garner praise from the public. He is rather, as the prophet foretold, “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows,and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isa. 53:3). In fact the Scriptures testify that this was by design. Jesus “made himself nothing.” So, Paul writes:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:5-8)
Jesus whole ministry was one of refusing to claim the name that was rightfully his. In fact he informed many of those whom He healed not to speak His name, not to identify who He was (Mark 1:43-44; 7:36; Matt. 8:4). His crucifixion in particular, as Paul points out in the aforementioned passage, indicates that Jesus did not make a name for himself.
The cross of Christ is the clearest example of His humility and submission to the Father’s will. Here we see that Jesus does not insist on the rights of His name. Peter Hubbard elaborates:
Jesus refused to make a name for Himself. He, the sinless Son of God, hung on a criminal’s cross and rejected every invitation to vindicate Himself, to come down, and to name and claim His true identity. He refused to retaliate…(Love Into Light, 88)
Instead of making a name for Himself what do we see Jesus do? The apostle Peter tells us, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). He submitted to His Father’s will and entrusted Himself and His identity to God. As a result Paul’s words to the Philippians continue. Paul states that as a result of His death:
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9-11)
God has exalted Christ, God has given Him a name above every name. Paul writes to the Romans and says that because of his resurrection Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power” (Rom. 1:4). In His life, death, and resurrection Jesus submitted His identity to the will of the Father, and as a result He is not the only one renamed by God.
Christ’s willingness to become like us, though He was not like us, His willingness to die for us, though He had done nothing wrong, indeed His willingness to identify with us means that we might identify with Him. Again, Hubbard says:
When we are in Jesus, God renames us, “beloved children, “His “chosen ones, holy.” We are “saints,” “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” We can take no credit for “making a name” for ourselves, because God initiated and executed our transformation. (88-89)
Paul states it this way:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21)
Because Christ refused to claim what was rightfully His, and submitted His vindication and identity to the Father, we have opened to us a new identity in Christ. In Christ theirs is salvation, indeed “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which they must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There’s just something about that name.
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