2015.03.15_He Who Calls on the Name of the Lord

Relying on God the Living Father

God is living. We are not superstitious people who call a non-existent being as God by force. We believe in the living God. Our faith in the living God is testified to by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit clearly testifies to the fact that we have received the forgiveness of sins, salvation and justification. He also testifies that we will partake in the first resurrection on the day of the Lord’s return. It is difficult to be assured of one’s faith without receiving the Holy Spirit.
There are people who think that God was angry about how people would not believe in Jesus and decided to send them into hell. However this is not true. Man already became a sinner the moment Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Eden, and just as God had said, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die,” man was doomed to eternal punishment in hell (Heb 9:27). God sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to the world to save such man doomed to perish, and commanded, “Choose life that you may live!”

Seek the Glory of Jesus’ Name

The Bible is the most excellent mediator of the Gospel that connects man with the invisible God. Through it, we came to know about the works of Jesus, about God, and the future glory we are to receive. The Bible records numerous different accounts such as that of Abraham, David, Apostle Paul, and so on. However what it is trying to reveal is ultimately Jesus Christ (Jn 5:39). An apple tree might have countless leaves but the farmer is not after those leaves but apples. In the same way, what we need to obtain from the vast contents of the Bible is the name Jesus.
John 20:30-31 says, “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” There are reasons as to why God gave us the Bible. First of all, it was for us to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who is equal with God. Second, that we may believe Jesus is Christ sent by God. And third, that we may have eternal life through Jesus’ name.
John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Whoever has the name Jesus has the authority of the Son of God. Jesus is God’s Son. What is the authority He possesses? Jesus overcame death and resurrected. He is presently in Heaven, and will later judge the world. That authority of His has also been given to us who possess the name Jesus.
God gave us Jesus’ name in order that we may receive the same glory as His only begotten Son. It is sad however that a great number of people do not understand the value of Jesus’ name and are only busy using that name to satisfy their fleshly needs. While many cry out to the Lord to help them with the problems they encounter, not many actually understand the value of Jesus’ name that has come into their souls.
Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name” (Matt 6:7-9). Jesus desires us to hallow the name Jesus and bring glory to that name.
Jesus’ name is set apart from any other name. Philippians 2:9 says, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” It also says in Hebrews 1:4, “Having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” We, who were formerly enemies of God, have come to possess this holy name. Thus we now need to glorify that name. Whatever we might ask for in that name, we must consider the value of that name.

To Save His People from Their Sins

Jesus is the name of God. In revealing that name to us, there was a meaning to that name which God wanted us to remember. Matthew 1:21 says, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Hence Jesus, the name of God which He revealed us, means “salvation from sin”.
As long as he is under the Law, man can never escape his identity as a sinner. Thus salvation from sin in other words is salvation from the Law. There is no grace in the Law. The Law lays out countless commandments and demands man to keep them. However even the person who strictly observes all the commandments is susceptible to breaking them at any moment, and he will be a sinner because of that one transgression. Whoever is accused by the Law in this way cannot escape the control of the Devil. This is because the Law has prescribed death as the wages of sin.
In fact, man was doomed to perish even before the Law came. The spirit of man was already separated from God’s life when Adam disobeyed God’s word in the Garden of Eden. That spirit cannot be revived just because man strictly observes the Law. Thus we must now abandon our attempts of attaining salvation by observing the Law and follow the Law of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes the meritorious works of Jesus Christ become ours.
A person who is under the Law is constantly oppressed by the notion that he is a sinner. When there is the slightest difficulty, such a person tends to feel guilty because of it. The Devil does not leave such a person alone. He separates the saints from God and church members from the church, comes between husband and wife, and causes division in the family, to eventually destroy man. Hence we must be delivered from the Law. And for that, we must rely on the name Jesus. Even if we discipline ourselves and strive for virtue our entire lifetime, we will never be saved by that. Only the name Jesus can deliver us from sin and the power of death, namely the Devil.

The Joy of Jesus’ Name

It is written in John 17:11-13, “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
God the Father gave His name to His Son so that the He may share in the joy of the Father. And the Son of God then gave that name to us. This was so that we may go into the relationship of God and the Son, and share in God’s joy. Thus whoever has the name Jesus must be filled with God’s joy.
Is your soul filled with the joy of Jesus’ name? Are you not instead filled with all kinds of worries about your business, children, circumstances, etc.? The absence of the joy of Jesus’ name in one’s heart means he is not free from sin, which in turn means he is being hindered by the ruler of death. That is why the demons fearlessly go in and out of the saints’ body and torment them.
Our souls need to be filled with the joy of the name Jesus. God’s Son was joyful through that name also. Though He received all kinds of scorn and suffering on the earth, His soul was always joyful. That was because God had given Him the name of God that no being in Heaven and on earth had ever experienced, that is, the name before which all creations bow their knees.
That name is now within us. Hence our souls should be filled with the joy of Jesus’ name. Many people go before God in that name pleading to receive something and yet they are ignorant of the joy of that name. Though they are good at cultivating themselves and offering religious devotion, they are incapable of receiving the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has liberated us from the law and delivered us from sin, yet the reason still so many people are oppressed under the Law is because they are unaware of the joy of that name.
If the Holy Spirit has come into our souls, Jesus’ name has come (Jn 14:26). Receiving the Holy Spirit is something we can distinctly experience. Hence whoever has received the Holy Spirit has experienced Jesus’ name coming within him. The soul that has received the Holy Spirit must be full of the joy of the name Jesus. Anyone that has the name Jesus now has the authority of the Son of God and is neither a slave to sin nor a child of the Devil any longer.
Though there may be anguish and worries in our hearts, Jesus’ name must be greater than them. Even in the face of great difficulties, still Jesus’ name is incomparably greater than them. God gave His name to His Son, and the Son has given us that name. Now our souls should be filled with the joy of that name. Our souls must overflow with the joy of having become liberated from sin and a child of God.