IN HIS NAME
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
John 1:12
I have always had some trouble understanding the phrase, “believing in His name.” What does it mean to believe in His name? Like many things in Scripture there are depths to this phrase that are beyond any of us. The deeper we look into one of these, as with other Scriptures, the more God will give us. We seldom use anything like this phrase in common speech. When I came to it in Scripture I would scratch my head and read on past it. God finally got my attention this week and I spent some time meditating on the words believing in His name. And God showed me some things I needed to see. I could write a great deal about what God gave me in these words, but there were two things that especially struck me..
- First, we believe in The Identity of our Lord.
In Exodus 34:6-7, the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed His name.
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
His name means all of this and more. His character is spoken in His name. His glory is in His name. His grace is in His name. His power and holiness are in His name. When you begin to realize who our Lord really is, it will transform your life.
Do you see why John 3:18 says,
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
- And believing in His name means trusting in The Paternity of our Lord.
I bear the surname of my earthly father because I am his child. To believe in the name of Jesus is to trust that you are His because you have been born again into His eternal family.
To believe in His name is to realize that He calls you by His name, and you are His. You have become a child of God!
In the model prayer Jesus taught us to begin with the words, “Our Father in heaven.” That prayer is an expression of faith in His compassionate fatherhood of His children. It is putting our trust in His name.
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Comments
Thank you, Malva.
"To believe in the name of Jesus is to trust that you are His because you have been born again into His eternal family.
To believe in His name is to realize that He calls you by His name, and you are His."
David, this is material for your next book, or at least a series of blogs.
I went to biblehub and typed in "My people called by My Name" and what a treasure trove!
Each verse could lead to another treasure trove. Here are just a few:
Acts 15:14 NIV ... how God first intervened to choose a people for His name from the Gentiles ... Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear My Name, says the Lord, who does these things...
Dan 9:19 BSB O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your Name.
Num 6:27 BSB So they shall put My Name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.
Deut 28:10 BSB Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the Name of the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.
Blessings...