Monday, February 11, 2019
639 - What's in a Name?
Spirituality Column #639
February 12, 2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Christianity
What’s in a Name?
By Bob Walters
“Therefore God exalted
him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name …” –
Philippians 2:9
Paul here of course is talking
about Jesus, the “name above every name”
in Philippians 2:6-11. Paul is not only describing
how we are to imitate Christ in
humility, but this section is a hymn describing Christ’s attitude toward His own humility among humanity in the
full knowledge that He is God.
Often when
we encounter people who think they are God, their humility isn’t the first
thing we notice. Jesus certainly offered
an unusual and different image from what humanity expected in an all-powerful God,
and gave rise to one of New Testament theology’s biggest questions: Jesus was human
and alive, but was He really God?
Last week,
referencing Josh McDowell’s updated opus of apologetics, Evidence that Demands a Verdict (2017), we talked about the increasing
historical and archaeological proof that Jesus really was a man in history and
the New Testament really is an accurate historical record of that era, as far
as it goes. But we have to be OK with
the fact that salvation arises from our faith and our love, not our knowledge
of history.
Nonetheless and despite the
nay-saying hysteria of agnostic and atheistic academics and cultural
anti-religion types, Jesus was demonstrably real and the Bible is trustworthy; it
verges on academic dishonesty or secular silliness to think otherwise. But that “as far as it goes” sentiment is the
element that makes faith critical and makes our hearts and our love the linchpins of assuredness that Jesus was in fact God.
There are
some blindingly ill-informed clichés people claim about religion in general, things
like “Religions are all the same.” That
is an automatic “tell” that the person expressing that opinion has never
actually studied religion sincerely.
Another oft-stated, enormously ill-informed proclamation more
specifically regarding Christ and the New Testament is that “Jesus, in the
Bible, never actually says He is God.”
Oh dear. Jesus is expressing almost everywhere in
scripture – by His words, His actions, His love, His resurrection, His very
presence – that He is JHWH, the Holy God of Israel incarnate among humanity to
reveal the salvation of all mankind. You
just have to know how to read it and pay attention to what the Bible is
saying. McDowell’s book (Ch. 7)
thoroughly logs the many self- and scriptural expressions of Jesus’s divinity.
I believe
it is a great attribute of the Bible and of the mysteries of Christ, faith,
love, God, purpose, humanity, Spirit, and all of existence that Jesus never
reduced His mission on Earth to a PR or ad campaign of “Hey! Look Who I Am and
What I Can Do For You!” Jesus wasn’t
here on a sales call; it was God’s mission of mercy and faith.
This humble, loving, and righteous
Jesus revealed the power of a humble, loving, and righteous God. Only in faith and love is our salvation in
Jesus Christ possible; only in faith and love is an eternal seat next to Him in
heaven possible.
It is humbling and true: there is
infinite power in the name of Jesus.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) admits it is fair to question whether the claims of Jesus are true,
but it is beyond question that the claims of Jesus were made. Btw, McDowell is
speaking (free of charge) at Indy’s East 91st St. Christian Church Wed., Feb. 13, at
7 p.m.