Jesus Let His Name Speak For Him

What Did Jesus Do?

“If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me...”
John 8.54

Some names speak for themselves. Consider, “Bond. James Bond.” Enough said. “John, Paul, George, and Ringo.” No further explanation necessary. “Endicott Peabody” Endicott Peabody??? Well, if you were from Massachusetts you'd know who Endicott Peabody was. Sometimes, when folks want to check out our credentials, they would be justified if we tried to impress them simply with our name. Nor would a crowd typically credit anyone who blows his or her own horn. The crowd in Jerusalem in fact charged Jesus with building himself up (John 8.53), but Jesus was not in the practice of glorifying himself, he left it to the Father to glorify him (John 8.54).

At the heart of this particular confrontation was the discrepancy between Abraham's joyful response to seeing the day of the Lord, and how those who claimed to be Abraham's descendants responded to Jesus by rejecting him (John 8.56). In fairness, it did somewhat stretch credulity to believe that a young man, barely thirty, could have been around in the day of Israel's patriarch more than a thousand years earlier. Rather than argue the point with his critics, Jesus let his name—the name which the Father shared with him, and by which the Father glorified the Son—speak for him, “I am.” THAT name needed no elaboration or explanation to Israel. I Am was the God of the Covenant who had delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, presented the law to the people through Moses, raised up judges, anointed kings, and called prophets. Yet, somehow, in spite of all that history, though the crowed said of I Am, “He is our God,” the Son could honestly say that they did not know the Father (John 8.55).

Everyone in Jerusalem would have affirmed that I Am had been around in Abraham's day, had been around since Adam's day for that matter. I Am was the one true God who had no beginning and no end. But Jesus, why there were likely some Galileans present in Jerusalem who could probably remember the day Joseph and Mary arrived in Nazareth with their little baby boy. Were they such fools as to believe that he had been alive in the time of the Patriarchs? Again, Jesus didn't argue, he let his name speak for him, I Am.

But, when the people you are speaking to reverence the name of I Am so highly that they won't even dare pronounce it, it is a dangerous thing to not only name the name, but claim the name. That Jesus was able to hide himself from the angry mob was due in part to the fact that he could well have anticipated that they would be tempted to pick up rocks to stone him to death (John 8.59). Jesus may have let his name do the talking, but he was quick to let his feet do the walking, and removed himself from the potentially deadly situation, for his time had not yet come.

Today there is a pervasive ignorance about salvation history, and the persons and works of the Triune God of the Bible. It is not nearly enough to simply let the name(s) of God speak to peoples who do not know the Father. For not knowing the Father prevents people from knowing the Son. And if someone knows neither the Father nor the Son, they have certainly not made the acquaintance of the Holy Spirit. So it is necessary for the Church to not merely speak the name of I Am, but to teach all that God, the three-in-one, has revealed about himself in his Word. We do know from his Word that there is a day coming when the name of Jesus will be upon every tongue (see Philippians 2.9-11), and there will then be no need for anything more to be said.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4