Thy Name


Introduction

In Exodus 6: 3, God says of the patriarchs that “by my name Jehovah I was not made known to them”. However, Jehovah is used by the Holy Spirit in the descriptive text of Genesis (see Gen. 4: 3 etc.), by the Patriarchs when speaking about God (see Gen. 14: 22; 27: 7; 28: 16, 21) and when addressing Him (see Gen. 15: 2; 49: 18). Indeed in Gen. 28: 13 God Himself says to Jacob “I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac”. Clearly the Patriarchs knew and used the name Jehovah, but it was not the name that God took in relation to their walk before Him. The distinctive name by which God appeared to the Patriarchs (see Gen. 17: 1; 35: 11) was the Almighty God—just as Jehovah—the ever-existing One (see Exod. 3: 14)—was the name He took up in relation to Israel.

   This sets out an important principle, namely that while God does not change, the name by which He is in relationship with His people in any given epoch of time does change. For example: although God ever remains the Almighty God this is not the name by which He is known to Christians (outside the book of Revelation, the name the Almighty God is absent from the NT except for 2 Cor. 6: 18). Now in Christianity, God is known as Father, for the Lord Jesus closes His prayer in John 17 to His Father, by saying, “And I have made known to them thy name, and will make [it] known; that the love which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them” (John 17: 26, my emphasis). This truth is confirmed on the day of His resurrection when the Lord tells Mary to “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and [to] my God and your God” (John. 20: 17). Relating to God as God and Father is characteristic of Christianity. However, as John 14: 2; Eph. 3: 14, 15 etc. imply, this does not mean that the name of Father itself is the exclusive preserve of believers today.

God as Father in the OT and in the Gospels

In the OT, God was a father to the nation of Israel (see Exod. 4: 22; Jer. 31: 9) but despite this, He was addressed by them as Jehovah: “thou, Jehovah, art our Father; our Redeemer, from everlasting, is thy name” (Is. 63: 16). This fatherhood of God is enhanced considerably when the Christ was manifested to Israel. Compared to the tiny number of references in the OT, the Father is referred to 65 times in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), and the Lord spoke to His disciples of “your Father” (Matt. 6: 15) and “thy Father” (v6), as well as “Our Father” (v9). If we remember that these disciples were representative Jews, the lesson is that God was no longer to be seen as just a father to the nation but could be known as Father by the individual Israelite as well. Indeed, they were to address God in prayer as Father (see Matt. 6: 9-13). All this, of course, predates Christianity—and, indeed, the principles of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (in which the disciple is exhorted to “Be ye … perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”—Matt. 5: 48) will be taken up in the coming kingdom.
   Now to varying degrees, the synoptic Gospels largely present the Lord Jesus as “minister of [the] circumcision for [the] truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers; and that the nations should glorify God for mercy” (Rom. 15: 8, 9). The Father is made known by Christ, either in teaching or indirectly by means of parables (for example, Luke 15: 11-32), but Matthew, Mark and Luke do not speak of the Father made known in the Son. Furthermore, while the ground is prepared for Christianity in a limited way, the synoptic Gospels do not really take the reader beyond Jewish hopes. The kingdom is the dominant subject (the rule of the heavens over the earth—see Dan. 2: 44), and in line with this, the Father is often described as a heavenly Father (for example, Matt. 6: 14) or as in heaven (for example Mark 11: 25). Heavenly and in heaven are terms that imply distance—the Father in heaven, the disciple on earth (and, revealingly, such expressions are never used after the Lord’s resurrection). In Luke 10, Jesus praises His Father as “Lord of the heaven and the earth” (v21), but then goes on to say that “no one knows who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is pleased to reveal [him]” (v22; see Matt. 11: 25-27). However, there is still a kingdom context for He prefaces His words by declaring that “All things have been delivered to me by my Father” (Luke 10: 22)—the Father as Lord of heaven and earth giving everything to Christ in order that He might have universal dominion as Man. In v17, the seventy disciples had returned from their mission rejoicing in the power they had over Satan’s forces, but the Lord told them not to rejoice in “that the spirits are subjected to you” but in the much more profound truth that “your names are written in the heavens” (v20). Similarly, much about the King and His kingdom had been revealed “to babes” (v21), but this leads the Lord to speak of something greater: the Son revealing the Father. That is the truth particularly brought out in:

The Fourth Gospel

John’s Gospel, written much later than the synoptic Gospels, is very different from them in character. The kingdom is scarcely mentioned and Israel’s rejection of Christ is assumed from the start (see John 1: 11). Straightaway the language is very wide in its outlook, with the light shining on all men without differentiation (vs. 4, 9), and divine will expressed as “that the world may be saved through him” (John 3: 17). In essence, John’s Gospel assumes Christianity. It is in John, therefore, that we would particularly expect to find how God has revealed Himself in relation to Christianity (the Father is mentioned 122 times in the book).

  John’s Gospel begins with “the Word” (v1)—the One who was with God and yet was God and would lighten every man (see v9). Just as we use words to express ourselves, so “the Word” is that which tells God out to the creature. For that reason, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth” (v14). This glory as of an only-begotten with the Father is the way in which God is to be known. Hence, although “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father … hath declared [him]” (v18). Others might speak on behalf of God (John the Baptist was such a “voice”—see v23), but only the Son could declare Him (see John 6: 46). God is declared as Father—not as “Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth” (Luke 10: 21)—but as the Father of the Son, the One who envelopes the Son in His affections. So is the creature to be merely a bystander in wonder to this? Not at all. In John 1: 38, two of the Lord’s disciples ask Him “where abidest thou?” and His reply is: “Come and see” (v39). John does not recount where that place was, but simply says “They went therefore, and saw where he abode; and they abode with him that day” (v39). Now of course the Lord was from Nazareth (see v46), but His true dwelling place was in the Father’s affections and He would have the believer with Him there. Hence in John 14, the Lord says “In my Father’s house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you: for I go to prepare you a place; and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be” (vs. 1-3).

John’s Presentation of Christ

The Lord’s actions and statements in the Gospels are often explained (or rather, explained away) as being the expression of His deity. However, this view has the effect of diminishing the reality of the Lord’s manhood. John’s Gospel was written “that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20: 31). As the Christ, He is God’s anointed Man, and Son of God necessarily brings in the fact of His deity (see John 5: 18; 10: 36; 19: 7). However, Son of God is also a relative term (the Son relative to God), and ought not to be divorced in the mind from His perfect manhood. Hence what John distinctly presents is One who was with God, and was God, and yet also partook of “blood and flesh” (Heb. 2: 14)—the perfect expression, as a dependent Man, of His God and Father. Thus the Lord never exercised His own will, and all that He said and did was of the Father. Yes, His essential glory shines through (see John 1: 48; 2: 11; 13: 19 etc.) but He himself asserted that “The Son can do nothing of himself save whatever he sees the Father doing: for whatever things he does, these things also the Son does in like manner” (John 5: 19; see v30). Not will do nothing but can do nothing. The Father’s actions were His actions. There was no discrepancy. The One who is God and Father (see John 6: 27 etc.) is seen in the Son. In John 5: 21-30, we are given two examples of these actions—resurrection and judgment—in which the Son acts in areas that are the prerogative of the Father. Why? “That all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (v23). The Father is God, but the Son (though God) is a Man. Is the Son worthy of less respect? No: the same honour is to be accorded to the Son in manhood as is accorded to the Father—for the Son will exercise His rights in resurrection and judgment as a man (see v27).

   Similar truth is expressed repeatedly through John’s Gospel. Thus in John 6 the Lord says, “For I am come down from heaven, not that I should do my will, but the will of him that has sent me” (v38, my emphasis). Indeed, “As the living Father has sent me and I live on account of the Father, he also who eats me shall live also on account of me” (v57, my bold emphasis). Again, in John 7: “My doctrine is not mine, but [that] of him that has sent me. If any one desire to practise his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God, or [that] I speak from myself … I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye do not know” (vs. 16, 17, 28, my emphasis). John 8: “I speak what I have seen with my Father … if God were your Father ye would have loved me, for I came forth from God and am come [from him]; for neither am I come of myself but he has sent me” (vs. 38, 42, my emphasis). John 10: “The works which I do in my Father’s name, these bear witness concerning me … Many good works have I shewn you of my Father; for which work of them do ye stone me? … If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, even if ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know [and believe] that the Father is in me and I in him” (vs. 25, 32, 37, 38, my emphasis). John 12: “He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me; and he that beholds me, beholds him that sent me ... He that rejects me and does not receive my words, has him who judges him: the word which I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what I should say and what I should speak; and I know that his commandment is life eternal. What therefore I speak, as the Father has said to me, so I speak” (vs. 44-45, 48-50, my emphasis). John 14: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me. If ye had known me, ye would have known also my Father, and henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Philip says to him, Lord, shew us the Father and it suffices us. Jesus says to him, Am I so long a time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father; and how sayest thou, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I [am] in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words which I speak to you I do not speak from myself; but the Father who abides in me, he does the works. Believe me that I [am] in the Father and the Father in me; but if not, believe me for the works’ sake themselves … but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do” (vs. 7-11, 31, my emphasis). John 15: “for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you” (v15, my emphasis). John 17: “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. They were thine, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things that thou hast given me are of thee; for the words which thou hast given me I have given them, and they have received [them], and have known truly that I came out from thee, and have believed that thou sentest me … I have given them thy word And I have made known to them thy name, and will make [it] known” (vs. 6-8, 14, 26, my emphasis). There could be no more perfect expression of the Father than this blessed Man walking here on earth!

The True Worship

Absolutely in keeping with what has been before us so far, is the teaching of John’s Gospel concerning worship. Thus in John 9, the blind man whose eyes the Lord had opened “did him homage” (v38) without rebuke. The word here for “homage” is proskunew and is perfectly fitting to be given to One who has revealed Himself as the Son of God (see vs. 35-37). However, while the Lord does not refuse such worship, the emphasis of His teaching is that in the new order of things God is to be approached in worship as Father. Whatever transpired under the patriarchs or in Judaism, “[the] hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers” (John 4: 23—proskunew throughout). Revelation governs approach, and it is God as Father, that has been made known in the Son. Hence if we are to count ourselves among the true worshippers, this involves letting go not only that which is manifestly false (as in Samaritanism), but also that which was previously set up by God (as in Judaism). In genuine Christianity, “as many as are led by [the] Spirit of God, these are sons of God … whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8: 14, 15, my emphasis). Again, “that ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15: 6, my emphasis) and “because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father” (Gal. 4: 6). Note the language: the response to God by the Spirit is ‘Abba, Father’, and the Holy Spirit is characterised as ‘the Spirit of God’s Son’—that Man who lived in constant communion with His God and Father, and who is a pattern for those who have received sonship. More generally, prayer to God is described as giving “thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ continually [when] praying for you” and “giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light” (Col. 1: 3, 12, my emphasis). Again, “everything, whatever ye may do in word or in deed, [do] all things in [the] name of [the] Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by him” (Col. 3: 17).

My Father and Your Father

Indeed, wherever we look in Paul’s epistles we shall find that God is consistently presented in accordance with the Lord’s word to Mary in John 20: 17: “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and [to] my God and your God”. Typically, the introductory greetings in Paul’s epistles are as in Rom. 1: 7: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and [our] Lord Jesus Christ” (my emphasis). Here, along with the Lord Jesus, God is presented not only as the author of the message, but in the relationship of Father to his saints—God our Father (see also 1 Cor. 1: 3; 2 Cor. 1: 2; Eph. 1: 2; Phil. 1: 2; Col. 1: 2; 1 Tim. 1: 2; Philemon 1: 3). In Gal. 1: 4 the wording is slightly different, but the sense is essentially the same: “our God and Father” (see also 2 Cor. 6: 16-18). This is made very touching in 2 Thessalonians (where the saints were much troubled) for the letter is not only from God our Father, but the saints are also described as securely held in God our Father: “Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus to the assembly of Thessalonians in God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and [the] Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1: 1, 2). Similar reassuring sentiments occur later on: “our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us, and given [us] eternal consolation and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts” (2 Thess. 2: 16, 17). Earlier, the Thessalonians were reminded that their “work of faith, and labour of love, and enduring constancy of hope” was constantly remembered in prayer “before our God and Father” (1 Thess. 1: 3, my emphasis). Paul also speaks of God’s intimate care—“our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you” (1 Thess. 3: 11, my emphasis)—and how the hearts of the saints would be confirmed “unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (v13).

   Sometimes the Father is spoken of as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1: 3, my emphasis; see also 1 Pet. 1: 3; 2 Cor. 11: 31; Rev. 1: 6)—referring to the relationship in which the Father occupies to the One who is the believer’s Lord. He is both the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (clearly viewed as Man) and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The former truth we find again in Eph. 1: 17, where the apostle prays that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” would enlighten the saints. Who is this God? “The Father of glory” (my emphasis). Again, in Phil 2: 11, “every tongue” is to “confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord to God [the] Father’s glory”—Jesus Christ being His earthly name. God the Father’s glory demands that Jesus Christ—that lowly and rejected Man—is to be confessed as Lord. The presentation is slightly different in Phil. 4: 19, 20 for there the Lord is spoken of as Christ Jesus—the same Man in exaltation—but God’s glory is still the end in view: “my God shall abundantly supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. But to our God and Father [be] glory to the ages of ages. Amen”. And yet, at the same time, this glorious God, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” is “the Father of compassions, and God of all encouragement” (2 Cor. 1: 3)!

God the Father

God is also frequently spoken of as “God [the] Father” (Gal. 1: 1, 3; Eph. 6: 23; 1 Thess. 1: 1; 2 Tim. 1: 2; Tit. 1: 4; see also 1 Pet. 1: 2; 2 Pet. 1: 17; 2 John v3; Jude v1)—in which the sense is that God is identified as the Father.  It is important not to misunderstand this because it does not mean that the Son or the Holy Spirit are not God. The deity of both the Son and the Holy Spirit are attested to in Scripture (see Matt. 28: 19; John 1: 1; Acts 5: 3, 4 etc.) but in the Christian revelation, God is presented to us in the Father. In 1 Cor. 8, Paul takes up the subject of “things sacrificed to idols” (v1)—that is, false gods—and reminds the Corinthians “that an idol [is] nothing in [the] world, and that there [is] no other God save one” (v4). However, Paul does not stop at the fact that there is only one God but goes on to tell his readers who that one God is. Thus while in paganism, “there are gods many, and lords many” (v5), “yet to us” (that is, to us Christians) “[there is] one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom [are] all things, and we by him” (v6, my emphasis). Now v6 does not stop at “[there is] one God” (which it could have done) nor does it run on to say ‘[there is] one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ (which it also could have done). Both statements would have been true, but they are not what the apostle writes. No, Paul says, “there is] one God, the Father” and then proceeds to tell us about the Lord Jesus as the one Lord. The sense is unmistakable: the Father is identified with the one God. If it does not say what many would what like it to say, then that is because minds have been formed by human thinking and not divine revelation. In the revelation given to Christians—“to us”—God is presented to us as Father. The fact that the revelation of God as Father necessitated that both the Son and the Spirit be made known (for the Father is seen in the Son by the Spirit) does not alter the fact that the revelation itself is “one God, the Father”. Theology may well speak of ‘God the Son’ and ‘God the Holy Spirit’, but Scripture never does, though ‘Son of God’ and Spirit of God’—that is, as relative to God—occur frequently.

   The Christian revelation is again presented in Eph. 2: 18: “For through him” (Christ) “we have both” (that is, Jew and Gentile) “access by one Spirit to the Father”. The context shows (see v14) that the imagery is of approach to God as typified in the tabernacle system. In Eph. 3: 14 we find Paul such a worshipper: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ]”. Later, he brings Father, Son and Holy Spirit before the reader, but it is the Father alone who is identified as God: “[There is] one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all” (Eph. 4: 4-6, my emphasis). Paul does not say, ‘one God the Spirit’ or ‘one God, the Lord’ but “one God and Father” (my emphasis; see also 1 Cor. 15: 24).

Conclusion

Space precludes more being said, but where there is a true answer to the revelation being given to us as Christians, the effects of being “filled with the Spirit” will be “singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord” and “giving thanks at all times for all things to him [who is] God and [the] Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5: 19, 20).

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