What’s In A Name?

Anja is a Divorce Support Coach in Birmingham

Acts 4:12 (NIVUK) —

‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.’

‘Why did you have to call me Anja, in a country where people have an inability to put these four letters together the way that they're meant to be? Why couldn't you just call me something normal like Anne?’ was my adolescent rant at my parents. Coupled with ‘van Zoggel’ it didn't help my desire not to be different. A significant altercation with two people changed that and my name became an important part of me. Names are important because they identify us.  

Let’s look at THE most important, powerful and significant name ever, and ask ourselves: how does having the Name Above All Names as our Lord and Saviour impact us and whom we're called to be? 

We have the name of Jesus at the very heart of our identity. At the point of our salvation, it is our new ‘family name’ in which and in whom we have our being.

Whilst many people think Jesus Christ is a first and surname, that is not true. Jesus derives from the Hebrew roots meaning the ‘Lord is salvation’ and Christ comes from the Greek word meaning ‘Anointed One’. Jesus is the Lord, the Anointed One, sent to save his people from sin by his sovereign grace. 

So who and what are we in Christ? We are loved, his child, watched over, sung over, created in his image, fearfully and wonderfully made, set apart, accepted, free, redeemed . . . the list goes on.

How fortunate and favoured we are to have the Name Above All Names sovereign over us, knowing we are known by him, and he has ‘called us by name’ to follow him.

Prayer - Thank you, Jesus, that our identity is in you, that our refuge is found in your name and that you know us and have called us by name to follow you.