Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - YOUR NAME

 YOUR NAME

We all have a name and most try their best to protect the name they were given. After all it, at least to some extent, defines who you are, where you came from, and may, in some cases, even define your future. Not everyone, however, may be entirely happy with the name they were given and try to change it for something that they may feel is more suitable or advantages them to whatever they seek to do in life. Certain celebrities do this on a regular basis - in an effort to disguise their background or to make them seem more appealing to the public, they take “stage” names. Criminals often do it for more nefarious reasons.

God has a name for each of us as well, and since we are all equal in His eyes, it’s not surprising that He has the same name for all of us, at least initially. It’s also not the most flattering handle either.

When Jesus was in a synagogue in Nazareth He read to the people from the book of Isaiah and addressed those gathered in this manner:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me…

…To preach the gospel to the Poor.

(Luke 4:18)

Hence, He called the people by their first name: He called them poor.

In a similar manner, when Jesus was passing through Jericho, He came upon a tax collector named Zacchaeus. He said to Zacchaeus that He had to stay at his house and when Zacchaeus confessed as to what he had been doing and repented, offering to make restitution, Jesus said: “…‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was Lost.’” (Luke 19:9-10) 

In calling Zacchaeus lost, Christ gave us our middle name, for like Zacchaeus, we are all initially lost. So before we come to Christ, we are all initially poor and lost.

But there is still perhaps the most important name left; that being our family name, the name indicating to which family we all belong.

When, in His travels, Jesus had returned to His own city on one occasion, He came upon a tax collector named Matthew. He went into Matthew’s house and dined with him much to the dismay of the Pharisees who complained that Jesus was associating with such people. Jesus answered them this way:

“…‘Those who are well have no need of a physician,

but those who are sick.

But go and learn what this means:

‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ 

For I did not come to call the righteous,

but sinners, to repentance.’”

(Matthew 9:12-13)

He was talking to that group of people to which we all belong; that of the family of sinners. Only by recognizing from which we all come can we ever hope to have our name changed from that of Poor Lost Sinner to Rich, Righteous, and Redeemed. We grow by moving from the family from which we come to a new family. One in which we are RICH through “The unsearchable riches of Christ” and “the riches of His glory” (Ephesians 3:8&16); made RIGHTEOUS because “…He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” (1 John 3:7); and given a new family name - REDEEMED: “And they shall call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord…” (Isaiah 62:12).

It’s not a bad deal really, being taken from a Poor Lost Sinner to that of being considered Rich, Righteous, Redeemed “children of God”(1 John 3:2). It really should give one something to think about.

* concept from Romans volume 2 pg 231-232 by Donald Grey Barnhouse