1 John 3:22-24 And whatever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.… Every thoughtful reader of the Word of God must have been struck with the very great importance that the sacred writers attach to names. In the opening chapter of the Sacred Volume we read of God giving" their names to the works of His hands: "God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night." The very first thing that Adam, the first man, does, is by God's direction to give names to all God's creatures. Then, when God entered into covenant with Abram, He changed his name from Abram to Abraham. When God wrestled with Jacob, He changed his name from Jacob to Israel. But we must pass on to the New Testament. It also begins with God giving a name. On its very title page we have God sending an angel to give a name to One not yet born — that Second Adam — that Beginning of the New Creation of God, whom He sent into the world. In the very first chapter of the New Testament we have two names assigned to the Saviour. First, the angels say, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." Then the name of "Emmanuel," given to Him in the spirit by Isaiah, the prophet, is also claimed as His by the Evangelist. These two names, given to the Second Adam in the first chapter of the book of the New Covenant, answer to the two names by which God made Himself known to the children of Israel. Emmanuel signifies what the Saviour is in Himself — God with us; God in our nature. Jesus rather signifies what He is to His people — their "Saviour from sin." It means literally, "The Lord is salvation," or "The Lord Our salvation." I. WHAT IS MEANT BY BELIEVING IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST? It must mean more than believing that some years ago a person came into this world who had such a name given to him. It is believing that Jesus Christ is to us what His name means. Now let us take the best known name of our Saviour — "Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord." We know Him as the only Son of God — as Jesus — as Christ. Take the first of these — the Son of God. See how our Lord insists upon our believing in this, as His name, in His discourse with Nicodemus (John 3:18). Now a man who believes this respecting the Person who was then speaking to Nicodemus, and who was afterwards crucified and raised again, believes in the greatest possible instance of God's love. It is quite clear, also, that any interpretation which attaches to the term "Son of God" a lower meaning than that of "only-begotten Son," really destroys all the testimony which such a text as "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son" bears to the exceeding love of God. Now let us proceed to the human name by which we know the Son of God — Jesus Christ. The name "Jesus" signifies "the Lord our salvation." He has saved us from the guilt of sin by His sacrifice on the Cross. Again, He saves us from the power of sin by His indwelling Spirit making us partakers of His nature, so that His risen life is in us our spiritual life. And so with that title of Messiah, or Christ, or Anointed One, to which is joined His name of Jesus. It is implied in the very fact of His being called Christ that He has been anointed by the Holy Ghost to be the Prophet, Priest, and King of His people. Believing in the name of God's Son, Jesus, then, is believing that God's Son is that very Lord, our Saviour, which His name implies. This is God's commandment. No, no; it is only part of God's commandment: for the one commandment of God, which God inspired the beloved disciple to give to His people, is made up of two things. "This is His commandment, that we believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He" — i.e. as Christ Himself — "gave us commandment." Anyone who knows anything of the history of the Church, or about religious society, knows well that a man may have, or at least may express, not only belief in the name, but the sincerest trust in the finished work of Christ, and yet be bitter to those who differ from him, uncharitable to those who oppose him, and churlish to those who are at all in his way. St. Paul writes his Epistle to the Ephesians to men who realised the gospel far better than any Christians now do; and instead of "leaving the gospel to itself," and simply insisting on believing in Christ crucified, the apostle actually bids those who are supposed to believe the gospel not to lie, nor to steal, nor to use bad language, nor to grieve the Holy Spirit, but to walk in love, and put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking. Similarly with St. Peter. If there is any place in which he declares the precious truths of the gospel in terms full of consolation and good hope, it is in the first chapter of his Epistle; but, so far from thinking that all this would do its own work, he tells them at the beginning of the very next chapter to lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. But what is "loving one another"? Why, according to St. Paul, the apostle of justification, it is keeping the last six commandments (Romans 13:8). And in the next chapter he reckons working ill to our neighbour's soul, as well as to his body, as a breach of love. But what, according to St. John, is "loving one another"? This is His commandment, that ye believe in all the power and grace that is contained in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and seek out, visit, relieve, and comfort your sick and needy fellow Christians. This is His commandment, that ye believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God, and be kindly affectioned one to another, in honour preferring one another. This is His commandment, that ye believe in the name of Him who saves His people from their sins, and put away from you all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, and all malice. This is His commandment, that ye believe in the name of Him who was anointed by God to be a Prince and a Saviour, and covet earnestly that best gift of a charity that suffereth long, is kind, etc. (M. F. Sadler, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. |
    |