The Names of Jesus

"But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' (which means 'God with us')." (Matthew 1: 20-23)

Today is Christmas! The day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Whenever a baby is born, there is often a lot of talk about their name. And so, today I will write about some of the names ascribed to Jesus. 

Messiah. "Messiah" means annointed one in Hebrew. In Jewish culture, an annointed one could refer to a king, high priest, or prophet. In Jewish tradition, the Messiah was expected to be a king in the line of David. Jesus was a descendent of David through his earthly father Joseph (see his genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17 or in Luke 3:23-38; they are different, sometimes believed to be his paternal and maternal genealogies, respectively). 

Christ. "Christ" is from the Ancient Greek translation of "Messiah," and means the same thing.

Jesus. The name Jesus comes from the Greek form of the name Joshua, and it means the Lord saves. What does the Lord save us from? In Matthew 1 (above), it says He will save us from our sins. Why do we need to be saved from our sins? Because their consequence is death. And how does He save us? Well, the first step was to become one of us. 

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

Immanuel. This one is my favourite! "Immanuel" (also spelled "Emmanuel") means God with us. It means that God came down to Heaven and, for a time, walked among us. He became human, and by becoming human, He was able to break the power of death. This is explained in Hebrews: 

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." (Hebrews 2: 14-18)

That Jesus was both fully God and fully man is an important doctrine of every denomination of Christianity. Here is an excerpt from the Nicene Creed:

"I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light, 
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man."

That Jesus is fully God is important in order to explain why He is perfect and blameless, which is why His death is able to break the power of death, and why He is able to intercede on our behalf before a perfect God. 

"What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" (Romans 8: 31-35)

That Jesus was fully human is important in order to explain how He is able to act us our intercessor. How can we have a representative who doesn't know what it means to be one of us? But He was! He was born, He grew up, He learned, He wept, He got angry, He got hungry, He had a family, He was constrained by time and physics. He was fully human.

"Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters." (Hebrews 2:11)

Yes, this is a paradox. How can someone be both fully one thing and fully another at the same time? It is one of the mysteries of God!