August 28, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
THE ‘MORE EXCELLENT NAME’
“Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
Heb. 1:4, A.V.
In a personal study I made many years ago on the significance of names in the Bible, using my Exhaustive Concordance of the King James Version (containing the Hebrew and Greek Lexicons), I counted the names and appellations and titles attached/ascribed to Christ: a total of 227!
“Christ has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name. Although we are not here [in these verses] what that [specific] name is, and though many names [see above] are given to Christ in the Bible, we are inclined to believe that ‘JESUS’ is the name meant.”
“This was the name given Him at birth; and it was given Him in RECOGNITION of the fact that He should ‘save His people [not the whole world] FROM their sins;’ and as the angel [Gabriel] who announced the name was only executing God’s command, God in reality was the One who name Him. (Matt. 1:21). It therefore is likely that ‘Jesus’ is the name here alluded to.”
“In His PREINCARNATE state [prior taking our flesh-and-blood nature four thousand years after the fall of man] Christ was equal with God. He was with God and was God (John 1:1).”
“He did not hold His being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but as [Paul wrote] ‘He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and have unto Him the NAME WHICH IS ABOVE EVERY NAME, that in the name of Jesus [not the ‘flag’ or the national anthem] every KNEE should bow, of things in heaven, and of things on earth and things under the earth, and that every TONGUE should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Phil. 2:7-11, R.V.
“In becoming man, Christ naturally became lower than the angels, though only for ‘a little while.’ Heb. 2:7, margin. After His humiliation and death, and BECAUSE of it, God highly exalted Him and gave unto ‘Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.’”
“This name is the ‘more excellent name.’ ‘Angel’ means ‘messenger,’ ‘servant.’ Jesus means SAVIOUR—-in every way a more excellent name!” M. L. Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews, pp.63,64.
May all desire to grow in the knowledge of advancing light of truth in these closing hours of earth’s history per Bible prophecy! NMF