Our Savior's Name
From the burning bush God spoke to Moses commissioning him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses didn’t feel qualified for the task. And he wasn’t. Not without God. That’s when God answered, “But I will be with you” (Ex. 3:12a). Still puzzled, Moses asked, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” (Ex 3:13).
God answered him with his personal name. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this.
“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM,’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations’” (Ex 3:15).
English Bibles distinguish between “LORD” (all capital letters) and “Lord” in the Old Testament. “LORD” represents the personal name of God which is YHWH, or “Yahweh,” a word directly related to the phrase “I AM.” The word “Lord” in the Old Testament often translates the Hebrew word adonai, a title of sovereign authority.
The Greek New Testament, and subsequently our English New Testaments, consistently translate God's name, Yahweh, as "Lord" (not all capitals) making things confusing. But some hard thinking here pays handsome dividends for the Bible student.
When the NT affirms Jesus is "Lord," it's claiming that Jesus is Yahweh (compare Phil 2:11 with Is 43:25). When we call upon the name of Jesus and confess him as Lord, we are not only saying that he is God but that he is Yahweh. We are calling upon this very personal, relational, covenant-keeping God who has ministered to his people throughout time.
Paul tells us as much when he says that "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved . . . For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Rom 10:9, 13; Joel 2:32). The passage in Joel that Paul quotes literally says "everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved," and Paul equates calling on the name of YHWH with calling on the name of Jesus.
Can there be any sweeter name than the name that is above every other name?
