There is No Other Name
At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess (Is 45:23; Rom 14:11; Phil 2:10). Why? Because God has highly exalted Him and put all things in subjection under His feet (Eph 1:20–22). Jesus Himself testified, “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me (Mt 28:18).”
As the King of kings and Lord of lords, that is, the Sovereign Lord of all, Jesus is the Judge of all the earth (Gen 18:25; Acts 10:36; 1 Tim 6:15) who will one day wage war against the nations in rebellion against Him (Rev 19:16). Those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful (Rev 17:14). What separates those who are with Jesus and those who are against Him?
Pharaoh learned the hard way that there is no one like Yahweh in all the earth (Ex 9:14). Many ask why God permits evil and evil men to remain? It is for Him to show the power of God and for the name of God to be proclaimed throughout the earth (Ex 9:16). With the pending judgment of God looming on the day appointed by God (Mt 24–25; Rev 19:11–21), we must also ask why Jesus’s name is so important.
“Yahweh saves” is the meaning of Jesus’s name. There is only one God (Yahweh); and there is only one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5). A mediator is appointed to negotiate peace between two parties at enmity with one another. God and man have been in conflict since man’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden, under the influence of the serpent (Gen 3). Today, humanity remains enslaved to sin and Satan (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Rom 6:6).
But God is merciful to those whom He chooses to extend mercy (Rom 9:15). The Apostle Paul wrote, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus… (1 Cor 1:30)” This is God’s salvation of His chosen people, dating back to before the foundation of the world (Rom 11:5; Rev 13:8; 17:8; 21:27). Those who God the Father elected for salvation were given to God the Son (Jn 6:37); and it was for these that Christ came into the world to redeem them from the slave market of sin (Rom 6:6; Gal 1:8).
Christ’s incarnate mission to be the sin bearer of His bride, His church was 100% successful in propitiating the wrath of God (Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). These have been justified, that is, declared “not guilty” because of the blood of Christ (Rom 5:9a). God’s redeemed people are saved from the wrath of God through Christ (Rom 5:9b).
Holy Scripture reveals that there is salvation (Acts 4:12a). It belongs to God (Ps 3:8; Jon 2:9; Rev 19:1); and salvation is His sovereign prerogative to apply to whomever He wills to do so (Jn 1:12–13). Sinners, made to be partakers of Christ’s righteousness, are filled with joy at the name of Jesus (Neh 8:10; Gal 5:22). We also know there is wonder-working power in the name of Jesus (Ps 54:1; 106:8; 1 Cor 1:24).
This was Peter’s confession before the Sanhedrin after he and John were arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 3–4). Every Christian is a Spirit-filled witness to the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8). It begins with one’s own testimony of God’s gracious working. The believer never boasts in himself; but every opportunity is taken to boast in the Lord Jesus (Rom 15:17; Gal 6:14).
Nothing else has saved us. No one else has saved us. No other name is worthy to be grouped next to Jesus Christ. That includes every name that has ever or will ever be named. This is the exclusivity that irritates many, but all people should focus on salvation, as a priority and an absolute necessity before disputing the narrow way that leads to life (Mt 7:13–14; Jn 14:6).
There is nothing more important to you, my dear reader, than to be sure you are saved from the wrath of God to come (1 Thess 1:10). Therefore, it is necessary for one to examine himself or herself to see that their faith is entirely in Jesus Christ, alone. This is the saving faith granted by God’s grace, alone. No one can self-generate a true faith in Christ. Faith is mandatory for salvation; but its source is God, alone (Phil 1:29).
Job asked how a man can be right with God (Job 9:2). John answered that He who has the Son has life; but he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life (1 Jn 5:12). Jesus made the exclusive claim that He alone was the life and that no one comes to God the Father but through Him (Jn 14:6). The life of God in the soul of man must be implanted by the life-giving Spirit of Christ (Jn 6:63), who sows the Word into good soil and gives the increase (Mt 13:8, 23; Acts 6:7; Jas 1:21).
Hence, it is God the Spirit who makes one alive in Christ (Eph 2:5; Col 2:13). Christ becomes our all in all. By His Spirit, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Moreover, we walk the Christian life in the wisdom and power of God (Gal 5:25). Christ is the wisdom and power of God (1 Cor 1:24), so that Paul could reason that he himself no longer lived…being dead to sin (Gal 2:20). It was Christ living in Him that became everything to him.
Friend, have you arrived at the same conclusion? Are you so bold, as to claim that there is no other name worthy of your discussion time with others? Jesus’s name is above every other one because no other name has the priority of salvation attached to it. Salvation is necessary because eternal hell is the default alternative. Salvation is exclusive by God‘s design (Rom 9:22–23). Are you saved from God? His righteous judgment? His eternal wrath?
If Jesus is the name that is forever on your lips, derived from faith residing in your heart, then others will know that you stand with Jesus, being positioned in Christ by God’s grace. For us, there is no one else to talk about.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
May 29, 2023
