"Life Through His Name"
“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
—John 20:31
Near the end of John’s gospel, he identifies the purpose for which he wrote. His entire gospel was written that we might “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God.” His aim was and is to bring people to really believe that Jesus was God’s anointed son, and by believing to “have life.”
John’s concluding statement seems to bookend one that he made early in his epistle, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish; but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) The life that John speaks of is life eternal or everlasting life and that life, he says, comes through the name of Jesus.
Even before Jesus’s birth his divine nature and mission was sown into His name. Joseph, his earthly father, was told that his wife Mary would “bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 2:4) Jesus means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” Transliterated from Hebrew and Aramaic, the name is Yeshua. This word is a combination of Ya, an abbreviation for Yahweh, the name of Israel’s God (Exodus 3:14); and the verb yasha, meaning “rescue,” “deliver,” or “save.”
The English spelling of the Hebrew Yeshua is Joshua. But when translated from Hebrew into Greek, the original language of the New Testament, the name Yeshua becomes Iēsous. In English, Iēsous becomes Jesus. Thus, Yeshua and, correspondingly, Joshua and Jesus mean “Yahweh saves” or “the Lord is salvation.” Nephi makes it clear that “there is none other name given under heaven, save it be this Jesus Christ of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved.” (2 Nephi 11:39)
Jesus's mission was clear from the beginning. Humanity was in desperate need of salvation, and God, in His infinite love, sent His Son to bridge the gap created by sin. A terrible gulf had separated mankind from God. Because of our sin, we deserved His justice but instead in great mercy He sent Jesus who paid a price we owed and by so doing “hath brought us over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls.” (Alma 14:101) Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus fulfilled His divinely appointed mission, a mission announced in His name, offering eternal life to all who believe in Him.
In order for Jesus to fulfill or complete His mission, God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost. John witnessed that “the heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying, This is my beloved Son.” (Section 90:2c) Christ comes from the Greek Christos meaning “anointed one.” As God’s anointed one, Jesus’ name becomes Jesus Christ, and an even greater revelation of His mission is further sown in His name for Jesus Christ means “Yahweh saves the anointed.”
Who are the anointed that God saves? Salvation, we know from scripture, comes by taking upon ourselves the name of Jesus. How do we take upon ourselves Jesus’ name? Nephi makes this clear by teaching that “the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water to fulfill all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water.” (2 Nephi 13:7) To Nephi then came the voice of Jesus and he was told that “He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.” (2 Nephi 13:15) Nephi calls this “the way” and affirms that “there is none other way nor name given under heaven, whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God.” (2 Nephi 13:31
In His own baptism, Jesus showed the way to salvation. He simply asks that we “do the things which ye have seen me do.” When we do, we too are anointed with the Holy Ghost, and if we endure to the end, we will be saved. “There is no other name given, whereby salvation cometh, therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God, that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.” (Mosiah 3:11)
When the Holy Ghost dwells within us we are “in Christ” because his abode is within us. And “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12)
During the month of July and continuing into August we will continue to explore Jesus’ declaration of His name and the revealment of his purpose and mission in these seven I AM statements recorded in John.
I AM the Bread of Life
I AM the Light of the World
I AM the Door
I AM the Good Shepherd
I AM the Resurrection and the Life
I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life
I AM the True Vine
Read John. Read the context in which Jesus makes these statements. Ponder them. Pray about them. Live them. There is life in the name of Jesus … and only in the name of Jesus. Take upon yourself His name and endure to the end.