ARTICLE II. "AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD." AND 66 ND IN JESUS CHRIST." The Creed here presents to us, as the object of our faith, the Son of God; in accordance with His own exhortation : "Ye believe in God, believe also in Me "* and with the Father's "commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ." + e; The Name is first to be considered. Jesus is the personal name, Christ the title, which though used in subsequent times as a name, meant simply the Anointed One, the Messiah, and may be used with a supplementary addition, as "the Christ of God."‡ The name JESUS, divinely prescribed both to His mother Mary and to her husband Joseph, was given Him, according to Jewish custom, at His circumcision. It was a name of frequent occurrence. Not to mention other familiar instances, § there is authority for supposing that Jesus was the name of Barabbas ; || and in St. Stephen's speech¶ and in the Epistle to *St. John xiv. 1. St. Luke ix. 20. † 1 John iii. 23. § Col. iv. 11; Acts xiii. 6. || St. Matt. xxvii. 17. 'Inooûr Bapaßßâv is the reading of some MSS., and attested by Origen. Acts vii. 45. It is perhaps to be regretted that in the Revised Version the name Jesus has been altered to Joshua ; the Hebrews, Jesus manifestly is identified with its Hebrew form Joshua. Yet, though common, the name had deep meaning, and the history of its Hebrew form tends to bring it out. Originally Hosea, Moses changed it to Jehoshua or Joshua. The interpretation of the word in its simple form is Saviour; when compounded with the Divine name Jah, it implies a Saviour of Divine origin or appointment, and points to the Author of the salvation of which Joshua, or Jesus, was the instrument. We understand then that Moses foreknew who should be his successor and plant his people in their Promised Land. We also understand that, when the birth of the Universal Saviour was foretold, this name also was Divinely chosen as designating His character: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." * But the Greek text has an emphasis here which does not appear in our translation. The sentence fully rendered is, "He Himself shall save His own people," marking the pre-eminence of Jesus. For Joshua saved not Israel by himself, but God by him neither saved he his own, but the people of God. ; for the drift of the speech is plainly a working out of the connection of Type and Antitype; of history repeating itself. The history of Jesus is pointed at all along without obtrusive mention of Himself in this one place His name is expressed as a key to the allusive character of the whole. Wordsworth's note.) (See *St. Matt. i. 21. avròs σwσel Tòv λaòv avтoû. The Hebrew elements of the name Jesus are minutely analysed by W. W. Harvey (Three Creeds, pp. 168, 170). He gives as the exact meaning of it, "Jehovah Salvation." Jesus by His own power saves His own. He fulfils His name God the Saviour. to men And whereas the title Saviour is sometimes given * who were raised up as temporary deliverers from earthly adversaries, its meaning as applied to Him is unique, and declares a character which can be shared with no other. "There is none other Name under heaven given amongst men, whereby we must be saved." It belongs to Him as having revealed, more eminently than any apostle, evangelist, or prophet, the one true way of salvation. He " came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." He it is "Who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." § Further, it belongs to Him alone as having not only revealed but procured the means of salvation by the sacrifice of Himself. declared Himself that His blood was He shed for many for the remission of sins";|| His apostle declares that He "His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree":¶ "We have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." ** "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace by the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself.” †† And, thirdly, that salvation which He revealed and procured He is also the Giver of. "Him hath God * 2 Kings xiii. 5; Neh. ix. 27. Eph. ii. 17. T1 Pet. ii. 24. § 2 Tim. i. 10. † Acts iv. 12. "Carried up our sins to the tree" (R.V., margin), a more exact rendering. **Col. i. 14; Eph. i. 7. tt Col. i. 19. exalted with (or at) His right hand to be a Prince and Saviour * He has received all power "in , heaven and on earth"; † and for what purpose we are told in His own prayer : "Thou gavest Him power over all flesh, that all that Thou hast given Him to them He should give eternal life." ‡ Thus "God sent His Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved"; § "Once in the end of the world He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself"; || further, He is exalted to be Mediator and Advocate, 66 able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him"; ¶ finally, "unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." These are the truths summed up in the Name of Jesus. The Evangelist goes on, ** after his mention and exposition of that name, to find in it the fulfilment of the prophetic name Emmanuel, which he interprets as "God with us." By its composition the word Emmanuel admits of being explained as God in us, in our nature. The interpretations are * Acts v. 31. †St. Matt. xxviii. 18. St. John xvii. 2. Westcott's translation is adopted as preserving the force of the original, which represents the body of them that are saved first in their unity then in their individuality. § St. John iii. 17. || Heb. ix. 26, 28. ¶Heb. vii. 25. ** St. Matt. i. 21-23. It is to be observed how our Lord in His last words takes up, as it were, this interpretation, "Lo, I am with you always." It is more marked in the Greek, Mee' ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός, compared with ch. xxviii. 20, Εγώ μεθ' ὑμῶν εἰμί, tt See Hooker, E. P., v. 52—3. kindred in result. The taking of our nature involves the exaltation of the race; the presence of God assures the salvation of believers; both wrought out by the act of Jesus, both signified by His name. And fitly, therefore, is an adoring homage claimed for that Name pre-eminently: "God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name; that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.”* It is also to be said, and perhaps too opens a wider view of the "counsels of God" to say, that these conditions not only encourage, but enable us, to render the homage due to Him; it is they that make worship not only fitting, but possible. For our conceptions of God are negative; in forming an idea of Him we only think away human conditions; to us He is unchanging, incomprehensible: but faith, worship, reverence, admiration, must rest on positive perfections, and all such are necessarily human. It was a saying of Kant: "We challenge natural theology to name a distinctive attribute of the Deity which apart from anthropomorphism is anything more than a mere word." Therefore the mystery of the Incarnation, great as are the demands which it makes upon our reason, is not other than reasonable. "God in Christ," by His manifestation of Himself in human nature, enables man to conceive of and to worship Him aright. † * Phil. ii. 9, 10. From a paper by T. M. Home in The Expositor, vol. i., p. 210. |