In the Name of the Lord Jesus
In the Son of God’s Name
To do something in the name of God was common language under the old covenant. Men called on “the name of Yahweh” (Gen. 4:26; 16:13). They swore in his name unto holy ends (Deut. 6:13; 10:20) and were forbidden to profane his name by false swearing and false worship (Lev. 18:21; 19:12; 21:6; 22:32; 24:16). God’s name is who he is (Ex. 34:5): gracious, merciful, forgiving, covenant keeping, just. His name is more fully revealed now that the Son of God incarnate has come. The Father’s eternal plan of salvation waited the birth of his Son so that men would “honor the Son as they honor the Father” (John 5:23), and also know the Holy Spirit as God indwelling us (John 14:17). Sent by his Father, we now know the name of Jesus Christ: meek and lowly of heart, the vine, the light of the world, the bread of life, the resurrection and the life, the way, truth, and life. To do all in his name means, first, that he is our Redeemer and has purchased us for himself. He has born the chastisement of our peace by being struck down in our place. He took the curse of our sin, our deserved judgment, and our hell upon himself. He has reconciled us to God and made us righteous before God. He has removed our sins and cleansed us of every stain by his precious blood. A Christian says simply and sincerely that he has no life apart from Jesus Christ. For every Christian, the name of Jesus Christ is Savior, precious, wonderful!
For His Glory
Should we not live for his praise (Phil. 1:21)? Yes, and this is the way we do all in his name – as we learn more of him, imitate him, live to please him (Matt. 11:29; Eph. 5:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:15). Since his name is who he is, we are to live under his authority and consistently with his word. In his word alone do we learn who he is, and therefore his word must dwell richly in us (3:16). His word and his name are inseparable. We know who Jesus Christ is not from our feelings or mystical illumination or preferred religious tradition, but from his word. “Christ’s name alone” leads without deviation to “Christ’s word alone.” This is the reason he said that his true disciples do his word (John 8:31; James 1:22), for he loved his Father and kept his Father’s word (John 15:9-11). Therefore, to do all in Christ’s name means that we love, trust, and obey our Savior’s word. We walk as he walked (1 John 2:6). Purchased by his precious blood, his honor is our chief aim in life and death. His word is our only wisdom. We now live not to please ourselves but to please him who loved us and gave himself for us (2 Cor. 5:15; Eph. 5:2).
In Union with Him by Faith
“In his name” also indicates that we as believers live in the sphere of Christ, or in union with him. We have no strength to do all in Christ’s name. The law of sin in our members wars constantly against the truth we know and believe. If we look away from Jesus Christ, we sink in the surging sea of our sins and unbelief and discouragement. Thus, to do all in his name implies necessarily that we are looking to him as our only rock and strength. For example, how can the same Paul who confessed “O wretched man that I am” also write that “for me, to live is Christ?” If we worshipped a non-divine Savior, a dead hero, this would be empty moralism and laughable enthusiasm. But since we are in union with the living Christ, which means that he is the risen Savior and therefore the Son of God incarnate, we can understand both sides. On the one hand, we are wretched and frequently feel ourselves divided between what our mind tells us is truth and what our sinful flesh entices us to pursue. On the other hand, Christ is the living Vine, and the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has freed us from the law of sin and death. We are new creatures and have a new principle of life within us – Christ’s life in us (Gal. 2:20). When we live believing in him and trusting his help, we can by the Spirit’s power put our sins to death. Instead of living to ourselves, we can “live unto him who died for us and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15). Thus, to do all in Christ’s name also means to do all in his strength (Phil. 4:13). A Christian has repudiated his own wisdom, virtue, and strength. He looks to Christ alone and lives trusting in his name and in union with him as the vine.
Do All In His Name
In Word and Deed
“Word and deed” includes everything we do. First, it includes our words – all our words must be said in his name, unto him, respecting him. This is rather a shocking thing to hear, for most think very little of the way they talk. They say what they want, when they want, and challenge anyone who questions their right to do so. “Our lips are our own, who will rule over us” (Ps. 12:4)? Christians are different. We have a living Master who has made known in his word the way we are to talk. He says that our speech is to be with “grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6). All our words must be aimed at building up one another (Eph. 4:29). No filthy words, sexual talk, or dirty jokes must come from a Christian’s mouth – or slander, gossip, vilification of other people, disrespect, or belittling. Jesus Christ gave his precious blood to purchase our mouths for himself. All our words must be for him, unto his praise, for the good of his people, and spoken humbly in his strength. This is beyond us, but consecration to Jesus Christ looks not to the limit of our ability but to the promise of his assistance. We have the Holy Spirit. As we abide in him and walk in the Spirit, he will purify our words. If your words are foul or profane, lascivious or impure, the Spirit of Jesus Christ is able to help you kill your corrupt words and replace them with words that glorify our Savior and build up others.
Our deeds also, how we live, what we do, how we spend our time, what interests us -- all done in the name of Jesus Christ. What a glorious, beautiful, limiting and freeing dynamic for Christian living! Only do what can be done for Christ, in Christ, unto Christ, to please Christ. Leave undone what cannot be done for him, and give little thought to what can be done only for self. Shun and hate what does not please him, and what breaks his word. When we commit what does not please him, we should be ashamed, especially impure words and deeds. Sexual impurity should not be named among us (Eph. 5:3). Words and actions that tend to fornication or adultery or worse, unnatural abominations should be forsaken so that Jesus Christ our Lord is pleased with us and magnified. He has thrown his life down over the abyss of hell, sinking there so that by believing upon him we might pass over the fires to God’s heavenly kingdom. Likewise our marriages – live them unto Christ. It really does not matter what we want to do. Do what is right, and what is right is what pleases Jesus Christ, according to his word, and what can be done unto his name. If we ask whose pleasure we are living for, the honest answer shocks and sickens. It is for ourselves. This comes across in a multitude of ways, from husbands who will not love and talk with their wives to wives who will not help and love and submit to their husbands – and children who simply refuse to obey – or fathers who will not stop exasperating their children but make everything about them and their feelings. We are sickening our Savior who died for us and lives at the Father’s right hand to help us. How little we do all things in his name! But, he will help us and bless us with his name if we will turn to him with our crooked tongues and broken hands, asking him to heal us.
Consecrated to Him
Speaking and doing all in Christ’s name is a call to lifewide consecration to our Lord Jesus. It is the inescapable conclusion to this section of the letter that began with “set your affections on things above, where Christ is” (Col. 3:1). It is required by “in all things he must have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18). It is the certain fruit of “as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him” (Col. 2:6-7). We are Christians. This is our identity and our high calling. “In the name of Christ” is our daily walk and our highest honor. If we who profess his name by our baptism will not live unto his name, we should immediately change our name and declare ourselves enemies of his name. At least, let us be honest. He hates hypocrites. First and foremost, before every other consideration, we are followers of Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be a Christian mother – not to find your favorite mother-guru and follow her, but to follow Jesus Christ as a mother by obeying his word tenaciously. The same as a father, or a Christian man, or a Christian woman – follow Jesus Christ. Do all to his honor, in his strength, in his name, honoring him with your every breath. Find other men who are actively, consciously committed to poring over God’s Word and obeying it, and seeking the help of the Lord Jesus, and then walk with them for help, encouragement, and example. When we fall, we run back to him, thankful for his perfect and powerful sacrifice, that his blood forever retains its full and exclusive power to cleanse our many transgressions (1 John 2:1-2).
Perhaps we should start here to learn consecration to Jesus Christ and begin developing a culture of consecration in our lives and families. Consider, first, our daily sins. What are we to do about these? A Christian realizes, first, that he will sin, and he will never outlive his need for the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse and restore him. Therefore, a Christian – at least, a mature and growing believer – will find that the cross of Jesus Christ is never an old story to him. He holds to that cursed tree tenaciously and must often come to eat of its leaves for his healing and cleansing. This more than anything else establishes a dynamic of consecration to Jesus Christ. We need him constantly. His saving name has delivered us countless times by his once-for-all sacrifice on the cross and continuing intercession from heaven. Second, along with the priestly work of Jesus Christ, we grow in consecration to him as we submit to his prophetic and kingly work – his word. Every part of the Bible is the word of Jesus Christ. It is all red-letters, all blood-stained, blood-sealed, blood-empowered. And the more we abide in his word, as he so often taught us, the more his truth will chase away our dark, sinful thoughts. His wisdom will dawn in us and direct our steps. We cannot do all in Christ’s name if we do not know his will. So much of ancient and medieval Christianity talked about imitation and consecration, but it was not word based but mysticism, or human traditions, or imposition of spiritual tyranny and legalism. This is not consecration except to Satan. To do all in Christ’s name, to be truly consecrated to him is to obey him. Him. His word. Not human traditions but his word. This is what he taught, and we do all in his name when we obey his word.
Giving Thanks to the Father by Him
For All He Is and Has Done for Us
Thankfulness feeds consecration to our Lord so that doing all things to him becomes a delightful duty and satisfying habit. The Holy Spirit often tucks thanksgiving into vital aspects of our Christian walk. He did so when it came to building a personal, familial, and congregational culture of purity in Ephesians 5:1-4. Thanksgiving to God breeds love, quenches the world’s false loves, and makes sexual lust nauseating. Gratitude feeds consecration and therefore obedience. If we believe that our Savior offered himself for us as an “offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor” (Eph. 5:1-2), then we cannot but be thankful to him. Thanksgiving exerts a similar power to strengthen us to do all things in the name of Jesus Christ. He bore our hell on the cross. We have no life but the life he died and rose to give us. We partake of his new life only because he gives us the Holy Spirit, who “takes what is Christ’s and shows it to us” (John 16:14). We must be thankful for what he has done for us, and for all he is continuing to do for us. What kills thankfulness? Worldly thinking and loves, especially fear, jealousy, envy, and discontent choke out thankfulness to Jesus Christ. Obsessing about the things of this life, as if they were the important things, obscures his glory. Ignoring the present benefits Jesus Christ has purchased for us, such as bold drawing near to the throne of grace for all things, being a joint-heir with Christ, and having every promise of God secured to us through the blood of Jesus Christ. When we think upon these truths regularly, when they, not what we want or lack, what others have or threaten to do to us, dominate our thoughts, thankfulness will grow. When thankfulness grows, fear flees, complaining collapses, and love lifts up its head and sings of its Redeemer. It sings to its Redeemer. It wants to do all things for him, even when very weak and surrounded by many temptations.
To Our Father through Christ’s Meditation
We have no direct access to the Father except through the Son. There is only one Mediator between God and man – Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Tim. 2:5). Whoever diminishes Him by exalting saints or Mary to a mediatorial role is an antichrist – or deceived by one. “No man knows the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him” (Matt. 11:27). We come to the Father through the intercession and personal worthiness of the Son of God incarnate. Our thanksgiving, therefore, is salvation specific. All blessings come to us through Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). He is the Mediator of the covenant. We have lost all claim or right to any blessing, earthly or heavenly, physical or spiritual. When we are healed of a cold, we must give our Father thanks through Jesus Christ, firmly believing that even this basic gift is deservedly our Savior’s. And when it comes to the higher gifts of forgiveness, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and the hope of heaven, our thanksgiving should be overflowing. The Father has given us these blessings through his Son. They are rightly his. He is the seed of Abraham and the seed of David. God has never made a promise that does not rightly belong to his Son as the mediator of the covenant (1 Cor. 3:20). And when we receive any gift or blessing, we must come to the Father and bring forward the name of his Son, praising his name, in awe that we should have a part of his name, thankful that he is so generous with us – so generous with the blood of his Son so that we might possess everything in him.
A Continual Flow of Thanksgiving
It is clear, then, that we will have no heart, no motivation, and no real determination to do all in Christ’s name unless we are thankful people – thankful to Him. Too often, thankfulness is viewed as a luxury virtue – if all is going well, if anxieties are at a minimum, if there are no pressing needs, then, yes, of course we should be thankful. But here we learn a different lesson – that as Christians, thanksgiving is not a luxury but a basic necessity, a vital necessity, a necessary response to the gospel. Can we parent in Christ’s name if we are bitter at our children, and not thankful for the opportunity to teach them? Or worse, if we are bitter with God, even quietly sulking, for having to spend so much thankless time, energy, and resources for them? But for whom are we living? For whom are we parenting? If we are doing this in Christ’s name, this brings us back to Him. He has redeemed us, and he has called us to this sacred, noble task of raising our children in his name, so that “one generation will praise his name to the next.” To parent in Christ’s name, then, means to parent thankfully – for your children to remember you most as a thankful person, a thanking parent, thanking the Lord Jesus while you labored for their good.
This is but one example. This applies to our witness in the world, our inner life and use of time, our motivations for living, our expectations for living, our joy in the midst of trouble and anxiety. Our Lord said that we would have many troubles, so this is a non-negotiable. We will have many troubles and reasons to be anxious and fearful. What is our response to be? Thankfulness. So, how do we establish a culture of thankfulness in our own hearts, and therefore in our relationships and homes and congregations? First, we must constantly preach our Savior’s precious gospel to ourselves. God’s sovereign grace, his gift of his Son, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the forgiveness and righteousness we have in him, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide and sanctify – these must be our constant thoughts. Our prayers must center around them. Our children need to hear us sincerely thanking the Lord constantly for the many benefits of salvation we have in Jesus Christ. The farther we get from the cross, from Jesus Christ, and from his throne of grace at the Father’s right hand, the colder our hearts will be, the less thankfulness we will have, and thus the less motivation to do all in his name.
Second, we must fight all our days against a complaining spirit. All forms of complaining – grumbling, exasperated sighing, craving a change of circumstances, taking out frustration upon those around you and blaming them for how you are feeling, blaming God for dealing you a bad hand – are a serious provocation against the Lord. A complaining spirit is the most common form of atheism. It expresses by words and attitudes that we are unhappy with the Lord’s government of our lives, or what he has given us. Learning contentment is finding our joy in him and in his holy purposes in our lives. This is what we must learn to overcome complaining and to feed gratitude – godliness with contentment. Whatever my God and Savior ordains is right. His ordering of my life is righteous and good. I will not complain but thank him for his mercies to me, and for the trials he sends to draw me to him. I will seek his face to guide and help me, so that I may live unto my Savior’s honor. Complaining is like a steel curtain that prevents us from doing all in his name. Let us tear it down by thankfulness. He has done so much for us and is doing more than we know at the Father’s right hand.
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