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 In
Jesus’ prayer (Jn. 17:6) he said “I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gayest me. . . .“ Did he mean
he had magnified the proper designation “Jehovah” or other
like name? He explains himself in v. 8: “For I have given unto
them the words which thou gayest me; and they have received
them, and have known surely I that I came out from thee, and
they have believed that thou didst send me.” (Cf. Jn.
12:49-50) Jesus manifested God’s name when he taught the truths
of God — not by giving mystical significance to some label.
When
Peter and John were brought before the Jewish authorities and
questioned concerning the healing of the lame man (Acts 3:),
they were asked: “By what power, or by what name have ye done
this?” (4:7-f.)
Were
they asked, “What label did you use, what proper name
did you call out? It seems clear from the question that if a
proper name was under consideration at all, it was only to
identify the source of the power by which the
miracle was performed. Peter clearly understood this as shown by
his reply. He said, “If we this day be examined of the good
deed done to the
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impotent man, by what means he is made
whole; be it known... that by the name of Jesus Christ... even
by him doth this man stand here before you whole.”
Note
the emphasis I have given to show various expressions for the
same thing. By what power, by what name, by what means, even by
him. It was by him, the personal power or means of him, that the
miracle was done. It was not by some magical use of a label or
proper designation. The man was healed by Jesus Christ, the Son
of God; not by what he was called.
And
later, when Peter said, “there is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved,” he is not talking
about the terminology of the sign on a church building, but
about the divine means by which man is saved from sin. We
rightly speak of the followers of Christ as the church of
Christ, but we find no magic formulae in the terms. We are just
following the scriptural example of calling things what they
are.
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