Jesus
We Believe
This post is part of a series of communion mediations working through the Apostles’ Creed. You can read the creed here, and the last installment here.
Jesus
We confess in the creed that we believe in Jesus Christ, [the Father’s] only Son, our Lord. This morning as we come to the table, I want to look at one word: Jesus. We often think of Jesus Christ as two names much in the same way that I’m Charles William. However, Christ is a title: the Greek form of the Hebrew Messiah. We’ll look at that next month. Today, though, we’ll consider our Lord’s name. The name of our Lord is Jesus.
In the Hebrew world - really, in most cultures throughout most of history - names have been quite important. They were considered to be significant. And Jesus’ name is no different. In Matthew 1, Joseph is considering divorce from his betrothed when he finds out that she is with child. But an angel comes to him in a dream and tells him that this child is no mere child, that the one conceived in her from conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was told to stay with Mary, and when the child was born to name him. “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
He was to be Jesus, and this name was significant: it is the Greek form of the Hebrew “Yeshua” or “Joshua”, and it means Yahweh saves, or the Lord saves.
And this is precisely what Jesus came to do. He came to save his people, as the Jews expected. But surprising to some would be what he was saving them from: their sins. Jesus wasn’t just one more political savior, he wasn’t one more in a line of temporary fixers. Jesus came to heal the most fundamental rift in the universe: the one created between God and man by human sin. As sinners we deserve the wrath of God. But Jesus, eternal Son of God who came into the world, came as sin-bearer. He saves. He saves from the penalty of sin, he cancels the record of debt that stood against us by the power of his cross. He delivers us from God’s wrath. He breaks the power of canceled sin in the life of the believer. He delivers from our bondage. And he will one day deliver from us from the presence of sin, when he gloriously returns and sets the world to rights. Friends, we have heard the joyful sound- Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
At the table, we celebrate and proclaim what he has done. If you know Jesus as your Savior, if you confess his as your Lord, then this is for you. Come, and welcome, to the table of our Lord.