The Name Above Every Name

Sometimes I definitely feel that the writings of the Apostle Paul need to be de-coded in order to be understood. And I often feel that I have not quite cracked the code. So it is when I read the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians where he writes about the mysterious Name of God to which I referred in my previous post, the Name above every name . Listen to what he says.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. - Eph 1:16-23 ESV

Of Christ, he writes,

He is seated at the Father's right hand in the heavenly places,  far above . . . every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:21; Phil. 2:9). 

What does it possibly mean to you and to me that Christ is now seated at the Father's right hand in the heavenly places? And that He is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named? In what way is that Good News? Are we talking about some place to which Christ was raised and seated? What is the secret code here? About what do we need enlightenment? Permit a little rambling.

In the USA there is currently a huge controversy among citizens and politicians about the National Security Administration's (NSA) surveillance practices. How much information about any or all of us is being collected from the electronic media we all use—including the one on which this is being written? And now much should the government know about us, where we live, what we say, where we go, who our friends are and even what our thoughts and opinions may be? Such knowledge is power and such power may easily be misused or corrupted.

We have all had marketers and various other devious people use the media, seeking (phishing) to obtain information about us, like our bank account numbers, social security numbers and phone numbers, together with any other information about where we live, what we eat, who our friends are and where we have been. This is used to target us with an endless array of ads aimed at getting us to buy this or that product or reveal where we keep our assets and how they may get them from us.

All this information is wrapped up and hidden in my name! That's a ton of information and with that a lot of power. If you have it in your hands you can do whatever you want with me. And many try to do just that, especially if they are able to steal my identity—and all the information wrapped up in my name. With that information you could utterly destroy me and my family.

Now imagine that you have access to every name that is named, both now and yet to be. Imagine that you know all about that information and the people represented by those names. Imagine that you have some super, unlimited, all-powerful computer that easily and immediately provides you with all that information and all those names, enabling you to do whatever and whenever you want. Now multiply that power by a trillion and you have a tiny glimpse of what it means that Jesus is at the Father's right hand in the heavenly places.

And now consider that Jesus is your Big Brother, with full access to the Father by whom all these hings have come into being and for whom all things exist in this age or in that to come. As a reborn member of the family of Jesus, a child of God, a fellow heir with Christ, you are invited to come to the Father unafraid. You are permitted to call this Great Father "Abba! Father!" (Rom. 8:15-17). Ask whatever you will in Jesus' Name, and be assured that He listens carefully and with love to your petitions.

So we are taught to pray, "Father in the heavens, hallowed be Your Name." And with that in our hearts and minds we are confident that He both hears us and is able and ready to answer our prayers and fulfill our every need in the best possible manner. Let His Name indeed be held holy by all of us.

God's NAME Is A Sacred Four-Letter Word

Last week I began a series of meditations upon prayer, especially The Prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. The Prayer he gave them is known by millions around the world as the LORD's Prayer. So far we've pondered what it means to call upon Our Father in the heavens (Matt. 6:9). We continue our prayers by asking that our Father's name be hallowed (Luke 11:2).

I've often led my readers to ponder the Name of God, the Name above all names, shared by all three persons of the Holy Trinity, the name we have translated as I AM. This is the Name God first revealed to Moses when He sent Moses to stand before Pharaoh in ancient Egypt.

Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his Name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my Name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. - Exod 3:13-15 ESV

This ancient believers in Old Testament times would not even pronounce The Name, because they held it so sacred.   The four-letter Name looks like this in Hebrew.

Believers feared to offend God in some way or to leave the impression they held some other god before Him (Exodus 20:3). Thus, to avoid speaking this sacred Name in anything less than reverence, fear and deepest awe, they would instead speak their name for LORD, pronounced as Adonai. Even that Name was used only in prayer. Elsewhere the pious believer would speak only of The Name. In our English Bibles translators usually indicate the presence of The Name in Hebrew by writing LORD. 

Now our LORD Jesus, who shares The Name with the Father (Rom. 10:9), teaches also us to hold the Father's Name in deepest reverence. Surely we too must hold this God in the same deep awe as did believers in the days of the Old Covenant. By Him all things were made. In Him all things hold together. 

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens (Shamayim), who spread out the earth by myself, - Isa 44:24 ESV

Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever; ... to him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever; - Psa 136:3, 5 ESV 

 And yet our Father has chosen us to be His children and invites us to draw near to Him as dear children draw near to their earthly fathers, completely unafraid. More next time on how to hold God's Name holy and yet come to Him as our Papa in childish delight and confidence. 

Why God Revealed Himself As Father And Not Mother

In the previous two posts I wrestled with what our Lord Jesus meant by telling us to pray to our Father who is in heaven or in the heavens. That still leaves us with the question of why we pray to our Father and not to our Father/Mother who is in heaven. A couple years ago, while visiting a small Lutheran congregation here in Texas (not Missouri Synod), I heard the pastor lead the congregation in just such a prayer to our Father / Mother ! Needless to say, I abruptly stopped praying with him at that moment.

In a search of the Internet for help in explaining why some of us Lutherans (certainly not all), Roman Catholics, many Evangelicals and the Orthodox churches all agree that God is our Father and not our Mother, I came across a very good article  by Mark Brumley, editor of Ignatius Press's Modern Apologetics Library and the Managing Editor of The Catholic Faith Magazine. I encourage you to read it carefully and prayerfully: WHY GOD IS FATHER AND NOT MOTHER

In the article he corrects

• false claims behind the idea that in calling God Father Jesus was in fact "historically conditioned."
• that we can only speak of God in metaphors, understood as convenient, imaginative ways to describe our experience of God, rather than God Himself. 
• that Christ's teaching and practice compel us to accept inclusive or gender-neutral language for God, even though Christ Himself never explicitly called for it. 

 He goes on to tell us

• why the Bible uses masculine language to begin with
• what the difference is between metaphor and analogy
• what the difference is between fatherhood and motherhood
• why this difference is crucial for the Fatherhood of God
• what is the distinction between God's transcendence and His immanence
• how the doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that God is the Father

His final section deals with why we rejoice to call God our Father, as Jesus taught us. I quote from his article at length. His use of the Biblical word grace is questionable. As a Lutheran I would have to rewrite it, but his point about the Father willing that all be saved is important. Read the entire article yourself and draw your own conclusions.

 Fatherhood of God by Divine Adoption and Regeneration in Christ

We come now to God and humanity. Is God the Father of all mankind? In a sense He is, because He created us and, as we have seen, to create is like fathering a child. Yet God also made rocks, trees and the Crab Nebula. How is He Father of man but not also Father of them? Granted, humans are spiritual, as well as material, beings, which means they are rational beings—capable of knowing and choosing. In this, they more closely resemble God than the rest of visible creation. Nevertheless, human beings, as such, do not share God’s own life, as children share the life of their fathers. Thus, we are not by nature "children of God" in that sense, but mere creatures. And, as a result of sin, we are fallen creatures at that.

Yet Jesus tells His followers to address God as Father (Mt 6:9-13). He says the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (Lk 11:13) and that the Spirit of their Father will speak through them in times of persecution (Mt 10:20). He tells His disciples to be merciful as their heavenly Father is merciful (Lk 6:36). He speaks of being "born from above" through baptism and the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:5). On Easter Sunday, He directs Mary Magdalen to tell the other disciples, "I am going to my Father and your Father . . ." (Jn 20:17).

Elsewhere in the New Testament, God is also depicted as Father to Christians. Through Jesus Christ we are more than mere creatures to God; by faith in Him we become the children of God (1 Jn 5:1), sharing in Jesus’ own Divine Sonship, albeit in a created way (Rom 8:29). God is our Father because He is Jesus’ Father (Jn 1:12). What God is for Jesus by nature, He is for us by grace, Divine Adoption (Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:4-7; Eph 1:5-6), and regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Tit 3:5-7).

Behind this language of Divine Adoption and regeneration is the idea that God is our Father because He is the "source" or "origin" of our new life in Christ. He has saved us through Christ and sanctified us in the Spirit. This is clearly more than a metaphor; the analogy with earthly fatherhood is obvious. God is not merely like a father for Christ’s followers; He is really their Father. In fact, God’s Fatherhood is the paradigm of fatherhood. This is why Paul writes in Eph 3:14-15, "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named . . ." (RNAB). It is not that God the Father is earthly fatherhood writ large; rather, earthly fatherhood is the faint copy of Divine Fatherhood. This is why Jesus says, "Call no man on earth father. For you have but one Father in heaven" (Mt 23:9). In other words, no earthly father should be seen as possessing the fullness of patriarchal authority; that belongs to God the Father. All earthly fatherhood is derivative from Him.

Thus, God is not Father of those who have not received the grace of justification and redemption in the same way as those who have. Yet they remain potentially His children, since the Father wills the salvation of all (1 Tim 2:4) and makes sufficient grace necessary for salvation available to all. God desires that all men become children of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit, hence the universal mission of the Church (Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15; Acts 1:8). We can speak, then, in general terms of God as the Father of all men, inasmuch as He created all men to be His children by grace and makes available to them the means of salvation.