“And behold, you
will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name
Jesus.” Luke 1:31
What’s in a name? Do
you know what your name means? We live
in a society in which parents select names for their children mostly because of
how they sound rather than because of what they mean. The significance of a name was especially
true in Biblical times. In the Old and
New Testaments, names that were given reflected personal experience or
expressed character.
We look ahead these days of Advent to the birthday of the
One whose parents were told by an angel messenger what to name Him. “You shall call His name Jesus,” the angel
said to both Mary and Joseph. The name
Jesus was probably pronounced “Yeshua” in their language. It means “Yahweh saves” or “The Lord
saves”. While many Hebrew men bore the
name Yeshua or Joshua, Jesus was the only one who would fulfill its
meaning. His name still has life-giving
meaning for us.
His name still has life-giving meaning for us because our
Lord, Jesus Christ, still saves. We
constantly fall short of God’s Law. Our
sinfulness far outweighs any good we do.
Yet each and every time we repent of our sin, the nail-marked hands of
Jesus are evidence that we are saved – we are forgiven! Our sin and failures have been washed away by
the blood of Christ – truly, He still saves!
