Drawing on the entire New Testament, make a list of five names and titles used to identify Jesus. Discuss the meaning of each name or title, the person(s) using it, and the place in the New Testament where you found the usage. Discuss how the title helped to explain some aspect of Jesus’ character or role and why that would be attractive to the audience of the writer. After you finish doing this, choose two names or titles that you find to be most helpful or impactful to you. Explain why you chose these names or titles and what significance they have to you personally.
Jesus had many names in the New Testament of the Bible, and that might be surprising for some to find out. This essay seeks to cover five names that identify Jesus, uses notes from the New Testament that explain the meanings of those titles and mentions Jesus’ specific character related to those names that would increase one’s appreciation for the wonderful person of this universe, Jesus.
(1) Jesus
Jesus Christ is a common name and the most special name in the universe. This special name is used in multiple contexts of conversations as Bible in Philippians 2:9 states that God has exalted Jesus to the greatest and highest of the places and bestowed on him the title that is “above every name” (Bible, 2009). Bible follows that every knee and tongue should acknowledge that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Bible, 2009). So, this word is rich in meaning and communicates a lot about a particular aspect of his personality that he is to most of his followers. Jesus is the very first name mentioned in Matthew 1:1(Towns, n.d.). Moreover, New Testament says that the name Jesus was given to him by God when the Lord sent an angel to Joseph in his dream in order to instruct him that Mary would bear a son and “you shall call his name Jesus” because he is assigned a task to “save his people from their sins” (Gundry, 2003). The name Jesus is the Greek equivalent of Hebrew Joshua, which means “Salvation” or “Savior,” to indicate that Jesus is the only road that takes humankind straight to the Lord and that only he can save us from negative things and sins. This special name takes Jesus’ role as the savior so that humanity can be saved from many bothering things by calling on the name of Jesus.
(2) Christ
In John 1:41, the name mentioned is Christ when New Testament refers to “We have found Messiah (Christ),” which is a Hebrew word translated in Greek as Christ, meaning “the anointed one by God” to accomplish the Lord’s eternal plan of delivering humanity from sins (Bible, 2009). The real purpose of God in sending Jesus to earth was to bring the good news of salvation. He was appointed by Lord to carry out His eternal plan to proclaim liberty to all human beings, heal open hearts, and open the eyes of his followers and other people of the world about the coming of the true kingdom of God to earth. Christ is the person whom God’s people look for because he is one who works out God’s purpose to fulfill His desire. Luke 4:22 shows God’s people how the Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled “He has anointed me” concerning the anointed one by God foretold by the prophets (Bible, 2009).
(3) Emmanuel
Another name mentioned in the New Testament for Jesus is Immanuel or Emmanuel, which means God with us. In New Testament, Matthew 1:23 discloses that Mother Mary was told that she would give birth to a son who would save “his people from their sins” and “they shall call him Emmanuel,” emphasizing that God and the Holy Spirit are with that little child to carry out a specific purpose, delivering people from the bondage of sins. However, many followers had a consensus that Emmanuel was the name by which man called him as he was also God who was incarnated among people. Furthermore, in Matthew 28:20, Jesus reassured his disciples, “Behold, I am with you,” to promise his existence to his disciples and all who believe in him (Bible, 2009). Jesus’ role, as Emmanuel portrays, is to receive Christ in our human spirit and experience God with us always in a life-giving Spirit form.
(4) Lamb of God
John the Baptist called Jesus as “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” upon seeing Jesus when he was baptizing people in Bethany. In John 1:29, the name Lamb of God given to Jesus is the sweetest name to all those who believe in Lord and the Holy Spirit (Roberts, 1968). He is called the “Lamb” because someone was destined to die in front of God in order to ask the pardon for the world’s sins “Without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22, Bible, 2009). Thus, Jesus was the precious and spotless Lamb of God who offered his life to redeem each person of humankind.
(5) The Word
Jesus, from the name of the Lord, the Word, is the one who expressed God and His divinity in everything Jesus said and did. The name, the Word, mentioned in John verse 14, is deep and profound “the Word was with God, and the Word was God” to express and explain God to us. Without Christ being the Word, God would be unexplainable and unknowable to humankind. Jesus being the Word, declared what God is to his followers who truly believe in Him. The New Testament sheds light on the existence of God that the Word in the form of Jesus has stepped out from eternity into time to become flesh and incarnated as a man- Jesus. In verse 14, Jesus is referred to as “the Word become flesh and tabernacled among us” (Bible, 2009). This refers to meaning that God chose to join humanity in the form of Jesus, a man of flesh and blood. In the New Testament, the word “tabernacle” was the Word that became flesh, whereas, in the Old Testament, the term refers to God’s dwelling place among humanity (Towns, n.d.).
Just from the names of Jesus, the followers (audience) of Christ can appreciate him as Emmanuel, the God who is with us always, love him as Jesus who is the Savior, praise him as the Word who expressed God in everything he did, acknowledge him as Christ who is the anointed one to carry out redemption from sins, and thank him as Lamb of God who sacrificed himself to accomplish God’s purpose.
Apart from the names and their significance for humanity, two important names of Jesus that have had a significant impact on my life and doings are “Lamb of God” and “Emmanuel,” as both these words helped me go through the ups and downs in life. The word “Lamb” signifies to me that no matter how sinful I am, there is a way to redemption of my sins which could be accomplished through following Jesus and his teachings. Besides, the word “Emmanuel” helped me believe throughout my life that God is always with us in our deepest parts when we repent and regenerate ourselves.
Having studied and read about the expansion of the early Christian church and movement, discuss the factors (personal, religious, political, etc.) which contributed to its spread. What are the most important factors that you have discovered throughout this study? Do not just list, but explain why you chose the people, events, or cultural issues that helped Christianity spread through the Roman world
There were many ways Gospel was spread, and the early Christian Church expanded. One way was by the other Christians who were convinced by someone to become Christian, and those new Christian converts were influenced to possess some spiritual blessings. The other way for the early church expansion and Gospel spread was through Paul’s letters which defended the Christian Church and explained, interpreted, and spread the Gospel. The Apostle Paul’s letters to the early Church were not only based and confirmed on his calling by Christ but also due to his suffering. The expansion of the early Christian Church in its earliest three centuries is the most remarkable event in the history of all the religions of the world, as the earliest Christians did not have church buildings and public ceremonies. Christianity became a significant factor in the society as it flourished from a small to an influential minority in its first three centuries in the entire Mediterranean community (Harnack, 1908). Jesus himself set the limitations of promulgating the teachings of the Gospel in the early church “to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:18, Bible, 2009). However, Paul freed the preaching from all its limitations that fostered the rapid and wide diffusion of the early Christian Church.
The Book of Acts mentioned the spiritual factor of the early Christian Church’s rapid growth and mentioned the Church’s five purposes in Act 2, which says “worship, discipleship, teaching, ministry, and evangelism, ” backed up by the Holy Spirit who helped Church in its rapid growth. Other important factors included the Roman Empire and Greek Culture that had significant impacts on helping Christianity and the early Church spread through the Roman world. Greek culture fostered the growth of the Church and made a lot of contributions to spread the Gospel in a number of significant ways. The first translation of the Gospel was in Greek because the early Christian missionaries could not learn the language of the Roman Empire. Paul wrote his letters to the Church in Rome in Greek language because missionaries constricted themselves to the core of Greek culture. Moreover, the establishment of the Roman Empire was a significant political accomplishment in planting the appearance and growth of Christianity in the world. While the Roman Empire, at a superficial glance, was the greatest opponent of early Christianity, yet the grandest ally of Christianity as the Roman Empire rendered great services to the kingdom of God and especially to humankind.
Discuss the New Testament assertion of Jesus as “God the Son.” What are the implications? How did Jesus and His followers communicate this unique relationship between “God the Father” and “God the Son”? Explore, specifically, both the incarnation and the attributes of God in Christ. Draw specific textual support from John 1, Philippians 2, Colossians 1, and other New Testament reading,
The New Testament calls Jesus as the “Lamb of God,” who was sent to the earth to deliver and save humankind from sins. He is also referred to as God’s son, to whom all the divine scripture leads analogous to Adam’s father, God, who was also the son of God. In his likeliness to Adam, David, and Abraham, Jesus fulfills his role related to his own divine nature as God the Son. The noteworthy importance of this theological bondage between Jesus and Adam is established in Gospel as Colossians 1:15 calls Jesus the “image of invisible God” (Bible, 2009). This declares that he is the “firstborn of all creation” to introduce the radiance of the glory of God as Father. From this Biblical reference, the strong connection of sonship declares that Adam was the one who retained the image of God, but he fell short of his glory. So, the last Adam or the true man, Jesus, is leading God’s children to glory those who have firm faith in him. Verse 18 of John chapter 1 puts it differently that Adam, David, and Israel “were the earlier sons of God who were the shadows the true Son” and came for the true Son who was the begotten God (Bible, 2009). Indeed, what followers of Christ and Lord God find in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ is the true Son of God in two senses; one depicts him as God the Son and the other calls him the Son of God like Abraham, David, Israel, and Adam (Kim, 1983).
Thus, in John and Colossians, in the New Testament, Christ is not only portrayed as God’s son due to his humanity and service for mankind but also as God the Son due to his deity. It is suffice to say in the worship and service of Jesus Christ that he is God’s son because he is fully human but also God the Son because he is more than a common person and the greatest of all other sons of Lord.
References
Bible, E. S. V. (2009). The English standard version Bible: Containing the old and new testaments with apocrypha. Oxford University Press.
Gundry, R. H. (2003). A survey of the New Testament. 5th ed. Zondervan.
Harnack, A. (1908). The mission and expansion of Christianity in the first three centuries.
Kim, S. (1983). “The ‘Son of Man’ as the Son of God (Vol. 30). Mohr Siebeck.
Towns, E. L. (n.d.). The Names of Jesus. 108.
Roberts, J. H. (1968). The lamb of God. Neotestamentica, 2(1), 41-56.
