The Release of the Lord
(Continued)
In any consideration of the
effectiveness of the Church's witness in the world in its
early days, it is essential that careful note be taken of the
governing factors which then obtained. That there were
certain great governing concepts in New Testament evangelism is
undeniable. We therefore essay to bring some of these into
clear relief. That to which we would give primary place is -
The Power of
the Name
In the book which gives us the
record of those first decades of Christianity, we might
almost say that - apart from the Holy Spirit Himself - the
paramount place is given to the Name of Jesus. In
almost His last words to His disciples before returning to
Heaven, the Lord had said: "Thus it is written, that the
Christ should suffer... and that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached IN HIS NAME unto all the nations..."
(Luke 24:47). On the Day of Pentecost Peter cried: "Repent
ye, and be baptized every one of you IN THE NAME of Jesus
Christ..." (Acts 2:38). In healing the lame man, he
said: "IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and
walk" (Acts 3:6). To the crowd that ran to see the miracle,
he said that it had been "by faith IN HIS NAME"
(Acts 3:16). To the High Priest, he declared that the man was
healed "IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ... Whom ye crucified,
Whom God raised from the dead..." (Acts 4:10). The
Council commanded that they should "speak henceforth to no
man IN THIS NAME" (Acts 4:17). In the face of threats
and commands the Church prayed that 'signs and wonders might
be done THROUGH THE NAME of Jesus' (Acts 4:30). "We
straitly charged you not to teach IN THIS NAME," said the
High Priest, but they rejoiced that "they were counted
worthy to suffer dishonour FOR THE NAME" (Acts
5:28,41). So it goes on and on. The Name is the power and
passion throughout.
But it is more than a title or
designation. It is the content of the Name.
What was it, and is it, that is contained in the Name?
Firstly, the Name embodies -
1. The
Victory of a Nature
In Philippians 2:9, we are told
that Jesus, as a reward for His condescension, humiliation, and
obedience unto death, was given "the name which is above
every name". This represented among other things the
triumph of an unsullied and unblemished nature. Sinless, He
carried His robes of character through every "temptation
common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13), and "offered
Himself without spot unto God" (Heb. 9:14). The
world, evil men and the powers of darkness combined to corrupt or
entrap Him and blemish His character, but, even when "He Who
knew no sin was made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21) and "bare our sins
in His body upon the tree" (1
Peter 2:24), His own spirit remained unbending and
undefiled. This victory cut the ground from under the feet
of the evil powers. The prince of this world came and
had nothing in Him (John 14:30). The Name is
the embodiment of tried and proved holiness: hence it is the
ground and instrument of victory for the sinner over sin, and for
the believer over Satan and the evil powers.
2. The
Victory of Meekness
This is a feature that is made
much of in the Scriptures. It is that which lies within the
so-often-used symbol of The Lamb. The essence of
meekness is selflessness. Unresisting, unassuming
disinterestedness and teachableness; these are its marks.
In its spiritual power and moral values, meekness is the most
far-reaching virtue of all. The ruin of creation and man;
the distance and discord between man and God; the rift in the
universe, and the bitter and terrible entail of sin and death,
with all the sorrow and suffering of a disrupted order: all this
is due to that satanic pride which led its aspirant to set his
throne "above the stars of God," to be "like the
Most High" (Isa. 14:13,14); and, on being hurled from
his high place, to conspire to wreck God's work and to
dishonour His Name. The One Who would undertake the immense
task of undoing and rectifying this damage and vindicating that
name must Himself be without the slightest trace of the evil
thing - pride; He must, indeed, be the very personification of
its opposite. No ground suitable to Satan's victory
must be found in Him, for Satan cannot cast out Satan (Mark
3:23). That little phrase, "He humbled Himself"
(Phil. 2:8), speaks of one of the mightiest and most potent
forces in God's moral and spiritual universe.
The Name, then, represents all
that Satan-undoing virtue; hence its potency when used in the
power of the Holy Spirit.
3. The
Victory of Love
This universe is shot through
and through with hate. From that primal hatred of God
mentioned above, the work of the evil powers is ever to turn man
against God, and to make man - as God's chief creation - destroy
himself by mistrust, suspicion, fear, jealousy, rivalry, sin, and
a thousand other ways. Into such a world, there came One
Who should declare and demonstrate the love of God, and inculcate
His love in a new creation: it was the inbreathing of the Spirit
of love; the planting of the Vine, the fruit of which is
love. You will find that the New Testament, when you trace
this matter of love through it, is just the Testament of
Love. The Cross of Christ is where all the hate in the
universe - human and satanic - converged and overflowed,
and where all the love of God met and defeated it. That
victory is embodied in the Name. No one can hate another
and bear the Name of Christ.
How much more is gathered into
the Name! The power of truth; the victory of faith; and so
much more. It is indeed a mighty Name, in Heaven and earth,
and hell. The Holy Spirit knows all its meaning, nature,
and content; and when He came to vindicate and glorify that Name,
and the Church lived and worked under His anointing, 'mighty
things' happened IN THE NAME.
The recovery of faith in the
name, with a new appreciation of its significance and a return to
its ground, would prove that it is no less potent now than it was
then. But there must be an all-dominating passion for its
honour - a single-minded jealousy that will govern all things
with the one consideration: Is this glorifying to the NAME OF
JESUS?
So the Name is not merely a
formula to be appended to our prayers or professions. It is
a power: but its potency demands that everything correspond to
and be governed by the Spirit and character of its Divine
Bearer. We may take the Name upon our lips, but, as it
happened with the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:4), the evil
powers may turn and rend us because they do not recognize the
person: "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?"
the Name must be taken and used in the power of the Spirit, and
that power is only found where Jesus is truly present in
unoffended good pleasure.
Editor.
This was the end of the series in the Editor's Letters. More chapters were republished in later years, see the book "The Release of the Lord" for the complete collection.