No Other Name!

Jesus Christ fulfills the promise to bless all nations through Abraham. There is salvation in no other name but his.

Foundational to the biblical doctrine of redemption is the Covenant that God made with Abraham and his “seed.” This includes the promises to bless all nations and to grant the Patriarch descendants, “as innumerable as the stars of heaven.” But how and when are the nations blessed, and who or what is the seed of the Patriarch destined to inherit the promises?

Jesus Christ is the promised seed. The Abrahamic Covenant was part of God’s redemptive plan, singular, the beginning rather than the end of the process. The Gospel of Jesus Christ that is proclaimed to all men is not a different covenant or a deviation from the original.

[Jesus - Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash]

The initial focus on Abraham’s immediate biological descendants was an early stage in the redemption of humanity. Jesus, the man from the insignificant village of Nazareth, is the one who brings the covenant promises to their intended fulfilment.

As Scripture confirms, Jesus is the Son who inherits all things; therefore, salvation and the promises of God can be received through him alone. Attempting to obtain salvation and entrance into God’s Kingdom any other way will end in disaster:

• “I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, You are my son. This day, I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. <…> Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him” – (Psalm 2:6-12). 

The Abrahamic Covenant envisioned a glorious future far beyond the nation of Israel or the borders of the small territory of Palestine. The Covenant promises, including the promise of land, will be realized in all their fullness in the New Creation and the redemption of the nations - (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:4-6, 17:1-8).

In the Book of Revelation, for example, John saw an “innumerable multitude” of men purchased from every nation by the “blood of the Lamb.” They were standing and worshipping before the “Lamb” in the city of “New Jerusalem” because of the sacrificial death of Jesus:

• “These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his sanctuary. And he that sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. <…> For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and guide them to fountains of living waters” - (Revelation 7:14-17).

• “And the city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations will walk amidst the light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” - (Revelation 21:23-24).

During his ministry, Jesus limited the activities of his disciples to “the lost sheep of Israel.” However, he foresaw the inclusion of the nations, and this is demonstrated by the application of the Messianic prophecy of the Book of Isaiah to the ministry of Christ in Galilee, an area with a large population of Gentiles as well as Jews:

• “The land of Zebulon and Naphtali, by way of the Sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people sitting in darkness have seen a Great Light” - (Matthew 4:15, Isaiah 9:1).

• “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will declare judgment to the Gentiles” - (Matthew 12:18, Isaiah 42:1).

After his Death and Resurrection, Jesus commanded his disciples to announce the Good News of Salvation and the Kingdom to “all the nations,” a mission that must be completed before his “arrival on the clouds of Heaven.” The salvation of the “nations” is pivotal to the redemption of humanity, indeed, of the creation itself. This will be accomplished through the preaching of the Gospel by the followers of the Nazarene, and certainly not through force or conquest - (Matthew 24:14, 28:18-20):

• “For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by him who subjected it, in hope, that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God” - (Romans 8:17-23).

Therefore, just before his ascent and enthronement, Jesus commissioned his followers to be “witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth” - (Luke 24:45-49, Acts 1:7-9).

In the Book of Acts, Peter prayed for the lame man at the entrance to the Temple, declaring that “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” healed him in the name of “His Servant,” and Peter invoked the Abrahamic Covenant and its promise to bless the nations:

• All the “prophets from Samuel and those who followed, as many as have spoken, told of these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed will all the clans of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised his Servant, sent him to bless you by turning away every one of you from your iniquities” - (Acts 3:25).

Peter linked Christ’s ministry to God’s promise to bless all the nations in Abraham’s seed. His words anticipated the broadening of the Covenant Community to include the Gentiles by declaring that God had blessed the Jewish nation “first.”

When the priestly authorities from the Temple questioned Peter and John about their preaching and the healing of the lame man, Peter responded:

• “You rulers of the people, and elders, if we this day are examined concerning a good deed done to an impotent man, by what means this man is made whole; be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even in him does this man stand here before you whole. He is the stone which was set at nought of you, the builders, which was made the head of the corner. And in no other is there salvation, for neither is there any other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved!” – (Acts 4:8-12).

Peter became instrumental in opening the Gospel to the Gentiles, the nations, beginning at the House of Cornelius in Caesarea. Before his vision at the start of the tenth chapter of Acts, he understood that it was unlawful “for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come into one of another nation,” yet God showed him that he must “not call any man common or unclean” – (Acts 10:9-16).

THE GENTILES, ALSO

As Peter affirmed to Cornelius and those with him, the Creator of all things accepts men “in every nation that fear him and work righteousness”; therefore, the Apostle preached the same message to his Gentile audience that he proclaimed to the Jews - (Acts 10:19-48).

The Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles while Peter was still speaking, and they began to speak in tongues. This amazed the Jews who were present, since uncircumcised Gentiles had received the very same gift as the Jewish believers did on the Day of Pentecost.

After hearing about these events, the brethren in Jerusalem “glorified God, because to the Gentiles also He had granted repentance for life” – (Acts 2:1-4, 10:44-48, 11:18).

Later, James declared that the Gentiles were not required to undergo circumcision “to be saved” since God had “visited the nations to take out of them a people for his name.” James justified this by citing the prophet Amos:

• “To this agree the words of the prophets <…> After these things, I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; and I will build again its ruins, and I will set it up, that the remnant of men may seek after the Lord and all the nations upon whom my name is called” - (Acts 15:14-17, Amos 9:11-12).

The Book of Acts ends with the Apostle Paul in Rome, “proclaiming the Kingdom of God” to all who would hear, to Jews and Gentiles alike - (Isaiah 52:10, Acts 28:26-31).

Paul is explicit in his letters to the churches of Galatia and Rome. The followers of Jesus are “the children of Abraham,” both Jews and Gentiles. God’s plan was always to justify the Gentiles through faith, the same faith as that of Abraham. As He promised the Patriarch, “In you will all nations be blessed.”

• “And Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be accounted to them; and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision” – (Romans 4:11-12).

We who stand on the faith of Jesus Christ are “blessed with faithful Abraham.” Jesus is “the seed of Abraham” in whom the nations are blessed, and with whom we become heirs of the promises along with “our father Abraham” – (Genesis 12:3, Galatians 3:7-9, 3:14).

• “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and coheirs with Christ” – (Romans 8:16-17).

• “We, being Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, yet knowing that a man is not justified from the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified from faith in Christ, and not from the works of the law, because from the works of the law no flesh will be justified” – (Galatians 2:15-16).

Once again, the Book of Revelation foresaw “the Holy City, New Jerusalem” inhabited by a multitude so vast that no man could number it, “an innumerable multitude,” composed of men and women redeemed from every nation “by the blood of the Lamb.” This will be the true and final fulfilment of the promise “to bless all the nations” in Abraham, and to grant him descendants as numerous “as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand upon the seashore” – (Genesis 22:17, Revelation 5:9-10, 7:9, 21:24).

Through his Death and Resurrection, Jesus has achieved the salvation that is now offered to the nations, and this is in fulfilment of the promise to bless all the nations of the Earth through the Patriarch, and “there is no other name under heaven by which we may be saved!” - (Acts 4:12).

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SEE ALSO:

• The Hope of the Nations - (The Good News of Jesus Christ and his victory over death offers hope, life, and salvation to men and women of every nation)

• Our Mission - (The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Good News of God’s Kingdom to all nations without exception until Jesus returns – Matthew 24:14)

• Call His Name Jesus! - (The name ‘Jesus’ means ‘Yahweh saves.’ In the Nazarene, the salvation promised to Israel has arrived in all its glory)

• Pas D'Autre Nom! - (Jésus de Nazareth accomplit la promesse de bénir toutes les nations en Abraham. Le Christ est l'héritier du Patriarche et la seule source de Salut)