Names of god

The apostle Paul reminded the church in Philippi that every believer should have the attitude of Jesus. Although he was God, Jesus took on the very nature of a servant and humbled himself. He became obedient to death, “even death on a cross”! Paul explains that because of Jesus’ work on the cross, God exalted him.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they tried to cover up their sin and shame. The fig leaves they sewed together concealed their nakedness, but the fig tree continued to live. Sin deserved death. Fig leaves would not pay sin’s penalty.

There was no love lost between the Jews and the Gentiles. Jews refused to associate with non-Jews, and if they even rubbed up against a Gentile while walking down the street, they considered themselves unclean. Then Jesus came…and changed everything.

In the early church, there were Jewish Christians called Judaizers who were not willing to leave the past behind. They believed that the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament were to be practiced in the church. Paul wrote to these Christians to explain that a relationship with God comes through Jesus alone, not Jesus plus the Old Testament laws.

God so loved the world that he gave a great gift, an inexpressible gift. God gave his Son to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus, the Gift of God, bridged the great gap between a holy God and sinful man. The Gift of God left heaven to selflessly and sacrificially give himself on the cross.

On the sixth day of creation, God formed man from the dust of the ground. Then the Creator stooped down and breathed into man the breath of life and the “first man . . . became a living being.”

They were surrounded by everything they could ever want, everything they would ever need. Living in paradise, they had one command: Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The warning was clear. Disobedience would bring death—not just physical death but a spiritual separation from God. Adam and Eve succumbed to the Tempter; consequently, sin flows through humanity. vv

A male lamb without blemish was to be sacrificed, and the blood of the lamb was to be put on the doorframe of each house. When the angel of death passed throughout Egypt, he would pass over the homes where the sacrificial blood had been applied. The Passover became a yearly celebration of thanksgiving for the Israelites and a forerunner of things to come.

In our study of the names of God, we have seen that Jesus is portrayed in many ways. Sometimes, the names are personal, characterizing the intimate relationship that Jesus has with those who follow him. Sometimes, the names express Christ’s work with a group of people. In today’s passage, Paul quotes from Isaiah 59:20-21 to describe Jesus’ second coming.