Jesus. It’s the most popular, and most controversial name in all history. People love it, or they hate it. They praise it, or they mock it. I was reading the book of John and came across the following verse:
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
John 7:7
It reminds me why Jesus, the name of the only man who was perfect and sinless, can invoke feelings of such uneasiness in some people. But to me, as I get older and more mature in my faith, Jesus proves himself over and over to me. He continues to strengthen me and give me life. I’m way past the point of skepticism anymore; I know he’s real, and I know that he’s truth.
I don’t even feel comfortable calling God by the name “God” anymore. It’s too ambiguous and disregarding. There are too many other faiths who reference “God”, and it isn’t enough to just convince yourself that God is real and that he exists. Scripture tells us that Jesus is “the way the truth and the life. No one comes to father except through me.” (John 14:6). So to think that God exists, and to ignore Jesus, is essentially no different than pledging your allegiance to any other belief system this world has to offer. Jesus is God, and because of that his name is powerful!
I have personally got to the point where just hearing the name Jesus lifts me up. It feels like life rushes through my veins. It makes me want to humble myself, and deflect all honor and glory to him. Without him I realize I’m nothing but a shell of a man, hopeless, and destined for destruction. But because of him, and most importantly what he did for me, I realize that I not only have eternal life after physical death, but that on this Earth I experience more than just “living”. I’m alive through him, and he gives life to me in situations where there is otherwise no hope.
There is no other name that has the power to turn around the lives of sinners, to free people from the bondage of addiction or debt, to restore broken marriages and families, or to resurrect life into situations that are already dead. I owe my life to this man, this God, this Jesus.