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Mar 17, 2024 06:00am

In Jesus’ Name

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Perhaps the most misunderstood three words in the English language are in Jesus’ name.

Some people use these words like an incantation over wishes they want to come true. To others, it’s nothing more than an empty phrase they were taught to say as a kid in church—they don’t really know why they say it, but it’s polite and expected. It means nothing more to them than saying “you too” after the cashier says, “Have a nice day,” or “Thank you” when grandma passes the butter.

Yet some think saying in Jesus’ name is putting God’s cosmic stamp of approval on their prayer. Without it, their prayer was ho-hum, but now, suddenly, it is signed, sealed, and delivered.

This kind of thinking is not as ludicrous as it may seem. Like many misunderstandings in the Christian faith, it finds its touchpoint in Scripture before it goes askew.

Jesus himself says in John 14:13–14:

“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

Does this mean we can ask for a new car in Jesus’ name and immediately look out the window to find a shiny vehicle with a big red bow on top? Can we ask for millions of dollars in Jesus’ name and then win the lottery the next day?

James would answer these questions with a big fat no. Many people have done this and have not received positive results. Why?

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3).

There is a way we can ask for things in Jesus’ name and yet still ask wrongly—when we ask out of selfish motives. When we are primarily concerned with fulfilling our own desires and lusts instead of what will most glorify God, then we cannot expect our prayers to be answered the way we want.

To understand what Jesus means when he says he will do anything we ask in his name, we must first try to understand what Jesus’ name means.

Jesus claims the name of the one true God of the Old Testament when he uses the phrase “I am” in John 8:58: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” This is the same name God used when he appeared to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3:14–15:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus, I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

God revealed to Moses that his name, “the Lord” or “Jehovah,” meant “I AM WHO I AM,” or more simply, “I AM.” In addition to calling himself “I AM,” Jesus is also called “the Lord.” We know that Jesus does not falsely claim the name of God because, as pastor/theologian Joel Beeke says, “It is inconceivable that God would share his special name with someone, not God, for he says, ‘I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory I will not give to another’ (Isa. 42:8).”

Jesus can claim the special name of God because he is God. By claiming God’s name, he also claims everything that name denotes. “I AM” reveals God’s self-existence and eternality—that God’s existence depends on nothing or no one else, and he has always and will always exist. It reveals his sovereignty—God rules over all, and he has the power to do all his holy will. And it reveals his unchangeableness and faithfulness—God does not change in his being or change his mind, and he is trustworthy to keep all his promises.

God’s name expresses the meaning of his very existence or his character. Even though some of that meaning remains mysterious to us as finite human beings, when we pray in Jesus’ name, we are asking God to bless our prayer with all the power and meaning his name possesses. We can expect that God will answer prayers that are in line with his name. When we pray for things that are good, loving, merciful, wise, and righteous, we can be confident God will give us what we ask because God is all of those things. When we pray for things that line up with God’s Word, we can know that God will do the things he has promised because his name means he is a covenant-keeping God.

In all of this, we must remember that to rightly pray in Jesus’ name is to pray God’s will—because God wills that which will most glorify his name.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).

Praying in Jesus’ name is not a powerful tool to be wielded for our every whim; it is asking the very person of God to do what lines up with his holy being and to do it in his sovereign power, timing, and faithfulness. The more we understand God’s name, the more our prayer life will be altered as we begin to pray for things that accord with his character. Praying in Jesus’ name will no longer be a manipulated and misunderstood tagline but give confidence and life to our prayers.