What’s in a name? (2/2)

So what made Adam call his wife’s name “Eve” right after their death sentence came into being? Beloved of God, this brings us back to the very first Bible verse in this piece— Genesis 2:19–

“Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.” 

Recall that “name” refers to the character, nature and constitution of the thing or the one who is named? Adam knew that— 

“…whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name (aka its nature, character and constitution.)”

And so Adam called the name of his wife Eve right after their death sentence came into effect, because he wanted her to live: “Eve” is translated from the Hebrew word “Chavvah” meaning “Life” or “Living.” 

I believe that the revelation to call the name of his wife “Eve” after hearing the sentence for his disobedience was God’s gift to Adam to prolong the life of Eve, just as He has given us a similar revelation in His word in Proverbs 18:21–

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”

The New Living Translation puts it thus—

“The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”

Even the account of the lives of Abram and Sarai tell us that what what we call a thing or person becomes its character. The Lord breathed His grace (the letter “Hei” in Hebrew) into their names and Isaac was born a year after. So let us speak the good that we want to see, beloved. How many times have we expressed our annoyance or even our delight and excitement to family and friends using affectionate terms that still connote death, e.g—

• “I’m dying for that girl…”

• “When I saw it, I just wanted to die!”

• “Werey nie o!” 

• “Òdè”

Even worse, using slurs or disparaging remarks such as “idiot” on kids! 

Those ones that are seemingly playful and harmless expressions of death have crept into our daily language usage so much that we use them without even thinking. But beloved, our words carry weight, especially we who are a new creation in Christ Jesus— created to be godly (be like God) through His suffering and death. 

Refraining from using such playful terms that connote death is good, but even more importantly, let us speak out the good that we want to see — God’s promises for all whose righteousness and strength is found in Christ — over ourselves, our children, our family and friends, our careers; every facet of life, especially when negative thoughts creep into our hearts to try to cause us to worry. We see this blessing of speaking in faith and experiencing salvation fro the issues of life in Romans 10:9-10–

9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10.

To digress a bit, let us consider "confess" in verse 9. “Confess" above is not that incorrect definition that is tied to confessing sins to a priest for absolution in order to partake of the Holy Communion or to be free from a guilty conscience which Christ has already freed every believer from according to Hebrews‬ ‭10:2-4, 10‬—

“If the law could, wouldn’t the sacrifices have stopped being offered? The worshipers would have been made “clean” once and for all time. They would not have felt guilty for their sins anymore. But those offerings remind people of their sins every year. It isn’t possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. We have been made holy by what God wanted. We have been made holy because Jesus Christ offered his body once and for all time.”

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Blood has to be shed for the guilt of sins to be taken away so such “confessions” in order to be right with God or to partake of the Holy Communion are not helping anybody. They are merely a testament to unbelief in Christ’s finished work of wiping away our entire lifetime of sins. Which sins are we even confessing in order to be right with God when Christ’s one sacrifice for sins have wiped them away forever, beloved? The same sins that God is no longer counting against the believer because of Christ’s shed blood for us according to 2 Corinthians 5–

“For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:19‬ ‭

Blood needs to be shed for sins to budge an inch. Even the blood of bulls and goats could not do it. But we think that telling someone that we sinned can assuage or remove guilt. No friend. Doing that kind of “confession”— resurrecting sins that God does not remember because of Christ’s sacrifice — it is simply a testament to not believing that Jesus’ blood already took care of our guilt and punishment for sins and made us holy once for all time through His sacrifice. That is the definition of UNBELIEF in Jesus:  it is “whosoever believes”that will “not perish but have eternal life” which (eternal life) begins here on earth according to Christ in John 5:24. Eternal life is simply the kind of life that God lives and we get to partake of this life through partaking of the Holy Communion in the right Way— knowing and believing the benefits of Christ’s broken body (for our healing,) and His blood which was shed ONCE for the forgiveness of our entire lifetime of sins; to make us forever righteous in God’s sight.

“Confess” in Romans 10 is translated from the Greek text "homologeo" which means--

• to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent

• to concede

What we say and who we confess (homologeo— say the same thing as) matters, beloved.  Is it the same thing that God is saying of us? This is what God’s word says about we who believe in Jesus—

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God." Romans 5:9.

Beloved of God, just as Adam called his wife “Eve” meaning “Living,” our Bridegroom and Saviour Jesus Christ, based on the better covenant built upon the foundation of His finished work of making us righteous through His blood, He is calling us by the name “Righteous.” Believing and speaking His word over ourselves and others, even when our physical experiences (sight) seem contrary is how we get to experience His abundant life which includes  reigning over sin and death—

In Christ, we walk by faith (believing that what God’s word says is true) and not by sight. His word says we are righteous by the blood of Jesus and it is God-clad; unshakable, even though our sight (what we see; our experiences) tell us differently. This is Grace— undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Severely-religious pastors who, in reality are antichrist seeing as they promote Satan’s doctrine of dependence on human effort for the attainment of godliness, they describe this Truth of Grace as “license to sin.” But according to God’s Wisdom which is foolishness and illogical to human reasoning, receiving His abundance of Grace and His GIFT of Righteousness is HOW we get to live in triumph over sin and death, and only through Christ- Romans 5:16-17:

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:16-17:

So back to Romans 10 and how what we say/confess as believers in Christ impacts life—

9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10.

“Saved" above is not just being saved to go to heaven upon the bodily return of Christ at the Rapture; it encompasses deliverance from bad decisions, molestation of enemies and redemption from all earthly ills such as anxiety, depression, sickness, lack, stupid mistakes, anything that can cause us harm or anything that we need saving from. It is being saved from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin. The word used in the original Greek text of the New Testament is "Sozo" and it encompasses all of these meanings. See the outline of Biblical usage of "Sozo" below:

• to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction
• to save one (from injury or peril)
• to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health
• to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue
• to save in the technical biblical sense
• to deliver from the penalties of the Messianic judgment
• to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance

These are the same things which many are rushing to different camp grounds, depending on their own obedience and fasting for 90 days to save (Sozo) themselves from. Christ says we are saved from them ALL by believing and speaking with our mouth the same thing His word says about us who believe Him—

9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10.

His word says we who believe are made righteous through His shed blood and not through useless human effort/arm of flesh-driven efforts at obedience or works done in order to get into God’s good graces. Only in the Beloved are we accepted. And so we are saved (sozo) and get to enjoy every single blessing that is accruing to “the righteous.” Every single one of God’s blessings.

The (self-)righteousnesses of the Law DOES things (by human strength) to be godly/like God and saved, beloved. But the righteousness of Faith which is the crux of our believing in Jesus SPEAKS, as it is written—

“The Scriptures say, “I believed, so I spoke.” Our faith is like that too. We believe, and so we speak.” 2 Corinthians 4:13

One with Christ, not trusting our silly efforts to be godly or to save ourselves but trusting on Christ the True Vine as our Righteousness and Strength, we get to bear fruit, more fruit and then much fruit. Christ says so in John 15. Good works are the EVIDENCES (fruit) of our union with Christ. They are not CONDITIONS or things that the branch has to do by itself in order to enjoy the salvation or abundant life of the True Vine Jesus Christ l.

Like our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who cursed the fig tree and it got withered from the root, whatever name we call anything, beloved so shall its character, nature and reputation be.

Now all of the above is not to get us scurrying to monitor our words before speaking, digging up the times when we said nasty things to our spouse and kids and then having that attendant fearful expectation of judgment/bad things happening because of the things we said in the past. That would be as hopeless and as futile as Peter determining to not deny Jesus by his own strength after Christ told him about his then upcoming denials—- the arm of flesh/ human effort will fail. That trust in self is what opens the door for Satan to sift a person like wheat for the good that he claims to be when Christ says—

“There is none good but God.”

If we had a symptom of death for every negative word we have ever said, none of us would be alive today. Thank God that in Christ, He is no longer counting our sins against us but cancelling them as it is written in 2 Corinthians 5–

“For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:19‬.

Beloved, God’s word assures we who trust in Christ as our Righteousness and Strength—

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11‬.

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By His mercy we are not consumed from speaking death with our own tongue. So how do we refrain from speaking evil and, more importantly, constantly speak and see good that Christ purchased for us with His blood? Beloved, it all has to do with the saving power of the Beginning and the End, Jesus Christ. For every demand, He is the Supply. By His Grace, we look to Him for our every need. 

In Christ, we have been set free from the VEIL aka the law (human effort at obedience) and all of its demands for godliness and right living which are barriers to seeing Grace, so we get to be transformed to the image of His glory, from glory to glory, not by might, not by power but by the Spirit of the Lord— 

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” II Corinthians‬ ‭3:18‬.

So beloved of God, by His grace, let us continue to trust wholly in Christ and not in what we can do to save (Sozo) ourselves, 

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" Philippians 1:6.

Right believing always produces right living