Yahweh — Titles of Jesus

September 22, 2020September 24, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag

Welcome to part three of the series: The Titles of Jesus. I began this series without realizing it, starting with the Firstborn and continuing with the Lamb of God. Since it was so well underway, I thought this should be turned into a series. Thus, we come to the most preeminent title for Jesus: Yahweh. It is a most glorious name which points to the Son’s eternal nature and independence. Unlike us finite beings, the Son is not dependent on anything to exist; he exists in and of himself, forevermore, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Many Christians only associate the Father with Yahweh and the Old Testament. However, when one realizes that Jesus is Yahweh too, their eternal unity becomes more evident throughout the Bible. Indeed, the divine name itself, Yahweh, can remind us of their intimate relationship, their oneness, one in love and justice, together forever in everything. From eternity past to the infinite future, they have been together in perfect love, and they will always be together in love. Truly, God is love.

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A Thief Stole Your Stuff

September 11, 2020September 22, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag

Imagine this. A thief breaks into your home and steals your stuff. He steals everything, everything. Your house is barren — even the dust is gone.

Fortunately, the police manage to catch the criminal. Apparently, the thief’s name is Erick, a kind of shaggy, sad-looking guy. When he goes to court, he pleads guilty but begs the judge to let him go because he’s usually a good person. After all, he doesn’t usually steal. It’s been over a year, a whole year, since he last stole something! You see, Erick has been really depressed lately because his dog just died, so he needed some drugs to get over the pain.

“You know how it is, right?” Erick tells the judge while he looks down on the floor with a tear in his eye. “Please let me go. I promise, promise, I won’t do it again.” (He said that the same thing last time too.)

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Who is Yahweh?

September 7, 2020September 22, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag

If you have been reading through the different articles at this site, you will have noticed that I occasionally refer to God as “Yahweh,” and the “Lord,” written with capital letters. Perhaps you’re wondering where Yahweh comes from. It might not be apparent right away, but it occurs over 6000 times in the Old Testament, beginning with the first book, chapter two:

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:4, ESV

The Lord written with capital letters is an indication from the Bible translators that the underlying Hebrew text is the divine name for God: Yahweh. This is not a secret that the Bible translators are trying to hide from Christians (unlike what certain other groups want you to believe).

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The Lamb of God — Titles of Jesus

August 28, 2020September 25, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag ~ 1 Comment

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:29, ESV

After John the Baptist had recognized Jesus as the Messiah, he referred to Jesus as the Lamb twice. In John 1:29, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and proclaimed that: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” And again a few verses later: “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36). The two disciples who were standing with John knew that this was significant because they immediately left John to follow after Jesus.

Since then, Christians have been enamored by Jesus’s role as the Lamb of God, regularly featured in psalms and art. Our modern worship music is saturated with lambs. And for a good reason. The Lamb of God is one of the most distinguished titles of Jesus that describe his work on the cross, which was frequently prophesied in the Old Testament. When John’s disciples and the Jews first heard this, they could have been reminded of several texts.

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The Firstborn — Titles of Jesus

August 18, 2020September 25, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag ~ 1 Comment

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:15–17, ESV

Jesus is addressed with a plethora of excellent titles throughout the Bible, like Savior, God, Yahweh, Messiah, Alpha and Omega, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and The Word. We recognize, appreciate, and rejoice over all of these, adding them to our worship vocabulary and writing them into our hymns and songs.

Unlike certain other titles that just confuse us, like ‘firstborn.’ How can Jesus be the firstborn when he wasn’t created?

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The Herald (John 1:6–8)

silhouette of man standing on mountain peak

August 14, 2020September 22, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
John 1:6–8, ESV

When a king was going out, it was customary to send out a messenger ahead of him to inform everyone about his imminent arrival. This messenger was called a herald. Kings didn’t just show up and tell the people: “Hello. I’m the king.” No. The King always had an entourage, and he sent a herald ahead of him so that the people could arrange a grand reception for him. Because Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, He had to have a herald as well. His herald was John the Baptist.

Ever since God had brought His people Israel out of Egypt during the Exodus, God had periodically spoken to them through the prophets, who prophesied everything from the disastrous fall of Jerusalem to the glorious arrival of the Messiah and His messenger, until around 440–400 BC, when God sent His last prophet Malachi. Malachi (whose name means “The Lord’s messenger”) prophesied that God would send His messenger to “prepare the way before me” (Mal. 3:1) and that He would send “Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes” (Mal. 4:5). Then, for the next 400 years, God was silent.

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Life and Light (John 1:4b–5)

August 8, 2020September 22, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1–5, ESV

In the last article, I began to explain the thematic words in John, starting with life; in this article, we will continue to look at life and its close companion: light.

Life and light are closely associated. “the life was the light of men.” The light is one with life. You can distinguish between them but never separate them. They’re one inside of God almighty. He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, giving light and life to every man and the world (Matthew 5:45). Jesus reinforces this connection between life and light in John 8:12 when He says: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The connection is also found in the Old Testament in Psalm 36:9: “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”

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Pure Life; Pure Being (John 1:4a)

August 3, 2020September 22, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1–5, ESV

Have you ever considered the statement that “In Him was life”? It is a phenomenal claim to make. Within those four words, John is claiming that all of life have their origin within Jesus Christ the Word, and that He is the being of pure life and pure being. This has three huge implications.

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The Glorious Creator (John 1:3)

July 29, 2020September 24, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1–5, ESV

When most Christians want to tell someone else about the glorious Deity of Christ, they usually take them to John 1:1, where it says: “and the Word was God.” It is, without a doubt, a magnificent testimony to his deity, but that is not the only one in the prologue.

No. John the evangelist is by no means done exalting Jesus as God and maker. He is emphatic, continuing to belabor the point that Jesus is God when he writes in verse 3 that “All things were created through him.” This statement is comprehensive: Absolutely everything that has ever been made was made through Jesus Christ. All things that exist owe their existence to Jesus the Word. Without Him, there would be no men on the earth, no fish in the sea or birds in the sky, no world, nothing, not even light. Without the Word, God would be a mute still staring out at the formless void in Genesis 1:2, because nobody can speak without words. If they tried to, they would only utter chaos and destruction, an incomprehensible mess of nothingness. Nobody would want to live in a universe created by that. And thankfully, nobody does. God the Father established this universe together with His Son, who is the Word containing all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 1:24–30).

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The Son’s Eternality (John 1:1–2)

July 27, 2020September 24, 2020 ~ Tom-Roger Mittag

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1–5, ESV

These precious words, the opening words of the Gospel of John gives us a peak into eternity. They reveal the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son, and they have captivated generations of Christians with its beautiful brevity and profound insight into the triune nature of God. In these verses, the “Word” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ before he became man and dwelt among us.

In the beginning: John is drawing a parallel to creation from the first book of Moses where “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” (Genesis 1:1). He is speaking of the very beginning of the universe. There, before God had spoken the universe into existence, before any man, angel or creature could praise his maker, inside eternity past, was the Word. Luke and Matthew highlights Jesus as man and king by including His genealogy in their gospels; while John highlights Jesus as God by beginning his gospel with Jesus’s preexistence and divinity.

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