The Name Revealed

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. John 17:6 (New International Version, NIV) emphasis mine

Jesus was praying to the Father in this verse, and He said that He revealed God to us. The word you in the original Greek actually means Your Name. It refers to Yahweh (Hebrew), or, as we say it today, Jehovah, the Self-Existent One.

And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. Exodus 3:14 (KJV) emphasis mine

And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. Exodus 6:3 (KJV) emphasis mine

I Am is the same as Yahweh, or Jehovah. God is who He is and will be what He needs to be. God’s names reveal who He is. In this case, Yahweh, or Jehovah, refers to Him being a covenant-keeping God.

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” John 17:26 (New International Version, NIV) emphasis mine

And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26 (KJV) emphasis mine

Here again, we see that you and your name are interchangeable. God and His name are One. Jesus came to make known to man who God is. The name represents the person. Jesus was praying to the Father. He was showing us that God is God, yet He is our Father. As we know God’s names, we get to know Father God.

Now, let’s take this a bit deeper.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. John 17:14-18 (New International Version, NIV) emphasis mine

We have been given God’s Word because God’s Word reveals God to us. God’s Word is truth and reveals the truth of who God is. Jesus is the Word (John 1:1), and He is the Truth (John 14:6). God and His Word are One. Christ is the Word. Therefore, Jesus Christ is God. In His Word, we relate to God based on His names and therefore we know His person. Our knowledge of Him is based on His Word and displayed in the person of Jesus.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (KJV)

God’s written Word reveals to us all we need to know about God, right now. The more we know God’s Word, the more we know God. God’s names in His Word reveal God. Know the Word, and you’ll know God- Yahweh/Jehovah.

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? John 14:9 (New International Version, NIV)

We know the Father because Jesus, the Living Word, revealed Him.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philppians 2:5-11 (KJV)

Keep in mind that all of God’s names are rolled up into one name: Jesus. When you say Jesus, you say the name that represents all the names of God and all of God’s attributes. It’s all in Jesus.