The Power of the Name

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 2 - The Name and the Word of God

Reading: Rev. 19:12-16.

At the outset it is necessary for us to make a general observation about the three things here in connection with the Name. You will notice that in this passage the word 'name' appears three times.

"He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself".

"And His name is called The Word of God".

"And He has on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS".

The two latter are no contradiction of the former. It is perfectly clear that the first reference to the Name is something by itself, not affected by the following statements.

In our last meditation, speaking of the Name which is above every name, we remarked (it was not a statement) that we were not sure that we knew what that Name was. "God... has given Him the name which is above every name". So far as names and titles of God are concerned in the Scriptures, Jehovah is the greatest of those titles, and it may be that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, as Son of Man was invested with that Name in His exaltation, but it does not say so. All that we are told is that He is given the Name which is above every name, and we are not told what that Name is. We can infer that it was Jehovah Jesus, but on the other hand, it may be this Name which no one knows save He Himself; something that is hidden, so far as its actual terms are concerned, from all, and only known to Him.

There may not be very much value in that observation, but this passage leads us to see that He possesses a Name which no one knows save He Himself. That which follows is a Name that others do know, and others have got to know, and others will have reason to know. That we shall see as we go on. "And His name is called, The Word of God".

That is something which we can know, "A name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS", that is something for men to know.

We just point out these two things: firstly, that the Lord Jesus possesses a secret Name which is not revealed to men, which is evidently of some transcendent meaning and value far beyond our knowledge. Secondly, that there is no contradiction between this statement that He has a Name which no one knows, and His Name is The Word of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

The Written Word and the Living (or Personal) Word are One

We come to the practical values of this second reference, for it is the passage with which we are mostly concerned just now: "and His name is called, The Word of God".

It is a matter for our realisation - not just for our information, but for our realisation - that the written Word and the Living Word or Personal Word, are one. Probably we have heard that many times, and probably we have read that statement, and not been very interested. It has been something which has perhaps been taken for granted, but there is more in that than a statement of fact. The written Word and the Living or Personal Word are one; they are not two things.

The Word spoken is not something just said, even though it may be said by God. The Word spoken is something itself when it comes from God. It is the very essence of God. God never speaks mere words, mere phrases. God speaks out Himself. When God speaks He comes in His Word Himself. To meet the Word of God is to meet God, not something said by God. In that way the two are one. The Word of God does not speak of things. The Word of God is those things mentioned. So that God does not talk about Himself; God talks Himself. That may be true of the messengers of God. One may talk about the things of God, the other may talk the things of God; one may be speaking things which are quite true about God, the other may be ministering God in the things uttered. There is a great deal of difference between the two. It is not a question as to whether we are speaking the truth; it is a question of whether people are meeting God when we speak.

For instance, God does not speak about Life. The Word of God is not about Life. Life can become a theme, a subject, something talked about. God does not speak in His Word about life, God's Word is Life. God's Word is not about light; it is Light. "The entrance of Thy word gives light" (Ps. 119:130). God's Word is not about truth; it is Truth. God's Word is not about power; it is power. God's Word is not about judgement; God's Word is judgement. Judgement is immediate when the Word comes from God.

You will see from these and many other instances that the spoken Word cannot be divorced from the Living, Personal Word. They are one, and truly to meet God's Word is to meet God; truly to meet God's Word on any matter is to meet God in, and as, that matter; be it Life, or Light, or Truth, or anything else.

The Personal Word is Christ, as the Scriptures clearly state. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God". (John 1:1). "And the Word was made flesh and tabernacled amongst us" (v. 14). Exactly the same word is used here in this passage as in the book of the Revelation. It is not the alternative word for the spoken word, a verbal utterance, "rhema"; it is "logos". "In the beginning was the Logos... and the Logos was God", and yet God has come out in the terms of something which utters Himself. That is the meaning of the word. It is an utterance; not an utterance of a theme, a subject; it is an utterance of God. It is God uttering Himself.

It is important to realise and grasp this, because in many directions the language is of very solemn account. Being in the presence of God's Word - if it is truly the Word of God - means that we are in the presence of something with which we have to reckon, and we cannot, therefore, begin to take hold of these things in a mental way and analyse them and judge them, and decide whether we will accept them or not. We have to face God, for it is God's Word being spoken.

So it is in ministry. We may talk about things out of the Bible and effect nothing. We may have our conferences and conventions, and mountains of words may be uttered which are all Scriptural, and true doctrine, and nothing happens. In our ministry it is not a matter of speaking things, but of uttering God. Those who have responsibility in ministry should always be much before the Lord that they are not going to talk "things". Sooner or later they will get heartsick of that, and will want to escape it; they will become tired of hearing their own voice repeating words, tired of talking even about the things of God. We must be much before the Lord that ours shall not be a ministry of things, subjects, themes, truths, but it shall be an utterance of God; God uttering Himself.

When we speak of utterance we refer to the deeper meaning of that word. Utterance is not merely expression in speech. When Paul sought the prayer of fellow-believers that utterance might be given to him, he was not asking them to pray that he should have facility of speech, that he should be able to find words, that he should not be tongue-tied and at a loss for a way of expressing himself. That was not what he was after. That was not utterance. When we speak of uttering, we are speaking of projecting something. Paul was not thinking of projecting words and ideas, but that there might be a coming out of something which was hidden: "that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery" (Col. 4:3). Here is something that is pent up, that must be uttered, that must be loosed. When God utters Himself He does not just put Himself into language, He puts Himself into effect; it is God Himself coming out. It must be like that with us in our ministry, and therefore there is much need for us to be in the presence of the Lord before ministering, and to ask such questions as these: what is before us on this occasion? Are we going to talk about an interesting theme, or something that we feel is important for people to hear? Is it to be something that we have prepared, or are we going to utter God, minister Christ? The living Personal Word is in the written Word, and one with it.

God's Word brings Christ in, and wherever you look at the written Word you find God's written Word bringing Christ in. It is difficult to know where to light upon the best example of that. You may take a very comprehensive example in Moses. Moses himself is a type. He represents the government of the Word of God. You can gather up the whole of the meaning of the life of Moses into that. Read the last chapter of the book of Exodus, and you will see that seven times the phrase is repeated: "as the Lord commanded Moses". Each time it was in relation to some execution of the Lord's work, and it was so exact that it should be said about it: "as the Lord commanded Moses". Every detail was like that. Then you notice that from the time of the death of Moses, that was the thing that was carried forward. It was carried forward into the life of Joshua, into the life of the people over Jordan in the land: "As the Lord commanded Moses". "As the Lord spoke by the mouth of His servant Moses". Israel's life was brought utterly under the Word of God through Moses.

What was this government of the Word of God? Well, the tabernacle was one thing. What was the tabernacle? The tabernacle represents Christ, so that it is Christ who is brought in. Comprehensively and minutely the Word brought in Christ, and that Word meant the government of Christ in its outworking. See the government of the tabernacle, see the government of the Altar, see the government of the Ark of the Testimony, of the Mercy Seat, of the Cherubim, of the priesthood, of the sacrifice. It all represents Christ, and was "as the Lord commanded Moses". The spoken Word and the living Word are one. The one brought in the other, so that by the Word Christ became the dominating reality of the life.

When the people are over Jordan the same thing goes on: "as the Lord commanded Moses". What does it mean to be over Jordan? It is simply Christ again, Christ in the heavenlies, Christ governing, and it is "as the Lord commanded". It is all concerning Christ.

So as you get nearer to the close of the whole divine revelation, the whole Scripture record, you come to these words: "and His name is called, The Word of God" (Rev. 19:13). When you read Revelation 19, what have you before you? "He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood". And what follows: "and He should rule them (the nations) with a rod of iron" (Rev. 19:15). There goes forth from His mouth a sharp sword. The Word of God in Person is dominating the whole situation, and bringing the whole world to judgement. How is the world to be judged by the Word of God? What is the Word of God? It is God revealed in Christ, "and His name is called, The Word of God". In other words, His Name is the revelation of God, is the presence of God in manifestation.

We must remember that the letter is not the Word of God in the full sense, "the letter kills" (2 Cor. 3:6). The letter of Scripture is not the Word of God in the full sense. The Word of God in the full sense is the Word spoken and the Word Personal combined; the living Word and the spoken Word united. The Scripture can be taken and divorced from the living, Personal Christ, and it ceases to be the Word of God. To be the Word of God it must be united with the living Christ. It is not enough, in order to effect God's ends and to realise God's purposes, that we take hold of Scripture as subjects, themes, written matter, and organise the Scripture, produce it in the form of addresses and Bible readings on subjects. We do not get at God's end that way. The Word of God is something more than that! It is the divine meaning and the divine sense ministered through the written Word, and these two things must go together. That is why it is indispensable and essential that the minister of the Word should be anointed with the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit brings that combination into manifestation, and gives the meaning, gives the sense, and brings God out. That is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. We must be anointed to preach the Word, because the Spirit is the Lord in the Word.

Take a passage like Jeremiah 1:9-10,17,19: "Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant... Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee; be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them... And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, says the Lord, to deliver thee". You see there the meaning of this of which we are speaking. The Lord and His Word combined, making one ministry, and the effect is tremendous. We know how effectual it was. When you read through these prophecies you see the plucking up, the pulling down, the destroying and the overthrowing; and then the planting, though not in Jeremiah's day. Years afterward it is said: "that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia". The result was that a remnant was planted in the land. "Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth" (Jer. 1:9): "...that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled" (Ezra 1:1). Israel was plucked up, pulled down, destroyed, planted.

But not only was Israel plucked up, pulled down, destroyed, planted, there were others that came under the power of the word spoken by Jeremiah. In Daniel 9:1 we read: "In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem". Babylon came under the power of the Word of God as uttered by the word of that man now dead, and Babylon was plucked up, destroyed, overthrown. When God gives us His Word He is with it, He is in it, and it has power to overthrow kingdoms, and the mighty empires of this world and of darkness. His Name is called The Word of God. All that the Word of God means, as God Himself in expression, is in the Name of Jesus. The Name of Jesus embodies that, the Name of Jesus gathers that up into itself and comes to mean all that God Himself in His almighty power is in expression, in action. That is the Name of Jesus.

No wonder Jeremiah, speaking to the false prophets, drew the contrast between the Word of God and that which was an assumed Word of God. He said that the false prophets prophesied falsely, and that they said that the Word of God was something which was not the Word of God at all. Then he drew the contrast: "The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the Lord" (Jer. 23:28). That is the difference.

In a simple illustration like that you can quickly get at the nature of the Word of God. What is the chaff? The chaff is light and flimsy, and can be carried away by any draught or breeze that comes, but the wheat cannot be got rid of like that. The whole process of winnowing in the East proves that. With the winnowing fan it is all thrown up into the breeze, and away goes the chaff, and the wheat falls at the feet of the one who is winnowing. It cannot be carried away. It cannot be got rid of like that. All the winds that blow cannot get rid of the Word of God, and if that Word is Christ, you see that whatever our attitude may be toward the thing said, we cannot get rid of the reality; when it is God's Word, it is God Himself. When all the winds have blown, He still remains.

"What is the chaff to the wheat?" Well, eat them both and see! Start with the chaff, and see how much satisfaction, how much enrichment you get out of the chaff. You will soon discover (it is a simple Illustration, but very effective) the value of the two by trying them. The chaff never satisfies. There is no nourishment in it. The wheat does satisfy. It meets our need. Yet these false prophets were giving chaff, and it was being accepted. Why? Because people were not prepared to put it to the test. There is a deceptiveness about chaff. Unless you taste it you might often be deceived into thinking that the chaff was the wheat. See it all in the bin. Look at it from the outside. You might say, "There is a bin of wheat!" But put your hand in and feel, and taste it! The people were deceived by the appearance which the false prophets were making. The chaff looked like the wheat, and they never put it to the test. Put the Word of God to the test, try it, and you will find there is something there that is very different from the chaff. It is substantial. It is effective. So the illustration is very true to the fact of the Word of God being living, effectual, quick, powerful, because it is the Lord Himself.

"His name is called The Word of God". It would seem that the matter the Lord is seeking to say to us in connection with the Name is that He wants us to stand in all the meaning, the value, the virtue of the Name of the Lord Jesus. He wants us to know the tremendous power resident in that Name. In these various ways He is seeking to show us that that Name represents something of tremendous meaning. The Word of God! Oh, what a fiat! It is not a statement, it is an act, something that is living. You will remember that little phrase in Luke 1:37: "For no word of God shall be void of power" (R.V.). You will know that the connection of that very clause was the accomplishment of something that was altogether beyond nature, the bringing into this world by a miracle.

The Word of God is spoken of as the means of our being begotten: "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth" (James 1:10). What does it mean to be begotten? What is it to be born? What is the meaning of the new birth? Nicodemus got into difficulties on that matter, but the Word makes it perfectly clear that new birth is the introduction of Christ into the renewed spirit. It is Christ being born in us as He was born in Bethlehem by the Word of God. It brings in Christ. It makes us a new creation.

We know the parallel of this, in that the worlds were made by the Word of God. Yes, but a new creation is also produced by the Word of God. What is the new creation? It is the living Word brought to birth in the spirit of a believer. That is the new creation. It is a new creation in Christ, and in which Christ is. It is not just new, that God stands forth and makes a command; it is that God Himself puts Himself into something, and it is born. God in Christ is put within. The Living Word is put within. We are begotten again by the Word of God. Christ is that Word, the Word of our begetting. Christ is our new birth, Christ is our new life, Christ is the new creation, Christ is the new man.

The apostle Paul illustrates this for us in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 in his reference to the old dispensation and the Word of God written upon tables of stone. There is the Word given in an objective way then, but only as a type and illustration. Now the apostle goes on to say: "God... has shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". How? He has not written upon tables of stone with pen and ink, but He has written by His Spirit upon our hearts, the fleshy tables of our hearts. What do you mean by that, Paul? What do you mean when you say that God by His Spirit has written upon the fleshy tables of our hearts? The apostle's reply is that, if you want it put in another way, God has shone into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Word of God has been put into us by the Holy Spirit, but what is that Word of God? The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

What do you mean by "the face of Jesus Christ"? Simply this, that Christ is God's expression, and Christ as God's expression has come into our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit, and that is the Word in us. You cannot divorce the two. It is not something written, it is a Person revealed, inwardly revealed. When Paul said that, he was thinking of that day of which he spoke at another time in this way, "It pleased God to reveal His son in me". That is the word of God personally inscribed, unveiled, uttered; but what power there is in that, what power there was in that in the case of the man who used those words!

We shall never cease to wonder at the miracle of Paul. Look at the things he came up against; the terrific power of national prejudice, for instance. Those of us who have tasted of the miracle of God's grace in getting rid of national prejudice so that we can come together from all nationalities and find blessed fellowship, know something of a sting and a cut that no one else feels when we meet national prejudice. What a power there is in national prejudice! But when that is carried into the realm of religious fanaticism and developed to its highest point of tension between Jew and Gentile, and then for that national prejudice to be developed through generations and ages by every means to strengthen it, and then to find that with one stroke the man who was the embodiment of that age-long national prejudice with all its fanatical intensity, had become the apostle of the Gentiles; there is something there which is supernatural. That is the power of the Name of Jesus, the Word of God. What power there is in the revelation in the heart of God in Christ. Oh, that we may be better ministers of the Word, know more of the power of the Word, which is the Name of Jesus.

We could spend a considerable time in reviewing the effect of God's Word in the power of the Holy Spirit, but that is something known to us all. Nevertheless, the Lord is trying to bring us into the greater meaning of the Name of Jesus for spiritual purposes. May He open our eyes.