Thursday, July 24, 2008

You are given a new Name

Genesis 35:10
10. And God said to him: Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.

AELW 6:258

"We are born into this life as sons and daughters of carnal parents and, as Paul says (Eph. 2:3), as “children of wrath,” bringing with us the name of sinful and corrupt nature because of original sin. But when we are baptized, we receive a new name. He who is baptized is no longer called the son of John, or Peter, etc., although among men there is need of these names in the associations of civil life. But before God his name is changed and abolished, and he is called by a new name as a result of Baptism and faith, namely, he is called a Christian. This name reminds us of Baptism, which should be practiced in daily tribulations and produce its effects so that we grow into a new and perfect man (cf. Eph. 4:13–15) and in this way the name of Christian be perfected until our name and Old Adam are abolished.
Therefore it should be noted that GOD Himself gives a name to the patriarch Jacob, and by this new name a difference is made between the flesh and the spirit. For Israel is a divine name, and God has a different reason for giving a name from that which is customary with parents, relatives, neighbors, the fatherland, and the condition in life. But the name by which God calls and recognizes us is a special one, as He says to Moses in Ex. 33:12: “I know you by name.” Paul also had regard to this when he said: “Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel” (Rom. 9:6). Not all are Israelites who are descendants from the flesh and bear the name of Israel. But the true Israelites are spiritual and have a spiritual name given by God. This is explained fully and learnedly in Rom. 9.
God, however, wants to say: “Hitherto I have not revealed your name to you by which you are named in My presence, but I allowed you to be called by your paternal name and according to the flesh. But now I am giving a name to you in accordance with what I have done with you, even as I have not exalted you as a son of the flesh. But I have led, governed, afflicted, purged, and sanctified you by many vexations that I might make you a new man and a new creature, and now I give a new name to you not of the flesh but of the spirit.”

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