Jesus, the Name
From the light of the beginning to the Name given to Jesus, a reading through the Scriptures about the Word, the Spirit, the Christ, the hidden mystery and the hope of glory: Christ in you.
Airton Humber · 08/09/26 · 27 min de leitura
I am
I am.
In Portuguese, two words.
In French, je suis.
An expression so simple that we use it every day without thinking much about it.
I am this.
I am that.
I am someone.
But there was a moment in the Scriptures when a man asked God for his name.
Moses was standing before the bush that burned and was not consumed. God was sending him back to Egypt, and Moses asked what he should answer if the children of Israel asked him:
What is his name?
The answer was extraordinary:
I AM WHO I AM.
The original expression also lets us perceive an idea of continuity:
I am.
I will be.
I will be who I will be.
And God said to Moses:
“This is what you shall say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
It was the Name.
But perhaps our story needs to begin even before Moses.
In the beginning
The Bible begins with a well-known sentence:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
And then we find an impressive scene:
“Darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Before the light, the Spirit of God was already there.
Then God said:
“Let there be light.”
But the sun had not yet been created.
Nor the moon.
The lights appear only on the fourth day.
Then a very simple question arises:
What light was that?
Genesis does not answer by saying that this light was Christ. We do not need to force the text to say what it does not say.
But many centuries later, John begins his Gospel in a surprisingly similar way:
“In the beginning…”
And he continues:
“In the beginning was the one who is the Word. He was with God and was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through him; without him, nothing that exists would have been made. In him was life, and this was the light of men.”
Now some words begin to draw near to each other:
Spirit.
Word.
Life.
Light.
Before Jesus appears, John speaks of the Word.
Before Mary.
Before Joseph.
Before Nazareth.
Before even Abraham.
In the beginning was the Word.
In him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
Almost four thousand years later
According to the traditional biblical chronology that for centuries shaped the reading of many Christians, approximately four thousand years would pass between creation and the birth of Jesus.
We do not need to turn this traditional count into an exact historical dating to notice something very important in the biblical text itself:
Jesus had not yet been born.
When God said “Let there be light,” Jesus of Nazareth had not yet been born.
When the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, Jesus had not yet been born.
When God called Abraham, Jesus had not yet been born.
When Moses asked about the Name, Jesus had not yet been born.
When the prophets announced the Messiah, Jesus had not yet been born.
But John, looking back, does not say:
In the beginning was Jesus.
He says:
“In the beginning was the one who is the Word.”
This distinction deserves to be heard.
Because John also tells us that all things were made through the Word, that in the Word was life, and that this life was the light of men.
The Light was already in the beginning.
Jesus would appear in history much later.
And then happened what John describes with few words:
“The one who is the Word became flesh and lived among us.”
The Word became flesh
What was in the beginning enters human history.
What we did not see becomes visible.
What was hidden begins to be manifested.
John would write later:
“The life was manifested; we saw it.”
He does not say that Life began at that moment.
He says:
the Life was manifested.
And a child is born.
Before his birth, however, something very important happens.
The name is not chosen by Joseph.
The angel says:
“You are to give him the name Jesus.”
Finally, the Name is given.
Jesus.
Perhaps we have become so used to this name that we no longer feel the weight of that moment.
A boy was born.
A son was given.
And his name was determined before his birth:
Jesus.
Immanuel: God with us
It was also written:
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’.”
There is something curious in this small passage of Matthew.
Shortly before, the angel had said to Joseph:
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Jesus.
Immanuel.
But not in the same way.
The angel says:
“You are to give him the name Jesus.”
And the prophecy says:
“they will call him Immanuel.”
In fact, the boy receives the name Jesus.
That is what Mary and Joseph call him.
That is how he will be known.
But Matthew tells us that in him another word is fulfilled:
Immanuel.
God with us.
Perhaps we can hear the two names together.
Jesus, the Lord saves.
Immanuel: God with us.
The God who saves: with us.
The name Jesus was not chosen by Mary.
It was not chosen by Joseph.
The Name was given.
“You are to give him the name Jesus.”
And the name itself already announced what would happen:
“because he will save his people from their sins.”
The Name and the work appear together.
Jesus.
He will save.
But Matthew adds still more:
Immanuel.
God with us.
With us
Perhaps this little word is much bigger than it seems.
With us.
Because Matthew begins his Gospel by saying:
“Immanuel: God with us.”
And when we reach the last words of Jesus in the same Gospel, we find:
“And surely I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The Gospel begins:
God with us.
And ends:
I am with you.
Between these two sentences lies practically the whole story Matthew told.
Jesus is born.
Grows.
Is baptized.
The Spirit of God comes upon him.
He announces the Kingdom.
Heals.
Teaches.
Serves.
Is rejected.
Dies.
Rises again.
And his last words are not:
I was with you.
They are:
“I am with you.”
Immanuel does not seem to be just a word placed next to the birth.
It is as if it enveloped the whole Gospel.
In the beginning:
God with us.
At the end:
I am with you.
From with us to in you
But the biblical story goes on.
Because in John we find Jesus saying:
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.”
Now we do not hear only:
with us.
We hear:
in you.
And, in the prayer of Jesus:
“I in them and you in me.”
Then come the letters.
And Paul writes:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Perhaps it is best simply to place these expressions one after the other and listen to them:
Immanuel.
God with us.
I am with you.
I in you.
I in them.
Christ in you.
There is an extraordinary movement here.
What was hidden begins to be manifested.
The God whom Isaiah would call:
“a God who hides himself”
is announced by Matthew as:
God with us.
The Life is manifested.
The Light can be seen.
Jesus walks among men.
And the one who was with us says:
“I am in you.”
Then Paul announces, as the riches of the mystery that had been hidden for ages and generations:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Perhaps Immanuel is even deeper when read this way.
Not only:
God came to visit men.
But:
God with us.
And the presence does not end when Jesus is no longer seen walking the roads of Galilee.
His last words in Matthew remain:
“I am with you always.”
And John lets us hear even more:
“I in them.”
Until Paul finally writes:
“Christ in you.”
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
And then something else happens that perhaps we have read too quickly.
He is baptized.
And the Spirit of God comes upon him.
That Spirit that we find already in the first lines of the Scriptures
“the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”
now appears again upon a man who has just come out of the waters.
Jesus later enters the synagogue, receives the book of the prophet Isaiah and reads:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me…”
And after reading, he says:
“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
It was fulfilled.
What had been announced was now before them.
The man called Jesus could say:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”
And therefore:
“he has anointed me.”
Anointed.
Messiah.
Christ.
Perhaps it is important to keep this scene.
Jesus does not present his works as coming simply from himself.
He will say:
“I do nothing on my own.”
And:
“The Father, who remains in me, does his works.”
There is a work of God happening in that man and through him.
The Spirit is upon him.
The Father remains in him.
And what was hidden begins to become visible.
The Light
Later Jesus would say:
“I am the light of the world.”
That word “light” appears again.
The Bible began with light.
John said that the life that was in the Word was the light of men.
The true Light was coming into the world.
And then a man called Jesus declares:
“I am the light of the world.”
But something extraordinary happens.
This same Jesus looks at those who follow him and says:
“You are the light of the world.”
Perhaps we should remain a few moments before these two sentences.
I am the light of the world.
You are the light of the world.
Jesus did not come only to be contemplated.
He said:
“Follow me.”
The Son
Jesus was also called Son.
At his baptism, a voice came:
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Peter, before Jesus, would make an extraordinary declaration:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And later Paul would write:
“All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
And also:
“Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
Firstborn.
A word that points to others.
Conformed to his image.
The Anointed One
Christ speaks of the Anointed One.
The Messiah.
Jesus had declared:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.”
He was anointed.
He walked.
Taught.
Healed.
Served.
Loved.
Forgave.
Obeyed.
And he showed in his own life what it means for a man to be led by the Spirit of God.
The Son of Man
Curiously, one of the expressions Jesus uses most to speak of himself is:
Son of Man.
Son of Man.
He came among us.
He shared in our humanity.
He was tempted.
He suffered.
He learned obedience through what he suffered.
And he walked a path.
The Way
Then we come to another declaration:
“I am the way.”
Perhaps for a long time we have read this sentence only thinking of a destination.
But a way is not only a door of entry.
A way is to be walked.
Jesus walked.
And he said:
“Follow me.”
John would later write:
“Whoever claims to remain in him must walk as he walked.”
Jesus did not only speak about the way.
Jesus showed the way.
And perhaps one of the moments when this becomes most evident is in Gethsemane:
“Not what I want, but what you want.”
Here we find a man before his own will and the will of the Father.
And he surrenders.
The flesh and the Spirit
Years later Paul would write to the Galatians:
“The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”
This last expression deserves to be heard:
“so that you do not do what you want.”
The way does not seem to be an ever more perfect fulfillment of our own will.
There is another will being produced.
To the Philippians, Paul writes:
“For it is God who works in you both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure.”
Not only in our actions.
In their source.
The living Word
The letter to the Hebrews says:
“The word of God is living and active.”
It is living.
It is active.
It is sharper than a two-edged sword.
It penetrates.
It divides soul and spirit.
Joints and marrow.
It discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
It reaches where our own hands cannot reach.
It reaches what even we do not completely understand in ourselves.
Thoughts.
Intentions.
Heart.
Will.
And before it, what was hidden begins to appear.
A circumcision without hands
Then Paul writes to the Colossians something equally extraordinary:
“In him you were also circumcised, not with a circumcision made by human hands…”
Not by hands.
It is not we who perform the operation.
And Paul explains:
“…but with the circumcision done by Christ, which is the putting off of the body of the flesh.”
Perhaps we can hear Hebrews and Colossians together.
Discerns.
Divides.
And in Christ a circumcision not made by hands takes place.
Something is being removed.
Not to destroy the man.
But so that what God is forming may appear.
Until Christ is formed in you
Paul writes to the Galatians like a mother in labor pains:
“My children, again I am in the pains of childbirth for you, until Christ is formed in you.”
Paul does not say only:
Until you understand my doctrine.
Until you attend the meetings properly.
Until you are able to explain everything I taught.
He says:
“Until Christ is formed in you.”
Something is being formed.
God works in you
To the Philippians, the same message appears in another way:
“It is God who works in you both to will and to do.”
To the Ephesians:
“until we all attain […] the measure of the fullness of Christ.”
To the Colossians:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
To different people.
In different circumstances.
With different problems.
But when we read them continuously and then put them together, we begin to hear the same message running through all of them:
Christ in you.
Christ formed in you.
God working in you.
Until the fullness of Christ.
It is as if Paul were striving to reveal, in different ways, something so great that a single way of saying it was not enough.
The mystery
And Paul calls this a mystery.
He says that he received from God the responsibility of presenting the word of God fully:
“the mystery that has been hidden for ages and generations, but is now revealed to his saints.”
The mystery.
Something that was hidden.
And has now been manifested.
But what are the riches of this mystery?
Paul answers:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
A little later he goes even further.
He speaks of the:
“mystery of God, namely, Christ.”
Christ is the mystery.
The God who hides himself
Perhaps now we can better understand a word that has been appearing repeatedly:
hidden.
Isaiah made an extraordinary declaration:
“Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.”
A God who hides himself.
But not a God who hides himself so as never to be found.
Because through Jeremiah he says:
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
And he adds:
“I will be found by you.”
God is hidden.
But he can be found.
There is something concealed.
But there is also an invitation:
Seek.
Jesus would repeat:
“Seek, and you will find.”
And also:
“Whoever seeks finds.”
Perhaps there is here a principle that runs through the whole story we are following.
What is hidden needs to be sought.
Not because God wants to keep us from finding him.
But because there are things that appear only to the one who seeks.
Jeremiah does not say only:
You will find me.
He says:
“when you seek me with all your heart.”
There is a heart involved.
There is desire.
There is thirst.
There is movement toward what we do not yet see.
And then:
“I will be found by you.”
Hidden to be found
Now some passages that seemed separate begin to draw near.
Isaiah says:
God hides himself.
Jeremiah:
You will seek me and find me.
Jesus:
Whoever seeks finds.
Jesus also tells of:
a treasure hidden in a field.
Paul speaks:
of the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations.
Then he says that in Christ are:
“hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
And finally:
“Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
How many times does the same idea appear?
God hidden.
Mystery hidden.
Treasure hidden.
Treasures hidden in Christ.
Our life hidden with Christ in God.
Perhaps what is hidden is not what God decided to deny to man.
Perhaps what is hidden is what calls us to seek.
Because:
whoever seeks finds.
The treasure
Jesus said:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.”
The man passes through the field.
The treasure is there.
Perhaps other people have passed through the same place.
Perhaps they walked on that ground without knowing what was beneath their feet.
But one man finds it.
And here there is an enormous difference between creating and finding.
He did not create the treasure.
He did not produce the treasure.
He did not decide that something ordinary would be a treasure.
The treasure already existed.
It was only hidden.
When he finds it, the treasure does not change.
The man is the one who changes.
Suddenly, everything he previously possessed comes to be measured in the light of what he found.
And Jesus says that he, full of joy, goes, sells everything he has and buys that field.
Full of joy.
This is perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of the little parable.
He does not sell everything sadly because he was forced to lose.
He sells full of joy, because he found something whose value made small everything that before seemed so important.
Renunciation comes after the discovery.
First he finds the treasure.
Then, full of joy, everything else can be left behind.
Why?
Because he found.
This perhaps helps us understand a sentence of Paul:
“I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
Paul found something.
And after finding, what before seemed gain became loss.
Not because all things necessarily lost their value.
But because he found something of incomparably greater value.
Seeking where it is hidden
And Paul tells us where the treasures are:
“In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
And there is another expression of Paul that perhaps we can place beside this one:
“God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
Perhaps it is best to hear the two sentences together:
Every spiritual blessing, in Christ.
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in Christ.
The treasure does not begin to exist when we find it.
It is already there.
Perhaps this is also an indication of where to look.
If the treasure is hidden in Christ, it is in Christ that we must seek it.
And this means that finding Christ perhaps is not the end of the search.
It may be exactly the opposite.
Finding Christ may be discovering where the true search begins.
Because Paul does not say:
In Christ there was a treasure hidden that we now know completely.
He says:
“In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
There is discovery.
There is something to seek.
Perhaps this is why a person can read the same words for thirty years and, on a certain day, see something that was always there.
The word did not appear that day.
It was already there.
The treasure was already in the field.
But that day it was found.
Where is our life?
And then the search arrives at an even more unexpected place.
Paul says:
“You died.”
And continues:
“Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Perhaps it is best to stop here and ask the simplest possible question:
Where is our life?
Read it again.
Where is it?
Hidden with Christ in God.
Read it once more.
Our life is hidden with Christ in God.
Perhaps this is why so many times we look for it and do not find it where we imagined.
In our possessions.
In our recognition.
In our certainties.
In our own will.
In our religion.
Even in our ideas about God.
But Paul says where it is:
“hidden with Christ in God.”
Then the question changes.
It is no longer only:
Where is God?
Now it is also:
Where is my life?
And the answer is surprising:
Hidden with Christ in God.
Perhaps for this reason seeking God and finding our true life are not two independent searches.
Our life is hidden precisely:
with Christ in God.
And the next sentence opens the mystery:
“When Christ, who is your life, is revealed…”
Christ…
who is your life.
We find Christ.
And Paul says:
Christ is our life.
Hidden and manifested
But the movement is not over yet.
Because what is hidden is one day manifested.
The mystery was hidden:
and has now been manifested.
The Life was with the Father:
and was manifested.
The Light appeared among men.
And our life is hidden with Christ in God:
“When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”
Hidden.
Sought.
Found.
Manifested.
Perhaps these four words hold a very large part of the story we are trying to understand.
Hidden.
Not nonexistent.
Sought.
Because we do not yet see fully.
Found.
Because God promises:
“I will be found by you.”
Manifested.
Because what God accomplishes in hiddenness will not remain hidden forever.
A child is formed hidden in the womb.
A treasure can remain hidden in the field.
And Paul says:
Christ is being formed in you.
The image
In the beginning God said:
“Let us make man in our image.”
And Paul calls Christ:
“the image of the invisible God.”
Then he writes that we are transformed into that same image:
“from glory to glory.”
And in Romans:
“conformed to the image of his Son.”
The image that appears in the beginning reappears in Christ.
And then it appears again in the transformation of man.
Perhaps the purpose was never abandoned.
The same light
And here Paul makes an extraordinary connection with the beginning.
He writes to the Corinthians:
“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has himself shone in our hearts…”
Back to the darkness.
Back to the light.
But now the place where God makes the light shine is:
our heart.
In the beginning:
darkness.
Spirit of God.
Word.
Light.
In Jesus:
Spirit upon him.
Anointed.
The Word manifested.
“I am the light of the world.”
And now:
God shines in our heart.
Jesus had said:
“You are the light of the world.”
And Ephesians adds a word that seems to gather light and awakening:
“Awake, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
It does not say:
wake up and produce the light.
It says:
wake up… and Christ will shine on you.
Perhaps we are not facing separate stories.
Perhaps we are following a work that has been going on since the beginning.
There will be no more night
And perhaps it is significant that the Bible, which begins by speaking of darkness and light, ends again speaking of light.
In the beginning:
“Darkness was over the face of the deep.”
Then God said:
“Let there be light.”
And in the last chapter of Revelation we find:
“There will be no more night.”
And more:
“They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.”
The story that began with:
darkness
moves toward:
there will be no more night.
In between, John told us:
“In him was life, and this was the light of men.”
Jesus declared:
“I am the light of the world.”
Then he said to his own:
“You are the light of the world.”
And Paul wrote:
“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has himself shone in our hearts.”
And we hear still:
“Awake, O sleeper […] and Christ will shine on you.”
Perhaps we can see the whole arc:
Darkness.
Let there be light.
The Life was the Light.
I am the Light.
You are the light.
God shone in our heart.
Christ will shine on you.
There will be no more night.
The light that appears in the first pages of the Scriptures remains until the last.
And in the end we no longer find only a light breaking through the darkness.
We find something even greater:
the darkness is no longer there.
I Am
But there is an expression of Jesus before which perhaps it is best to stop.
At a certain moment, speaking with those who did not believe in him, Jesus said:
“If you do not believe that I Am, you will indeed die in your sins.”
I Am.
I am this.
I am that.
He simply says:
I Am.
And in the same chapter, before the question about Abraham, he says again:
“Before Abraham was born, I Am.”
It is hard to hear these words without remembering the question Moses asked many centuries before:
“What is your name?”
And the answer:
“I AM WHO I AM.”
But perhaps now we can ask another question.
What does it mean to believe in the one who says “I Am”?
Would it be only to recognize who he is?
Would it be only to admit that Jesus is the Christ?
Would it be only to confess that he is the Son of the living God?
But Jesus did not stop there.
He said something even more disconcerting:
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.”
I in the Father.
You in me.
I in you.
And in his prayer:
“I in them and you in me.”
Perhaps it is here that what we saw in Jesus begins to meet what Paul announces in the letters.
Christ in us
It is relatively easy to keep saying:
Jesus is the Christ.
Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus is the light of the world.
Jesus received the Spirit.
Jesus was anointed.
Jesus lived by the Father.
All of this can remain before us as a wonderful reality, but an external one.
The difficulty begins when we keep reading.
Because the Scriptures do not stop at:
He is the Son.
They say:
“All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
They do not stop at:
The Spirit was upon him.
Paul says:
“The Spirit of God dwells in you.”
They do not stop at:
The Father was in him doing his works.
Paul writes:
“It is God who works in you both to will and to do.”
They do not stop at:
He is the image of the invisible God.
Paul says that we are:
transformed into the same image, from glory to glory.
They do not stop at:
Christ lives.
Paul says:
“Christ lives in me.”
They do not stop at:
Christ is the life.
Paul writes:
“Christ, who is your life.”
They do not stop at:
Christ is the Son.
Paul speaks of our being conformed to the image of the Son, so that he may be:
“the firstborn among many brothers.”
And they do not stop at:
Christ is.
They arrive at:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Perhaps this is one of the hardest parts to believe.
It is not believing that we, by ourselves, are Christ.
But believing what the Scriptures themselves say God is doing in us.
Christ in us.
The vessel and the treasure
Paul found a very simple image for this:
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay.”
But the treasure is in the vessel.
It does not mean saying:
I am the Christ.
Paul offers us a much deeper expression:
Christ lives in me.
The man remains a man.
The vessel remains a vessel.
But we can no longer speak of the vessel as if it were empty.
There is a life in it.
There is a work happening in it.
There is someone being formed in it.
Christ in you.
The same work
Now perhaps we can return to the beginning once more.
Darkness was over the face of the deep.
The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
God said.
There was light.
The Spirit comes upon him.
And he can say:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.”
Then:
“I am the light of the world.”
But then he says to his disciples:
“You are the light of the world.”
How can this happen?
Paul seems to answer:
“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has himself shone in our hearts.”
The connection is extraordinary.
The God who made light shine out of darkness in the beginning is the one who makes light shine within man.
It is not we producing the light.
God shines.
It is not made by hands.
It is not we forming Christ.
Paul suffers labor pains:
“until Christ is formed in you.”
It is not we producing, alone, a better will.
“It is God who works in you both to will and to do.”
It is not we transforming ourselves by our own strength.
“We are transformed […] into his image, with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
Perhaps this is the path we first saw in Jesus:
“I do nothing on my own.”
“The Father, who remains in me, does his works.”
And then we hear:
“I in them.”
One message
It was reading Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians continuously that something began to become very clear.
For a long time we can imagine that these are different messages.
Ephesians of another.
Philippians of another.
Colossians of another.
But when we remove the interruptions and read the letters as letters, and then place one beside the other, one same message begins to appear.
In Galatians:
“Until Christ is formed in you.”
In Ephesians:
“Until we all attain […] the measure of the fullness of Christ.”
In Philippians:
“It is God who works in you both to will and to do.”
In Colossians:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
They are not identical sentences.
They are different ways of revealing a reality that seems to run through all of them.
He faces different situations.
He uses different words.
But he keeps returning to the same place:
in Christ.
Christ in you.
Christ formed in you.
Christ living in you.
Christ as your life.
Perhaps Paul is seeking to reveal something.
From glory to glory
And Paul is not finished yet.
He says that, when Christ is revealed:
“you also will be revealed with him in glory.”
Now we can remember again:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
And again:
“we are transformed […] into his very image, from glory to glory.”
The word glory keeps appearing along the way.
John said:
“We saw his glory.”
Paul says:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
And:
“from glory to glory.”
Until:
“you also will be revealed with him in glory.”
What was seen in Jesus points to something God is accomplishing in his children.
Children of the living God
Peter looked at Jesus and said:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus recognized in that declaration something that had not come simply from flesh and blood.
But the letters make us hear something else:
“All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
And:
“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”
Perhaps it is easy to believe that he is the Son of the living God.
Harder may be to receive what the Scriptures say about what God is accomplishing in us:
children of God.
Not to take for ourselves the identity of Jesus.
Not to exalt man.
But to recognize the work of God.
Because the center is still not:
I by myself.
The center is:
Christ in me.
The way was shown
That is why the declaration of Jesus takes on an even greater dimension:
“I am the way.”
Jesus lived before men.
The Spirit of the Lord was upon him.
The Father remained in him.
He did not act from himself.
He did not seek his own will.
He served.
He loved.
He obeyed.
He gave himself up.
He died.
And God raised him.
Jesus showed the way.
But a way exists to be walked.
That is why he did not say only:
Look at me.
He said:
“Follow me.”
And John wrote:
“Whoever claims to remain in him must walk as he walked.”
Paul seems to continue:
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
And:
“Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live in him.”
The way goes on.
The Name above every name
Paul describes this same way in an extraordinary manner.
Took the form of a servant.
Became like men.
Humbled himself.
Was obedient to death.
Even death on a cross.
Then a change takes place in the direction of the text:
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place…”
It is not Jesus exalting himself.
God exalted him.
And Paul continues:
“and gave him the name that is above every name.”
Once again:
the Name is given.
Before the birth, the angel had said:
“You are to give him the name Jesus.”
Now, after the obedience, the cross and the exaltation, Paul writes that God:
“gave him the name that is above every name.”
And then the reach becomes immense:
“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth…”
Heaven.
Earth.
Under the earth.
All creation.
And:
“every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Perhaps now we can hear the whole journey of the Name.
The boy receives the name:
Jesus.
The name already announces:
he will save.
Matthew adds:
Immanuel: God with us.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon him.
He is anointed.
He obeys.
He serves.
He gives himself up.
He dies.
And God raises him and exalts him.
Then the Name we heard alongside the birth appears again:
Jesus.
But now:
every knee bows.
And every tongue confesses:
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Paul does not end the sentence at Jesus.
He ends:
“to the glory of God the Father.”
The Name asked.
The Name revealed.
The Name given.
The Name lived.
The Name exalted.
The Name confessed.
Jesus
And now we can return to the Name.
Jesus.
The Light was in the beginning.
The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The mystery was hidden for ages and generations.
The Messiah was awaited.
The Son was announced.
Immanuel was promised.
And, according to that old way of telling the biblical story, almost four thousand years passed.
Until a child was born.
And God determined his name:
Jesus.
In him, what was hidden became visible.
The Word took on a human voice.
Love took on hands.
Obedience took on steps.
The Kingdom could be seen happening.
The way was walked before our eyes.
And Jesus said:
“Follow me.”
The Name
Then we return to the place where we began.
Moses asked:
“What is your name?”
And God answered:
“I AM WHO I AM.”
The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
God spoke.
There was light.
The Word was with God.
The Word was God.
In him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
Generations passed.
Abraham.
Moses.
The prophets.
Kings.
Exiles.
Promises.
The hope of the Messiah.
Until a boy was born.
Before he was born, his name had already been determined:
Jesus.
The Word became flesh.
The Light walked among us.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
He was anointed.
The Christ.
The Son of the living God.
The Son of Man.
Immanuel.
Jesus.
And that man said:
“I Am.”
“I am the light of the world.”
“I am the way.”
But he also said:
“You are the light of the world.”
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you.”
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.”
And finally:
“I in them and you in me.”
Then came the letters.
And Paul wrote:
Christ lives in me.
Christ in you.
Christ formed in you.
May Christ dwell in your hearts.
Until the measure of the fullness of Christ.
Christ, who is your life.
Perhaps now we can understand why Paul called this:
mystery.
Christ in you
The mystery was hidden for ages and generations.
But it was manifested.
And Paul wanted to make known:
“the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Perhaps we have spent a long time trying to understand who Jesus is.
Who is this man?
Who is the Christ?
Who is the Son?
Who is the Son of Man?
Who is the Anointed One?
Who is Immanuel?
Who is the one who says:
I Am?
But perhaps, after asking all these questions, one remains that we cannot avoid:
What does God intend to accomplish in us?
And the letters answer.
Not with a single sentence.
Perhaps because a single sentence was not enough.
Christ in you.
Christ formed in you.
Christ lives in me.
God working in you to will and to do.
Transformed into the same image.
From glory to glory.
Christ, who is your life.
And then perhaps we can return once more to the beginning.
The Spirit of God was hovering.
God said:
“Let there be light.”
And there was light.
Many centuries later, Paul looks at what God is doing within man and finds the same image:
“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has himself shone in our hearts.”
The one who made the light shine in the beginning keeps making the light shine.
Now:
in our heart.
And we still hear:
“Awake, O sleeper […] and Christ will shine on you.”
And at the end of the Scriptures:
“There will be no more night.”
Perhaps this is the way.
Perhaps this is the mystery.
Not what we are able to produce for God.
But what God is accomplishing in us.
Not man trying to become Christ.
But:
Christ being formed in man.
Not our life trying to imitate a life that stayed two thousand years in the past.
But:
“Christ, who is your life.”
Not only contemplating the Light.
But hearing from the one who is the Light:
“You are the light of the world.”
Not only confessing that he is the Son of the living God.
But receiving the testimony of the Spirit:
we are children of God.
But remaining in him.
And he in us.
“I in them and you in me.”
In him was life.
The life was the light of men.
The Word became flesh.
The Life was manifested.
His name was given:
Jesus.
The God who hides himself let himself be found.
The mystery that was hidden for ages and generations was manifested.
The treasure was hidden.
And it was found.
Full of joy.
Our life remains hidden:
with Christ in God.
And the one who promised:
“You will seek me and find me”
continues to be found by those who seek him.
Because:
whoever seeks finds.
And at the heart of everything that was hidden, sought, found and manifested remains the mystery announced by Paul:
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Jesus, the Name
A simple reading of the Scriptures
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Note to the reader
This text is the fruit of reading, reflection and conversation. I do not intend to close the subject or present these conclusions as definitive.
Suggestions, criticisms, corrections and other possibilities of reading are welcome. If there is any mistake, I would be grateful if it were pointed out, so that I can examine it and, when necessary, correct it.
I do not care about being right. I care about continuing to seek.
