NAMES OF GOD SERIES – Pt 1
The Lord our God is One (Deuteronomy 6:4)
If we are going to fulfill the first and greatest command to worship God alone and love Him with all our being (Mark 12:29-31) then we need to spend the time to get to know Him!
The Lord has laid it on my heart to share the Names of God, where they are found and maybe most poignantly, how each of them is fulfilled in Christ! Over the next few posts we will look at several names each week and explore the character that God is revealing to us about Himself in His Word. We will also look at how that can and should impact our understanding of Who He Is and how we can know and love Him more, especially as each name is revealed in His Son and our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ!
Let’s begin with this understanding from God Himself through His Word…there is only One God who exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit…all of these are clearly taught in Scripture as being God Himself. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29; John 1:1, 14; 1 Timothy 2:5; John 4:24)
My prayer is threefold: 1) We will all know Him more; 2) We will all love Him more fully…with all our being, and; 3) We will desire to make Him known to all others wherever we have the opportunity to do so!
Elohim (Genesis 1:1)
The Lord our God is One…the only One, the Three in One, The One True Sovereign God. He introduces Himself to us in Genesis, right at the beginning, as ELOHIM.
The word for “god” is el and in order to make His point He introduces Himself as El, capitalized to emphasize that He is the only true God and as ELOHIM…a very personal God (Genesis 1:1).
Isn’t that awesome that The ONE True God of all creation would announce Himself to us as a personal God who wants us to know Him and that He desires to be in relationship with us and know us. That’s exactly what He did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
But sin entered into the world and into each of our lives. So God had to make that personal relationship more evident so He sent Himself in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ, and called Him Immanuel…God With Us! How much more personal can you get. He was there at creation and was the active participant in and of creation (Matthew 1:23; Colossians 1:16-18)!
Let’s thank Him for loving us in such a personal way! How much more personal can you get than intimate Love…and God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is LOVE!
What an awesome God we can know, serve and love as we can do so as a very personal God, desiring a love relationship with us so much so that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus, to give everyone the opportunity to be restored to that relationship! Praise and thanks to Him!
El Elyon (Genesis 14:20)
Our next name for God is found in Genesis 14:20 – “El Elyon” which means “God (or The Lord) Most High.” He is above all powers, principalities, authorities, “gods,” people, idols…He is above ALL!
In this text we find Abram (name later changed to Abraham) as fighting a number of kings in the land of Canaan who had taken his nephew Lot and his family and household into captivity. God makes it very clear that He was (and is) over all those who would come against His people and Him as He is El Elyon, The Most High God, over all other kingdoms and peoples.
Christ is also revealed as above all in Philippians 2:9-11 where we read that after He faithfully humbled Himself and came to earth as fully man and fully God, dying a criminal’s death on the Cross for our sins, He has been restored to His rightful place with God The Father, El Elyon, above all!
God the Father, Son and Spirit are above all! May we worship Him as He alone deserves all our praise!
Jehovah Adonai (Genesis 2:15)
The next Name of God that we focus on is Jehovah Adonai which means God, Lord or Sovereign Lord, first found in Genesis 2:15 in creation.
Notice in each of these names how God is revealing Himself as the perfect and complete One in each situation and with each person or group to let us know He is all sufficient. God, as Sovereign Creator Lord placed Adam (and Eve) in the garden and He desired that they walk with Him as Jehovah Adonai, the one true Sovereign Lord, knowing that only as they accepted Him as Lord could they be fulfilled…even in the midst of Paradise (The Garden of Eden).
We see Christ revealed as The Sovereign Lord, Jehovah Adonai, in many places in the New Testament. One of the strongest texts is in Peter’s exhortation to all believers to set apart Christ as Lord in every part of our walk with Him in our lives and relationships. In so doing we can always answer according to His Truth and He is the only One that can fulfill us (1 Peter 3:15).
He is The Sovereign LORD of All! The question…Is He truly LORD of your life?
Love and Lordship…Food for Thought – God…and Christ…is The One True God, The Lord Most High (El Elyon) and Sovereign over all (Jehovah Adonai). Yet He makes Himself known to us right from the beginning as Elohim because above all else He desires for us to be in a personal relationship with Him? Do you know Him? Christ has made the way!
Love and Lordship…Action Item –
- Read the Scriptures in this article and ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
- Write down what each of the Names of God in this post mean to you.
- Every Name of God is manifested and revealed to us in Christ. How does that affect your understanding of, and relationship with, God in Christ?
- What do you need to do to make sure that Christ is The Lord of your life?
Check out this week’s L&L Mentoring Minute Video