Praying in the Name of Jesus

Jesus says over and over again to his disciples, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do;” “If ye shall ask me anything in my name, that will I do;” “If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name;” “In that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.” “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: now ask, and ye shall receive.”

What does all this mean? What is it to ask in the name of Jesus? Is it, as many Christians seem to believe, to conclude a prayer with the set formula, “All which we ask in the name of Jesus”? Or is it something more than this?

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The “name” in primitive thought stands for the person bearing that name; it is, in a sense, the person himself; while in our modern and Western thought a “name” is often little more than a label attached to a person, in order to distinguish him from other persons. To know another’s name, to have a right to bear that name, to speak and act in that name, is, in primitive thought, to be a sharer of that person’s life, — by birth, by marriage, or by covenant adoption and so to be, in a peculiar sense, a representative of that person.

A son bearing his father’s name stands for that father, and rightly expects to be received with the respect due to his father. A member of a family or of a tribe is recognized as worthy of the position and honor due to that tribe or family. A soldier, or a servant, coming with a message from his master, does not stand merely on his personal worth, but on the worth and power of him whom he represents. Hence to ask, or to come, in the name of another, Praying in the Mame of Jesus

is, as an Oriental would understand it, and as the Bible would state it, to be a representative of the one whose name is thus borne.

When the high-priest of Israel went before the Lord, as the representative of the twelve tribes of Israel, to ask mercy and grace in their behalf, he bore upon his breast, above his heart, a breastplate in which were set four rows of precious stones; “and the stones were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names; like the engravings of a signet, every one according to his name, for the twelve tribes.” And the command for Aaron, as the high-priest, was: “Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually.”

It was not necessary that Aaron should call over, audibly, the names of every one of the twelve tribes, every time he entered Prayer

the holy place, in order to come into the presence of the Lord as the representative of those tribes each and all. He was their representative. Their names were in his heart, and their symbols or tokens were over his heart, and for their sakes and in their names he came and pleaded, and made offerings, according to their needs. Similarly, to-day, an officer might come into the presence of an army commander, bearing upon his shoulders the straps of his rank, and upon his breast the insignia of his corps and his division, and ask a favor or an order, in the name of his immediate command, and by his very position be recognized and received as the representative of that command. Or, an American abroad, standing under the folds of the United States flag, might be as truly and as specifically received as an American, and given honor as a representative of that republic, as if he were to call over in their order the forty-five names of the states of the Union as the component divisions of 46

Praying in the Mame of Jesus

the nationality to which he owned allegiance and from which he claimed protection. It is the being a representative of that which a name represents, and not the calling out of the name itself, that constitutes coming and asking, in any name. The “name,” in Oriental thought, is even more than the person bearing it. It, in a sense, covers and encloses the person. It wraps itself about him as a garment or

as a flag, and shields and protects his per-.

sonality. He who gives his name to

another, or who authorizes another to be

and to go in his name, adds himself as an outer covering to that other’s self, and thereby does for that other all that could be done by either personality, or by both. Thus, “the name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.”

When David the stripling shepherd, without any outside armor, stood before the giant Goliath who “had an helmet of brass upon his head,” and “was clad with Prayer —

a coat of mail,” the weight of which “was five thousand shekels of brass,” having “greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders,” and his weapons were a sword, a spear, and a javelin, David faced him confidently, saying: “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts [enclosed as in a tower in the name of the Lord], the God of the armies of Israel, which thou hast defied.” David in that strong tower was safe, as Goliath was not, in his armor.

To “take the name of the Lord” is to assume that name, to claim it as one’s own, to bear it as if one had a right to it as his family or personal name. It was the custom of the sovereigns and leaders of primitive peoples to incorporate the names of their gods with their own names, and thus to take or carry those names as their protection and authority wherever they went. Thus Bel, Sin, Nebo, Assur, as Babylo-Praying in the Mame of Jesus

nian and Assyrian gods, were found in Belshazzar, Sennacherib, Nebuchadrezzar, Assurbanapal; Set and Ra, gods of Egypt, were found in Sety and Rameses. Similarly the name of Jehovah, Jahu, or Jah, was found in Joshua, Jeroboam, and Jeremiah. Bearing these names, such men went in the name of their gods, or of God the Lord.

This was coming in the name of the Lord, in the old dispensation. Similarly, in the new dispensation, coming in the name of Jesus the Christ, and asking in his name, is not saying his name over, but it is being enclosed in his name, and representing that which his name represents; it is coming as Christians in sincerity and truth. There were those in the days of the apostles who thought, as many Christians now seem to think, that having power from God was a result of repeating the name of Jesus, as if it were a magical formula.

Persons of this sort “took upon them

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to name over them which had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.” But being thus adjured, in one instance, “the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” and harm came not to the evil spirit, but to those who fraudulently assumed and claimed to be in the name of Jesus.

On the other hand, those who had the spirit of Jesus, and were sharers in his nature, lived and acted and spoke and thought in his name, and had acceptance with and power from God continually. And those who were thus in his name were loved for his name, or were hated for his name, by those about them. So it is to-day with all who live in the name of Jesus the Christ.

The Father looks upon those who come to him for a blessing, and sees in their faces, and hears in the tones of their voices, and discerns in the throbbings of their

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hearts, their love for his Son, and their likeness to his Son, and their life in his Son; and, for the sake of that Son whom they represent, he receives them and ministers unto them to the uttermost extent of their needs and of their heart longings. It is not the figure of the cross which they wear above their hearts “in His name,” nor is it the form of words with which they conclude their every prayer “in His name,” but it is the proof in their heart of hearts that they are one with their Elder Brother in their lives as children of God, that gives them acceptance with God for the sake of his Son,

It is not our saying, but our showing, that what we ask is asked in the name of Jesus, that God notes and takes into account. It is in this sense that the model prayer, which Jesus gave for our use, isa prayer in the name of its original Framer, although there is in it no verbal mention of his name; and that many a prayer that has not the name of Jesus in it is more Prayer

truly offered up in his name than many another which has his name in it, while it is not offered by one who is in his name.

If we would ask anything in the name of Jesus, we must first be sure that we are ourselves in that name, our life being hid in his life, our name in his name, Then let us be sure that what we ask we want for his sake, and that it is something he would ask for us if he were actually standing in our stead and putting up our petitions for us. Coming thus to the Father, we come in the name, in the spirit, and in the likeness, of his Son; and the Father will hear us, and will answer us, because we are representatives of his Son, enwrapped by and dwelling within his very self as the supreme representative of the - Father.

Sap te BE 8)