The Call Home

R.C. Sproul writes:

“When God issues a call to us, it is always a holy call. The vocation of dying is a sacred vocation. To understand that is one of the most important lessons a Christian can ever learn. When the summons comes, we can respond in many ways. We can become angry, bitter or terrified. But if we see it as a call from God and not a threat from Satan, we are far more prepared to cope with its difficulties.” (Surprised by Suffering)

The Name of Jesus

Thomas Adams (1583–1653) was an English clergyman and well known preacher. He was a Calvinist in theology, but was also called “The Shakespeare of the Puritans“. The following excerpts are from his “The Immutable Mercy of Jesus Christ”:

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. (Heb. 13:8)

[T]he name of Jehovah was God known to Israel, from the time of the first mission of Moses to them, and their manumission out of Egypt, and not before. For, saith God to Moses, “I appeared unto Abraham, and to Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.” (Exodus 6:3) This I AM is an eternal word, comprehending three times: “that was, that is, and is to come.”

Now, to testify the equality of the Son to the Father, the Scripture gives the same eternity to Jesus that it doth to Jehovah. He is called Alpha and Omega . . . the First and the Last: which is, which was, and which is to come, (Revelation 1) and here, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever. Therefore he was, not only Christus Dei, the anointed of God, but Christus Deus, God himself anointed; seeing that eternity, which hath neither beginning nor ending, is only exclusive and proper to God. . . .

Jesus was his proper name, Christ his appellative. Jesus is a name of his nature, Christ of his office and dignity; as divines speak. [He is] a reconciler, a Redeemer, [and] a Savior. When the conscience wrestles with law, sin, [and] death, there is nothing but horror and despair without Jesus. He is ‘the way, the truth, and the life;’ without him, [there is only] error, deception, [and] death . . . [S]aith Bernard: “If thou writes to me, thy letter doth not please me, unless I read there Jesus. If thou converse, thy discourse is not sweet, without the name of Jesus. The blessed restorer of all, of more than all that Adam lost; for we have gotten more by his regenerating grace than we lost by Adam’s degenerating sin.” (“The Immutable Mercy of Jesus Christ”)