What is His Name?

“And Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’”

Exodus 3:14 The vital question of all ages and of every human heart is expressed here: “What is his name?”

The whole fate of humanity depends on the answer to this question. As we know, the condition of a country depends upon the character of its rulers. The state of an army depends upon the officers who command it. And the more absolute the government, the more this must be the case.

We can see, therefore, that everything in a universe depends upon the kind of creator and ruler who has brought that universe into existence, and that the whole well-being of the human beings placed in it is necessarily bound up with the character of their Creator. If the God who created us is a good God, then everything must ultimately be right for us, since a good God cannot ordain anything but what is good. But if He is a bad God, or a careless God, or an unkind God, then we cannot be sure that anything is right, and we can have no real peace or comfort anywhere.

The true foundation for peace and comfort is found only in the kind of God we have. Therefore, we must first find out what His name is—that is, what His character is—in short, what kind of God He is.

In Bible language, a name always means character. Names there are not given arbitrarily, as they often are with us, but are always given in relation to the character or work of the person named.

Creden, in his Concordance, says that the names of God signify what He truly is, and are used throughout the Bible to express His attributes, His purposes, His glory, His grace, His mercy, His love, His wisdom, His power, and His goodness. A careful study of His names makes this clear.

When, therefore, the children of Israel asked, “What is his name?” they meant, “Who and what is this God of whom you speak? What is His character? What are His attributes? What does He do?

In short, what kind of being is He?”

The psalmist says, “Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.” (Psalm 9:10) And again he says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” (Psalm 18:10) “Those who know your name put their trust in you.” They cannot do otherwise, because in knowing His name they know His character and His nature—that He is a God who is completely trustworthy.

There can be no doubt that a large part of the unrest and discomfort in many Christian hearts comes simply from the fact that they do not yet know His name. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.” (Psalm 20:7-8) In all that we read about Israel in the past, we find this constant truth: everything they were and everything they had depended on the fact that their God was the Lord. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.” (Psalm 33:12) “Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for themd great and awesome things by driving out before your people,e whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God.” (Psalm 7:22-24) “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!” (Psalm 144:15) Blessed is that nation; happy are those people whose God is the Lord. All the blessing and happiness of Israel came from the fact that their God was the Lord. Nothing else was important enough to mention when recounting their advantages. The fact that their God was the Lord was enough to explain every good thing they possessed.

The question above all questions for each one of us, therefore, is this: “What is his name?”

To the Israelites, God Himself answered this question. God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”

(Exodus 3:14) And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:15) In the Gospel of John, Christ takes this name “I am” for Himself. When the Jews questioned Him about His authority, He said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

(John 8:58) And in the Book of Revelation He declares again: “I am the Alpha and the Omega… who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8) These simple words, “I am,” express eternity and unchangeableness of existence, which is the first essential quality of a God who can be relied upon. No one could place confidence in a changeable God. He must be the same yesterday, today, and forever if we are to have any peace or comfort. But is this all His name means—simply “I am”? I am what? we ask. What does this “I am” include? I believe it includes everything the human heart longs for and needs. This unfinished name of God seems like a blank cheque signed by a wealthy friend, given to us to fill in with whatever amount we require. The whole Bible tells us what it means.

Every attribute of God, every revelation of His character, every proof of His unfailing love, every declaration of His watchful care, every assurance of His tender mercy, every expression of His loving kindness—all are the filling out of this unfinished “I am.”

God tells us throughout His Word what He is. “I am,” He says, “all that my people need. I am their strength. I am their wisdom. I am their righteousness. I am their peace. I am their salvation.

I am their life. I am their all in all.”

This seemingly unfinished name is therefore the most comforting name the human heart could imagine, because it allows us to add to it, without limit, whatever we need—even “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”

But if our hearts are full of our own miserable “I ams,” we will have no ears to hear His glorious, soul-satisfying “I am.” We say, “I am such a weak person,” or “I am so foolish,” or “I am so useless,” or “I am so helpless,” and we give these poor “I ams” as the reason for the misery and discomfort of our religious lives, and even feel that we deserve sympathy because things are so difficult for us. Meanwhile, we completely ignore the blank cheque of God’s magnificent “I am,” which gives us permission to draw from Him an abundant supply for every need.

If you are an uncomfortable Christian, then the only thing that can give you a truly comfortable religious life is to know God. The psalmist says that those who know God’s name will trust in Him, and I am convinced it is impossible to truly know Him and not trust Him. A trustworthy person naturally inspires trust—not by demanding it, but by winning it through their character.

What our Lord declares is eternally true: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Once you truly know Him, Christ is irresistible. You cannot help trusting Him any more than you can help breathing. And if the whole world could know Him as He truly is, the whole world—sinners and all—would fall at His feet in worship. They simply could not help it. His surpassing beauty would overcome everything.

How then can we come to know God?

Two things are necessary: first, God must reveal Himself; and second, we must accept His revelation and believe what He reveals.

The apostle John tells us that “no one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18) Christ, therefore, is the revelation of God. None of us has seen God, nor can we see Him in our present state, because we do not have the ability to do so. But He has revealed Himself in Christ, and we can see Christ, since He became a man like us.

A man who wanted to speak with ants might stand over an anthill and talk all day, yet not a single word would reach them. They would move about, completely unaware of him. As far as we know, ants have no ability to understand human speech. But if a man could become an ant, live among them, and speak their language, he would immediately make himself understood.

When a higher form of life wants to communicate with a lower, incarnation is necessary.

Christ revealed God by what He was, by what He did, and by what He said. From the cradle to the grave, every moment of His life revealed God. We must go to Him, then, to know God, and we must refuse to believe anything about God that is not shown to us in Christ. All other revelations are incomplete and therefore not fully reliable. Only in Christ do we see God as He truly is, for Christ is “the exact imprint of his nature.”

Whatever God would have said or done in any situation, Christ said and did. “I do nothing on my own authority… the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:10) “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) Nothing is stated more clearly in the New Testament than this truth: that we are to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” (2 Corinthians 4:6) and that we cannot see it fully anywhere else.

If we want to know the full meaning of what God meant when He gave Moses that seemingly unfinished name, “I am,” we will find it revealed in Christ. He alone explains God. He alone is the image of the invisible God.

It is clear, therefore, that we must never accept any idea of God that contradicts what we see in Christ, and we must completely reject any view of His character, His actions, or His relationship with us—no matter how strongly it is taught—if it does not agree with what Christ has revealed.

We are all aware that the Old Testament revelation of God sometimes seems to differ from the revelation given in Christ, and the question arises as to which we are to accept as the truest. In view of the fact that God Himself tells us that in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, who is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,” we cannot reject Christ’s testimony. Instead, we must regard the Old Testament revelation, where it differs from the revelation in Christ, as partial and incomplete, and accept as a true picture of God only what we find in Christ.

Christ alone tells us the true and real name of God. In His final and wonderful prayer He says: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world… I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.”

Could we ask for greater authority than this?

In the whole life of Christ, nothing is clearer or more emphatic than the fact that He continually claimed to be a complete revelation of God. “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:10) Again and again He declares that He speaks only what the Father gives Him to speak. “I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” (John 8:26) “I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” (John 12:49) The apostle also declares most plainly that it pleased the Father that in Christ “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” (Colossians 1:19) And although we may not fully understand all that this means in a theological sense, we cannot fail to see that if we want to know God, we only need to become familiar with Christ’s ways and Christ’s character in order to know God’s ways and God’s character. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” And again He declares that “no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

(Matthew 11:27) This settles the matter completely. We may have many thoughts about God; we may imagine or speculate—but it is all in vain. We simply cannot know Him except through the revelation given in Christ.

We may know many things about God, but that is very different from knowing Him as He truly is in nature and character. Other witnesses may tell us about His outward acts, but from these we often form very wrong impressions of His true character. No one but Christ can reveal the true inner nature of God, for only of Him can it be said that “the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18) It makes all the difference in our Christian lives whether or not we believe this to be true. If we do believe it, then the stern Judge and hard Taskmaster we have feared—even while trying to follow Him—and whose service we have found so difficult and uncomfortable, will disappear. In His place will come the God of love revealed to us in “the face of Jesus Christ,” the God who cares for us as He cares for the sparrows and the flowers of the field, and who tells us that even the hairs of our head are all numbered.

No one could be afraid of a God like this.

If we have been used to approaching God with any doubt about His kindness towards us; if our religious life has been poisoned by fear; if unworthy thoughts of His character and will have filled our hearts with suspicion of His goodness; if we have imagined Him as a harsh ruler or a self-seeking tyrant; if, in short, we have thought of Him in any way other than what has been revealed to us in “the face of Jesus Christ,” we must go back, in simplicity of heart, to the record of that beautiful life lived among people, and bring our understanding of God into full agreement with the character and ways of Him who declares that He came to make known the name of God.

In answer, then, to the question, “What is His name?” I have only this to say: ask Christ. We are told that He was “God manifested in the flesh,” and that whoever sees Him sees the God who sent Him. Therefore, it is perfectly clear that if we want to know the name, we must look at the manifestation. This simply means that we must study the life, words, and actions of Christ, and say to ourselves, “Whoever has seen Christ has seen God,” and that what Christ was on earth, God is in heaven. All the confusion that surrounds the character of God will disappear if we accept the light Christ has given and believe the “manifestation of His name” that Christ has shown us, and refuse to believe anything else.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night to ask how these things could be true, Jesus told him that whether he understood them or not, they were still true, and said very clearly: “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen.” (John 3:11) No one who believes in Christ can doubt that He knew God; and no one can question whether we ought to accept His testimony. He repeatedly assured us that He knew what He was speaking about, and that His words are to be accepted as absolute truth, because He came down from heaven and therefore knows heavenly things.

None of us would openly question this; yet in practice many of God’s people ignore Christ’s testimony and instead listen to their own doubting hearts, which tell them that it cannot be true that God is as loving, as tender, or as ready to forgive as Christ has shown Him to be. Yet I must repeat again and again, even at the risk of repetition, what so few seem to understand: if there is one truth taught more clearly than any other in the Bible, it is that the name—that is, the character—of the Father, as revealed by Christ, is His true character. Christ continually declares that He is the living expression of the Father, and that in everything He said and did, He was simply saying and doing what the Father would have said and done if He had acted directly from heaven.

In the face of such clear statements from our Lord Himself, it becomes not only our privilege but our responsibility to remove from our understanding of God anything that does not agree with the life, character, and teaching of Christ. If we want to know the true name of God, we must accept the name Christ has revealed and listen to no other.

Whatever qualities we see in Christ, these fill out the meaning of God’s “I am.” As we look at Christ’s life and listen to His words, we hear God saying, “I am rest for the weary; I am peace for the troubled; I am strength for the weak; I am wisdom for the foolish; I am righteousness for the sinful; I am everything the neediest soul can desire; I am far more abundantly than all you can ask or think, in blessing, help, and care.”

But here someone may say, “Yes, this may all be true, but how can I take hold of it? I am such an unworthy person that I dare not believe such grace belongs to me.”

How can you take hold of it? You cannot take hold of it at all—but you can let it take hold of you. It is good news declared to you in the Bible, and you only need to treat it as you would any trustworthy news told to you by a reliable source. If the person speaking is trustworthy, you believe what they say and act on it. And you must do the same here. If Christ is trustworthy when He says He is the revelation of God, then you must believe Him and act accordingly.

You must take your stand on His trustworthiness. You must say to yourself, and if necessary to others, “I am going to believe what Christ says about God. No matter what things seem like, no matter what my own thoughts or feelings say, no matter what anyone else says, I know that what Christ says must be true, because He knows and no one else does. I will believe Him completely.

He says that He is one with God; therefore, everything He is, God is. I will not be afraid of God any longer. I will not think of Him as a stern lawgiver angry with me, or as a harsh master demanding impossible things, or as a distant and unapproachable being who is indifferent to my struggles and fears. All such ideas are impossible now that I know Christ reveals God.”

If we firmly hold to this truth—that Christ and God are one—and refuse to accept any idea of God that contradicts what Christ has shown, our lives will be transformed.

We may often need to stand firm in this, because old doubts and fears will return and try to take hold again. But we must turn away from them decisively and declare that we now know the name—that is, the character—of our God, and that such things are impossible for Him.

Therefore, we refuse to listen to any suggestion that misrepresents His character or His ways.

It is impossible to think that when God said to Moses, “I AM,” He meant, “I am a harsh lawgiver,” or “I am a hard master,” or “I am indifferent to the suffering of my people.” If we tried to fill in His “I am” with such meanings, Christians everywhere would be shocked. Yet do not the fears and doubts of many believers say exactly these things quietly in their hearts every day?

May God grant that what we learn as we consider His name will make such doubts and fears impossible for us from now on.

Jesus is God! Oh, if I could Travel land and sea, To teach and tell this single truth, How happy I would be!

Oh, if I had an angel’s voice, I would proclaim aloud— Jesus, the good, the beautiful, Is the image of our God!