SEPT. 7: THE GREATEST NAME

Focal Passage: Isaiah 42:1-12 

The word G.O.A.T. is often used as an acronym for Greatest Of All Time.

The next several weeks we will be looking at Scriptural G.O.A.T.s.: the Greatest Name, Need, Sin, Gift, Command, and Return. We begin this week with the Greatest Name – the name of the One, true, triune, and living God, at Father, Son, and Spirit. To be a G.O.A.T. means that no one is better, no one is greater, no one is above the one considered the greatest.

We begin by looking at Isaiah 42 and the calling of God’s servant, referring to both Isaiah, but more importantly to the future Messiah, Jesus Christ.

• God brings glory to His great name by calling His servant, Isaiah 42:1-4.

The calling of God means that those who are called will be strengthened by God, are chosen by God, and are delighted in by God; they will bring justice to the nations by preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The person God calls He saves, justifies, sanctifies, empowers, and enables to do all God calls him to do. In this way, we, the called, are empowered and God is glorified. We get the benefits; He gets the glory. The very fact that God would use any of us is to His great glory. God calls broken people to draw straight lines.

• God brings glory to His great name through the work of His servant, Isaiah 42:5-8.

The called do the work of God. As Isaiah 42:6 notes, we are called “for a righteous purpose,” to be “a light to the nations” and “to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeons, and those sitting in the darkness from the prison house.” In essence, those who are called to do the work of God and are called to preach and teach the gospel that sets people free from sin and Satan. Ministry is not our hobby horse so that we might feel good about ourselves. Rather, we serve on a rescue squad sent out by God to rescue sinners. This is what Jesus did; it is what we must do as well.

• God’s name deserves glory from all people, Isaiah 42:9-12.

The calling and work of God are for the sole purpose of bringing glory to the name of the One, true and living God. As verse 12 notes, “Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coasts and islands.” Again, as verse 8 states, “I am the Lord. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” In brief, the call of God and the work of God are ultimately for the glory of God. 

It is Ephesians 1:11-12 that best clarifies the connection between the purposes and glory of God in God’s redemptive work in Jesus Christ: “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” 

The only name under which all of God’s redemptive work takes place is the name of the One, true and living God — One God, three Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. It will be at the name of this God, especially God the Son, that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 

It is in this way that God’s name is above all names — the Greatest Name of All Time. B&R