Jesus' Name

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: It’s not really common in our culture today to name baby boys “Jesus.” But in a sense, it is common. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, still popular in our day. It was also popular when Mary named her first child. Parents remembered Joshua the Old Testament military hero. God used Joshua as a courageous deliverer against enemy nations.

The Old Testament Joshua was a foreshadowing of the ultimate Deliverer. The angel who told Mary to name her child after this hero explained that this baby would “save his people from their sins.”

So the name Jesus tells us who this baby was, why He came to earth, and what He came to do. He came to deliver us. Not in a military sense like Joshua, though. This baby came to provide ultimate deliverance from the power of sin and death.

With Seeking Him, I’m Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.