WE SPEND ANOTHER day on: “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).
The justification coming after the washing and after the sanctification puts together the two approaches to life—from revelation down (the Christian approach) and from the facts up (the scientific approach). The two approaches put together bring a wider justification, because wider based. The verification from revelation down and from the facts up bring a wider verification and a more convincing one.
These three things come about “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” The washing, the sanctifying, and the justifying come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Could they not come directly from God without coming in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer is no! If they came in any other name, meaning, in any other character, they would not be true to the facts. When you come directly to God, you don’t, really, for you come in your own name, through your own conceptions, to God. Your conceptions are the mediator, and they are false. Only in the name or character of Jesus Christ is reality revealed. Therefore, God can’t give in any other name or character, for if He did so He would be backing unreality or falsity. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
This is done not only in the name of Jesus, but also in the Spirit of our God. The Spirit works and works with complete abandon when we come in the name or character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then He is free to work, for He is working in the right pattern, with the right goal—to be made like Jesus. There the Holy Spirit can give without limit and without hesitation.
O Spirit Divine, I come in the name of Jesus, I make my surrender to Him, now give and give abundantly of Thy power, for we have one aim and goal—Jesus! I know here I can expect Thee to give with both hands. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: If I act in the name of Jesus—in His character and spirit—then I can depend on the power of the Spirit.
