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John 6:33-35, Amos 8:11-12

Jesus is the Bread of Life

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 10, 2022

Jesus is referred to as true “bread” often in the bible. He’s the bread of life. He’s the real manna that came down from heaven. John 6:33 puts it this way.,“For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” To get the context of Jesus’ words you should remember that he had just finished feeding 5000 or more with a couple fish and a few small loaves of bread. He then walked on water to the other side of the sea of Galilee and the crowds found him there the next day. Jesus confronted their motives saying “you follow me, not because you believe in me, but because you want the bread.” Not only did they want the bread but they wanted to learn the “trick” of the bread so they could do it themselves. Jesus explained that the bread was a “work” of God. They asked “what must we do to do the works of God.” Jesus then explained something very simple yet very profound. He said, Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?” I think they were wanting to know what his connection with God was that enabled him to do such things so they could do it also. But Jesus went on, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Everyone knows immediately that Jesus is not talking about literal bread here. That kind of bread is grown from various seeds planted in the earth. We take that nourishment from the ground from which our bodies were actually taken as described in Genesis. Our bodies come from dust and will return to dust. We nourish them and keep them alive with the food and drink we enjoy in this life. Bread may not be the main staple for us today but it is still significant. Further, the Greek word for “Bread” is sometimes translated as “Food.” But there is another kind of existence we have that comes from being made “in the image” of God. I have often argued that the whole Bible is about Jesus. His acts as recorded in the Gospels are acts that fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament. His teaching is does the same thing. In regard to this passage on Jesus being the “true bread of God” he is looking back at another lessor known Old Testament Prophet. Amos 8:11-12 describes the situation into which Jesus came. It also describes the hearts of all men in rebellion to God. He writes, “Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord God, ‘when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.”

The late James Montgomery Boice applied this situation well. Speaking of the Amos prophecy he writes, “This is a horrible prophecy. But in some ways it is even more horrible to have the Lord Jesus Christ, the bread of life, available (as he is today) and yet have men refuse to come to him. Men have great hunger—a hunger for truth, righteousness, peace, joy, spiritual satisfaction, and other things. Jesus is the answer to this hunger. Yet the tragedy is that men will not come to him. Jesus showed the wisdom of coming when he told the people who had followed him to Capernaum in Galilee, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”1 Just as bread (food) is necessary for physical life, so too is Jesus necessary for spiritual life! You wouldn’t do without food, would you?

1 James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 476.

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Jeremiah 33:15, various

Jesus: the righteous branch!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 9, 2022

Part of the Old Testament figurative language that refers to the Messiah’s coming is the word “branch.” Several prophets refer to the coming Messiah as “a branch.” In Jeremiah 33:15 we read, “…in those days i will cause a righteous branch to spring up.” Isaiah 11:1 says, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” Jeremiah 33:15 also, speaking for God says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

Let me get “Grammatical.” There is a difference between “a” branch and “the” branch. The indefinite article “a” leaves the identity up for grabs. It could be anyone. But the definite article “the” identifies the one and only of a kind. That’s why Ohio State insists on being “The Ohio State.” A branch will be raised up and that branch will be the messiah. Zechariah, a not frequently quoted Old Testament prophet, says in 6:12, “And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Earlier in Zechariah 3:8, the prophet is speaking to the High Priest at the time whose name is “Joshua.” That’s the Hebrew for of Jesus. He says, “Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.”

Let’s look at what the Bible means in these passages where it speaks of “Righteousness.” When we read the first part of the Jeremiah 33 quote we see that the branch will “execute justice and righteousness.” I’d argue that from many other passages in both the Old and New Testament that the “branch,” the messiah, Jesus is the only fully just and fully righteous. We can find a personal righteousness not in our own efforts but in Him alone. That’s the why Jeremiah closes this short passage with telling us the name by which the Messiah will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.” You know that it was when Martin Luther saw Romans 1:17 in a different way that the reformation began! This passage speaks to us of the “power” of the Gospel is in this phrase: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Luther realized that God was the subject of “righteousness.” It was “HIS” righteousness that saves, not his own, and it’s not our own. Jesus is the complete righteousness of God. Why are still struggling to demonstrate our own righteousness instead of focusing our attention on Jesus and His righteousness. Religious people in Jesus day didn’t get that. Paul tells us in Romans 10:3-4 “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” We say we get that! But why do we live like we don’t?

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John 2, Various

The Abundance of Joy!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 8, 2022

In John Chapter two, at the wedding of Cana, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.” In light of the prophetic role of wine in the Old Testament it appears to be more of a description of the state of things in Israel than simply a statement of fact. We could discuss the Bibles condemnation of drinking “too much” wine and the exhortation to “not be drunk” with wine and other passages which express the danger of strong drink of any kind. Whereas that should not be forgotten, Wine in the Old Testament was the symbol of joy! Wine would be one of the many blessings God’s people would enjoy when they lived according to the Covenant God made with them in the Book of Deuteronomy. He said to Israel, In Deuteronomy 7:13, regarding covenant keeping people, “He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.” In Psalm 4:7, David extols the joys of living in harmony with God’s laws and says that it’s better than wine. He writes, (or sings!) “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” Abounding wine does represent joy! Then the Psalmist clearly expresses the results of appropriate wine. In Psalm 104:14-15 he says, “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man.” So, it’s pretty clear that wine can “gladden” the hearts of men and give them joy.

But wine is not only used as a symbol of joy in the Old Testament, it’s also used as a description of life upon the arrival of the promised Messiah. When Amos prophecies his coming he says in Amos 9:13 that, “…the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.” Hosea speaks of those days as having excellent wine. Hosea 14:8 says, “They will come back to live in my shade; they will grow wheat again, they will make the vine flourish, their wine will be as famous as Lebanon’s” (See the New Jerusalem Bible for this specific translation). Jeremiah, as the Prophet of the New Covenant, expresses the joy of the coming days. In Jeremiah 31:12, he writes, “They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil…” In addition to this there are two other Jewish works that foresee the Messianic days as being the days of great joy symbolized by wine. First, The Book of Enoch 10:19 says, “And all desirable trees shall be planted on it, and they shall plant vines on it: and the vine which they plant thereon shall yield wine in abundance.” The other work is The Apocalypse of Baruch 29:5. It says, “The earth also shall yield its fruit ten thousandfold, and on one vine there shall be a thousand branches, and each branch shall produce a thousand clusters, and each cluster shall produce a thousand grapes, and each grape shall produce a cor of wine.” After discussing these two extra-biblical texts, Hall Harris (a former professor of mine), said that a “cor” of wine is equal to about 120 gallons which is about the same amount of water that Jesus turned into wine at the wedding of Cana in John 2!

The point of all this is that Jesus’ miracle had more to do with the clear demonstration that he was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament and that this “first sign,” as John calls it, was done to begin his ministry of revealing himself as the promised Messiah that would now bring a flow of “joy” to his people as promised throughout the Old Testament. That joy would not come through keeping the covenant of the law, but would come through faith alone in the one who did keep the covenant perfectly and saves us from our sins.

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Matthew 3:17, 9:13

Get Down!!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 7, 2022

In Matthew 3:17, the sky opened and God the Father spoke from heaven to the world about His one and only begotten Son. He said for the benefit of all those present and for every generation of people who followed, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” In several of Jesus’ parables mentioned in the Gospels the master of a house entrusts his servants with certain things and when he returns he blesses some of them for being “good and faithful servants.” The master says to those servants, “Well done!” We’d all want to hear than one day from God, don’t you think? I’m afraid most of us believe that has to do with how many good deeds we do and how many religious observations we make but i’m thinking that it is really focusing on the fact the the good servants were “faithful.” I think that means they were full of faith: “believing.” Pleasing God is more about believing in Jesus and trusting in His good works to save you rather than trusting in yourself and your own efforts in that regard. Most religions rest upon a foundation of good works and rituals. Jesus did not come to set up another, competing religion, but to destroy religion as a whole! There is much theological discussion about the role of repentance in our salvation experiences. I believe that repentance is not about being sorry for any particular sin but rather a “change of mind” about our own abilities. This is really what the Greek word for “repentance” means: to change one’s mind. According to Isaiah the best efforts, good works, of man are nothing more than filthy rags or polluted garments. That’s what Isaiah 64:6 says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”

In a world in which hard work, great accomplishments and strict discipline is widely rewarded it’s rather humbling to acknowledge the fact that we can’t do it! Repentance is saying, “Your are right Lord! I cannot save myself! It is something beyond me.” It’s to humble ourselves before God and His word. In July 1976, Israeli commandos made a daring raid at an airport in Uganda. 103 Jewish hostages were freed. In less than 15 minutes, the soldiers had killed all seven of the kidnappers and set the captives free. As the commandos entered the terminal, they shouted, “Get down!” The Jews understood and lay down, while the guerrillas, who did not speak Hebrew, were left standing. Quickly the rescuers shot the upright kidnappers. But three of the Jewish speaking hostages didn’t fall down. They were shot with the bullets meant for the enemy. Had these three heeded the soldiers’ command, they would have been freed with the rest of the captives.

In Matthew 9, Jesus receives Sinners. The Pharisees take issue with that and Jesus addresses them and says, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus said in Matthew 20:28 that, “The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue many people.” To attain God’s favor and full acceptance is something that’s achieved by faith not by works. When Paul tells the Ephesians that it is in “…praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.” He’s saying that Jesus’ perfect pleasing of His father, is our perfect pleasing of the father by faith in him. What a relief! Rolls is right on as he writes, “This is one of the brightest jewels of revealed truth. In spite of our frailties, failures and faults our acceptance knows no hazard because we are accepted in One who is always and altogether acceptable to the Father. Our confidence in approach, our converse with heaven, our communion in the light and our companionship with the Father are all centered in the Beloved. What a precious foundation this revelation furnishes for faith! A worthy factor to encourage our hearts in fervent devotion and to enrich our lives with delight in the Lord, while we express to Him our adoring gratitude!”1

1 Charles J. Rolls, The Indescribable Christ: Names and Titles of Jesus Christ: A-G (Loizeaux Brothers, 1984).

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Hebrews 1:3, John 1:4-5

Jesus is the Light of the World

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 6, 2022

Jesus is the “brightness” of God’s glory! That’s what Hebrews 1:3 says as the writer begins his dissertation on the complete superiority of Jesus to the Prophets, Moses, the Law and even Angels. I was curious to learn what it means to be “the brightness of God’s glory.” After looking at a lot of my English Bibles (I have 50 or more!!) many of them use the phrase “radiance” instead of “brightness.” The New Jerusalem Bible says “He is the reflection of God’s glory.” Oh no!! Kistemaker has it right. He says, “The translation ‘radiance’ here is proper, as against some others which use ‘reflection.’ There is a vast difference between the two, as different as the functions of our solar system’s sun and moon. The moon reflects light, whereas the sun radiates light because it is its source. Jesus does not simply reflect God’s glory; he is part of it! This was shown on the Mount of Transfiguration when ‘His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them’ (Mark 9:3). It was his own essential glory, but it was also the Father’s. This is what blinded Paul on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:3; 22:6). This is why the Nicene Creed sings of Christ, ‘God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God.’”1

It reminded me of John 1:4-5 that says, speaking of Jesus, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Since John began with the same phrase as Genesis “In the Beginning” we can’t miss the allusion to the creation account at the beginning of the Bible where “darkness was over the face of the deep.” But God said, “Let there be light! And there was light.” Then in John 8:12 Jesus told the religious leaders who opposed him, “Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” Then in John 9:5, he said, “as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” What happened to the light when Jesus ascended into heaven? In Matthew Jesus called his followers by the same title. In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” We often teach our children to sing, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine…” Some of the “Christ-consciousness” New Age cults use this passage to argue that we are our own Christs who can save the world in some way. We need simply accept our role as divine ourselves. Watch out for that!! Geisler explains it well, “Jesus is the primary light, and we are the secondary light. As the light of the sun is to the moon, so Jesus is the source of the light, and we are the reflectors of the light. Now that He is no longer here, we are His reflected light in the world.”2

I like the way Bolls describes Jesus as being “the radiance” of God’s glory. He says, “He (Jesus) is the corona of the everlasting flame, the effulgence of essential light, the burnish of celestial brilliance, the aurora borealis of spiritual magnificence, the radiance of supernal resplendence and the nimbus of heaven’s loveliest luster. If the iridescent halo of the ineffable Shekinah that abode on the mercy seat of the tabernacle of old was so awe-inspiring, what are we to say of His eternal excellence, flashing rays of exquisite light from His transcendent countenance to the uttermost bound of heaven’s ceaseless domain?” 3 Thus, Jesus is the only light we’ll ever need. I expect that’s why John explains the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:23 that says, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

1Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1984), p. 29.

2 Norman L. Geisler and Thomas A. Howe, When Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992), 329.

3 Charles J. Rolls, The Indescribable Christ: Names and Titles of Jesus Christ: A-G (Loizeaux Brothers, 1984).

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Revelation 3:14

Jesus: The Source of all thing!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 5, 2022

Many of the Christological heresies in the past focus on the humanity of Jesus and assume that he is simply a created being. When John wrote the book of Revelation he included a brief letter to the church at Laodicea which was struggling with heretical issues itself. Jesus instructs John to write to them and address the message as being from himself. Revelation 3:14 says, “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.’” The Greek word translated “beginning” here also means “ruler.” It’s a title which intends to put Jesus in charge of the creation, not a part of it. That’s why the Lexham English Bible translates the phrase as “the originator of God’s creation…” The same is true of the New English Translation (NET), the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), and The Good News Bible (GN) says that Jesus is the “origin of all that God created.” The Complete Jewish Bible says, “The Ruler of God’s creation.” I would argue that this verse does not present Jesus as being part of God’s creation but a partaker in that creation, the creator himself. That’s why Jesus can say things like he says in John 17:5, when he prays, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” He isn’t part of the creation but the creator with the Father at the very beginning. That’s what John means when he begins his Gospel saying, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” “In the beginning” is the phrase that opens the Bible in Genesis 1:1. John 1:1 refers to Jesus’ presence at the “beginning” and then with the book of Revelation presents Jesus as the creator, not the created.

My favorite commentaries of late have been the various Handbooks for Bible Translators prepared by the United Bible Society. It was prepared to help those who are tasked with translating the Bible in various languages around the world. It’s first task is to clarify the original language to aid the workers to give an accurate rendering of the text. At the expense of being too academic let me show you what they say. Regarding this phrase from the Book of Revelations, the handbook says, “The beginning of God’s creation: in English this could be understood to mean that Christ is the first being created by God; this, however, is not what the text means. As translated by TEV , ‘the origin of all that God has created’ (note REB ‘the source of God’s creation’), the meaning is that Christ is the one by means of whom God created all things, and in many languages it will be translated this way (see John 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2). The same Greek word for beginning is used also in Colossians 1:18 in the sense of ‘source.’ As the TEV footnote indicates, the word may mean ‘ruler’ (so NIV ), but the other meaning is preferred by the large majority of commentaries and translations. Most translations use ‘origin’; a few use ‘source.’ The phrase God’s creation means ‘what God has created’; in this context it includes everything that God has created.”1

Jesus shares all the “glory” with God the Father for all of creation. He is the “source” of all things. When we think of Jesus in this way, we can truly worship him. Rolls helps is when he writes, “If we examine the vaster things we must admit that the whole earth is full of His glory, whether this glory be reflected from the sublimity of the sky which is so measureless, the splendors of the stars which are so countless, the shining of the sun which is so exhaustless, the spaciousness of the heavens which are so trackless, the surging of the ocean which is so ceaseless, the spectrum of light which is so matchless, the designs of the snowflakes which are so numberless, the springs of fountains which are so traceless, the superiority of mountains which are so ageless or the fragrance of flowers which are so taintless. These few features in themselves introduce a range of wonders that are indescribable.”2

1 Robert G. Bratcher and Howard Hatton, A Handbook on the Revelation to John, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1993), 78–79.

2Charles J. Rolls, The Indescribable Christ: Names and Titles of Jesus Christ: A-G (Loizeaux Brothers, 1984).

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Colossians 3:11

All Lives Don’t Matter!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 4, 2022

I’m sure that got your attention. Mankind has categorized human beings into various classes throughout history. The Jews were best at this in that they saw everyone outside of their physical heritage as being “Gentiles.” This phrase is sometimes translated as “Dogs.” This could have contributed to the reason they were so hated throughout history. They saw themselves as “God’s Chosen” elite in contrast to the rabble of the rest of the world. To the Jews “all” lives weren’t equal and all lives did not matter. In reaction to this they were persecuted violently. Hitler made the extermination of Jews a high priority in the German nation until the Allied Forces invaded Berlin and he reign of terror ended with his suicide in a cement bunker along with his wife. Hitler elevated the Arian race above all others to the extent he wanted to exterminate the inferior races, not just the Jews. To Hitler and his clan, all lives were not equal and all lives did not matter either. But isn’t this the way of the world? Not all lives matter! This is not an ancient problem. It’s been around since the beginning of time and is still going on today. Here are ten examples of recent horrible genocides. Herero Genocide: 1904–1907. Armenian Genocide: 1915–1923. Holocaust: 1933–1945. Cambodian Genocide: 1975–1979. East Timor Genocide: 1975–1999. Guatemalan Genocide: 1981–1983. Kurdish Genocide: 1986–1989. Bosnian Genocide: 1992–1995. Rwandan Genocide: 1994. Darfur Genocide: 2003–Present. The way of the world has always been “Not all lives matter.” No, as a general rule yet today people don’t like those who look different, dress different, live different, act different, eat different and believe different than they do. The worst part of this is that “religion” has been the most profound distinction between peoples that have cause such devastation. The shame of “Christendom” is that it has been as guilty of this as any others. It’s not only the Crusades that bear witness to this, but also the Inquisition as well as some post reformation atrocities committed by both Catholic and Protestant groups.

This is such a disgrace because Jesus did not come to set up another religion to be at odds with all the other religions in the world. He came to destroy religion as well as all the other human distinctions between the peoples of the world. As the Colossians struggled with the infighting of various groups within their number Paul exhorts them to change their attitude about that. Paul spends some time exalting the Characteristics of Christ. He points out Jesus’ role in creation of all things and calls him the firstborn of all, the preeminent of all, the reconciler of all, the ruler of all, the nourisher of all, the forgiver of all and concludes with the claim “Christ is all and in all.” Colossians 3:11 says, “As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all.” The Galatians were having a difficult time with these distinctions and Paul had to address the problem with them as well. But there gender had become an issue as well. Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

I do not want to preach for the sake of the advancement of Christendom as it has been expressed throughout history. I just want to preach Christ. I like the way Norm Geisler said it in his Colossians commentary, “In Christ distinctions are removed. These include national distinctions… religious distinctions… cultural distinctions… and economic or social distinctions.” When a person comes to Christ in faith, He destroys all other distinctions. Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” So, going back to Colossians 3, Paul says that once they have taken off the “old self” they now have “put on” the new self in which there is no distinctions anymore. “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” But there is still one more distinction that cannot be missed. In Christ there are no more distinctions, but outside of Christ the distinctions still exist and rule our world. There are still those who have not received Christ. John says in John 1:12, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

1 Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 681.

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Revelation 3:14

Amen to that!!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 3, 2022

I was listening to a Church History lecture the other night and the professor, Everett Ferguson, talked about the origin of saying “amen” after someone had prayed or after they heard something they agreed with. It is ancient in its origin. It appears as many as 100 times in the Old Testament as far back as Deuteronomy. Moses is instructed to put half the people on one hill and half on another and then the Levites will pronounce a dozen or more curses to which the People will be in agreement. Deuteronomy 27:16 is one of those curses. It says, “Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” It also appears in the Psalms several times. Psalm 89 ends with a double expression in verse 52, “Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen and Amen.” The New Testament is full of “amens.” It’s not unusual for Paul to end his letters with it. 1 Corinthians 16:24 closes the book with it: “My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.” The Lexham Bible Dictionary says that Amen is, “A Hebrew word that has served as a declaration of affirmation and as the closing exclamation of agreement to a doxology or prayer in Jewish and Christian liturgy.” It seems strange that the Apostle John would suggest that Amen is a title for Jesus. In Revelation 3:14, John writes, “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” I think Rolls is correct when he speaks of this as being one of the Names of Jesus when he writes, “We may diligently search the chief cities of the nations, examine all the records of the centuries and ransack the literature of continents the world over, but will never find another bearing this name.”1

Whereas it was customarily used to end statements or prayers, as it is today, Jesus used it to begin his statements. But he doubled it when he was about to say something extremely important as well as unimpeachable in its truthfulness. Most English translations translate the double words as “verily, verily” but they are the same word. The Hebrew word is pronounced the same, Amen. The Greek took the exact same word and put it into their own letters of their alphabet but it is pronounced the same: Amen! When we say Amen today, were reproducing the same sounds the Hebrews spoke and the same sounds that the Greeks spoke. Amen sounds the same and means the same thing in any language. The double “amen” is seen in John 3:5. It reads, “Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’”  The New American Bible, (NAB) actually translates Jesus quote as “Amen, Amen, I say to you no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Jesus used the introductory double phrase of “Amen, Amen…” (Truly, Truly or Verily, Verily) 25 times in the Gospel of John alone. He wants his listeners to understand the truthfulness of his words.

As far as being a name or title of Jesus as John records in the book of Revelation it’s referring to the very character of Jesus throughout his life on earth. Unlike the rest of mankind, Jesus “always” did the perfect will of his father. Whatever God asked of him, or whatever the Father said that’s what Jesus did or said. As Rolls adds to his discussion, “We affirm again that no one else, anywhere at anytime, always and altogether, said, “so be it” to every jot and tittle of the will of God. Because He did, he was able to use this claim in John 3:38 when challenged, as the supreme proof of His Sonship, “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 6:38). Paul tells us that Jesus, as the great Amen of the Father, is deserving of our complete faith. “We can be certain,” Paul says. He says in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that, as the Great Amen of the Father, we can be certain all of God’s promises will come true. We can say “Amen” to all of God’s promises because Jesus is the great “Amen” who will assure them. Paul writes, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” Paul talks to Timothy about the trustworthiness of the Gospel and the certainty of his salvation through faith in Jesus. Timothy is likely struggling with sin. Don’t we all? But Paul gives Timothy full assurance that Jesus is completely trustworthy in saving sinners. He begins his letter to Timothy with “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

1 Charles J. Rolls, The Indescribable Christ: Names and Titles of Jesus Christ: A-G (Loizeaux Brothers, 1984).

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