163. New Name
Revelation 2:17d …and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
The third part of the third overcomer promise: a written new name. One’s name is one’s identity, character, personality and individuality. One’s good name is also his reputation and public perception. One’s name is precious to him and it is carefully guarded and protected. Don’t mess with my name; it’s who I am.
So why would I want a new name? Shouldn’t I be proud of my given name? God loves me and who I am, but I am tainted, corrupted and ruined by sin. So God gives me a new name, uncorrupted and pure with an unsullied reputation. I myself have ruined my own name, but since Jesus has transformed me and I am a new creation I need a new name and a new identity. God is my father and Jesus is my brother; I am placed in a new family; I need a new name.
I want a new name for there is now a new person. I am responsible for sullying my old name and I am no longer proud of my given name. Just as God in Christ makes me a new person so He has given me a new name. I am proud of the new name because God has given it to me. No one knows that name, but I know it. I know what God thinks of me and I know what He has made me. In baptism the old man has drowned and died and I walk in newness of life. The saint in me needs a new name and He has promised me a new name. The new name is uniquely mine, shared with no one else, for God has made me specially His. I don’t know how God can treat each of us uniquely and individually and yet consider all of us as one body, one church and one unity, but He does. Almighty God knows me and calls me by name; “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine.”