Please flip over to Revelation 3, verse 5. To bear Christ's name is to share His authority, protection, and identity; this entails responsibility and persecution, and introduces a quite different meaning for the phrase for My name's sake. Acknowledging Christ's name and not denying it preserves one's own name or identity.
So we preserve our own identity by not denying Christ's name or being ashamed of it. If we conquer sin, Satan, and the world, and our own human nature, our name is not blotted out of the Book of Life.
Please turn over to I Peter 4, verse 12. Now, Peter wrote about our blessed state in life, not that we would find personal and positive enjoyment in being criticized and slandered, but our blessed condition is because it resembles our Savior's condition. It shows that we are His friends, and it shows that we have rich spiritual influences in this present world.
We are going to read verses 12 to 19, and this section is about suffering for God's glory.
Therefore, we recognize that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ bestows His name upon us. It is as real as what Paul told the Galatians in Galatians 2, verse 20.
This is a wonderful and revealing statement about the foundation of this marriage. There is a sense in which the Christian's whole life is in the Husband, and yet the Christian has not become completely lost. He is still here, as Paul says, The life I now live, I live in the flesh.
Though there is a great mystery concerning the marriage relationship, and we must never forget that this great name of Jesus Christ is upon us. What matters, and should matter to all of us, is that our names have been changed. Here in the realm of the church, other names do not matter. What matters now is that the name of Christ is on us.
So we are united here, and we are all together in Him. He has taken us to Himself, His church, His bride. Notice again what Christ says to the Philadelphians and to the rest of the church.
The saint (he who overcomes) is considered a pillar or column in the Temple. The name of God will be conspicuously recorded on him to show that he belongs to God. It is like a large government building in a sense, and on its columns are recorded the names of people who are distinguished and privileged. It is a public testimonial to the respect of those whose names are recorded there.
The honor given to him, that is, he who overcomes, is as great as if the name of the God He serves and whose favor and friendship He enjoys were inscribed on him in some visible way. He who overcomes is known and recognized as belonging to God; the God of the Redeemer Himself, and it is indicated by the phrase the name of My God.
The name of the city of My God signifies that the Christian belongs to that city or that the New Jerusalem is his home, and wherever he goes and wherever he lives, he will be recognized as belonging to the holy city, as enjoying the rights and privileges of a citizen of New Jerusalem. This is a tremendous blessing to all who are Christians, to all who are members of His Body, the bride of Christ. The Son of God gives us a new name, His own Family name!
So the day is coming when at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of the things in heaven and of things on earth and things under the earth, and that is the name that is given to those who constitute the bride of Christ.
We see that this results in the fact that we share in His dignity, in this great and glorious position. Dignity is defined as goodness in the sense of merit. It refers to commanding respect. Concerning Christ, that implies magnificence, excellence, and manifestation of glory.