‘I Have Manifested Your Name’

’I Have Manifested Your Name’

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

John 17:6

Christ was very clear about what He was here to accomplish.  In the larger scheme of things, He was going to glorify God His Father.  With regard to His disciples, Christ was going to pour Himself into them, heart and soul, to conform them to His Own Image.  By doing that, He would be manifesting God’s Name to those disciples.  He accomplished this manifestation in a number of ways.  He manifested His Father’s Name by His words.  Every word which proceeded out of the mouth of Christ was to the purpose of revealing God to these men.  All His actions with all their consequences served the purpose of manifesting the Name and thereby the Character of God to them.  If He healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, walked upon the sea, or did any one of a multitude of other miraculous things, the disciples understood more of God.  Christ could utter this with a clear conscience.  He had done what He had set out to do.  He had ‘manifested Your Name to the men whom You have given me.’  By these words and deeds, through the witnesses of these men,  Christ is still manifesting the Name of God to us.  We are the spiritual beneficiaries of their experience.  As we look to the Scriptures, they point us to Christ, as the disciples describe His words and deeds.  We can say, in this way, that Christ continues His work.  So we come to know God.

Our Almighty God and Our Savior,
we rejoice that Christ has come to manifest Your Name to us.
We praise You, that through Him,
we see Your Character gloriously displayed.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning