Yeshua

We are familiar with the explanation of the meaning of the name Jesus being ‘Jehovah the Saviour’ or ‘Yahweh the Saviour’. His everyday name transliterated from Hebrew would have been Yeshua. This is what he would have been called in the home or in the street.

The point of his name is that the sovereign eternal Lord came to our rescue. We could imagine him trying to rescue us by his sovereignty by merely giving a pronouncement that we should be freed. But that method would have been unjust because the penalty for sin had not been paid. 

Or we might imagine God could relax his demands and say instead that if we would just say sorry he would forget about his judgement on us. But if he did that, he would also be unjust. 

The fact is that the penalty for sin had to be paid, and there was only one way by which it could be done. God himself would have to do it, and this is why he came to our rescue by becoming a man.

Some are surprised to know that other people apart from Jesus can have this name. A Christian called Jesus Justus is mentioned by Paul in one of his letters. He too would have been called Yeshua. The difference between Jesus and Jesus Justus is that the latter depended on the former for salvation because the Saviour is God as well as man. It was good to have his name, but that did not save Justus. Instead he had to trust as a sinner in the Saviour, and as a result was delivered from the penalty for his sins.

While we may not have Jesus in our name, we can have him in our hearts. The same Jesus is in all his people whether they are in heaven or on earth.