The Names of Jesus - Elmer Towns

3. The Word has active and personal communication with God (1:1,2).
4. There are two centers of consciousness, for the Word was God yet also was “face to face” or
“with” God (1:1). 5. The Word has the essence of deity (1:1).
6. The Father and the Word are one (1:1).
7. The Word was he Agent by which God expressed or revealed Himself (1:18).
8. The incarnate Word has a definite continuity with the preincarnate Word (1:1,14) .
9. As God lived in a tent, spoke in a tent, and revealed Himself in the Old Testament tabernacle,
so the Word tabernacled among us (1:14).
10. The incarnation of the Word is the unique revelation of God (1:4).
THE BELOVED
The title “Beloved” occurs only once in Scripture (Ephesians 1:6), although many
passages affirm the Father's love for the Son. God called Jesus “my beloved Son” at His baptism
(Matthew 3:17), and Jesus repeatedly acknowledged that “the Father loveth the Son” (John 3:35;
5:20; 17:23). Paul notes we are “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). The particularly
comforting aspect of this title is the context in which it is revealed. Jesus is the object of the
Father's love, and because we are in Christ, we too are the objects of the Father's love.
THE IMAGE OF GOD
The Greek word eikon, meaning “image,” is twice used in titles of Christ to express His
unique relation to God. The word itself denotes an image and involves the two ideas of representation
and manifestation. When Paul affirmed that Jesus is “the image of God” (II Corinthians
4:4), he meant Jesus was essentially and absolutely the perfect representation and manifestation
or expression of the Father. In another place Paul altered the title slightly by calling Christ “the
image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). It emphasizes that Christ is the visible
representation and manifestation of God to created beings. Both contexts convey the idea of
perfection in that image.
A second closely related title is “the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). This is
one of seven such statements in the early verses of Hebrews-all designed to demonstrate the
superiority of Christ. Various versions translate it in different ways: “the very image of his
substance” (ASV), “an exact representation of his very being” (Rhm), “flawless expression of
the nature of God” (Phillips), “stamped with God's own character” (Moffat), “the copy of his
being” (Beck), “the exact representation of God's nature” (Swindoll), “the exact expression of
God's nature” (Stibbs), “the impress of the Divine Nature” (F.B. Meyer), and “the exact
expression of God's very essence” (Barclay). This wide assortment of translations derives from
two key Greek words in this title.
The, first of these is the word character, which is closely related to the verb charasso,
meaning “to cut, to scratch, or to mark.” Originally this word referred to a marking agent, such
as a die, and then later to the impression made by the marking agent. It is similar to the English
word “stamp,” which first referred to the instrument which printed the impression and later to the
impression itself. It suggests the idea of an exact representation of the person or the person
himself-that is, the distinguishing features or traits by which a person or thing is known (cf. the
English word “characteristics”). What the writer of the Hebrews seems to argue by using this