In the name of …
I ran across an interesting article written by Greg Koukl that made me stop and think about a Christian “habit” that I and most of the other Christians I know seem to be indoctrinated into. Most of the following text is borrowed from his article. The “habit” is tacking the phrase “In Jesus name” onto the end of ever prayer we say. If you were to ask anyone why they say that I’m sure the most prevalent answer might be, “because we are suppose to?”
In the New Testament it does say “Anything you ask in my name, that will I do.” We have presumed that what that means is that we must add the phrase after prayer in order to make it work. Just about every time we finish praying we tack this phrase on at the end, “In the name of Jesus. Amen.” We do that because we were told to pray in the name of Jesus and God would answer. We expect that in doing so it seals the power of the prayer. I think that might be a little superstitious because praying in the name of Jesus doesn’t mean saying, “In the name of Jesus.”
If you read through the New Testament looking for teaching on prayer, or examples of prayer, one thing you will notice when you highlight every prayer, every supplication towards God that is uttered in the text of the New Testament is that you will never see a New Testament prayer that ends with the phrase “In Jesus’ name. Amen,” even though the same text teaches you to pray in Jesus’ name. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to draw the conclusion that we are, first, to pray in the name of Jesus, and second, praying in the name of Jesus doesn’t mean ending your prayer with the phrase “In the name of Jesus. Amen,” because it is never done in the New Testament.
What does it mean to pray in the name of someone if it doesn’t mean saying, “In the name of…”? Here’s what it means. The name of someone, in the sense that the Bible authors used it, was what the person stood for, the substance of their character, or their authority.This is testifying to the name, or nature, or power, or substance of God. When we pray in the name of Jesus or baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, what we are doing is acting in their authority, in their stead, according to their command, and consistent with their desires.
When we pray in the name of Jesus it might be better for us to drop the phrase “In the name of Jesus” altogether because generally we don’t mean, “I am praying in the authority of Jesus Christ.” You know what we probably mean when we say “In the name of Jesus. Amen” ? Practically speaking, it means the prayer is over. That is the Christian exit. Amen. Translated it means, the prayer is over, let’s go do what we were doing, or let’s eat.
There is power in praying in the authority of Jesus Christ, by the authority He has given you, consistent with His character, His desire, and His will. It’s like when the policeman says, “Stop in the name of the law.” The policeman is saying that because he is standing in the place of the law and speaking on behalf of it. To the degree that he speaks for the law, then he can enforce the law and he has authority. But he only uses it when he is invoking that authority. He does not go into a donut shop and say, “give me a donut, in the name of the law.”
It might be better for us to start our prayers with that phrase instead of ending it. But don’t even use that phrase. It would be better to start your prayers by saying, “Father, I come before you, not in my own power, not in my own righteousness, not in my own capability. I come before you in the authority of Jesus, your Son, who gave me access in this faith in which I stand because of His blood. I come on the merits of Jesus, not on my own merits.” Ladies and gentlemen, that’s what praying in the name of Jesus is. When you come on the basis of Jesus’ merits, then you are heard for Jesus’ sake. I think it would be better to start out that way and when you end, just stop praying when you are done. You don’t have to say anything at the end.
