To him who overcomes I will give some
of the hidden manna to eat.
And I will give him a white stone,
and on the stone a new name written
which no one knows except him who
receives it.
(Revelation
2:17)
We learn of God
by His names. His names unveil and reveal Him to us. They reflect His nature,
character and purposes. Similarly, we are known by our name, the carrier of our reputation and our
heart/spirit.
Proverbs
instructs that,
‘A good name is to be chosen/
is more desirable than great riches...
(Proverbs
22:1)
So if names reveal, reflect and unveil, what’s
with the new, secret name Jesus
promises to us born again believers who, by faith in Him, overcome trials of
this life??
We use secret
names to help cloak our evil deeds, and a few of us use secret names to cloak their
good deeds. With marriage, we change names to capture and reflect our new
identity. The Bible records instances in which God gave new names to select, pivotal players in His salvation plan,
e.g., Abram>Abraham, Sarai>Sarah, Jacob>Israel, Simon>Peter, and
finally, Saul>Paul. Their new names captured and reflected their new
identities in God’s Kingdom and plan of salvation.
Jesus promises
to give resurrected, overcomer believers a new (secret?) name that only the
person will know. Based on the above-noted name changes, it is safe to surmise
these names will similarly reflect our (then) new, fully-redeemed nature and
character, and may well be pivotal in enabling and empowering us to perform
uniquely assigned roles and functions during The Millennial Reign of Christ… and beyond.
Will our new
name remain a secret -- unknown to all others, or will it effectively be
revealed and become known to all others by the roles we will play and the functions
we will perform in God’s Kingdom? Perhaps the following point, iterated in
three of the four Gospels, hints the answer to this question:
For there is nothing hidden
that will not be disclosed,
and nothing concealed
that will not be known
or brought out into the Light and made
known to all.
(Matthew 10:26, Mark 4:22, Luke
8:17)
