Search Fore Hymn

Jesus! The Name High Over All

Jesus! the Name high over all,
In hell or earth or sky;
Angels and men before it fall,
And devils fear and fly.

Jesus! the Name to sinners dear,
The Name to sinners giv’n;
It scatters all their guilty fear,
It turns their hell to Heav’n.

Jesus! the prisoner’s fetters breaks,
And bruises Satan’s head;
Power into strengthless souls it speaks,
And life into the dead.

O that mankind might taste and see
The riches of His grace!
The arms of love that compass me
Would all the world embrace.

O that my Jesu’s heavenly charms
Might every bosom move!
Fly, sinners, fly into those arms
Of everlasting love.

Thee I shall constantly proclaim,
Though earth and hell oppose;
Bold to confess Thy glorious Name
Before a world of foes.

His only righteousness I show,
His saving grace proclaim;
’Tis all my business here below
To cry “Behold the Lamb!”

Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp His Name,
Preach Him to all and cry in death,
“Behold, behold the Lamb!

Charles Wesley 1749

“One day life in your name will run out. If you are lucky, your name will be inscribed on a piece of stone and your remains, your very dead remains, will lie underneath that cold stone and life in your name will be over.

“Life in Jesus Name will never run out.  Jesus has already died and death could not hold Him.  If you give life in your name over to life in Jesus Name then you will have eternal life.”

I first heard Nigel Pollock use this illustration at a week of events at Manchester University in the mid 1990’s.  I was struck by the powerful truthfulness and the force of the image.  That week saw a good number respond to the call to choose life, to have eternal life, in Jesus name.

It’s not the word “Jesus” which is special: indeed Jesus (Hesus) is a very common name in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.  ‘Jesus’ is actually the Anglification of the Greek rendering of the Hebraic name Yeshua.  So it is not the noun itself.  It is who bears the name. 

Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth, called Christ/Messiah (Anointed One) who was born by miraculous birth, lived a perfect but ordinary life until the age of about 30 when He began a ministry declaring that God had come among the people of the earth, indeed to His own chosen people, in order to make justice and mercy possible offering truth and grace in equal measure.  Jesus of Nazareth, God in human flesh, healed and taught and taught and did great wonders and taught that the Kingdom of God had come as the King who is God walked the earth.  Jesus of Nazareth who surrendered Himself willingly to corrupt human courts and was unjustly condemned to a wicked death so that the very ones whose guilt stood as a record of just condemnation might know a way to come to be reconciled to God.  Jesus of Nazareth who died on a cross and lay in a tomb and rose from death, never to face death again and conquering over all that is evil whilst offering forgiveness of sins to all who would come to Him.  Jesus – Risen and Ascended Lord over all things in heaven and on earth: who is returning to judge the living and the dead.

THIS is the name that is high over all others. THIS is the Name who offers eternal life.  THIS is Him, and only Him, in whose Name life will never run out.

I have come to love Him and to love His Name.  I pray that the last word which passes my lips will be His Name; for I am sure that as I open my eyes the other side of the grave, it will first thing passed my renewed mouth; a cry of release from sin and of hope realised – Jesus, the Name High Over ALL!

“…if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4: 9-12

2 comments:

Wonderful reminder: thanks Andy. One of my favourite hymns of all time :) I made my Mum rather sick of it though when I 'discovered' it - played it non-stop singing with piano until I'd learned all the words :D

I love this hymn - it's been a Carswell favourite for some years now.
Those last 2 verses are crackers -

His only righteousness I show,
His saving grace proclaim;
’Tis all my business here below
To cry “Behold the Lamb!”

Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp His Name,
Preach Him to all and cry in death,
“Behold, behold the Lamb!

I (& we) really have no other message, no other Name to proclaim - what a great job we have to tell others to "Behold the Lamb!"

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