Today is Get a Different Name Day.
If you like your name, great! If you don’t, today is the day to get a different one! At least, it is if you choose to observe this “holiday” and are legally able to do so. (Also, please don’t do this on a whim. Give it some thought.)
We’re all born into this world and given a name in some form or another. The name given to us at birth is one chosen for us whether we like it or not—it’s not something we decide to give ourselves, as humorous as it is to imagine such a scene.
The same is true for another name we’re all born with—a terrifying name we can never hope to change by our own decision, no matter our age: enemy of God.
“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me,” the psalmist wrote (Psalm 51:5). Because of that sinfulness, the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 2 that people are also born spiritually dead and deserving of wrath. Without intervention, people live spiritually dead lives as God’s enemies. And there’s nothing they can do to change that. Nothing at all.
It simply can’t be done.
Thank God that Paul didn’t stop his letter to the Ephesians there! “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
How? Through Jesus and what he did for us. By his perfect life, he fulfilled God’s law in our place, and on the cross, he took our place and punishment too. He carried our sins upon his back and was forsaken by God—considered his hated enemy. On him, God poured out all of his wrath.
All so God can now say to us in his Word, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). God alone can make that which is dead alive and turn his hated enemies into his dearly loved children. He gives us a different name—one that is far more wonderful and lovelier.
What comfort to know that he has placed his name on us—we are his! What incredible comfort to know that our salvation—our redemption, freedom from sin, and life everlasting—is completely in God’s hands. He is the one who does this for us.
“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). God the Holy Spirit creates and sustains saving faith in our hearts through the means of grace: his Word and sacraments.
Today, thank God that because of his mercy and love, you get a different name. God has given you a different name—a name that you could not choose for yourself. You’re his dearly loved child, all because of Jesus.
Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.