The little phrase ‘for your name’s sake’ showed up in my Bible reading recently and I was so comforted by it that I went looking for other places where that phrase is used. Here are three:
For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me. . . (Psalm 31:3 ESV)
“Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.” (Jeremiah 14:7 ESV)
“And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 20:44 ESV)
Why am I comforted? Because it isn’t about my performance! God is acting out of a commitment to his own name, and we can ask him to act based on that commitment to himself.
I need that perspective. God is for me because of Jesus Christ. God is for my son with multiple disabilities because:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3 ESV)
Paul doesn’t have to perform to have value to God – he is valuable to God because he was made by God, and God will act on his behalf for the sake of God’s name.
A long time ago Pastor John did a sermon on 1 Samuel 12:22 (For the Lord will not cast away his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. RSV) where he offered this:
What is the basis of the fearlessness of God’s people according to this verse? First of all it is the promise that he will not cast them away. In spite of their sin in wanting a king, the verse says, “The Lord will not cast away his people.”
But that is not the deepest foundation of hope and fearlessness in this verse. Why will God not cast away his people? The deepest reason given is in the phrase, “For his great name’s sake.” The rock bottom foundation of our forgiveness and our fearlessness and our joy is the commitment that God has to his own great name. First, he is committed to act for his own name’s sake. And then, for that reason, he is committed to act for his people.
God will act FOR us, for his own name’s sake, offering forgiveness, fearlessness AND joy! I hope you can feel how great this is – God will ACT FOR YOU not because of you (you know how weak you are, really), but because of HIM!
The Works of God 
“For his own name’s sake.” I’ll be thinking about that today. Thank you.
Dear M. Knight,
First i want to thank you for your very good blog. I am a student in a reformed seminary in France (Faculte Jean Calvin), and i am looking for a good and biblical book about suffering, sickness and their links with the faith. I am writing to you because i like very much all the things you write on your blog and i praise God for your ministry in his Church. Next year (M.th), i decided to do a work about the links between faith and sickness to put biblical fondations about the link between both and especially to expose some of the errors that some churches are following in France (chrches linked to Bethel’s churches, bill johnson …). So if you know a good book (scholarly or not) specifically about the link between faith and healing in a deep biblical way, thank you very much to tell me. I’l do another essay during the second semester 2013 where i’ll will analyse the healing of the boy in Mark 9, because i’ve found a very very interesting structure … in fact, i beleive that the transfiguration event before that is very important (and in all synoptics), in fact i believe that there is a very profound historico-redemptive teaching about idolatry, and i think (i have to go further in my exegesis) about idolatry and a wrong way to “practice” our faith (and here , about healing). But i still have to work on it !! All my works will be in french but if you can read it , i’ll send you a copy. Thank you in advance for all your ideas about books… if i could, i would like to come to you conference about disability, but i won’t be able to make it.
Thank you again for your ministry and for the DG ministry (i was in swisstzerland for the geneva conference where M. Piper preached …it was so good!!!),
In him,
Dan
….the beauty of His life of resurrection in us is that he gave us daily strenght to run the race : this is indeed our race in Him that witness His worthiness and His supreme value to the world….
very beautiful…I needed to hear this!!!!! 🙂 thank you so much…
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Amen. So humbling to know this truth and so wonder filled!
Thank you Lord. Hallowed be thy name.