We find in the Acts of the Apostles that the very first sermon that
was preached at Pentecost by Peter all turns upon this phrase. He
quotes the Old Testament saying, 'Whosoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be saved,' and then goes on to prove that 'the Lord,'
the 'calling on whose Name' is salvation, is Jesus Christ; and winds
up with 'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ.'
Again we find that Ananias of Damascus, when Jesus Christ appeared to
him and told him to go to Paul and lay his hands upon him, shrank
from the perilous task because Paul had been sent to 'bind them that
call upon the name of the Lord,' and to persecute them. We find the
same phrase recurring in other connections, so that, on the whole, we
may take the expression as a recognised designation of Christians.
This was their characteristic, that they prayed to Jesus Christ. The
very first word, so far as we know, that Paul ever heard from a
Christian was, 'Lord Jesus! receive my spirit.' He heard that cry of
calm faith which, when he heard it, would sound to him as horrible
blasphemy from Stephen's dying lips. How little he dreamed that he
himself was soon to cry to the same Jesus, 'Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do?' and was in after-days to beseech Him thrice for
deliverance, and to be answered by sufficient grace. How little he
dreamed that, when his own martyrdom was near, he too would look to
Jesus as Lord and righteous Judge, from whose hands all who loved His
appearing should receive their crown! Nor only Paul directs desires
and adoration to Jesus as Lord; the last words of Scripture are a cry
to Him as Lord to come quickly, and an invocation of His 'grace' on
all believing souls.
Prayer to Christ from the very beginning of the Christian Church was,
then, the characteristic of believers, and He to whom they prayed,
thus, from the beginning, was recognised by them as being a Divine
Person, God manifest in the flesh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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