Direction 7

If you ask what ground a soul in this case may have to venture thus upon —

I answer: his Name, which will make up a seventh direction.

Being thus resolved to turn to God and to go on to fear and obey him, you may safely and confidently trust in and stay upon the name of God when you have nothing else to rest upon. This you see is the direction which the text gives, and I had thought therefore to make a distinct point of it, but I will open and explain it only as it is a direction and means of support and comfort in this distress, and take it as it rises from the text.

That to one who resolves to fear God and obey him, the name of God is an all-sufficient prop and stay for his faith to rest on when he sees nothing in himself, or in any promise in the word belonging to him.

The name of God alone is here opposed to all other means and props which faith has to rest on. It is opposed to all comfortable sense of God's love, to all sight of any grace in a man's self to which any promise is made. So that when the soul shall look into itself with one eye and glance over all the word of God with another, and yet shall see not any one grace in the one, nor promise in the other made to any grace in itself which it may rest upon — yet the soul then looking upon God and considering what a God he is, and what he says of himself, of his mercy and kindness and free grace toward sinful men, may be supported by the consideration of what it merely knows to be in God as he is revealed in the covenant of grace. This it is to stay upon his name.

Now to explain this further: by the name of God two things are meant.

First, those glorious attributes, especially of grace and mercy, whereby God has expressed himself and made himself known to us.

Second, Jesus Christ, as he is made and set forth to be righteousness to the sons of men.

For the first, in Exodus 34:4-7 the Lord proclaimed his name: 'The Lord God, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and will by no means clear the impenitent.'

For the second, I refer to Jeremiah 23:6, speaking of Christ: 'This is the name by which he shall be called' — THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS — that is, that Jesus Christ who is God has righteousness in him for us, which may be made ours.

So that when a poor soul in distress is not able to say, 'I see such and such signs or any evidence in myself whereby I can say God is my God, or that Christ is mine' — yet because he sees free grace enough in God and righteousness in Christ, which he being a sinful man and not a devil may be capable of and may come to have an interest in, though he knows nothing in himself whereby he can claim any present interest — and because grace and mercy is God's name, and Our Righteousness his Son's name — therefore he casts himself upon both for pardon and favor, and thereupon his soul leans, stays, and abides, and from these it will not be driven. So that these two apprehensions meeting in the heart in truth help to make up this resting upon his name: first, that there is such free grace, good will, and mercy in God, and that Jesus Christ is appointed and made to be our righteousness; and second, that I am capable of and may come to have an interest in both these, and that though there is nothing in me which can claim an interest in them, yet there is nothing that excludes me — whereupon I cast myself upon God for both, and there rest. Yes, though I cannot yet say that I shall ever obtain them. And this, where it is in truth and accompanied with that firm resolution of turning to God in all things aforementioned, is as good a faith as any of you have in your hearts.

And so I come to the proof of this: namely, that when the name of God and Christ are thus simply and alone apprehended, they may be sufficient ground for faith to rest upon — than which nothing can be more comforting to a poor distressed believer. In Numbers 14, when God's wrath waxed hot against his people so that he began to say, 'How long shall they provoke me?' (verse 11) and spoke of destroying them and making Moses a great nation — what does Moses's faith have recourse to but that proclamation of his name you heard of before? He urges that in verses 17-18: 'Let the power of my Lord be great according as you have spoken: The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.' He desires God to show his power in pardoning, because as much power is seen in overcoming his wrath as in making a world. 'Let your power be great' — it was his name, you see, that was alleged by Moses and prevailed with God for mercy. So also for his Son's sake — The Lord Our Righteousness — Elihu says in Job 33 that when a man's soul is in deepest distress, yet if there is a messenger to show a man his uprightness — that is, that righteousness laid up for men in the Lord Jesus — then God is gracious to him and says 'Deliver him', and he resting thereupon, his flesh returns to him again. I mention these passages from the Old Testament rather than the New, from which you see God's name and his Son's name are all-sufficient to uphold and support a soul. So the writer of Psalm 130, when he was in his depths, plunged over head and ears in sorrow and discomfiture, what does his faith have recourse to? To God's name — to nothing that was in himself but simply to what his faith apprehended to be in God: 'Mercy is with you,' he says no more. In God, and with him, it is to be had. And he confirms his faith in this by the argument that otherwise none would fear him. 'If you were to mark all iniquities strictly, no man could stand or would be saved; therefore surely mercy is with you.' 'Let Israel hope in the Lord' (verse 7) — and why? Not because Israel sees grace in himself, but because 'mercy is with him and plenteous redemption' (the last verse), which word redemption has relation to his Son's name. There is enough in him; otherwise he will have none. And Israel is mentioned in his will as capable of it — therefore he says, 'I will wait and hope in the Lord' (verse 5). And though he could not say that God had forgiven him, yet forgiveness was with God — and there he plants and rests his soul, as a beggar at a great man's door when there is no one else in the country able or willing to relieve him, there he lies, though he knows not whether he shall receive anything or not. 'In my father's house there is bread enough,' says the Prodigal — there it is to be had, and nowhere else, and there is enough. 'Crumbs will serve me,' says the woman of Canaan. 'You are the Mediator,' she thought, 'and it is your business to save; and though I am a dog, yet I am capable of having crumbs.' 'Woman,' says Christ, 'great is your faith — not such faith among all my disciples.' These trusted in his name and in nothing in themselves. So David in Psalm 62:5 says he trusted in God for salvation and mercy, and exhorts throughout the whole: 'Trust in God fully and at all times, and in no creature' (verses 8-9). And what did he rest upon? Simply two attributes of his — mercy and power. 'God has spoken once' — that is, irrevocably, as in Psalm 89:35, 'Once I have sworn' — 'and twice I have heard this' — that is, often met with it in the word and thought upon it — 'that with God is power' (verse 11), so as he is able to save in the greatest distress; 'and I have heard that to him belongs mercy also' (verse 12), and therefore he may be willing to help. And because these are in him, though I have nothing in myself, yet these I rest upon, and these alone. Many more such instances might be brought.

The reasons why the name of God — what is in God — is a sufficient prop for faith to rest upon are:

First, because the name of God — that is, God's attributes and Christ's righteousness — does sufficiently, adequately, and fully answer all the wants, doubts, objections, and distresses we can have or be in. Whatever our wants or temptations may be, he has a name to make supply. For example, take that his name in pieces, mentioned in Exodus 34:5-6, and consider every element in that his name — every element answers to some temptation we may face.

First, are you in misery and great distress? He is merciful. 'The Lord, merciful' — therefore able to help you, and merciful — therefore willing.

Yes, but second, you will say, 'I am unworthy; I have nothing in me to move him to it.' Well, therefore, he is gracious — now grace means to show mercy freely. 'Yes, but I have sinned against him for many years; if I had come in when I was young, mercy might have been shown me.' To this he says: 'I am long-suffering.' 'Yes, but my sins abound in number — it is impossible to count them — and they abound in heinousness; I have committed the same sins again and again; I have been false to him, broken promises with him again and again.' His name answers this objection also: he is abundant in goodness. He abounds more in grace than you in sinning. And though you have been false to him again and again and broken all covenants, yet he is abundant in truth also — better than his word, for he cannot fully express to our capacity all the mercy that is in him for us. 'Yes, but I have committed great sins, aggravated with many and great circumstances — against knowledge, willfully, etc.' He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin — sins of all sorts. 'Yes, but mercy is in him only for a few, and I may be none of the number.' Yes, there is mercy for thousands, and he keeps it. Treasures of it lie by him, kept — if men would come in and take them.

Object what you will, his name will answer you. Do you need comfort as well as pardon? He is both 'Father of mercies and God of all comfort' — that is his name (2 Corinthians 1:3). Do you need peace of conscience being filled with terrors? He is 'the God of peace' (1 Thessalonians 5:23). 'Yes, but I have a heart empty of grace and holiness and full of corruptions.' He is the God of all grace to heal you, as well as of peace to pardon you. Do you need wisdom and direction? He is 'the Father of lights,' as the apostle says. Is your heart inconstant and full of double-mindedness? He is unchangeable also, as he speaks there (James 1). Thus all objections that can be made may be answered out of his name. Therefore it is all-sufficient for faith to rest upon.

The like may be as fully shown in his Son's name, in whom God has made himself strong to show mercy and bestow all good things. His name is adequate to God's name — of as large extent in worth and merit as God's heart is in his purposes of showing and bestowing mercies — to purchase all that God meant to bestow. His name likewise has an all-sufficiency in it to supply all our wants and desires and satisfy all scruples. For example, the name of his mentioned by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9:6, compared with 1 Corinthians 1, last verse: Would we have peace of conscience and the guilt of sins removed? He is the Prince of Peace, and is made Righteousness to us. Are we in depths of distress, terrors within and without, out of which we see no redemption? He is the Mighty God, able to save to the uttermost, being made Redemption to us. Do we lack grace and the renewal and increase of his image in us? He is the Everlasting Father — a father to beget his likeness in us, and everlasting to maintain it forever once it is begun — he is made Sanctification to us. Do we lack wisdom to guide us? He is the Counselor, and is made Wisdom to us. All we lack he has, even as all he has we lack. And further, even if we not only lack all these things but lack them immeasurably, his name is also Wonderful — for such he is in all these things, able to do beyond all our expectations, to the point of astonishment.

Or if the soul desires more distinct and particular satisfaction in the point of justification — which consists in the pardon of sins and acceptance into the favor of God, being the very point which in this state of desertion is questioned, and in which the soul desires satisfaction — that other name of his, 'The Lord Our Righteousness' (Jeremiah 23:6), will answer all objections and doubts our hearts can make, if we had but skill to spell out all the letters in it. For if that righteousness of his satisfied God, who in condemning us is greater than our hearts, then it may satisfy our hearts much more. The righteousness of his life and death is not only a sufficient ransom (1 Timothy 2:6), but there is 'plenteous redemption' in it (Psalm 130) — yes, to superfluity, as the apostle's phrase implies (1 Timothy 1:14), overfull, more than would serve the need, and that to pardon the sins of him who in verse 15 was the chief of sinners. Elsewhere he challenges all the wit and powers of sin and hell and darkness to appear in this dispute, and undertakes to answer them all out of this one foundation truth: 'Christ has died' (Romans 8:34) — which is in effect the same as 'The Lord Our Righteousness.' 'Who therefore shall condemn?' What can be alleged either in the heinousness of sin in general, or in any of your sins in particular, to which an answer may not be fetched from the righteousness of his death and life? Is it that sin is an offense against the great God? And is not this his righteousness the righteousness of Jehovah — the Mighty God — Jehovah Our Righteousness? Is the glory of this great God debased by us in sinning? And will not the emptying of the glory of him whose name is 'the brightness of his Father's glory' in performing this righteousness for us satisfy and make amends? Are our sins the transgression of the holy and righteous law in every part of it? And did not Jehovah who gave and made that law, to make himself our righteousness, 'make himself under the law' (Galatians 4:4) and to make up a full righteousness, 'fulfill every part of it' (Romans 8:3-4)? Is it the continuance in sin and the number and repetition of them that amazes you? 'All fullness dwells in him who is our righteousness' (Colossians 1:19) and has dwelt in him longer than sin has dwelt in you. And the righteousness of our Messiah is 'everlasting righteousness' (Daniel 9:24), the merit of which an eternity of sinning could not expend or make void. And is all this righteousness laid up for himself only, so that you could never come to have an interest in it? No — the top of our comfort is that 'Our' Righteousness is one letter of his name, and that our names are put into his. For us it is, and 'Ours' it is ordained to be — as much ours to save us who trust upon it as his own to glorify him. 'Ours' — not for himself: he had no need of it, being God blessed forever. Ours — not the angels': neither the good, for they are justified by their own; nor the bad, who are put out of God's will forever. But ours — who are the sons of men; and among them, theirs especially who are broken and lost, whose souls draw near to the grave and their lives to the destroyers, and who come and pray to God and stay themselves upon it. To them God cannot deny it, for it is theirs. For 'he will render to man his righteousness' (Job 33:22, 26). So his Son's name also is all-sufficient to answer all objections for faith to rest upon. 'They that know his name will trust in him' (Psalm 9:10).

A second reason why his name is sufficient — though you have and see nothing in yourself, nor any promise made to any grace in you to rest upon — is because even all those promises made to conditions in us, which we ordinarily look to, are 'yes and amen' only in this his name and his Son's name. That is the original of them all — the root, the seed of them all. His name is the first matter of all those secondary promises, giving being to them all. If it were not for the mercy, grace, truth, and kindness in him and the righteousness which is in his Son, what would all the promises made be worth? As the worth of bonds depends upon the sufficiency of the man who makes them, so all these promises depend upon his name.

Therefore now, when you rely upon his name having as yet no promise made to anything in you to rely upon, you then rely upon that which is the foundation of all those promises. You have recourse to the original, which is more authoritative than copied extracts. You rely on that into which all the others are resolved, and therefore it is sufficient though all the rest fail you in your apprehension.

Thirdly, his mere name is support enough for faith and may be so, because it is for his name's sake and his Son's name's sake that he does all he does — and for nothing in us, but merely for what is in himself. So in Isaiah 48:9-10: 'For my name's sake...' So also in Ezekiel 36:22, 32: 'For my name's sake, and not for your sake.' And in Isaiah 43:25: 'I am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.' For his name's sake he blots out transgression and pardons. And if it is for his name's sake that he does all he does and fulfills all promises made to us and to what is in us — then when you see nothing in yourself to which any promise is made, nothing which may appear to be any argument or motive that he will pardon you, trust then in that his name. Because he is God and has mercy in him, therefore he will do it. For that thing which is the only or chief motive to God himself to do anything for us must needs be, when apprehended and believed, the strongest and surest ground for our faith also to persuade the heart that he will do it. As in knowledge, the knowledge of the causes of things produces the surest knowledge, so in faith, the knowledge of the chief motive to God the cause of all produces the greatest certainty of persuasion.

This then may direct poor souls in distress as to what to venture all upon — on what ground to hazard souls, labors, endeavors, faith, repentance, obedience, and all — upon his name, when they see nothing in themselves to which any promise belongs. As David says in Psalm 73:26: 'My heart may fail, and my flesh may fail, but God will never fail.' So I may say: your comforts in prayers, in hearing, your joys, your earnest pennies you have laid up, may all be spent in a drought. Your own graces and all promises made to them, your own hearts may fail — and being creatures they do fail again and again. But God's name and his Son's name, rested upon, will never fail you. Lean on these — not by halves in distress — but trust perfectly, as the apostle says (1 Peter 1:13), on that mercy you hear is in God, upon that grace revealed. That is: throw and cast your whole soul, your whole weight, upon it. He only has perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God (Isaiah 26:3). Have not half your soul upon that rock which is higher than you, but climb up and get all upon it. And when all fails, renew your faith on his name. There rest — there die. To this purpose serves that of Solomon in Proverbs 18:10: 'His name is a strong tower, and the righteous flee to it and are safe.' Now what is the purpose and use of a tower in a city but that when all outworks are taken, the walls scaled, all fortifications forsaken and houses left, then a tower holds out last and is a refuge to flee to? So also when the devil and God's wrath beleaguer you on all sides and encompass your soul, and the comfort of every grace in you is taken from you, and you are driven from and forced to forsake all your other holds and grounds of comfort — then flee to the name of the Lord as your city of refuge, as it is compared in Hebrews 6:18. Say: 'There is mercy in you, Lord, and that is your name. And there is righteousness in your Son, and that is his name. And I am directed to trust in your name in time of need.' And there rest and catch hold as on the horns of the altar, and if you die, die there.

If you ask what grounds a soul in this situation has for venturing upon God in this way —

The answer is: His name. This forms the seventh direction.

Being resolved to turn to God and to continue fearing and obeying Him, you may safely and confidently trust in and rest upon the name of God when you have nothing else to rest on. This is the very direction the text gives, and I had thought to make it a distinct point of its own, but I will unfold and explain it here as a direction and means of support and comfort in this distress, taking it as it flows from the text.

The name of God is an all-sufficient foundation and support for the faith of someone who resolves to fear and obey God — even when that person sees nothing in himself and no promise in Scripture that currently belongs to him.

The name of God alone is here set against all other supports and props on which faith might rest. It is set against all comfortable awareness of God's love, and against all sight of any grace in oneself to which a promise is attached. So when a soul looks within itself with one eye and scans all of God's Word with another, and sees neither any grace in the one nor any promise in the other that applies to any grace within itself — yet when that soul then looks at God and considers what kind of God He is, and what He has said about Himself, His mercy, His kindness, and His free grace toward sinful people, it may be upheld simply by what it knows to be in God as He has revealed Himself in the covenant of grace. This is what it means to rest upon His name.

Now to explain this further: by the name of God two things are meant.

First, those glorious attributes — especially of grace and mercy — by which God has expressed and made Himself known to us.

Second, Jesus Christ, as He is appointed and set forth to be righteousness for sinful people.

Concerning the first: in Exodus 34:4-7 the Lord proclaimed His name: 'The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.'

Concerning the second: see Jeremiah 23:6, speaking of Christ: 'This is His name by which He will be called — THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS' — that is, Jesus Christ who is God has righteousness in Him for us, which may be made ours.

So when a poor soul in distress cannot say, 'I see such and such signs or any evidence in myself by which I can say God is my God or that Christ is mine' — yet because that soul sees free grace enough in God and righteousness enough in Christ, and knows that as a sinful person — not a devil — he may be capable of these and may come to have a share in them, even though he sees nothing in himself that would give him any present claim — and because grace and mercy are God's name, and 'Our Righteousness' is His Son's name — he therefore casts himself upon both for pardon and favor, and his soul leans, rests, and abides on these, and will not be driven away from them. Two things meet in the heart to form this resting upon His name: first, that there is such free grace, goodwill, and mercy in God, and that Jesus Christ is appointed and made to be our righteousness; and second, that I am capable of and may come to have a share in both, and that though there is nothing in me that can claim a right to them, there is also nothing that shuts me out — and on that basis I cast myself upon God for both, and rest there. Yes, even though I cannot yet say I will ever obtain them. And this faith — where it is genuine and accompanied by the firm resolve to turn to God in all the ways described above — is as real a faith as any of you have in your own hearts.

And so I come to proving this: that when the name of God and Christ are simply and solely grasped, they can be a sufficient ground for faith to rest on. Nothing could be more comforting to a poor distressed believer. In Numbers 14, when God's anger burned hot against His people so that He began to say, 'How long shall they provoke Me?' (verse 11) and spoke of destroying them and making Moses into a great nation, what did Moses's faith turn to? Nothing but that proclamation of His name mentioned before. He appeals to it in verses 17-18: 'Let the power of my Lord be great according as You have spoken: The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.' He asks God to show His power in pardoning, because just as much power is displayed in overcoming His wrath as in creating a world. 'Let Your power be great.' It was His name, you see, that Moses appealed to, and it moved God to show mercy. Likewise, for His Son's sake, The Lord Our Righteousness, Elihu says in Job 33 that when a person's soul is in the deepest distress, yet if there is a messenger to show that person his uprightness, that is, the righteousness stored up for people in the Lord Jesus, then God is gracious to him and says 'Deliver him.' Resting on that, his body recovers. I mention these passages from the Old Testament rather than the New, from which you can see that God's name and His Son's name are completely sufficient to uphold and support a soul. The writer of Psalm 130, when he was in his depths, plunged over his head in sorrow and defeat, what did his faith turn to? To God's name. Not to anything in himself, but simply to what his faith understood to be in God: 'Mercy is with You,' he says, and nothing more. In God, and with Him, it is to be found. And he strengthens his faith in this by arguing that otherwise no one would fear Him. 'If You were to keep a strict record of all sins, no one could stand or would be saved; therefore surely mercy is with You.' 'Let Israel hope in the Lord' (verse 7), and why? Not because Israel sees grace in himself, but because 'mercy is with Him and plentiful redemption' (the last verse). The word redemption points to His Son's name. There is enough in Him; otherwise He will have none. And Israel is mentioned in His will as eligible for it. Therefore he says, 'I will wait and hope in the Lord' (verse 5). And though he could not say that God had forgiven him, forgiveness was with God. There he plants and rests his soul, like a beggar at a wealthy man's door when no one else in the land is able or willing to help him. There he waits, even though he does not know whether he will receive anything. 'In my father's house there is bread enough,' says the Prodigal Son. There it can be found, and nowhere else, and there is plenty. 'Crumbs will be enough for me,' says the woman of Canaan. 'You are the Mediator,' she thought, 'and it is Your work to save. Though I am a dog, I am still able to receive crumbs.' 'Woman,' Christ says, 'great is your faith, not such faith among all My disciples.' These people trusted in His name and in nothing in themselves. David in Psalm 62:5 says he trusted in God for salvation and mercy, and throughout the whole psalm he urges: 'Trust in God fully and at all times, and in no creature' (verses 8-9). And what did he rest on? Simply two of His attributes: mercy and power. 'God has spoken once,' that is, irrevocably, as in Psalm 89:35, 'Once I have sworn,' 'and twice I have heard this,' that is, often encountered it in the word and reflected on it, 'that with God is power' (verse 11), so He is able to save in the greatest distress; 'and I have heard that to Him belongs mercy also' (verse 12), and therefore He may be willing to help. And because these are in Him, though I have nothing in myself, these are what I rest on, and these alone. Many more examples like this could be given.

The reasons why the name of God, what is in God, is a sufficient foundation for faith to rest on are:

First, because the name of God, that is, God's attributes and Christ's righteousness, fully and completely answers all the needs, doubts, objections, and distresses we can ever have or face. Whatever our needs or temptations may be, He has a name to supply them. For example, take His name in pieces, as mentioned in Exodus 34:5-6, and consider every part of it. Every part answers some temptation we may face.

First, are you in misery and great distress? He is merciful. 'The Lord, merciful,' therefore able to help you, and merciful, therefore willing.

Yes, but second, you will say, 'I am unworthy. I have nothing in me to move Him to help.' Well, therefore He is gracious. Grace means showing mercy freely. 'Yes, but I have sinned against Him for many years. If I had come to Him when I was young, mercy might have been shown to me.' To this He says: 'I am long-suffering.' 'Yes, but my sins overflow in number. It is impossible to count them. And they overflow in seriousness. I have committed the same sins over and over. I have been unfaithful to Him, broken my promises to Him again and again.' His name answers this objection too: He is abundant in goodness. He overflows in grace more than you overflow in sinning. And though you have been unfaithful to Him again and again and broken every promise, He is abundant in truth as well. He is better than His word, because He cannot fully express to our limited understanding all the mercy that is in Him for us. 'Yes, but I have committed great sins, made worse by many serious circumstances: against knowledge, willfully, and so on.' He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, sins of every kind. 'Yes, but mercy is in Him only for a few, and I may not be among them.' Yes, there is mercy for thousands, and He stores it up. Treasures of it lie with Him, kept safe, if people would come and receive them.

Raise whatever objection you want; His name will answer you. Do you need comfort as well as pardon? He is both 'Father of mercies and God of all comfort,' that is His name (2 Corinthians 1:3). Do you need peace of conscience because you are filled with terrors? He is 'the God of peace' (1 Thessalonians 5:23). 'Yes, but I have a heart empty of grace and holiness and full of sinful desires.' He is the God of all grace to heal you, as well as the God of peace to pardon you. Do you need wisdom and direction? He is 'the Father of lights,' as the apostle says. Is your heart unreliable and full of indecision? He is unchangeable as well, as He says there (James 1). In this way, every objection that can be raised may be answered from His name. Therefore it is completely sufficient for faith to rest on.

The same can be shown just as fully in His Son's name, in whom God has empowered Himself to show mercy and give all good things. His name is equal to God's name, as vast in worth and merit as God's heart is in His purposes of showing and giving mercies, sufficient to purchase all that God intended to give. His name likewise has a complete sufficiency to supply all our needs and desires and satisfy every concern. For example, the name mentioned by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9:6, compared with 1 Corinthians 1, the last verse: Would we have peace of conscience and the guilt of sins removed? He is the Prince of Peace, and is made righteousness to us. Are we in depths of distress, terrors within and without, from which we see no rescue? He is the Mighty God, able to save completely, being made redemption to us. Do we lack grace and the renewal and growth of His image in us? He is the Everlasting Father, a father to produce His likeness in us and everlasting to maintain it forever once it has begun. He is made sanctification to us. Do we lack wisdom to guide us? He is the Counselor, and is made wisdom to us. Everything we lack, He has. And everything He has, we lack. And further, even if we not only lack all these things but lack them immeasurably, His name is also Wonderful, for He is wonderful in all these things, able to do beyond all our expectations to the point of astonishment.

Or if the soul wants more specific and detailed satisfaction on the point of justification, which consists in the pardon of sins and acceptance into the favor of God, being the very point questioned during this state of withdrawal, and in which the soul seeks satisfaction, that other name of His, 'The Lord Our Righteousness' (Jeremiah 23:6), will answer all the objections and doubts our hearts can raise, if we only had the skill to read out all the letters in it. For if that righteousness of His satisfied God, who in condemning us is greater than our hearts, then it can satisfy our hearts much more. The righteousness of His life and death is not merely a sufficient ransom (1 Timothy 2:6), but there is 'plentiful redemption' in it (Psalm 130). Yes, it overflows, as the apostle's wording implies (1 Timothy 1:14), more than full, more than would be needed, and that to pardon the sins of the one who in verse 15 was the worst of sinners. Elsewhere, he challenges all the wit and powers of sin, hell, and darkness to show up in this argument, and he undertakes to answer them all from this one foundational truth: 'Christ has died' (Romans 8:34), which is in effect the same as 'The Lord Our Righteousness.' 'Who therefore shall condemn?' What can be claimed, either about the seriousness of sin in general or about any of your sins in particular, that cannot be answered from the righteousness of His death and life? Is the objection that sin is an offense against the great God? And is not this righteousness the righteousness of Jehovah, the Mighty God, Jehovah Our Righteousness? Is the glory of this great God degraded by us in sinning? And will not the emptying of the glory of Him whose name is 'the brightness of His Father's glory' in performing this righteousness for us make full amends? Are our sins the violation of the holy and righteous law in every part of it? And did not Jehovah, who gave and made that law, to make Himself our righteousness, 'make Himself under the law' (Galatians 4:4), and to produce a complete righteousness, 'fulfill every part of it' (Romans 8:3-4)? Is it the ongoing pattern of sin and the number and repetition of them that overwhelms you? 'All fullness dwells in Him who is our righteousness' (Colossians 1:19), and it has dwelt in Him longer than sin has dwelt in you. And the righteousness of our Messiah is 'everlasting righteousness' (Daniel 9:24), the merit of which an eternity of sinning could not use up or cancel. And is all this righteousness reserved for Himself alone, so that you could never come to have a share in it? No. The crowning point of our comfort is that 'Our' Righteousness is one letter of His name, and our names are written into His. For us it exists, and 'Ours' it is meant to be, as much ours to save us who trust in it as His own to glorify Him. 'Ours,' not for Himself: He had no need of it, being God blessed forever. Ours, not the angels': neither the good angels, for they are justified by their own righteousness, nor the bad angels, who are permanently removed from God's will. But ours, who are human beings. And among them, it belongs especially to those who are broken and lost, whose souls draw near to the grave and whose lives approach destruction, and who come and pray to God and rely on it. To them God cannot deny it, for it is theirs. For 'He will give to each person his righteousness' (Job 33:22, 26). So His Son's name is also completely sufficient to answer every objection, giving faith solid ground to rest on. 'Those who know His name will trust in Him' (Psalm 9:10).

A second reason why His name is sufficient, even when you have and see nothing in yourself, and no promise made to any grace in you to rest on, is because even all those promises made to conditions in us, which we ordinarily look to, are 'yes and amen' only in His name and His Son's name. That is the origin of them all, the root, the seed of them all. His name is the raw material of all those secondary promises, giving existence to them all. If it were not for the mercy, grace, truth, and kindness in Him and the righteousness in His Son, what would all those promises be worth? Just as the value of a contract depends on the ability of the person who makes it, so all these promises depend on His name.

Therefore, when you rely on His name, even though you have no promise made to anything in you to rely on, you are relying on the very foundation of all those promises. You are going back to the original, which carries more authority than copies. You are relying on the source into which all the others are resolved. Therefore it is sufficient even when all the rest fail you in your perception.

Third, His name alone is support enough for faith, because it is for His name's sake and His Son's name's sake that He does everything He does, and for nothing in us, but purely for what is in Himself. As Isaiah 48:9-10 says: 'For My name's sake...' Likewise in Ezekiel 36:22, 32: 'For My name's sake, and not for your sake.' And in Isaiah 43:25: 'I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins.' For His name's sake He blots out wrongdoing and pardons. And if it is for His name's sake that He does everything and fulfills all promises made to us and to what is in us, then when you see nothing in yourself to which any promise applies, nothing that might serve as any reason or motivation for Him to pardon you, trust in His name. Because He is God and has mercy in Him, He will do it. For the thing that is the only or chief motivation for God Himself to do anything for us must be, when grasped and believed, the strongest and surest ground for our faith as well, persuading the heart that He will do it. Just as in knowledge, understanding the causes of things produces the surest knowledge, so in faith, understanding the chief motivation of God, the cause of everything, produces the greatest certainty of belief.

This, then, can direct poor souls in distress as to what to risk everything on: on what ground to stake their souls, efforts, endeavors, faith, repentance, obedience, and everything else, upon His name, when they see nothing in themselves to which any promise belongs. As David says in Psalm 73:26: 'My heart may fail, and my body may fail, but God will never fail.' So I may say: your comforts in prayers and in hearing, your joys, the down payments you have stored up, may all be spent in a dry season. Your own graces and all promises made to them, your own hearts may fail, and being created things they do fail again and again. But God's name and His Son's name, when rested on, will never fail you. Lean on these, not halfway in distress, but trust perfectly, as the apostle says (1 Peter 1:13), in the mercy you hear is in God, in the grace revealed. That means: throw and cast your whole soul, your whole weight, upon it. Only the person whose mind is fixed on God has perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). Do not have half your soul on that rock which is higher than you. Climb up and get all of yourself onto it. And when everything fails, renew your faith in His name. Rest there. Die there. This is the purpose of Solomon's words in Proverbs 18:10: 'His name is a strong tower, and the righteous run to it and are safe.' Now what is the purpose of a tower in a city? When all outer defenses are taken, the walls scaled, all fortifications abandoned and houses left behind, then a tower holds out last and is a refuge to flee to. So too, when the devil and God's wrath surround you on all sides and close in on your soul, and the comfort of every grace in you is taken from you, and you are driven from and forced to abandon all your other holds and grounds of comfort, then flee to the name of the Lord as your city of refuge, as it is compared in Hebrews 6:18. Say: 'There is mercy in You, Lord, and that is Your name. And there is righteousness in Your Son, and that is His name. And I am directed to trust in Your name in time of need.' Rest there and grab hold as if grasping the horns of the altar, and if you die, die there.