The Bible is all about Jesus Christ’s person, death, resurrection and kingdom rule (John 5:39; Luke 24:27, 44-47). And the meaning of His name summarizes God’s message to us from Genesis to Revelation.

The name of our Lord in the New Testament is Iesous. It is a rendition of His Hebrew name Yoshua. It’s longer, original form is Yehoshua, which is a compound of two parts: Yeho, a reference to YHWH, the name of the God of Israel, and Hoshea (see Numbers 13:16), from the consonantal verb root y-š-ʿ, “to deliver, save, or rescue”.

In Matthew 1:21, an angel told Joseph,

“She (Mary) will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Therefore, in Question and Answer 29 of the Heidelberg Catechism, we confess,

Q. Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is, Savior?

A. Because He saves us from all our sins, and because salvation is not to be sought or found in anyone else.

This is the message of the Bible: The Lord is salvation. God saves!