Vanity and Exultation

     What is salvation? Scripture says, "You shall be saved" (Jer 30:7; Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21). Incidentally, the passages from the Book of Joel and Acts say the exact same thing: (ESV today).

And it will come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 

    Thus, "Calling on the Name of the Lord" is imperative for salvation! Let's now compare this with the Third Commandment:

Exod 20:7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

     Acts and Joel indicates that "calling on Name of the Lord" is the way to salvation. God wrote in stone not to "take the Name of the Lord in vain". Do you understand the connection? Acts tells what must happen to be saved: calling on the Name of the Lord, and in Exodus God commands that one not take the Name of the Lord in vain. Thus, the former is a reward for calling and the latter offers a punishment for not calling, or taking that Name without having a purpose.

    "In vain" means that the Name is taken with no real value. What is the value of the Name of the Lord? It is the Way to salvation! What is the penalty for not valuing the Name? God will not hold him guiltless who takes his Name with vanity. Note that, the command does not use the words "say His Name" but take! Saying is of the lips. Taking is of the heart. Taking is obtaining. Taking with vanity is obtaining the truth then doing nothing with it! The penalty for that is conviction: those who take the Lord's Name in vain are guilty of something? What is the crime?

     Maybe the value of the Name and whose Name has significance:

Luke 2:21 ...he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

     "He" is obviously the Lord "God with us" (Mat 1:23).  Furthermore, that Name (Jesus) is the Way to salvation:

Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name (Jesus) under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

     Why is Jesus so important. It is He who can save! How is He able to save? 

 Rom 2:23 ...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

     Thus, Jesus died for our sins; that is grace! We should have died but he died in our place. Jesus's death says "take that gift". Those who don't take that gift, consider Jesus's death without purpose. His sacrifice was vanity to those who don't take the gift! What happens to those who reject Jesus's purpose (which was to die for us)?

 Luke 12:10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Ghost will not be forgiven.

     Speaking, or saying things against Jesus, can be forgiven. Peter denied Jesus three times, but Jesus had yet to die. He was forgiven. However, the Holy Ghost is the Ghost of Jesus and signifies that Jesus died. Taking Jesus's death frivolously is blasphemy which "will not be forgiven", and corresponds with the guiltiness of the Third Commandment.

    Isaiah indicated long ago how to be saved: call upon His (God's) Name:

Isa 12:2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day:“Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name,make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. 

     Call upon God's Name. Take the gift which God offers. Exalt God's Name! Exalt is the opposite of vanity. Exalting proclaims Jesus's purpose: to die for mankind!

     The woman at the well was offered "living water" by Jesus who identified Himself as God. The Samaritan woman went out and exalted Jesus, proclaiming Him God (John 4). She was converted. She was one who "shall be saved".

     When is salvation? Jeremiah says it is at the time of Jacob's distress, at least for the Jews:

Jer 30:7 Alas! That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it.

      Jacob's distress was when God's camp was threatened by Esau and Jacob (Israel) turned to God for salvation (Gen 32). His distress was that his camp would be divided. However, Esau allowed him to pass across the Jordan to safety. (Across the Jordan was into "Paradise" symbolically). Eschatologists believe that in the Book of Revelation, Jacob's distress is when the Jews are divided; some to safety and others not. Thus, the time of salvation, would be the latter half of the seven-year tribulation period.. Those dead and living in Christ would already have been taken away, and the salvation of the Jews would be sort of a last chance to be saved. After that, the world will have been divided, and no one else would be saved.
     Obviously, those already dead and living in Christ who were taken away before the tribulation period were saved at that time. For Gentiles, the Day of Salvation is when Christians, dead and alive, meet Jesus in the sky. That is for those who called on the Name of God. Those who are not taken up, have blasphemed Jesus's purpose, and took God's death in vain, reminding the reader again that "vanity" is without purpose.