New Life, New Name
“I will no longer be called Jacob.”
Genesis 35:9-11
The name “Jacob” symbolizes one who believes in “holding on to life.” Jacob believed that love and blessings were safe only when “holding on.” So, he sometimes calculated, sometimes deceived, and sometimes ran away.
However, in Genesis 35:9-11, after calling him to Bethel, God first changes his name. He then calls Jacob to Israel, reveals who God is, and declares that He will establish him as a stream of blessing.
“When Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. He said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob. Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel will be your name.’ He called his name Israel and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a multitude of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your loins.'”
A new life does not begin with a new resolution. It begins with a new name. We often think of change as “behavioral correction”—becoming kinder, more sincere, more devout. But when God corrects Jacob, He doesn’t first list his actions. He calls him “Israel.” This was not a simple title change, but a declaration confirming his identity: “You are not the man your fears created you to be, but the man I established through covenant.”
Herein lies the order of the gospel. God’s calling comes before our actions. Human ethics begin with “Become,” but God’s grace begins with “You have already…” This is the order of grace. Therefore, faith is not a self-improvement project.
Faith is trust in how God calls me, and it is the process of aligning my life with that calling. Jacob needed a new name not just because of his guilt, but because of his “way of survival.” God first held onto Jacob, allowing him to let go of what he had been holding onto.
The words, “I will no longer be called Jacob,” are both a declaration and a warning. God does not erase Jacob’s past, but He does not allow that past to dominate his present and future. The old name controls life like a habit. When fear overwhelms, we become “Jacob” again. We grasp, calculate, control, persuade, or push others to secure our place.
However, the new name God gives cuts off this whisper. It is not, “You must hold on to live,” but, “I hold on to you.”
Change in this case is not a moral decision, but a shift in direction. The problem of sin is not simply bad behavior. This is the structure of “self-salvation,” believing one can live without God. Jacob was a master of self-salvation. That’s why God rescued Jacob from the old Jacob. The new name is a passageway from the obsession with “proving myself” to the rest of “belonging to God.”
“Israel” is both the name of an individual and the name of a people. God does not leave Jacob’s restoration to mere personal healing. The new name is the key to rewriting one’s life and unlocking the narrative of a people. This is where the question of whether a change in faith is genuine arises: “Is your change for yourself alone, or are you moving toward saving someone else’s life?”
The same holds true for us today. The new name ultimately translates into the “language of relationships.” It seeks to listen more attentively, be more truthful, and love more responsibly. Salvation is not an individual spiritual achievement, but a new life revealed in relationships. The community of faith is not a gathering of mature individuals, but a space where those invited by the new name bring life to one another.
The new name of Genesis deepens in the New Testament and connects to the language of “new creation.” Jesus Christ is the one who gives us a new name. The cross declares that the “old name”—an identity defined by shame, failure, fear, and achievement—is not the final judgment. The resurrection confirms that the “new name”—the child of God, the beloved, the called—is not “you must hold on to live,” but “I hold you,” a true identity. Shalom!
God, who gives us a new name,
whenever the Jacob within us raises his head again,
call us back to Israel.
Let us first let go of our grasping hands,
and now live as those held by the Lord.
May our new name lead us to a new life,
and may we live today with gratitude according to the name God has given us. In Jesus Name Amen.
