Rebrand: Life in the Spirit

Nissan, IHOP and Alphabet are all examples of rebranding. So is "Christian."

For decades, the Nissan auto company exported cars under the Datsun name. One of the hot cars of the 1970s was the Datsun 240Z, a sleek and graceful coupe with a powerful 2.4-liter, single-overhead-cam engine.

But over time, the Nissan people decided that they needed to strengthen their global image. People in America were buying Datsuns, not realizing that they were truly Nissans. So they decided to rebrand. Beginning with a major ad campaign called "The Name Is Nissan," they made their company name as familiar as their rivals Honda and Toyota.

We mention this because God often did rebranding, or certainly renaming. Abram became Abraham; Sarai, Sarah; Jacob, Israel; and Saul, Paul. The disciple Peter got rebranded by Jesus Christ himself. Jewish followers of Jesus began to call themselves "followers of the Way," and later "Christians."

And for hundreds of years, God taught people about sin through the laws of the Bible. In his letter to the Romans, Paul admits, "I would not have known...