From time to time we need to stop and take stock of who our Lord and Saviour is. Whenever else we might do this, one opportunity is at a communion, when we remember the Lord’s death and look forward to His return. Samuel Rutherford reflected on the description of Jesus Christ given in Revelation 19:12, “he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.” Christ is knowable only to the extent that He reveals Himself, and even then, while we know truly, we can never know Him completely. In the following excerpt from a communion sermon on this text, Rutherford points to three ways that Christ Jesus is beyond our knowledge.

“He had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.” What nameless king is this? What? Is Christ unbaptised, that He lacks a name? Is there no one who knows His name? “What is His name, and what is His son’s name, if thou canst tell?” (Prov. 30:4). “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation?” (Isa. 53:8). Here is a strange thing! The angel says, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus Christ.” Nay, but His name is Himself, and His nature, and so He is an infinite God. None knows infinite Christ but Himself. Aye, surely Christ is an unknown person; though each one has “Christ Jesus” in their mouth, yet they know not what they are saying.

There are three mysteries in Christ that we cannot perfectly ken in this life, nor understand.

One mystery

The infinite wisdom, mercy, goodness, love, and grace in Christ. This the angels delight to look into and wonder at. Come near Christ here, and you will never see the bottom of Him. You have seen mercy, much mercy — there is yet more behind. One has seen much of Him, another more; the angels, who are sharp in sight, have yet seen more. Nay, but there is infinite more behind. You will as soon take the sea in the hollow of your hand, and bind the wind in your cloak, as take Him up. You must even stand still here and wonder, and cry out, “O! great Jesus, who will or can fathom Thee out?”

Another mystery

The work of Christ’s incarnation. O! what a depth is in it! God and dust married together! How blood remains in a personal union with God! How the finite manhood subsists in His infinite personality! And how the Godhead in the Second person, and not in the First or Third, assumed our nature, and yet but one Godhead in all the Three! How the Godhead stood under the manhood that was stricken, and the Godhead as a back-friend [supporter] held Him up, and yet the Godhead did not suffer! How Jesus man died, and Jesus God lived, and remained in death God and man!

A third mystery

And the third mystery is the name which Jesus has gotten by His rising from the dead, and how the manhood is advanced. Christ kens all these full well; He can read His own name. We may speak of learning which measures the earth, numbers the stars, and learns their motion. That is deep knowledge. But God help you to come here, and see this unknown name, JESUS, and find it out if you can. I believe you cannot.

Now ask yourselves, Where will you set Christ? Where will you get a seat, a throne, a chair for Him? He cannot be set too high. Nay, if there were ten thousand times ten thousand heavens, and each to be above another, and Christ to be set in the highest of them all, yet He would be too low. Alas! He is too little thought of! He is like the field where the pearl is — people go over it, and tread on the grass that grows above it, and yet they do not ken it. They tramp on this pearl, and yet they do not know what they are doing. Fie! fie! earthly person that you are! Will you put a cow or a sheep in your affection beyond thy salvation? For shame for evermore, that people set their lusts above Him! And O, for shame! that you should set your new-come-over [recent upstart] lord, Wilful-will, above the old eternal Lord, the Ancient of days, Jesus Christ! O! how Christ is put out of His place! O, let us long for glory, that place where we will read His name clearly, and see Him face to face. How strange, that we do not long to be in heaven, to see this comely glorious one (if I may so speak), a darling indeed, and to be God’s bairns in heaven! Then the curtain will be drawn back from the ark, and we will come and look into it, and see our fill of Christ there.

Our honourable Lord

Believer, before I go any further, I tell you that you don’t need to think shame of your master. Saul went to the devil in the night (1 Sam. 28:8), but the one who serves Christ may not think shame of his master — he may think it an honour to go to Him in bright daylight.

He is more than double a king. For as He is God essential with the Father and Holy Spirit, He is an honourable Lord. All the kingdoms of the earth are His; all the crowns in the world (of Britain, France, Spain, Israel and Judah, and keep counting), they are all Christ’s as God Creator. “By Him kings reign and princes decree justice” (Prov. 8:15). All the kings of the earth have their being from Christ. He is appointed of the Father “King upon the holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:6). “Kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him” (Psa. 72:11). By His rising from the dead, He has gotten a name far above every name; so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. “The Lord at thy right hand, shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath” (Psalm 110:5).

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