And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. John 21:25
A microphone is turned on each Lord’s Day morning in our Hall, to record the Breaking of Bread so that a sister who is unable to attend most of the time is able to later play the recordings and appreciate the worship. I don’t think those recordings are kept from one week to the next, but if they were, they might contain a significant amount of information and comment regarding the Person of the Lord Jesus. Imagine for a moment that every Breaking of Bread meeting of every Assembly on every Lord’s Day since Pentecost were recorded. You could fill several large warehouses with those archives, but it certainly wouldn’t fill the entire world. Not even if we added all of the utterances of godly men and women outside of Assembly fellowship. And all of the books written by Christians addressing the person of Christ. And yet, our text today remains true; the world could not contain the books that should be written about Him.
The most accurate – in fact, the only 100 percent accurate – description of the Lord Jesus is contained in the Bible, which can be printed small enough to fit into your pocket. And yet, the Bible, the Word of God, cannot be bound by this world. Scripture predates planet Earth, and will survive when Earth is no more. Not all of the commentaries ever preached, not all of the sermons ever preached, not all of the prayers ever offered have come close to unfolding all of the truths in the Bible or the wonders of the glorious Person of Christ.
Note that our text tells us that the world would be unable to contain all the books written about the things that the Lord Jesus did. This would include all of His acts of creation and power, His mighty miracles, His sermons and conversations, His every act of time and of eternity. What an inexhaustible library that would be! And at that, such a library would contain only the things that He did, and is doing, without even approaching all that He is. Consider the following words from Charles Wesley’s lovely hymn: Join all the glorious names, of wisdom, love, and power, that mortals ever knew, that angels ever bore; all are too mean to speak his worth, too mean to set our Saviour forth. No human language, not even the English language, is capable of describing the Lord Jesus as He is, as He deserves to be described. Even the language of Heaven itself will require the unending ages of eternity for us to express our appreciation of Him.
Although we are incapable of fully describing or explaining our Lord Jesus, what joy it fills our hearts to make the attempt! -Jim MacIntosh