What does it mean to have ‘more of Jesus’?

I have little, little of him, but I want more.-Samuel Rutherford

A statement such as the above perplexes the mind. How do we explain this? Does the Lord Jesus
come to us in parts? Does not Scripture teach that, “And of His fullness have all we received, and
grace for grace”. [John 1:16]. And again, “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power” [Col
2:9,10]. And finally, how do we square the above statement of Godly Rutherford with the Lord’s
declaration – “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that
believeth on Me shall never thirst” [Jn 6:35]?

In order to understand the above statement, we need to understand that all of New Testament
Theology is qualified by the tension between the already and the not yet.

Take for instance the unspeakable gift of Grace. We have already received grace; even grace for
grace and an abundance of grace; yet we are admonished to hope to the end for the grace that is
to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ [1Pet 1:13]; and that God in the ages to
come will show us the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus. [Eph 2:7].
We are already saved by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ [Eph 2:8,9]. Yet the Scripture speaks of a
future Salvation. [see Rom 5:9,10.] ‘Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver:
in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us’! [2Cor 1:10]

The Kingdom of God is already here, even ‘within us,’ yet we pray “Thy Kingdom come”.

Even so, though we have received Christ and He dwells in our hearts by faith in all His fullness
[Jn 1:16], we have only as it were tasted the Lord [1Pet 2:3]. To “taste” is to have a
personal experience of, in contrast from mere knowledge. But tasting does not include eating,
much less digesting and turning into nourishment what is so tasted.
The regenerated soul has found its satisfaction in God as He is revealed in Christ. And this is
indeed Eternal life, i.e. to know Him the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent [Jn
17:3].
Of old God said, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in
his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he
understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. [Jer
9:23,24]

Yet we know Him only in part and to the extent He hath chosen to reveal Himself.

There is in the heart of the regenerate an INSATIABLE hunger for MORE of the ‘Bread of
Heaven’ and an UNQUENCHABLE thirst for MORE of the ‘Water of life’. The Patriach prayed,
I beseech thee, shew me thy glory”! [Ex 33:18]. The Psalmist, “O God, thou art my God; early
will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty
land, where no water is; To see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the
sanctuary”. [Psa 631,2] The Apostle too yearned for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus his Lord: for whom he said, “I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but
dung, that I may win Christ” [Phil 3:8].

God is incomprehensible! But the incomprehensibility of the Divine nature is not a reason why
we should desist from reverent inquiry and prayerful strivings to apprehend what He has so
graciously revealed of Himself in His Word. Because we are unable to acquire perfect
knowledge, it would be folly to say we will therefore make no efforts to attain to any degree of
it. [A.W. Pink]
It has been well said that –
“Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout,
earnest, continued, investigation of the great subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for
expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead
in the glorious Trinity.” (C. H. Spurgeon).

Even in Heaven, we shall never know God as He fully knows us. The Saints in Heaven are
glorified not ‘divine’. In their glorified state, Christians will still be finite creatures, and
therefore, never able to fully comprehend the infinite God. [A.W. Pink]

As one of old hath so wisely said –

“The saints in heaven will see God with the eye of the mind, for He will be always invisible to
the bodily eye; and will see Him more clearly than they could see Him by reason and faith, and
more extensively than all His works and dispensations had hitherto revealed Him; but their
minds will not be so enlarged as to be capable of contemplating at once, or in detail, the whole
excellence of His nature. To comprehend infinite perfection, they must become infinite
themselves. Even in Heaven, their knowledge will be partial, but at the same time their happiness
will be complete, because their knowledge will be perfect in this sense, that it will be adequate to
the capacity of the subject, although it will not exhaust the fullness of the object. We believe that
it will be progressive, and that as their views expand, their blessedness will increase; but it will
NEVER reach a limit beyond which there is nothing to be discovered; and when ages after ages
have passed away, HE WILL STILL BE THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE GOD. (John Dick,
1840).
J.C. Philpot said – the Christian is a “Mysterious creature! He cannot live without sinning, yet
cannot live in sin; cannot live without prayer, and yet for days together cannot pray; continually
finds religion a burden, yet would not part with it for the world; lusts after sin as a delicious
morsel, yet hates it with a perfect hatred; esteems Christ the Chiefest among ten thousand, and
yet is at times tried with doubts whether He is a Saviour at all”.

Likewise the Christian is fully satisfied with Christ but laments that he has so little of Him.
Hence the cry –

“I have little, little of him, but I want more”.-Samuel Rutherford