The practical use [of “Jesus/Savior”] is consoling, and the devout ancients explain this in very sweet words. Because this name was applied to the Messiah not by human decision but by divine command, because His name is proper and uniquely His, because it includes the treasury of all the benefits that come down to us from Christ, therefore the foundation for every true and solid comfort is being presented to us in this name. Galatinus, bk. 3, ch. 20: “The other names for the Messiah are taken from the effect of salvation itself, and they signify either the source alone or the means alone or the end of salvation alone. But this name ‘Jesus’ contains and expresses sufficiently the entire process of our salvation, namely, the source, means, and end. Therefore it includes everything else.” The name “Jesus” is a necklace woven with various gems and pearls. The heavenly Bridegroom gives it to His betrothed, and on it He impresses His own likeness deeply [ad vivum]. The name “Jesus” is, a Bernard says (Song of Songs, sermon 15, col. 532), “honey in the mouth, a song in the ear, a cry of exultation in the heart. It gives light to what has been said, it gives food to what is thought, it softens what is cried out.” The name “Jesus” is the paradise of our heart, a paradise in which we look upon the flower of love, the rose of humanity, the violet of humility, the lily of purity, the hyssop of cleansing, the myrrh of incorruptibility, the palm of victory, the olive of mercy, the balsam of healing. In this paradise of our soul you see the tree of life, the rod of Aaron, the shoot from the root of Jesse, the offshoot of David, the living vine, a packet of myrrh, a flower of the field and a lily of the valleys, the font of salvation and life. You see, whatever is set forth in these figures, all of that is contained briefly in the name “Jesus.”
Johann Gerhard On Christ 12