Drawing from Ephesians 3:17-19, this piece explores Paul's prayer that believers comprehend the multidimensional love of Christ—its width, length, depth, and height—through faith rooted in God's love. The author emphasizes that while Christ's infinite love and sacrifice (His substitutionary atonement for our sins) cannot be fully grasped by human understanding, continual meditation on Scripture allows Christians to grow in knowledge of this love and experience assurance of their eternal security in Him. The essay concludes that believers possess all spiritual blessings in Christ and enjoy the promise of everlasting communion with the Triune God, with full comprehension of His love reserved for glory.
What does the Bible say about the love of Christ?
The Bible reveals the love of Christ as immeasurable and essential for believers, calling us to comprehend its vast dimensions.
The dimensions of Christ's love are not simply abstract concepts; they signify the enduring and expansive nature of God's grace. From timeless eternity, this love reaches out to His elect, manifesting itself throughout history. It assures us that nothing can separate us from His love, reaffirming that our identity is rooted in Him. As believers, we are called to grow in our understanding and appreciate the depth of His love that raises us from spiritual death to new life in Him. This transformative journey culminates in everlasting communion with the Triune God, where we will fully know and experience His love.
Ephesians 3:17-19
How do we know God's love is true?
We know God's love is true through the sacrifice of Christ, which demonstrates His commitment to His people.
Additionally, God's love is affirmed in His unchanging nature and the promises found throughout Scripture. Believers can recognize their new identity as raised from spiritual death to life due to Christ's sacrifice. This act of love, which is both historical and transformative, allows us to have a living relationship with God wherein we can experience and comprehend His love day by day. Our assurance comes from Scripture, prayer, and the Holy Spirit's work in our hearts, guiding us to understand and respond to that great love with love of our own.
Isaiah 53:5, Romans 5:8
Why is comprehending God's love important for Christians?
Comprehending God's love is vital for Christians as it forms the foundation of their faith and relationship with Him.
Moreover, grasping the dimensions of God's love reassures believers of their security in Christ. Knowing we are loved with an everlasting love offers comfort amidst life's challenges, allowing us to endure difficulties, knowing that nothing can separate us from that love. It motivates us to live in accordance with His will and to share His love with others. Thus, comprehending God's love is not merely an intellectual exercise; it is a transformative experience that defines our identity as His children and shapes our interactions with the world.
Ephesians 3:17-19, Romans 8:38-39
Comprehend: to take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind, to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider.
To know or learn with certainty.
The Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, which as I read the Scripture would include me by God’s good pleasure, was this:
“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”. (Eph 3:17-19)
Here we have three verses of inspired scripture, which give us this desire and prayer of Paul’s for the saints of God. It is God's desire for us that we come to KNOW His love through the love of His Son, Christ. The book of Ephesians is one of my very favorite books in the NT as it gives me such comfort to know the things that the Spirit reveals to me in this book. If you take just these three verses, you can search and search the Word for hours to begin to understand these dimensions; the width, the length, the depth and the height of the love of Christ.
The Spirit reveals the love of God in Christ Jesus to us in the fullness of His Gospel, the good news of Christ. It is the greatest love ever we will know and Paul expressly desires that we be rooted and grounded in it. We come to know of His love and that without His loving us first we would not be able to love Him. Although we can never fully comprehend His immense suffering for His people we can know that He was despised and rejected of men and as our Substitute was stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He justified His people for He bore our iniquities; they were laid upon Him, the Spotless Lamb.
As we continually meditate on the Scripture and grow in our understanding the knowledge of this love grows and we have a lively sense of it. We begin to comprehend that once He purged our sins He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high and there we are with Him, for we are in Him. The depth of this love is raising a lowly sinner dead in trespasses and sins to a new creature in Him, one day to dwell with Him in Glory. The length of this love is from timeless eternity, for we are loved with an everlasting love and the breadth, the extent is from time beginning and manifested to all the elect in all ages. It is never ceasing and unchanging to His own and nothing can separate us from it, nothing. Not anguish, nor persecution, not today or anything this is to come, nothing.
We have a just a small taste of this love here as we sojourn, it isn’t a perfect knowledge yet but the Apostle Paul desires that we grow in it and that we be filled with the fullness of God. The fullness of knowing that we have all spiritual blessings in Christ which will be fully made know to each of us when we go home and begin our everlasting communion with our Triune God.
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