Many of us have heard often about the love of God but I wonder, have we really grasped the enormity, the magnitude, the depth of God’s love?
The Apostle Pau knew essential it is for us to lay hold of this powerful truth. He prayed for the Christians in Ephesus…that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and
long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)
Paul is not just talking about intellectual affirmation, he is talking about a deeply held conviction at the core of who we are. This is so critical for Paul he uses two metaphors, one botanical and the other architectural, to emphasize how important it is for us to centre or lives in God’s love. Paul likens it to a well-rooted tree or a well built foundation upon which the building rises. It is God’s love that gives us such depth and stability in our lives.
He prays for the Christians in Ephesus and for us that we might grasp the immensity of God’s love. For the end result of experiencing God’s love is to be filled with the fullness of God Himself. In turn we are to reflect His beauty and grace and moral excellence in a world that is hurting and has lost its way.
Too many Christians understand at an intellectual level that God loves them, but they have never experienced His love as Paul talks about in Ephesians 3. It’s knowing and then experiencing God’s love that allows us to truly treasure such love.
I am grateful for times in my life when I have experienced Gods’ love in real and powerful ways. There have been times when I have been overwhelmed by a sense of God's love; undone, broken by His love.
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) God sent His Son to make it possible for disobedient creatures like you and me to be reconciled to Him; to embrace again the fullness of His presence, His joy and His love.
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
(Romans 5:8)
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10) It is in Jesus’ coming to earth, his death on the cross that we are able to see and understand and experience the depth of God’s love.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)
God’s love is not something we can simply hold as an intellectual truth, we must experience it, embrace it and treasure it. It is God’s love that we ultimately seek, that will ultimately satisfy. And one day, it will be the only thing that really matters. The key says John Piper (Rethinking Retirement) to finishing life to
the glory of Christ…we must be satisfied in Him.
He must be our Treasure.