Christ’s love is always greater than we can grasp, and it brings us into the fullness of God.

Today we begin a new theme. I choose this theme because, like the previous theme of holiness, it plays a major role in enabling us to know God rightly. The theme is God’s love. We see the significance of this theme for knowing God in Ephesians 3:16–19, where the apostle Paul prays for his readers

“that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

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Christ’s Love

Notice the progression in these verses:

1. God strengthens you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

This is not automatic; we don’t experience the full measure of God’s power simply because we believe in Jesus. So, Paul prays it will happen (Eph. 3:14–16).

2. As a result of the Spirit dwelling abundantly in you, Christ dwells in your heart through faith.

The power of the Spirit enables faith in Christ. The power of the Spirit brings the actual indwelling presence of Christ into your heart. (v. 17)

3. As a result, you are rooted and grounded in love, because God is love and God is now indwelling you through the Holy Spirit. (v. 17)

At the most fundamental level of your soul, God is powerfully there. And so love is abundantly there, and you are planted in that love like a tree with roots deep in rich soil; and you are built on that love like a building whose foundation rests on bedrock.

4. As a result, you have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth (v. 18).

God’s love in you gives you the strength to comprehend. Love equips you to understand. Love enables you to know. So love puts eyes in your head. And what God’s love strengthens you to comprehend is big. It’s broad, long, high, and deep, like the ocean. Like the expanse of outer space with its one hundred billion galaxies each burning with a hundred billion stars, an observable universe 93 billion light years across. When God’s love fills your heart, it is as though a powerful telescope, like the Hubble, enters your soul and you are able to see far and wide into great spiritual truths that you never could see before.

5. As a result, you are able to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

The love of Christ is so great that it surpasses any person’s ability to fully know it. Think of a scientist who devotes her fifty-year professional career to mapping out something as complex as the subatomic world, trying to understand what atoms are made of, in a mysterious world that turns the normal laws of physics inside out. After a lifetime of study, growth, and breakthroughs, she knows there is still so much of that mysterious world she does not know.

So it is with the love of Christ. We know his love, but only partially—so great is its length, breadth, height, and depth. That he, God’s Son, fully God in awesome holiness, would become a man, and live in this evil world, and offer himself to his Father to suffer and be tortured at the hands of evil men, and bear on his soul all our evils, and suffer for them—this is love incomprehensible. We can know it, but we can’t know it. We can revel in it yet never exhaust it.

That he would live to intercede for us now continually before the Father as our High Priest. This is love infinite in length, breadth, height, and depth. You are not on your own. You have a Redeemer who intercedes for you in love.

That he would rule the circumstances of your life in meticulous detail, with perfect timing in every occurrence, for his highest purpose. This is love infinite in length, breadth, height, and depth. For you.

6. Finally, as a result, you are filled with all the fullness of God.

Knowing the love of Christ to any degree is the ultimate. It is like a mountain climber who scales Mt. Everest and looks out upon the shining world from its peak. Only we never can truly reach the peak of knowing Christ’s love. The nature of God is such, and he has designed us such that love is the ultimate. No matter how full you feel as you meditate on all the various qualities of God, nothing will give you greater fullness than knowing his love. Nothing will give you greater joy, peace, hope, satisfaction, significance, and security.

And however much you are able to grasp this love and rejoice in it, remember that you are still only seeing a small fraction of how great it actually is. He still loves you way more than you know. Christ’s love is like an iceberg. You see some of it above the water, but there is way more under the water that you do not see. Always there is more. Meditate on that, and be full.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: Our love is limited and small, and we think Christ’s love is like ours. We think Christ loves us only to the extent that we can imagine or feel.

God’s way: Christ’s love is always greater than we can grasp.