COMPREHENDING THE MAGNITUDE -- Tomorrow:
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)
" . . . may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the . . . depth . . ."
The love of which we speak also has depths. It not only has extended into the deep morass of sin to retrieve fallen humanity, it has a depth of its own that can be probed with great joy and satisfaction.
What sinner retrieved by that love cannot identify with the Psalmist. "I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD." (Psa 40:1-3). That is a love that reaches deep!
Not only, however, does this love reach into the depths, it has a profound depth of its own. It has intrigued the greatest of all minds, challenging the intellect and warming the heart. A song writer exclaimed, "O, the deep, deep, love of Jesus." No matter how deeply you probe into it, you sense there is more to be seen, more to be known, more to be experienced! The love of Christ is absolutely profound! It can reach as far as sin thrust us. It can reach the depths to which we plummeted by transgression and a failure to
The roots of the love of God reach deep into the Divine nature.
The Spirit refers to "His great love wherewith he loved us" (Eph 2:4). It is not mere pity or sympathy for His fallen creation, but is draped with purpose and filled with holy intentions. The words spoken through Jeremiah have been increased many fold in Christ Jesus. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer 29:11).
Because the love of God is deep, it has sustaining power. Through it He is "able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). Now that is a love that is profoundly deep. You do well to "keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 21), not passing over it as the Pharisees of old (Luke 11:42). The Holy Spirit can "pour out" this love into your heart (Rom 5:5), causing it to be perfected in you (1 John 2:5).
PRAYER POINT: Father, I implore you in Jesus' name to enable me to see more deeply into Your great love.