PART ONE
DESCRIBING THE INEXPRESSIBLE
1. EPHESIANS 3:18,19
"[and that you] may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
These words are meant to convey the infinite greatness of God, who is a breadth beyond all breadths, a length beyond all lengths, a height beyond all heights, and a depth beyond all depths.
"Who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number" (Job 5:9).
God is love (1 John 4:8) and therefore wants to use His infinite love to help us and comfort us. All our afflictions have a limited breadth, length, height and depth. But God's love is unlimited, and therefore is greater than all of our afflictions.
2. THE BREADTH OF CHRIST'S LOVE
The word "breadth" shows that God is everywhere, spreading His wings, stretching out His goodness to the utmost bounds, for the good of His people. "Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions" (Deut 32:11). The breadth of God's mercy covers the breadth of our sin. "Blessed are those...whose sins have been covered" (Rom 4:7). However broad our sins are, God's love is broader. "Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?...Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea" (Job 11:7, 9).
In the largeness of the heart and mercy of God towards His people, God opens His arms wide as a mother affectionately does, when she stoops to her child, picks her up, kisses her, and holds her close to her bosom. "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem" (Isa 66:13).
3. THE LENGTH OF CHRIST'S LOVE
The length of Christ's love is as large as the breadth. "Length" means how far God can reach. Sometimes suffering Christians will think themselves beyond the reach of God's mercy. "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Ps 22:1). But God says, "Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem?" (Isa 50:2) and "Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that it cannot save" (Isa 59:1). "If any of you are driven out into the outermost parts of heaven, from there will the Lord your God gather you, and from there will He bring you back" (Deut 30:4). David said, "If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me" (Ps 139:9,10). God asked Job, "Do you have an arm like God?" (Job 40:9). Oh the length of the saving arm of God! When you cannot perceive that God is within the reach of YOUR arm, believe that you are within the reach of HIS arm.
4. THE DEPTH OF CHRIST'S LOVE
Discouraged Christians will say they are "reckoned among those who go down to the pit,...forsaken among the dead,...whom You remember no more, and they are cut off from Your hand" (Ps 88:4,5). Like David, they "have sunk in the mire, and there is no foothold." They have "come into deep waters, and a flood overflows" them (Ps 69:2). They pray, "Deliver me from the mire and do not let me sink...May the flood of water not overflow me nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit shut its mouth on me" (Ps 69:14,15). However deep a Christian goes in discouragement, God's mercy goes deeper still. "Can you discover the depths of God?...They are deeper than hell" (Job 11:7,8). "I am persuaded that neither...height nor depth will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:38,39). "The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut 33:27). God's arms are longer than the depth of our misery. Concentration camp survivor Corrie Ten Boom said, "There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still. David said, "You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell" (Ps 86:13) and "He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God" (Ps 40,2,3).
5. THE HEIGHT OF CHRIST'S LOVE
When we are oppressed, remember that Christ is higher than all the kings of the earth (Ps 89:27). He is higher than "the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12). "He who comes from heaven is above all" (John 3:31). God has set the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of all the grace in Himself, for our good, against all the power, and strength, and force, and subtlety of every enemy. Only God can crush the power of devils, sin, death, and hell. Now, there is nothing so high as Jacob's Ladder with its foot set on the earth, and "its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." (Gen 28:12) The ladder is Jesus Christ, "You will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51). Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6). Taking hold of this Ladder (believing in Christ) enables Him to draw us up to where He is (John 12:32).
PART TWO
DESIRING THE INCOMPARABLE
1. PRAYING FOR AN ABILITY
God allows us to be put upon by the breadths, lengths, depths and heights that seek our ruin so He can show how providentially greater He is than these. There are two kinds of providences: 1)Those that cast into our laps, health, wealth, plenty, ease, friends, and abundance of this world's goods. They are apt to make us forget our toil, our low estate, and from where we came. 2) Sickness, losses, crosses, persecution and affliction. These make us shudder when upon us, but God blesses us and "makes us fruitful in the land of our affliction" (Gen 41:52). Those who can discern between these providences will have a great ability to comprehend with other saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of Christ's love. "All chastening for the moment does not seem joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11).
2. PRAYING FOR AN UNDERSTANDING
Paul prays for the Ephesians to understand the breadth, length, depth, and height of Christ's love, even though they cannot FULLY understand His love because it "surpasses knowledge". So great is God above all that we have read, heard, or seen of Him, either in the Bible, in heaven, or earth, the sea, or what else is to be understood. But now, that a poor mortal, a lump of sinful flesh, poor dust and ashes, should be in His favor, in His heart, and wrapped up in the compassion of such a God! "For this is our God for ever and ever; He will guide us until death" (Ps 48:14). "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, even with the princes of His people" (Ps 113:7,8).
If this is our God, then we should fear nothing and no one. "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?" (Heb 13:6) Let us fear God instead. And if we do this, and our God delivers us into the hands of them that hate us, then let us laugh and be fearless, not doing anything else but to stand up for Him against the workers of iniquity; fully concluding that both we and our enemies are in the hand of Him that loves His people, and who will certainly render to the wicked. "The great God who formed all things both rewards the fool and transgressors" (Prov 26:10).
Oh! That a great God should be a good God, a good God to an unworthy and undeserving people that continually do what they can to provoke the eyes of His glory. This should make us tremble. "Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Your due! For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You" (Jer 10:7).
3. PRAYING FOR A KNOWLEDGE OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST
WHO IS CHRIST?
He is one in nature with the Father (John 1:1). The King of glory (Ps 24:10) and the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8). The brightness of His Father's glory (Heb 1:3). The Head over all things (Eph 1:22). The Prince of life (Acts 3:15). The Creator of all things (Col 1:16). The upholder of all things (Heb 1:3). The disposer of all things (Matt 28:18). The only Beloved of the Father (Matt 12:18).
WHO ARE WE?
Scripture calls us transgressors, sinners, enemies, dust and ashes, fleas (1 Sam 24:14), worms, shadows, vapors; vile, sinful, filthy, unclean, ungodly fools, and madmen.
And yet God sets His eye and His heart upon us! (Jer 24:6)
Christ's love does not require that the object to be loved must be beautiful. God IS love, so He acts lovingly of and from Himself. His love does not depend upon the qualities in the beloved. Christ's love does not decay. He continues to love to make us comely, not because we already are so. "On the day you were born...no eye looked with pity on you...to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field...I passed by you and saw you squirming in your own blood...Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil...I clothed you with embroidered cloth and...wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk...I put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck...and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver...You ate fine flour, honey and oil, so you were exceedingly beautiful" (Ezek 16: 4-13).
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT CHRIST LOVES US?
We know He loves us because He died for us.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). We never read that Jesus Christ was more cheerful in all His life on earth, than when He was going to lay down His life for us. He thanked God He could do this (Luke 22:19 "This is My body which is given for you"), and then He sang a hymn (Matt 26:30), "who for the joy set before Him endured the cross" (Heb 12:2).
We know Christ loves us because of "the anguish of His soul" (Isa 53:11), taking the sins of the world upon Himself.
"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross" (1 Pet 2:24). When He took our sins upon Himself, His Father momentarily turned away from Him. "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt 27:46) St Peter quoted King David, who foretold of Christ, "Therefore, My heart was glad and My tongue exulted...because You did not abandon My soul to Hades (hell), nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay" (Acts 2:27; Ps 16:10). If some think "Hades" refers only to the "grave", how foolish to think that both Christ's soul and body lay in His tomb. The Apostle distinguishes between two different places for Christ's soul and body.
We know Christ loves us because of the preparations He made to die for us.
Christ always existed as God (John 1:1). In order to die for our sins, He had to become like us, human, because God cannot die. He "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and was made in the likeness of men" (Phil 2:7). Now, He who was worshiped by the angels (Heb 1:4) became "for a little while lower than the angels" (Heb 2:7,9). He was born in a stable and laid in a manger, scorned of men, tempted by the devil (Luke 4:2), was beholden to His creatures for food, clothing, shelter, and a grave.
No one thanked Him for what He was doing. Instead, "He was despised, and we did not esteem Him" (Isa 53:3). Instead, they railed upon Him, degraded Him, and said He was mad, and a deceiver, a blasphemer of God, and a rebel against the state. "He has a demon and is insane" (John 10:20). "He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Mark 2:7) They accused Him to the governor. One of His disciples betrayed Him (Judas), another denied Him (Peter), and they all forsook Him when He was arrested. His enemies beat Him with their fists, spat on Him, mocked Him, crowned Him with thorns, and scourged Him TWICE, a lighter beating given as to a troublemaker before Jesus' formal sentencing of crucifixion (Luke 23:16 [paideuses] and John 19:1 [emastigosen]), and the severe scourging given to a condemned criminal after His sentence of crucifixion (Mark 15:15 and Matt 27:26 [phragellosas]). He was then nailed to the cross. Someone offered Him vinegar to increase His suffering!
Christ suffered all this as a common person, condemned by God's law for the sins He bore. Yet He was raised justified by God's law. In His justification, we are justified (Rom 3:24). "God made us alive together with Christ" (Eph 2:5), "having forgiven us all our transgressions" (Col 2:13). "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Heb 10:14).
Christ's death "obtained eternal redemption for us" (Heb 9:12). This heaven! It is called God's throne, God's house (John 14:2), God's habitation and paradise (2 Cor 12:4), the kingdom of God, the high and holy place (Isa 57:15), Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22), and the place of heavenly pleasures (Ps 16:11). In this heaven is to be found the face of God for ever (Ps 41:12), immortality, the person of Christ, the prophets, the angels, the revelation of all mysteries, the knowledge of the elect, eternity. All these things are the fruit of the sufferings of our Jesus. We should bow the knee before Him, and call Him tender Father. We should love and obey Him, and devote ourselves to His service, and be willing to suffer for His sake, to whom honor and glory be forever.
THE LOVE OF CHRIST SURPASSES KNOWLEDGE
Christ's love is eternal. Therefore, it had no beginning.
However much the Father delights in the Son, the Son has delighted in us, BEFORE He created us. "From everlasting I was established,...while He had not yet made the earth...Then I was beside Him, as a master workman, and I was daily His delight,...and having my delights in the sons of men" (Prov 8:22,30,31).
In order to know the love of Christ, we must understand how sinful we are. David asked, "Who can discern his errors?" (Ps 19:12) Consequently, who can understand the love that saves him from them? The least sin deserves hell. He that sees himself as a most abominable wretch is likely to see the love of Christ. "O wretched man that I am" (Rom 7:24).
PART THREE
OBTAINING THE UNSURPASSABLE
1. KNOWING THE NATURE OF CHRIST'S LOVE
Christ's love is free, divine, heavenly, everlasting, and incorruptible. There is no love but the love of Christ. All other love is either corruptible, transient, mixed, or earthly.
Satan will assault the spirits of Christians with divers and sundry cogitations, which have a tendency to darken the judgment, delude the fancy, to abuse the conscience. He has an art to metamorphose all things. He can make God seem to us, a most fierce and terrible destroyer, and make Christ seem a terrible exactor of obedience, and most amazingly pinching of His love. He can make supposed sins unpardonable, and unpardonable ones appear as virtues. For this purpose Christ bids us to abide in His love (John 15:9), because the right knowledge disperses and drives away all such fogs and mists of darkness, and makes the soul to sit fast in the promise of eternal life by Him.
2. KNOWING THE DEGREES OF CHRIST'S LOVE
Christ died "that He might being us to God" (1 Pet 3:18).
Christ defeated our foes, and "we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who love us (Rom 8:37).
Christ is our forerunner in heaven preparing a "dwelling place" for each one of us (John 14:2).
Christ has sent us the Holy Spirit to comfort and fortify us (John 14:26).
Christ, though He is in heaven, sympathizes with us on earth. He has not forgotten us (Heb 4:15).
Christ "always lives to make intercession for us" (Heb 7:25).
Christ will one day bring us to where He is. "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am" (John 17:24). He will come for us, as a bridegroom for His bride (Matt 25:6-10).
KNOWING THE MYSTERIES OF CHRIST'S LOVE
"How precious are your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand" (Ps 139:17,18).
If Christ loves with a love that passes knowledge, then in the darkest moment, a soul could say that "He may love me yet." If the tempter suggests that you will never get beyond your trials, troubles and afflictions, Christ may carry me through, for He loves me with a love that passes knowledge. This is the weapon that will baffle the devil when all other weapons fail, that Christ loves with a love that surpasses knowledge.
PART FOUR
USES AND COUNSELS
"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think" (Eph 3:20). God foresaw all the sins of His people, and how much the devil would tempt them, that He so worded His love so we would cast ourselves upon it in times of distress and temptation. His love is greater than any of our despair. "If God is for us, who is against us?" (Rom 8:31) Always seek "the love of God [that] has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Rom 5:5). "Keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 21). Abide in Christ's love by keeping His commandments (John 15:10).
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