
I pray that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of God’s love].
Ephesians 3:18
Finally, we come to the depth of God’s love. God’s Love is also deeper than Hell.
One of the most gripping scenes in the Lord of the Rings is when Gandalf confronts the Balrog. The battle really only begins when they both fall and fall and fall into the depths of the earth. It seems to never end and there is a sense of hopelessness to the falling. This illustrates the depths of hell to me.
God’s love went deep into hell to save me. [H]e made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:7-8) God sent his Son, Jesus into the depths of hell, instead of me. What greater love is there than this?
God’s love goes to my deep places of sin and anguish, into the very lows of my life. Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman, for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish (1 Samuel 1:16). Like Hannah, I can express my deepest pain, abuse and secret sin to God and he will still love me. Rather than reject me, he covers those wounds with his love.
God’s love is deep, full of riches and complexities. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11:33). These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). Every now and then, I need a deep conversation, a connection that reaches from one soul to another. I love it that God is deep and full of complexity. His love satisfies my need for deep connection.
So I will let Chuck Smith sum up verse 18:
God loves you so much, I pray that you might know the depths of Gods love for you, the length of God’s love, the height of God’s love. If you could only fathom the depths, if you could only explore the heights, if you could only see the length. To the length to which God was willing to go to save you. The depths to which Jesus was willing to come in order to redeem you. The heights to which God intends to bring you. That He might seat you together with Christ in heavenly places and make you a joint heir with Christ of His eternal kingdom. Oh the heights of the glory that God has for you. If you could only know,” Paul said, “comprehend that which is beyond knowledge. Hey, you cannot know it, it is beyond knowledge.”
Chuck Smith Commentary
What deep places in your soul has the love of God reached?
While still incomprehensible in its entirety, what new insights do you have about God’s love?
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