August 19, 2012
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. -- Ephesians 3: 14-19 (NLT)
We conclude today with part four of our look at the secret to power in our lives as Christians -- the love of God. Yesterday we examined how what we are rooted in will affect our stability, what we are anchored to, what we get our sustenance from and ultimately whether we grow as Christians. Before we can expect to grow out or grow up -- we must first grow down into the love of God. When we have our roots in the inexpressible love of God then we are ready to grow spiritually. When condemnation seeks a place in our heart there will not be room because it will be filled with His love. When the devil wants to whisper in our ears about how unworthy we are we will know and understand that it is because of His love, not my worthiness. That despite the fact that I was still a sinner -- He sent His only Son to die for me! That is what will keep us strong in the Lord.
Continuing in the key verses today we find that understanding this love is not necessarily a given in our lives. Paul says that he is praying that we may have the power to understand how enormous the love of God is. How wide, long, high and deep. Paul uses terms we know to paint a word picture but we cannot use worldly metrics to measure the love of God. It is nearly incomprehensible. Yet Paul draws the clear distinction that all Christians should walk in the power to understand the breadth of the love of the God they serve. He understands that many may not but that does not change that they should. If we go back to the early portions of this study we remember that the power is developed in our inner strength through the Holy Spirit. When we factor this in, the reason why so many people fail to grasp the love of God is that they are not strong inside of themselves in the spirit. We are seeing a movement in modern churchianity away from the Spirit of God. The power is not taught. The gifts are not taught. Emotionalism has replaced a genuine move of the Spirit. Instead of seeing signs and wonders we have seen a shift toward simply applying the reason for any positive occurrence to the Spirit and dismissing any negative occurrence with a worldly excuse or rationale. The Spirit and the things of the Spirit are not pursued as they should be. The result is a spiritually barren Christian base that is left to fend for themselves in spiritual warfare without a clear understanding of the battle they are in. That is why there is no strength. That is why there is no power. That is why there is no understanding.
Paul goes on to say that even if we never come to a place of understanding this great love fully -- may we experience it in our lives nonetheless. It is an interesting turn of events in the key verses. Paul places the vast importance of experience over understanding. That maybe the problem is in trying to understand what is incomprehensible! Did you experience it beloved! Were you not lost once but now are found! Were you not drowning in the mire of this world but now you have been saved! Have you not experienced the awesome love of the God you serve! Because when we cannot wrap our finite minds around an infinite love, we need to reflect instead to what we have experienced with the love of God. Why? Because as the key verses conclude we see that this is how we are made complete in Christ. This is how we experience the fullness of life. This is how we obtain the power that only comes from God. The key to that power in our life is found in our experience of His great love towards us. That is what these verses have been all about. That was what this prayer from Paul has been all about.
The law could not complete us -- it could only condemn us. There is no fullness in life trying to earn the love God has already freely given us. There should be nothing that can shake us beloved in these things! Nothing should shake our assurance in the salvation God has acquired for us. Nothing should ever shake our confidence in the love of Almighty God and more importantly, nothing can separate us from it either:
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. -- Romans 8: 38-39 (NLT)
Are you convinced today? Or do you waver? God loved you so much that He sent His only Son to die in your place. You did not deserve it and neither did I. There is nothing we could ever do to deserve it. The other facets of Christianity and the Gospel are vitally important because nothing should ever be unbalanced. But without a firm understanding of how much God loved us-- there will always be an impotence to our walk. There is power Christ appropriated for us on Calvary. Power to do the works God has laid out for us. Power to defeat the enemy on a daily basis. Power to overcome the world through Christ Jesus. Power to be able to crucify our fleshly desires and chase after the things of God. That power beloved is found where our lives need to be firmly rooted -- in the love of our heavenly Father; Creator of everything.
Rev. Anthony
