Morning By Morning #88

The love of Christ…surpasses knowledge.

Ephesians 3:18 – 19

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

“The love of Christ”—in its sweetness, fullness, greatness, and faithfulness—“surpasses” all human comprehension. Where could language ever be found to describe His matchless and unparalleled love for the children of mankind? It is so vast and limitless that, just as a swallow swoops down to skim the surface without diving into the depths of the sea, all descriptive words for Christ’s love barely touch the surface, leaving immeasurable depths untouched below. The poet may truly say:

O love, you fathomless abyss!

Johann Andreas Rothe, 1688 – 1758

for the love of Christ is indeed measureless and fathomless and fully beyond all human comprehension.

Yet to begin to understand His love, we must first understand His previous glory in its height of majesty relative to His incarnation on earth in all its depths of shame. But who can tell us the majesty of Christ? When He was enthroned in the highest heavens, He was “very God of very God” (The Nicene Creed)—God Himself—“for by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth” (Col. 1:16). His almighty arm held the many spheres of the universe in their orbits, the praises of cherubim and seraphim perpetually surrounded Him, and a vast chorus of hallelujahs across the universe unceasingly flowed to the foot of His throne. He reigned supreme above all His creatures as God over all and blessed forever. Who then can fully explain the height of His glory? On the other hand, however, who can fully explain how low He descended?

To become a man was certainly humbling, but to become “a man of sorrows” (Isa. 53:3) was something far more. To bleed, to suffer, and to die were a lot to expect from the Son of God, but He suffered even more than that. He suffered the unparalleled agony of not only enduring a death of shame but also suffered desertion by His Father. This shows such a depth of Christ’s humble love that even the most spiritual of minds miserably fails in attempting to fathom it.

“This is love” (1 John 4:10)! And it is truly a love that “surpasses knowledge.” Oh, may this love—His love—fill our hearts with adoration and gratitude and lead us to practical demonstrations of its power in our lives.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

In the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul teaches the doctrine the Lord has given him and then follows those with three chapters of practical application of that doctrine. Our text today comes from the prayer toward the end of chapter three that is the interlude between these two sections.

That prayer reveals how overwhelmed Paul has become while considering that awe-inspiring theology, or the knowledge of God. He encourages us “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Eph. 3:18). Then in verse 19 he says something quite strange, encouraging us “to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” He is telling us to know something unknowable! Perhaps the infinite love of Christ is something finite mankind will spend eternity attempting “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep” it really is!