Sounding the Depths
Ephesians. 3:18-19 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; 19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
This was part of a prayer the Apostle Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus. In the book Mere Christianity, its author C.S. Lewis remarked: A good many people nowadays say, “I believe in a God, but not in a personal God.” He adds that those who believe that God goes beyond personality are really saying that God is impersonal; something less than personal. We expect this kind of talk from unbelievers but not from followers of Jesus. Unfortunately our practice of spirituality reveals that we really view God as less than personal. More like a rug or a mat that we place on the floor and clean our feet or walk over – ignoring it altogether. We don’t expect much from the rug or mat.
Interestingly enough, physical truth often mirrors spiritual truth. For example, we think very little of a two dimensional world. But add extra dimensions to it and it becomes more than lines on a page. It becomes an object that we can interact with. Inside or outside of that object you can move three ways. Lewis adds: “you can move…to the left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure: say, a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body: say, a cube – a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.
Now all of these lines converge to make something that is tangible and real. Even as you advance to deeper levels you never leave behind the simpler ones. You combine them to advance to something far grander than you or I imagined. Unfortunately, Western Christianity has resigned God to be a line or two. Nothing more than a mat or a rug.
Pauls’ prayer for the Ephesians, and I believe for us, is that we would know personally the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ experientially. That our mere knowledge, without experience, would be surpassed by experiences that build upon the simple lines that have been given to us in order to advance in our intimate, experiential, progressing relationship with the Creator of the Universe.
The majority of pew warmers in the West are still treating Jesus like a mat or rug. But you need to understand – there’s no accidents with Jesus. He has caused the infinite, eternal lines of Eternity to merge with yours. The question is, will you go wider, farther, higher up, and deeper in? Or will you simply keep walking over the mat? How could you ever miss a God so big?
