Ephesians 3:19, “…and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
This is the culmination of Paul’s prayer to the Father in Ephesians 3:14-19, and—as I’m sure I’ve said in this journal before—it is stunning in its simplicity and depth. Would we be filled with all the fullness of God? Would we enter into and enjoy and inherit all that God has to give? Would we receive the infinite fullness of God Himself as our great and eternal good? There is one path to this place, there is one way to enter into this life….and what is it? To know the love of Christ.
All that God has to give, His entire self, is given in the love of Jesus Christ. How this prayer simplifies reality! How it cuts away the meaningless excess and sets our eyes on the one thing necessary. Whatever is broken in us—spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically—whatever limps or deformities or wounds we carry in the spheres of our being, whatever remaining sin we war against, whatever oppressive character trait we push against daily, whatever difficulties we face in this sojourn, the remedy for them all—whether it is fully received in this life or not—is to more deeply and truly and experientially know the love of Jesus Christ.
To know what He has given, to know what He has done, to know what He has accomplished, to know the implications of such love, etc., etc….to know this love is to be filled with all that God is because, ultimately, the love of Christ is a love that gives us God Himself. This is why Paul calls it a “knowledge-surpassing” love. The love of Christ is a love that cannot be grasped by our natural faculties….it demands the strengthening of the inner man by the Spirit…and, note carefully, it can only be known “together with all the saints” (v.18).
The love of Christ cannot be known truly apart from a context of mutual love in His name. Love knows love, and if we are not abiding with one another in love, we will be hampered in our ability to know His love. Surely part of the reason for this is that the love of Christ is known through the love of others. My brother’s or sister’s love for me in the name of Christ is the love of Christ expressed tangibly in that moment.
Another thought, if the love of Christ truly known leads to our being filled with all the fullness of God, then this is eternal life. God is infinite, and for the infinite to fill the finite with all of His fullness will take an infinite amount of time. This is why Paul says in 2:7 that the final goal of our salvation is so that God might show the riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ for the coming ages. In other words, God will be pouring the fullness of Himself into us for our joy in Christ (through the Spirit) for all eternity….this is eternal life, and this is the love of Christ.
Yes, because for God to love means for God to give Himself….thus, for God to love a finite being means for God to give His entire infinite self to that finite being. Our eternal life (and, we might argue, created reality itself) is simply God speaking “I love you” to His creations, to what is not God. Yes, to search the length and breadth and height and depth of the “I love you” spoken over us on the cross will take all of—and is the fullness of—eternal life; because in it, we are given God Himself.
