Knowing the Unknowable

John Stott compared the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3 to climbing a ladder…we’ve looked at the rungs of power and intimacy or residence, but today we come to the third rung. On the third rung of the ladder we find comprehension. Look at the end of verse 17 and go to 18,

“That you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…”

Paul is praying that they will comprehend God’s great love for them. Not just that they will love God, but that they will know just how much God loves them.

He wants them rooted and grounded—here we find agricultural and architectural terms—rooted—the roots of our life deep in the soil of God’s love and grounded—the building of our life firm on the foundation of God’s love. How do we get there? Focus on the extent of God’s love—how wide is it? It is wide enough to encompass all mankind. Anyone who will call upon Him will be saved. Ephesians 1 says it is so wide that it goes back to Eternity Past…before the world began. How long is it? It is long enough to last for an eternity…picture it going from eternity past to eternity future…no beginning point and no ending point. How deep is the love of God? It is deep enough to reach down to the most depraved of sinners (Eph 2:1ff)—to reach down to those of us who were or are dead in our sin. How high is it? It is high enough to exalt itself all the way into Heaven…Paul says we are blessed with every heavenly blessing and that our security is stored there with Him!

The love of Christ is best seen on the Cross. Go to the cross and meditate upon it, reflect upon it, and know just how much God loves you. The early church fathers said the description of Paul points us to the cross—the height and depth represented by the vertical bar of the cross and the width and length represented by the horizontal beam. Pray that others will comprehend just how much God loves them.

Verse 19, “And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” How can we know something that surpasses knowledge? Just because you can’t surpass something doesn’t mean you can’t know something about it. We will never get to the bottom of the knowledge of God’s love, but we can know as much as we want to know! We are to know it, but the word speaks of experiential knowledge. It’s like the man asking Armstrong to explain Jazz, He said, “Man if you have to ask what Jazz is you’ll never know.” It’s like love—you can’t explain how you know you are in love, but when you experience God’s love you know what it is. That’s Paul’s prayer—that they would know the love of Christ—that they would comprehend it.