I am currently reading a book titled Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners by Dane Ortlund. For those who are avid readers, if you have not already, consider reading this book. As I do with my Bible reading and study, when reading a book, I find myself highlighting or underlining statements that really stand out or leave an impression.
I also find myself returning to Scripture in understanding the ways of God and God Himself. Have you ever found yourself camped out in a particular passage of Scripture or pondering particular statements by a theologian? Well, such is my personal current state as I pitch a tent in chapter four, “Embrace.”
The focus in this chapter is on the love of God. The first Scripture he ties to the love of God is Job 42:5, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” In context, Job had been corrected by God in his understanding and in his lament to God.
He repented before the Lord, giving us a picture of the life of every believer in Christ as we “spend a lifetime seeing it (the love of God) ever more deeply, ever more expansively.”
Even in the midst of trials and suffering, we can comprehend His love for us. We can meditate on the truth of His Word as it testifies to us, “we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16).
His Love Surpasses Knowledge
In comprehending the love of God, one of the main passages of Scripture highlighted in chapter four of Deeper can be found in Ephesians 3:16-19,
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
We are reminded of Paul’s audience in this letter, believers at the church of Ephesus who would have had a semblance of God’s love as regenerated people. Dane makes a statement worth pondering for us all, “Paul is praying that they would know what cannot be known.”
This particular passage concerning the love of Christ expresses measurements in our own understanding while making it clear that His love surpasses our knowledge and logic. This is part of our relationship with the Lord.
It is not merely found in head knowledge and in the reading of words on a page but in the changing of our hearts containing His Word and our affections turning back to God and to His ways. His love is both comprehendible and beyond comprehension.
Truthfully, I understand His love and I am in awe of His love all at once because it truly is unknowable on this side of heaven. When you see the depths of your need for the Savior, you begin to understand why Job responded the way he did.
I am thankful for the love of Christ because I am unlovable in so many ways. I am aware of it daily, and in that, I am ever more aware of His love, His mercy, and His grace. It is a comfort and a joy to know that His love is rooted in Him and is not based on what I do or have not done.
Jonathan Edwards said this about the love of God, “He is as it were an infinite ocean of love without shores and bottom, yea, and without a surface.” What lovely imagery that I cannot see or fully comprehend!
His Love, Our Weakness
The love of God is something that baffles and amazes me. While reading through this chapter, this statement was made, “At your point of deepest shame and regret, that’s where Christ loves you the most.” Upon reading this, I began to reflect on my own life and walk with the Lord.
Those times of being unlovable and in need of His grace are all too real and in thinking about sin and the mere weakness of our flesh in a fallen world, for those who are His, it can be difficult at times to grasp the love of God.
Truthfully, we will not be able to completely understand it until we stand before God in all His glory. We endure difficult times and suffering at times, and we can perceive it to be all about us. We find ourselves at points of weakness in varying capacities of life, and His love may be the furthest thing from our minds.
We may even believe His love is the furthest thing from us. But as believers in Christ, we must remember His love and His faithfulness. He strengthens us in our times of weakness.
We may not “feel” that way, especially when faced with difficulty or a life seeming to be in shambles. It is fair to say that none of us like to admit weakness, and what is even more unpleasant, and heartbreaking is to face our own fallenness and sin before a holy God. We may view the wrongs and failures of life as proof that God does not love us.
One of the most thought-provoking statements Dane made in this chapter centers on suffering and the love of God saying, “Your suffering does not define you. His does. You have endured pain involuntarily. He has endured pain voluntarily, for you. Your pain is meant to push you to flee to him where he endured what you deserve.”
How to Seek the Embrace of God
I cannot fully fathom His love, and yet I am thankful for His saving love and for a growing fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:6-8 says, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person —though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die — but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (ESV).
The God, who is love, showed His love by dying for you and me, and the penalty of sin that at one time enshrouded me with death and God’s wrath has been satisfied by Christ. God now embraces me with His everlasting love. If you are a believer in Christ, rejoice in His love.
For further reading:
Does God Really Know My Heart?
Is God's Love Conditional or Unconditional?
What Is God's Love? Meaning in the Bible and Our Lives
What Is the Reckless Love of God?
How Can We Embrace a Contrite Heart and Spirit?
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