Beyond
Words
God
is high and lofty. Yet He dwells in humble hearts. Man
is finite, yet God communicates His infinities with him.
Some of these infinities are described by Paul. Our
consideration of these will enrich our spiritual lives.
A.
The Love of Christ Which Passeth
Knowledge (Eph. 3: 17-19)
The
basis of all God’s dealing with man is His love to
mankind. Apostle Paul describes the beauties of this love in
his prayer- “… that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith,
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able
to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and
length and depth and height and to know the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge …” The primary
thought is that the love of Christ is beyond man’s
knowledge. Yet the privilege of a believer is to know
this love. Spiritual growth and maturity is essential
for this. ‘Beyond knowledge’ does not mean unknowable
but it means that it can not be exhausted by studies.
The love of Christ is not a mirage that goes away as
you try to get at it. The dwelling of a believer is
in the sphere of God’s love itself. However, the four
dimensions of this love namely, the width, length, height
and depth would always continue to expand as we try
to grasp it. In short, the adventure of our search for
a better understanding of His love would always remain.
The thrill of conquering Mount Everest ended as they reached
the top, because there is no other higher peak on earth to
conquer. Their excitement and joy came to an end in
a moment as they stood on the top. This is not the
experience of believers. The heart beats of their spiritual
satisfaction will continue for ever. In the words
that the Lord spoke to Israel through Jeremiah, “I have
loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3) we see
this truth.
Our
reciprocation to this great love should also have this
glory and endlessness. It should also be translated in our
everyday spiritual life into spiritual qualities and good
works. In the words of Paul, this love should shine in our
lives as “fruit of the spirit” (Gal. 5:22-24). This
is possible, because, the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). The need
to comprehend this love “with all saints” should deserve
our special attention. If the fellowship of this love
is manifested in our assembly life, the spiritual state
of our assemblies would be very high indeed.
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B.
The Unspeakable Gift (2 Cor.
9:15)
“To
give” is characteristic of love. Love gives. We
have the mind to give anything to those whom we love. God
who is love is the same, nay; He is much more than that. God
is the greatest Giver. All the good gifts we enjoy are
from Him. But there is an incomparable and great gift.
Apostle John says what this gift is, “His only begotten
Son” (John 3:16). Paul qualifies this as “the unspeakable
gift.” This is a gift that cannot be fully expressed
and extolled- The Lord Jesus Christ. This indescribability
will continue even in eternity. The world of infiniteness
is being unfolded before us.
What
is the practical value of this? We should not be silent
because it is “unspeakable gift,” on the contrary, our duty
is to continue to speak about it. This is because we will
have more to say when we begin to speak about it. We should
speak about this Lord to ourselves and to others. When
we speak to ourselves it would evoke natural words
of praise from us. This is what Paul does. “Thanks
be unto God for the unspeakable gift.” Praise
will be our heart beats in eternity. However, we should
not forget that our words of this ‘unspeakable gift’
to this world will end with this world. Therefore,
whatever we have to say here, we should say.
If
God is a Giver the children of God should also be givers.
Paul says, ‘We have the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor. 2:16).
Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. If so, we also
should present ourselves to the Lord. Not only we ourselves,
but what we have also should be presented to Him. Mahakavi
K.V. Simon in one of his hymns sing:
“Body,
fame, wisdom, power and money
Let
us give to the Heavenly One, the Heavenly One
We
should be firm about this – For to be full and complete
We
should serve the Lord with all our heart”
We
should remember that it is in the light of this “Gift” we
give to the work of the Lord and Lord’s people.
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C.
The Unsearchable Riches of
Christ (Eph. 3:8)
“He
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us
all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all
things?” (Rom. 8:32). What is the answer to Paul’s question?
He will give us all things. Not only so, He has already
given us. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all heavenly blessings
in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3). Paul himself confirms his
question in affirmative. We have received the
riches of these blessings through Christ. Legally God
has pegged all loop holes. He has given us the adoption
(Gal. 4:5-7) and has made us joint heirs in Christ (Eph.
3:6). Therefore we should know about the quantity and
quality of these riches. When we endeavour to know this
we understand it is unsearchable. The mystery, that
the ‘gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the
same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by
the gospel’ was revealed to Paul. When Paul became
the spokesman of this truth, he received the honour
of preaching “to the gentiles about the unsearchable
riches of Christ” which is limitless in
quantity and heavenly in qualities. We will have the
sweet experience of this with our Beloved, the unspeakable
Gift.
What
is the earthly relevance of these unsearchable riches?
1.
What Paul did we also should
do. We should preach about these unsearchable riches
of Christ here in this world (Eph. 3:8).
2.
We should invite those who
live in spiritual poverty into these riches.
3.
We should appropriate these
heavenly blessings which God has given us.
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D.
The Peace of God that Passeth
All Understanding (Phil. 4:7).
“Be
careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made
known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).
It
is great news that in this world where we cannot even
think of peace there is something called, ‘peace that is
beyond understanding.’ Bible calls God the ‘God of peace’
(Heb. 13:20) and the peace that He gives, the ‘peace of God’
(Phil. 4:7). The God of peace has reconciled us to Him
by the blood that was shed on the Cross (Col. 1:20)
and gave us peace. This is peace with
God (Rom. 5:1). As a result of peace with God we have
the peace of God. In other words we have
peace in God in our practical life.
Paul’s
intelligent discovery concerning peace is this:
‘He is our peace’ (Eph. 2:14). The Person of
Jesus Christ is our peace. Isaiah presents this Lord
as ‘The Prince of Peace’ (Isa. 9:6). There is no peace
without God’s Prince of Peace.
In
the light of all these what shall we do? We should
introduce this Prince of peace to the world without peace.
In other words preach the ‘gospel of peace’ (Eph. 6:15; Rom.
10:15). We should experience the peace that God gives in
our daily life (John 14:21). We should not only enjoy
the peace of God, it should take control of our lives
(Col. 3:15). Our personal experience of peace has also
a social aspect. That is, ‘follow peace with
all men’ (Heb. 12:14). In our Assembly life
it is very important.
For
a few moments we traveled through limitless spheres. Our
journey through these spheres enabled us to have a glimpse
of what limitless blessings God, who is the cause of
limitless, unknowable, indescribable world, has prepared for
his children. We hope that this has helped us to enlarge
our spiritual horizon. The believer today should give
emphasis to the practicalities that are inherent in
these infinities. If we do this a victorious Christian
life will be our portion.
