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“Five Superlatives of Scripture - Part 3”
Five Superlatives of Scripture - Part 3
Wade Webster
In In the last two installments of this study, we examined two superlatives of Scripture: Peace that is beyond understanding and wisdom that is beyond comprehension. In this installment of our series, we will discuss a third superlative.
Love Beyond Knowledge
Paul wrote, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19). As Christians, we are rooted and grounded in love. The love of Christ not only stabilizes us through any storm, it supplies us through any season. Although we as saints strive to comprehend and to calculate the love of Christ, it passeth knowledge. Since this love passeth knowledge, it also defies declaration. To the Christians at Corinth, Paul declared, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). There simply are not adequate words to describe the great love that Jesus displayed for us. I love the way that the song, The Love of God, expresses it: “The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell…Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, aAnd every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above, Would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Tho stretched from sky to sky.” As you know, Jesus didn’t die for us when we were friends, but while we were still enemies. Paul wrote, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:6-10). This is a love that is greater than any love we know on earth. Jesus declared, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). The love of Christ is even greater than this. The love of Christ was shown to us while we were still enemies. John wrote, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3:1). The expression, “Behold, what manner” is an exclamation of surprise. It means “of what country” is this love. The love of Christ is a love that comes from a place other than earth. It is a heavenly love. There was nothing like it on earth until Jesus came and died.
