Growth Weekly
Paul believed we can come to know just how “wide, long, high, and deep the love of Christ” is for us (Eph 3:18). In some previous posts I described just how wide and long that love is. This week I ask the question: just how high and deep is it?
1 John 4:10-12 – “This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us.”
There is a book, Flatland, by Edwin Abbott that tells the story of A Square and his adventure through spacial dimensions. A Square is, as you could guess, a square and lives in a world that is entirely 2-dimensional, thus, an actual land that is flat. However upon the eve of a new millennium, he travels to a new world: Spaceland, a land of three dimensions. Here in Spaceland, A Square is astounded by this dimension of space and depth and how much better the world seems with this extra dimension. In some ways, we experience God’s love just as A Square experienced Spaceland. We know of the length and width of God’s love. However, when we realize that there is actual depth to his love, then we come closer to understanding the full measure of his love. When we say that God’s love has dimensions to it, both height and depth, we are saying that his love is spiritual and moral. We have limited God’s love when we sentimentalize it. Over the years, God has turned into the man upstairs, the kind grandfather, the home deity instead of the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the world. We have softened the sacrifice of the cross and mellowed out the morality of God. When we understand that God’s love has depth to it, we’ll realize that God doesn’t just make us feel good but he actually makes us good. His love doesn’t just make us feel safe but actually saves us from our sins! Christianity is not a surface religion worshiping a two-dimensional god but a life-changing religion worshiping a God of depth. The religion of Christ is not magical but moral – his love pulls us to live to a higher and better standard. As John describes in his passage, God’s love can draw us to perfection. For Wesleyans, this is entire sanctification – a perfect love for God and others. Entire sanctification isn’t just a feeling or good intentions; it is a deliberate life lived in the depth of God’s holy and moral love. Too many of us want to settle for the safety of God in our comfort levels but there is no safety with spirituality - all of us must come to grips with depth of God's love and what it means for both the way we live our lives and the way we worship him.
When is the last time you reflected on the sacrifice of the cross? In what ways does the reverence of God need a boost in your life and worship? God’s love has power to bring real change to your life, so how can you allow the depth of his love to both change and grow you? Modern religion has kept the name of God but has forgotten his character – if he is holy, what can he make you?