Surpassing love

            “…and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…” (Ephesians 3:19)
            The more I dwell on it, the more this phrase impresses me.  As we move toward the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, let me share a few thoughts with you about the depth and breadth of Christ’s love.
            First, I’m reminded of how great he is.  It isn’t just Christ’s love that is beyond me; but everything about him that causes me amazement.  His compassion, his power, his ability to know all things… The fact that he is equal to God in every respect and is, in fact, God himself, boggles my mind.  Even when you read descriptions of God, don’t you feel like there is so much more that should be said?  His greatness is astounding.
            Secondly, think about his goodness.  There are many people who are described as being great.  But greatness without goodness can be cruel.  Many people who historians have described as great have been without compassion and more of a tyrant.  God’s goodness moves him to have compassion on those who are hurting.  His goodness causes a response of love when he sees the desperate condition of mankind.  His goodness keeps him faithful even when we aren’t.
            But with all of this, our resurrection celebration reminds us of the depths to which he was willing to go to demonstrate the previous traits.  He temporarily (and voluntarily) limited the full exercise of some of his attributes as God and took on the form of humanity.  This is no small step; the experience that Peter, James and John had on the mount of transfiguration proved that.  When the glory of Jesus shone through for those few moments, the disciples were amazed at what they saw.  Jesus is God.  Leaving Heaven required that he veil his glory with a human body.  He chose to take on the limitation of being physically human in order to bring the love of God to us.
            The fact that Jesus went beyond that to become a servant, must be added to our thinking as well.  He followed the path of servanthood while he was here.  He gave himself for our benefit.  He even chose to give up his life in our place.  He did so, not in a thrilling, well-publicized death which gave a hero’s honor to a martyr, but rather in an ignominious, shameful death reserved for the dregs of society.
I keep coming back to that verse in Ephesians… “This love that surpasses knowledge…”  Why would Jesus do that?  God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.  It was his love that brought him from the glories of Heaven.  It was his love that brought him to this sinful earth.  It was his love that sent him to the cross.
Praise God, he came back from the grave victorious.  Now it is his love that offers me salvation through his name.  It is his love that will keep me in this life until he takes me home to live forever in the place that his love has caused him to prepare for me.
            Love.  I can’t comprehend the length, or breadth, or height of God’s love…it surpasses my knowledge.  I guess that brings me back to where I started.  

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