There are some things in life that are really difficult to describe. How long is eternity? What is the definition of the word “the”? What does water taste like? Those are difficult questions to answer!
In Ephesians 3:19, Paul prays for his readers “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” Our God loves us so much that it is beyond our comprehension. The smartest, most intelligent person on the planet will never be able to understand the love of God in its fullness. His love surpasses all knowledge. However, at the same time, the apostle Paul tells us that we can come to know the love of Christ. While we will never be able to fully understand God’s love for us, we can come to know God’s love for us better when we look to the Scriptures. Since we are studying about believing God’s love on Sunday morning, let’s attempt to describe it here.
God’s love for us is strong. It is so strong that we cannot be separated from it. According to Romans 8:35-39, nothing in the following list has the power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death, life, angels, rulers, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth, and anything else in all creation. Isn’t that awesome to think about? God’s love is so strong that there is not anything in all of creation that can separate you from it.
God’s love for us is enduring. Psalm 136 reminds us twenty-six times that “His steadfast love endures forever.” In Lamentations 3:22, we learn that “his steadfast love endures forever.” In our culture, couples will separate because they have “fallen out of love.” That never happens with God. God will never stop loving us. His love endures forever.
God’s love for us provides an opportunity for salvation from sin. How has God predestined us? In Ephesians 1:4-5, God has predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ in love. Why did God give us the opportunity to be made alive in Christ when we were dead in our trespasses? Ephesians 2:4-5 reminds us that it was “because of the great love with which he loved us.” How are we able to be called children of God? in 1 John 3:1, we are encouraged to look at the “kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” God did not have to give sinful humanity an opportunity to be saved, but He did because He loves us so much.
God’s love for us is best seen in the cross of Christ. Please consider the following passages. Romans 5:8: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 15:13-14: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” 1 John 4:9-10: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” There is no clearer demonstration of the indescribable love that God has for us than the cross of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
While God’s love for us certainly surpasses knowledge, we can come to know it based on what the Scriptures teach. When we “come to know and to believe the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:16), we cannot help but to be changed. As 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” Our lives should be controlled every day by the love that God has for us (2 Corinthians 5:14). Because God loves us, we love Him with everything that we have (Deuteronomy 6:4), which causes us to keep His commandments (John 14:15). Knowing the love that surpasses all knowledge is not just an intellectual endeavor. It does not only create warm feelings in our hearts. It changes us from the inside out. Knowing the love that surpasses knowledge should motivate us daily to be who God wants us to be.
-Tyler Alverson
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