“The Breadth and Length and Height and Depth…”

Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wand’ring from the fold of God;He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood.

In·ter·pose (in(t)ərˈpōz)

verb

1. place or insert between one thing and another.

2. intervene between parties.: "the legislature interposed to suppress these amusements".

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Do you want to know how tall the tallest building in the world is? You can look that up.

Do you want to know if a new couch will fit along the wall in your living room? You can measure that.

Do you want to know how long it takes you to walk around your neighborhood? You can time that.

Do you want to know the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ for you? Well, there’s no way to measure that but Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is that God would grant them, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the ability to begin to comprehend how great this love actually is:

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we even begin to understand Christ’s love for us. Pointing us to the cross, we see Jesus, in order to rescue us from death, placing His own perfect Self between us and the fate of sinful humankind. 

The breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ is more than we can measure. It’s more than we can fathom. It’s more than we can ask for or imagine. Yet when we look to Christ on the cross, giving his life for us, we can start to understand. His love for us - strangers and wandering sheep though we are - is unending and eternal.