Grace for the Race

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. (Psalm 100:1-2)

I have written several articles bemoaning the fact that far too many Americans see Thanksgiving as little more than a day for overindulgence in food and football, but I don’t believe I have ever written about the extent to which America’s Thanksgiving celebration bears wonderful witness to our Christian faith. I wrote this article for the November issue of the Good News and I’d like to share it with you here also. In doing so, I want to acknowledge the outstanding work of David Barton’s Wallbuilders ministry (www.wallbuilders.com), which was my primary resource for the historical information presented here.

Virtually everyone knows that our Thanksgiving tradition began with the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts. However, many Americans are unaware that the Pilgrims were also known as “Separatists” because, believing they would never be able to reform the Church of England, they felt compelled to separate from it. Because of persecution in England, they fled to Holland and ultimately set sail for America on the Mayflower. Their intended destination was Virginia, but due to violent storms on the North Atlantic, they landed on the shores of Massachusetts on November 11, 1620.

Before disembarking the Mayflower, which must have come to feel much more like a stinking dungeon than a sailing ship during their two-month, storm-tossed journey, the Pilgrims joined together in reciting Psalm 100 as a prayer of thanksgiving. Then the Pilgrims put pen to paper to create The Mayflower Compact, which is recognized as the first governing document created in the New World. The Mayflower Compact began with these words:

In the name of God, Amen. . . . Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic.

Isn’t that remarkable? The first governing document written for America was set forth “in the name of God . . . in the presence of God . . . for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith.” Somehow I don’t think our children are being taught that truth in many of our schools!

However, even with such high-minded goals for the establishment of the colony in Plymouth, the Pilgrims situation quickly became dire. With no shelter to protect them and very little provision to sustain them, nearly half of those who had set sail from Holland died during that first harsh New England winter. Yet God is in sovereign control of all things, and He gave the Pilgrims the miraculous blessing of Squanto, an English-speaking native Indian, who showed the starving colonists how to survive in the New World by planting, hunting, and fishing. In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims reaped a bountiful harvest which would sustain them through that winter, so they invited their Indian friends to join them in a celebration thanking the Creator God of the harvest, who had so graciously sustained them.

Edward Winslow, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, called for a festival, inviting the Indians to join the Pilgrims, writing this account:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after . . . a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much foul as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week . . . And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet be the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

To be sure, the Indians taught the skills for survival and the Pilgrims engaged in a disciplined effort in applying them, but the Pilgrims knew full well that “every good and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17) and that it was God who had supplied the bountiful increase.

From Pilgrims to presidents, Christian influence in America remained strong since that first Thanksgiving celebration. President George Washington made Thanksgiving a national event on October 3, 1789 with this proclamation:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God . . . Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26^th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.

On October 3, 1863, as the terrible War Between the States raged on, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that Thanksgiving be made an annual event:

I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

Regardless of how secular revisionist historians labor to rewrite American history, it is clear that America was founded and built upon the Word of God and the God of the Word. I often find myself in conversation with men and women who do not believe in God, but who insist that they are as thankful as any Christian. They tell me that they are thankful for family and friends, health and wealth, and possessions and possibilities. But when I ask them, “Who do you thank for these blessings?” I get only a sad, blank stare in reply. GK Chesterton put a sharp point on this disturbing dilemma, saying, “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.”

We need the good news of the Gospel to live lives of true thanksgiving. Only the Christian, who has a true, transcendent sense of meaning, can give wholehearted thanks because only the Christian offers thanks to the one, true Creator God from whom all blessings flow . . . just as the Pilgrims gave thanks to Him nearly 400 years ago.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20:7)

There are only two ways to live out our calling as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ; we live either in our own might or in the might of the Mighty One. So the question is this: What have you been relying on lately . . . Your might? Or the Mighty One? It is an irrefutable fact that those who trust in chariots and horses have no king but Caesar, but those who trust in the name of the Lord our God find strength for every season of life in the King of kings and Lord of lords.

In battle, chariots and horses created a great advantage for those who deployed them. But the child of God must always remember that victory belongs to the Lord.

When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. (Deuteronomy 20:1)

Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless. With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies. (Psalm 60:11-12)

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord. (Isaiah 31:1)

“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 4:6)

How often we believe we need to create some kind of advantage in the flesh if we are going to be successful! Yet when we do this, we stand in opposition to our God, who is always ready, willing, and able to grant us the victory if we will but trust in Him alone. What are chariots to our Christ? What are horses to our Holy One? The great heroes of the Bible all learned this truth by way of personal experience. Moses went up against all the chariots and horses in Egypt, but he trusted in the name of the Lord and saw every one of those chariots sink beneath the Red Sea. Gideon went up against the might of the Midianites with only a few hundred men, but he trusted in the name of the Lord and an enemy force of 120,000 was annihilated.

I don’t know where this message finds you today and what battle you may be facing, but regardless of what it is, trust not in your own might and the things of this world. Look to your Lord and Savior and know that He has promised to give you the victory if you will but trust in Him and lean not on your own understanding.

Remember these words of David when he was about to do battle with Goliath: “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:47). Confront whatever giant that opposes you today in the strength of the Mighty One, and know that your God will bring you victory.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

You are my portion, Lord. (Psalm 119:57)

How do we measure what matters most in life? I have said before that the world makes its measure through the Five P’s of Power, Position, Prosperity, Pleasure, and Possessions. The world tells us that when you are rich in these areas, you have it all. But the Word of God says something altogether different. When the Lord is our portion, we are rich beyond measure.

So where do you see your primary portion in life coming from? Read on and be encouraged!

When our portion is found in anything smaller than God, we find that we never have enough. Why? Because everything smaller than God was never designed to meet us in our deepest place of need, and that is because God made our deepest need beyond the reach of the “stuff” of this life. Power cannot satisfy it. Position cannot satisfy it. Prosperity cannot satisfy it. Pleasure cannot satisfy it. Possessions cannot satisfy it. When we seek our satisfaction in the things of this life, we will say, “I never have enough!” Spurgeon wrote, “The insatiable horse-leech of my lust ever crieth, ‘Give, Give!’ [Proverbs 30:15] Can I ever be delivered from it?”

Only when our hearts say, “Your face, Lord, do I seek” (Psalm 27:8 ESV) and our portion is God Himself will we find our deepest needs satisfied. When we seek satisfaction in our Savior as our portion, we will echo the apostle Paul and say, “I have learned to be content in any and every situation” (Philippians 4:12).

When Jesus is our portion, we have what nothing in this life can give us because we have the one Possession that can never be taken away. When we cross the Jordan, all we have accumulated on this side of the grave will remain behind. We shall bring nothing with us, for naked we came into this world and naked we shall go out. But when Jesus is our portion, we shall reach the other side of the Jordan rich beyond measure. When Jesus is our portion, we will not hear those terrible words, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” Rather, we will hear what will eternally delight our soul: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into thy rest.”

So where is your portion today? Do you seek it in the stuff of this life . . . or in the Savior who has given you life? Are you chasing after stuff that can never satisfy . . . or after the Savior who satisfies the soul forever?

Remember, when Jesus is your portion, you are rich beyond measure! When Jesus is your portion, your sins are forgiven, your debt is paid, and your guilt is gone forevermore. When Jesus is your portion, all wisdom, all power, and all goodness are yours, and all of it in full measure. To have Jesus as your portion is not to have only “a portion” of Jesus. He is not divided among the family of faith, for we each have Him in full measure, and that makes all who are in Christ rich beyond measure.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:5)

As it was in the beginning according to God’s created order, so it is within each one of His children: there is a divine divide between the light of day and the dark of night. Before Jesus granted us the gifts of repentance and faith, we lived in the darkness of night. Oh, we seemed to have life, and the watching world would have testified that we did, but Scripture makes it clear that we were “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). The spiritual state of our hearts could not have been darker until that moment in time when Jesus spoke the light of life into our hearts. Just as Jesus called, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43), and a man who had been in the tomb for four days got up and began to walk, Jesus Christ called your name, and suddenly your dead heart began to beat with new and eternal life.

But even after we have been saved, we must remember that both light and darkness still have their place in our lives until we cross the Jordan. When we read the accounts of the great saints in the Bible, we see both the light of day and the dark of night. King David, the man after God’s own heart, enjoyed the light of day as he closely followed the will of God. But at the time when kings went off to war, David stayed home, and he brought in the dark of night by his sinful relationship with Bathsheba. Peter witnessed the awesome light of the Transfiguration, but he also knew the despairing dark of night when he denied his Lord three times.

Do we not all enjoy the sunshine of good fortune and despair during the dark night of the soul? One simply will not exist without the other until Jesus returns for His second advent and puts all enemies under His feet. We may never experience this truth to the extreme that David and Peter did, but we all have our seasons of both light and darkness. During a time when we are enjoying a majestic mountaintop experience with our Lord, we must remember that we will be required to descend that mountain into a dark and lonely valley below. The divine divide we experience each morning and evening serves as an ever-present reminder that we too shall live our lives in both the light of God’s love and the darkness of His loving discipline.

Where does this word of encouragement find you today? Know this truth: if you are trudging through a season of dreary darkness, it will soon pass into the merciful morning light. And if you are currently enjoying the warmth of the bright noonday sun, know that this too shall pass.

We must not be surprised at the divine divide we experience in this life, for our Lord promised that “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). But don’t stop reading there! Jesus concluded with, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.” And one day soon, when Jesus calls us home or He returns from heaven, we will reside in the new heavens and the new earth where “There will be no more night” (Revelation 22:5). May that truth strengthen us all as we experience the divine divide on our way to the Celestial City.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” (1 Kings 18:43)

If you’re a baseball fan, you probably remember sports announcer Chris Berman, who, when announcing a home run, often cried, “Back-Back-Back-Back-Back . . . GONE!” Well, the word of encouragement I have for you today doesn’t come from an American sportscaster, but rather from the prophet Elijah of the commonwealth of Israel.

The drought that Elijah predicted had run its prescribed course of three years. He had been ministered to by the widow of Zarephath and returned the blessing by raising her son from the dead. Then God directed Elijah to go and tell Ahab, the king of Israel, that rain was on the way. After Elijah confronted the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, he sent his servant to the top of the mountain to look toward the sea and report whether or not rain was coming. Elijah sent his servant back . . . back—back—back—back—back—back seven times, refusing to give up on the promise of God. And, sure enough, the seventh time the servant came back with these words: “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” (1 Kings 18:44 ESV).

Elijah’s perseverance in prayer is a model for all of us today. He knew what God had promised and He knew he could count on that promise, simply because of the One who had made the promise to him. Elijah’s faith is even more remarkable in light of the immediacy of the answered prayer he had just experienced, when he had shamed the priests of Baal and God sent fire from heaven, consuming the wood, the burnt offering, the twelve stones of the altar, and even the water that filled the trench (1 Kings 18:30-39). This time, however, instead of an instant answer to Elijah’s supplication, there was a long delay. Clearly, God’s immediate answer served a mighty purpose for all who were on Mount Carmel and witnessed His power, and it is just as clear that this delay served a mighty purpose in the heart of God’s great prophet Elijah.

If you’ve spent much time in Scripture, you know that the number seven represents God’s number for perfection. It is certainly no coincidence that Elijah sent his servant to look seven times. The message is clear. God answers every one of our prayers instantly; He may answer with “Yes,” “No,” or “Wait.” Elijah was to wait upon the Lord to deliver His promised blessing in His perfect timing. Elijah would be strengthened in his waiting, and he was not to grow weary, because God’s plan is absolutely perfect to accomplish its purposes.

Notice that the faith of Elijah was rooted in expectant hope. He expected to hear about the coming rain every time he sent his servant to look for it; when he did not, Elijah sent him back again and again and again. Every report of “No rain” by the returning servant simply fueled Elijah’s faith to plead all the more. I am certain that, if the seventh time there was still the response of “No rain,” Elijah would have sent him back again.

What does your prayer life look like today? Do you have a firm grip on the promises of God, and do you refuse to let them go? Notice what was first seen by the servant: a little cloud, which was finally followed by a heavy rain. Have you looked closely at the results of your prayers?

What “little cloud” has God sent to encourage you to stay the course because the heavy rain is on the way? Go back—back—back—back—back—back—back, plead the precious blood of the Lamb, and trust God for His answer in His perfect time and in His gracious, loving way.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

“I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Matthew 9:6)

We all have a tendency to mistake wants for needs. We frequently say, “I need this” or “that” when, in actuality, we don’t need it at all; we simply want it and we want it so badly that we put it in the category of “need.” With that being said—that thought should give us all a moment of pause today to check our “want” list—I’d like to encourage you by explaining the importance of understanding our greatest need and how it has already been met.

The greatest need every person has is forgiveness. Unless our sins are forgiven, we will spend eternity separated from the love of God in that terrible place where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:28). To die without Christ is to die in our sins . . . and to die does not mean that one simply “goes in the ground” and has no more consciousness, like a TV screen turned off and gone black, as many unbelievers imagine. Nor does it mean that one will be translated into some idyllic, vaguely defined “better place.” To die in your sins means to suffer dreadful, agonizing, and eternal separation from the presence of the living God.

But this will not be the case for those who know the truth of today’s verse and have, by grace through faith, received it as true and placed their trust in the Son of Man. Our Lord Jesus Christ has the authority and the power to forgive our sins—all of our sins. Jesus Christ was born to die in our place to pay the penalty for our sins, and He has the power to pardon us at this very moment, no matter what we have done. His wounds bear witness to that power and authority.

He who knew no sin became sin for all those who will trust in Him as Lord and Savior—penalty paid . . . atonement made . . . debt satisfied. God the Father put His supernatural stamp of approval on the cross work of His beloved Son by raising Him from the grave on the third day, just as the Scriptures had promised. To all those whom He has granted repentance from sin, He has also guaranteed remission of sin. The power of Christ’s passion is perpetual. Never will the fountain of forgiveness run dry. Christian, nothing—nothing past, present, or future—can ever or will ever separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

May this truth set us free from the gnawing guilt that keeps us from growing into the person God is calling us to be! To be sure, we should be filled with a godly sorrow when we sin and break the heart of God. But after we have brought our sin before the throne of grace, we are to remember that it has been nailed to the cross and washed clean by the blood of the Lamb.

Beloved, because your greatest need has been met, you should be experiencing the peace that passes all understanding every day. Do not let the evil one make you a prisoner to your past. We are to learn from the past, not live there. Because His mercies are new every morning, rise up this day and live as one who has been forgiven and will never be forsaken. Oh, the joy in knowing that our greatest need has been met and will be met each day by our Master!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.”  (Matthew 6:19)

One of the great blessings of being a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is the gift of “divine disencumberment,” where God supernaturally shifts our focus away from earthly treasure to heavenly treasure. The same grace God showed in raising us from death to life is the same grace He displays in raising us above seeking after treasure on earth, “where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19).

Is divine disencumberment one of the marks of your life today? Before we were saved, by grace through faith, we sought after the stuff of this life. In our worldly-mindedness, we looked to satisfy the desires of the flesh through the attainment of any of “the Five P’s”—Power, Position, Prestige, Prosperity, and Pleasure. And make no mistake, the more we engaged in hot pursuit of any of these things, the more we became encumbered by the flesh and temporal satisfaction. The more we pursue the stuff of this life, the less we pursue our beloved Savior, and the result of this worldly pursuit is that we multiply the cares of this life.

The true disciple of Christ says NO to worldliness and YES to the Word. It’s not a matter of eliminating pursuit; it’s a matter of pursuing the right things. You see, our problem is not desire; our problem is desiring the wrong things. Our hearts should beat after “all things above,” pursuing the life God has called us to live. Throughout life, the disciple of Christ is being conformed into the image of our Lord Jesus. The more we are conformed into His image, the less we are encumbered with the stuff of this life.

Divine disencumberment is a grace that grows in the heart that beats for nothing smaller than Jesus. The true disciple is one who seeks first the kingdom of heaven because he or she knows that everything else will follow. God has promised to meet all our needs in the glorious riches of His precious Son, our beloved Savior. We need only to “keep the main thing the main thing,” inviting Jesus to take His rightful place in our lives: on the throne of our hearts. Divine disencumberment free’s us from a life filled with empty pursuits and fills us with the promise that “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it” (Proverbs 10:22).

What treasures have you been storing up for yourself lately? What does the confession of your life say to those who know you best? Remember, we are all hunting some kind of treasure. The key is to hunt after the treasures that are holy; when you do, divine disencumberment will follow you wherever you go.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

It is said of these people, “They kiss calf-idols!” (Hosea 13:2)

The people of God had indulged in willful rebellion; they had left their first love and chased after smaller gods that promised life, but delivered only death. This is always true when we chase after anything smaller than Jesus. Oh, our idol may look like life and it may even feel like life, but in the end, it cannot deliver on its promise and brings with it only disappointment, destruction, and death.

Let this serve as a word of warning this day: Kiss not the calf, for it cannot satisfy the longing of your heart. Instead, bow the knee and kiss the Christ, for He will meet you in your deepest place of need.

The problem with speaking this message into today’s church culture is that we tend to picture the golden calf that the Israelites fashioned and began to worship when Moses stayed too long on the mountain of God. We reason that these were a primitive people who bowed down to a golden statue of a calf, and we assume that we are far too educated and sophisticated to do such an outlandish thing. But this is a grave mistake. I readily acknowledge that very few people in today’s high-tech society would ever bow down before a statue of a calf, but I will also assert that far too many of us worship idols like a job, a relationship, success, wealth, a hobby, social status, or physical beauty. Perhaps you can add a few items to this list? We are consumed by a continual greed for “more,” which Paul identified as “idolatry” in Colossians 3:5.

It’s important to note that most of the things on this list of idols are not bad things. Things like a job, a family, or physical health are good things. The sin occurs when these, and countless other good things, become ultimate things in our lives. Then they become bad things, idols that enslave us and become life-altering, causing us to do things we ought not do, often hurting ourselves and our loved ones along the way. Make no mistake, we all “kiss calf-idols” from time to time. Sometimes they are clearly bad for us—idols like greed and immorality—but more often than not they could be good for us; and the greater the good, the greater our expectation of having our deepest needs met by it. We must remember the truth that good things become bad things when they become ultimate things.

So . . . have you kissed a calf lately? Have you sought after something smaller than God to give to you what only God can give? Remember, we all come from the womb with a God-sized void in our hearts. Only when we fill that void with God will we find the happiness, satisfaction, and joy that we so deeply desire. Kiss not the calf! Instead, like the woman who anointed our Lord with expensive ointment, kiss the feet of Jesus Christ and your internal void will be filled to overflowing.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. (2 Corinthians 3:3)

The apostle Paul says we are letters of our Lord Jesus Christ, not written with ink but with the Holy Spirit. So, the question we all must answer is this: What does our letter say to those who are reading us? It has been rightly observed that the life of the Christian will be the only Bible many people ever read. How does it make you feel to know that you are one of the Lord’s letters? It feels like a weighty responsibility to me!

Here is something we all must remember as disciples of Jesus: as soon as the watching world hears our profession of faith, they begin to watch more closely to see if our walk matches our talk. The way we live out our faith paints a clear picture for the unbeliever of the kind of God we love and serve. The way we live out our faith will either attract people to Christ or repel them. There is no middle ground.

So . . . how attractive have you been making God in your words and your deeds lately?

The key to being the most effective letter of the Lord is to prayerfully make the truths of the Gospel manifest in your life. Jesus is our model because He was the living perfection of the Word of God. He lived out the truths of the Gospel perfectly; yet in His perfection as the Lord’s Letter to mankind, some were attracted and some were repelled . . . some received and some rejected . . . some walked with Him and some walked away. Therefore, our focus must not be on the reception we receive when others read us; rather, we must constantly examine the message being declared by our own letter and be sure that it is true to the Gospel.

Here is one of the simplest ways to evaluate the content of our own letter: It should be written in the shape of a cross. The first thing people should read must be written vertically—how we love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength (Mark 12:30). The next thing people should read must be written horizontally—how we love others . . . all others. We can’t merely love the lovable; we are to love all others as we remember the love that was poured out for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). When people read the message of God’s love in us as the Lord’s letter, they read the most important message they will ever read.

Do you see the great privilege it is to be the Lord’s letter? God has chosen to write His message of perfect love on imperfect parchment paper and set it before the watching world for everyone to read. Remember, because His mercies are new every morning, so is our opportunity to write a new letter of love for the glory of our Lord. What will the Spirit of the living God write through you today so that others read of the love and forgiveness of God?

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)

When was the last time you gave deep thought to just how loved you truly are by your Savior? Even if you were to spend every waking moment marinating in and meditating on this truth, you would not begin to plumb the depths of how much He loves you. That is why Paul prayed that God would give the Ephesians the power to “grasp” at how vast that love is. May this truth comfort you and inspire you to rise above the waves of challenge you may be facing today!

Charles Spurgeon pondered on this amazing love in his Morning and Evening devotional –

Where shall language be found which shall describe His matchless, His unparalleled love towards the children of men? It is so vast and boundless that, as the swallow but skimmeth the water, and diveth not into its depths, so all descriptive words but touch the surface, while depths immeasurable lie beneath.

The apostle Paul tells us in our verse today that the love of Christ for us surpasses knowledge. Our finite minds simply cannot understand infinite love; what we do understand of it would not fill a teaspoon to overflowing when compared to the vast ocean of love that God in Christ had for us before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-5). When there was only the Triune God in existence, in the eternity that existed before God said, “Let there be light,” there was His love for us that surpasses knowledge. That love created us in His own image. The divine heart that beat with that unfathomable love never skipped a beat when we rebelled; rather, it pursued rebels on the run. Who can truly understand that kind of love?

The love that surpasses knowledge sought us, caught us, and bought us with the precious blood of Christ, shed on our behalf as He hung on Calvary’s cruel cross. What agony Jesus underwent to have us as His own! He was betrayed, denied, falsely accused, beaten, scourged, and felt a crown of thorns jammed into His brow and nine-inch spikes driven through His hands and feet. And as if that wasn’t enough pain to endure for His beloved, He knew the inconceivable anguish of supernatural separation from His Father, who would not even look upon His Son because He had become sin for us and endured the wrath of God . . . so that you and I will never have to.

If there should come a time when you just might begin to discern the depths of divine love that has been poured out upon us, notice the last portion of the verse: “That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” If it is impossible to fully fathom what it means to be the undeserving object of the love of God, how much more is it incomprehensible to know what it means to be filled with all the fullness of God?

Beloved, know this: when knowledge is surpassed, it is simply best to receive it, to rest in its truth, and let it fill your heart to overflowing.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!