Measuring The Immeasurable

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

“May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breath, and length, and depth, and height;

“And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The ability to comprehend and measure described in our text was the subject of the apostle’s prayer, and therefore we may be quite sure that it is a most desirable attainment.

Observe how he prays, and how wisely he arranges his petitions.

He would have us measure the immeasurable, but he would first have us made fit to do so.

We shall make our chief point the fourfold measurement, but we shall note that which comes before, and that which follows after.

I. THE PREVIOUS TRAINING REQUIRED FOR THIS MEASUREMENT.

1. He would have their spiritual faculties vigorous.

   • “Your inner man”: understanding, faith, hope, love, all need power from a divine source.
   • “Strengthened,” made vigorous, active, healthy, capacious.
   • “With might”: no low degree of force will suffice.
   • “By his Spirit.” The power required is spiritual, holy, heavenly, divine, actually imparted by the Holy Spirit.

2. He would have the subject always before them. “That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith.”

   • “In your heart.” Love must learn to measure Christ’s love. It is revealed to the heart rather than to the head.
   • “By faith.” A carnal man measures by sight, a saint by faith.
   • “May dwell.” He must be ever near, that we may learn to measure him. Communion is the basis of this knowledge.

3. He would have them exercised in the art of measurement. “That you, being rooted and grounded in love,” etc.

   • We must love him ourselves if we would measure Christ’s love.
   • We must, by experience of his love, be confirmed in our own love to him, or we cannot measure his love.
   • We must also have a vital grip of Christ. We must be rooted as a tree, which takes many a hold upon the soil.
   • We must settle down on his love as our foundation, on which we are grounded, as a building.
   • We must also show fixedness, certainty, and perseverance in our character, belief, and aim; for thus only shall we learn.

II. THE MENSURATION ITSELF.

This implies a sense of the reality of the matter.

It includes a coming near to the object of our study.

It indicates an intimate study, and a careful survey.

It necessitates a view from all sides of the subject.

The order of the measurement is the usual order of our own growth in grace. Breadth and length before depth and height.

1. The breadth. Immense.

   • Comprehending all nations. “Preach the gospel to every creature.”
   • Covering hosts of iniquities. “All manner of sin.”
   • Compassing all needs, cares, etc.
   • Conferring boundless boons for this life and worlds to come.
   • It were well to sail across this river and survey its broad surface.

2. The length. Eternal.

   • We wonder that God should love us at all. Let us meditate upon—
   • Eternal love in the fountain. Election and the covenant.
   • Ceaseless love in the flow. Redemption, calling, perseverance.
   • Endless love in endurance. Longsuffering, forgiveness, faithfulness, patience, immutability.
   • Boundless love, in length exceeding our length of sin, suffering, backsliding, age, or temptation.

3. The depth. Incomprehensible.

   • Stoop of divine love, condescending to consider us, to commune with us, to receive us in love, to bear with our faults, and to take us up from our low estate.
   • Stoop of love personified in Christ.
   • He stoops, and becomes incarnate; endures out sorrows, bears our sins; and suffers our shame and death.
   • Where is the measure for all this?
   • Our weakness, baseness, sinfulness, despair, make one factor of the measurement.
   • His glory, holiness, greatness, Deity, make up the other.

4. The height. Infinite.

   • As developed in present privilege, as one with Jesus.
   • As to be revealed in future glory.
   • As never to be fully comprehended throughout the ages.

III. THE PRACTICAL RESULT OF THIS MENSURATION. “That you might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Here are words full of mystery, worthy to be pondered.

Be filled. What great things man can hold!

Filled with God. What exaltation!

Filled with the fullness of God. What must this be?

Filled with all the fullness of God. What more can be imagined?

This love and this fullness will lead to the imitation of Christ’s love.

Our love to him will be broad, long, deep, high.

Insertions

In the gospel history we find that Christ had a fourfold entertainment among the sons of men; some received him into house, not into heart, as Simon the Pharisee, who gave him no kiss, nor water to his feet; some into heart, but not into house, as Nicodemus, and others; some neither into heart nor house, as the graceless, swinish Gergesenes; some both into house and heart, as Lazarus, Mary, Martha. And thus let all good Christians do; endeavor that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, that their bodies may be fit temples of his Holy Spirit, that now in this life, while Christ stands at the door of their hearts, knocking for admission, they will lift up the latch of their souls, and let him in; for if ever they expect to enter into the gates of the city of God hereafter, they must open their hearts, the gates of their own city, to him here in this world.—John Spencer.

Faith makes man’s heart, That dark, low, ruined thing, By its rare are, A palace for a king.

Higher than proud Babel’s tower by many a story

By faith Christ dwells in us, the hope of glory.—F. Tate.

The more we know the more are we conscious of our ignorance of that which is unknown, or, as Dr. Chalmers used to put it in his class—borrowing an illustration from his favorite mathematics—“The wider the diameter of light, the greater is the circumference of darkness.” The more a man knows, he comes at more points into contact with the unknown.

‘Tis hard to find God; but to comprehend

Him as he is, is labor without end.—Robert Herrick.

A gentleman passing a church with Daniel Webster, asked him, “How can you reconcile the doctrine of the Trinity with reason?” The statesman replied by asking, “Do you understand the arithmetic of Heaven?’