I first accepted Christ when I was eight years old. I was trying to go to sleep one night and I couldn’t, because I knew, even at that age, that I was going to hell if I didn’t ask Jesus to come into my heart and be my Savior. I had no understanding of Him being my Lord. And while I knew that He loved me, because He had died on the cross for me, I had no idea how vast and deep that love was.
The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 3, prays, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
That is quite a prayer! Notice that God’s love has “width”, “length”, “depth”, and “height”. I submit to you the thought that it is infinite in each direction … that God’s love surpasses the boundaries of this known universe … that it is love “which passes knowledge”. Our knowledge of the universe is currently limited to 46.5 billion light years around us. We may be able to see further in the very near future with the James Webb Space Telescope, but we can never see to infinity. God is bigger than His creation … He made the heavens and the earth … His love is infinite as demonstrated by the death of His Son, Jesus, on the cross (Rom. 5:8).
My wife and I had a verse reference, 1 John 4:19, inscribed on the inside of my wedding band. That verse says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” Jesus said, in John 14, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Jesus is not speaking of works salvation … no one can earn their salvation … He knows that we can’t keep His law perfectly … that we sin … but He is asking us to grow in our love for Him by obeying Him the best that we can, by His grace (see the page “Grace”).
More about God’s love for us … see Psalm 36 … “How precious is Your loving-kindness, O God! Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.” Read Psalm 103 that recounts many ways in which God loves us.
The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ, Thomas Vincent, Soli Deo Gloria.