The Magnificent, Mind-Boggling Love of God

"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" (Ephesians 3:17, 18).

Can we really measure the dimensions of God's love?

Could we measure it by sheer mathematics—by the number of people he loves? Jesus said "the very hairs of your head are all numbered." The average head contains about 100,000 hair follicles on the scalp, and with more than six billion people alive on earth today, the Lord has a lot to count!

Can we measure the love of God geographically—by physical space? The earth's land surface alone covers 57.5 million square miles, and that's only 30 per cent of the total surface of the earth. (The rest is covered by oceans.) Psalm 33:5 says "the earth is full of his unfailing love." And who can fathom the far reaches of outer space? David said, "Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies" (Psalm 36:5).

Perhaps a better measurement would be to count all the different kinds of people God loves. Old and young. People of all colors, languages and dialects, sizes and shapes. Females and males, rich and poor, well-known and unknown. Each individual is the object of God's affection and concern. He's preparing an eternal dwelling place for a vast multitude of the saved "from every nation, tribe, people and language" (Revelation 7:9).

Can we measure God's love by the length of time he loves? No, time can't limit the love of God. The Lord says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). His love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). Forever, love will be a characteristic of the eternal God. I can't comprehend such love without end.

What if we try to measure the love of God by the amount of sin he forgives? If each of us only sins three times a day (quite a conservative estimate), and we start counting at the age of 10, by the time we reach the age of 70 each of us already will have committed more than 65,000 sins. Multiply that times the number of people on earth, and you catch a glimpse of the trillions of iniquities the Lord is willing to "hurl into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). God's mercy makes our forgiving "70 times 7" seem like a very small demand.

No wonder the apostle Paul found God's grace so overwhelming. He testified, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst" (1 Timothy 1:15). Yes, the best way to measure God's love is to consider the sacrifice love led him to make. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us" (1 John 3:16).

Now here is a remarkable thing. John also says, "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:11). We should love the way God loves! Be more gracious than is socially customary. Forgive more than seems humanly possible. Give more than seems financially feasible. Sacrifice more than the world calls reasonable.

God's love is hard to measure, but when you begin to experience its width, length, height, and depth, you will want others to grasp it too. And the more you try to give God's love away, the more it seems to multiply.