LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Tasters from the King's Table
Christ's measures
The passage of Ephesians 3:17-18 expresses Paul's desire that the Ephesians are able to understand with all the saints what is the width, the length, the depth and the height, and to know Christ's love that exceeds all knowledge, so that they be full with all the fullness of God.
What is it that has width, length, depth and height? To what or to whom do those dimensions refer? It is usually thought that it is the love of God in Christ. However, it is shortly after mentioning those dimensions that it says "and to know Christ's love", as if it was something different.
Do they refer to something or somebody? If we look carefully at what comes before, we will see that it is Christ Himself: "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, rooted and established in love, you are fully able to understand..." (v. 17).
Now then, what is Christ's width? In Greek, the corresponding word only appears in Revelation 20:9, to refer to the "width of the earth", and in Rev. 21:16, to refer to the width of the new Jerusalem. Christ's width is, then, the width of the earth (and the east is indescribably far from the west), and also that of the holy city, His church. How symbolic! How significant!
What is Christ's longitude? It is the length of Jacob's ladder that united the sky with the earth, the two ends of the universe. It crosses the greatest distance, uniting the sublime and inaccessible holiness of God with the densest blackness of our sinful state. Christ united heaven with the earth.
What is Christ's depth? To discover Christ's depth we have to enter into the depths of His tender heart, where all men fit.
And what is Christ's height? The Greek word for " height " is also used in Ephesians 4:8, to refer to the height of the heavens. Christ is today glorified in the heavens, but His feet are on the earth, and He walks on it by means of the church.
Christ is the New Man, the Spiritual Man, who, being different to us, doesn't only have stature, or width, but rather He has all the wonderful dimensions of the new creation.