To Know the Unknowable

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:14-19).

There are very few pieces of Scripture that are as grandiose as this one. It pushes us to heights that are rarely attained elsewhere. Come with me for a moment as we take in some of the spectacular “views” from this little piece of the Bible.

Paul lays out his prayer for the Church in this little passage. He asks the Father to grant something. But first, we see that He asks that it be granted “according to the riches of His glory” (3:16). The origin and, therefore, purpose of God granting this prayer is that He would be glorified. It is important to remember this (2 Cor. 12:7).

So what does Paul ask of the Father for the Church? First, he asks that they be strengthened (3:16). But with what strength? His prayer is for the strength of the inner man through the Holy Spirit. That is key (and we’ll come back to that). What is the purpose of this strengthening? “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (3:17). Note, then that for Christ to dwell in us, we require 1) faith and 2) the inner strength provided by the Holy Spirit.

Paul makes a second request as well. He prays that we would be able to know the love of Christ. Now if you are good Bereans, you’ll see that this isn’t exactly what he says. This is actually a huge request. To know the love of Christ entails first that we be “rooted and grounded in love” (3:17). Then, the request is not for mere familiarity but with a vast (“what is the breadth and length and height and depth” (3:18)), experiential knowledge. (This is the word used in 3:19 – not merely knowledge, but experiential knowledge.) It is only through this experiential knowledge of the love of Christ in all its dimensions that enables us to be “filled up to all the fullness of God” (3:19). However, there is one kicker here, one paradox. Paul asks that we have this knowledge, but says that the love of Christ “surpasses knowledge” (3:19). Paul’s prayer is that we can know something that exceeds our ability to know.

Picture this. You are in a row boat on, say, Lake Superior. So large is this lake that you cannot see any shore. You take a cup and dip into the lake and take a drink. Do you now know what the lake tastes like? Yes … and no. You’ve experienced (experiential knowledge) a very, very small portion of a very, very big lake. You’ve got a taste. But you could spend your life sipping away throughout the lake and you would never taste it all.

This is to be our lives. Paul’s prayer is that we would be immersed in the love of Christ, knowing things beyond our capacity to know, experiencing a love that exceeds our capacity to comprehend. That’s love! That’s abundant life!

Now, this is clearly bigger than anything we can conceive or accomplish. Paul explains how this “impossibility” is going to be accomplished in the soaring doxology that follows.

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, ²¹ to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen (Eph. 3:20-21).

Don’t miss it! It’s huge. How is it that we will be able to know that which exceeds knowing? We will be able to do that because God is able to accomplish more than we even have the capacity to dream. Indeed, God’s capacity so exceeds Paul’s ability to explain that he lapses into some funny language. When Paul says “far more abundantly beyond”, he uses an odd Greek construction. He says, “huper huperekperissou”. Now, perissou is “abundantly”. The prefix, ek, means “from” or “out of”. Thus, ekperissou is “out of abundance”. Note, however, that at this point we have a prior prefix: huper. And having stripped out this prefix, I’m sure you can see that it’s repeated in the phrase. So what is this? The word is the source of our word “hyper”. In essence, Paul has said that God’s ability hyper-abundantly exceeds our ability to dream. But wait! He says it twice! So God’s ability hyper-hyper-abundantly exceeds our abilities to ask or even think. That’s huge!

But wait! It gets bigger! God’s abilities go super-super-abundantly beyond what we can imagine, but this power “works within us” (3:20)! This isn’t a strange power, a foreign power. It’s a power that is already at work within us! That is how the Father will accomplish Paul’s prayer for us to know experientially Christ’s love which exceeds our knowledge. And that is why He received the glory forever and ever. Amen!