Ephesians 3:17b-19 – “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

“…Forgiveness of sins and justification are good news because they remove obstacles to the only lasting, all-satisfying source of joy: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not merely the means of our rescue from damnation; he is the goal of our salvation. If he is not satisfying to be with, there is no salvation. He is not merely the rope that pulls us from the threatening waves; he is the solid beach under our feet, and the air in our lungs, and the beat of our heart, and the warm sun on our skin, and the song in our ears, and the arms of our beloved.

“This is why the New Testament often defines the gospel as, simply, Christ…Therefore to believe the gospel is not only to accept the awesome truths that 1) God is holy, 2) we are hopeless sinners, 3) Christ died and rose again for sinners, and 4) this great salvation is enjoyed by faith in Christ - but believing the gospel is also to treasure Jesus Christ as your unsearchable riches. What makes the gospel Gospel is that it brings a person into the everlasting and ever-increasing joy of Jesus Christ.

“The words Jesus will speak when we come to heaven are: ‘Enter into the joy of your Master’ (Matt 25:21). The prayer he prayed for us ended on this note: ‘Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory’ (John 17:24). The glory he wants us to see is the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ.’

“…The gospel is the good news that the everlasting and ever-increasing joy of the never-boring, ever-satisfying Christ is ours freely and eternally by faith in the sin-forgiving death and hope-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ. May God give you ’strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge’ (Eph 3:18-19).”
(From John Piper’s What Is the Christian Gospel?)

Today let’s continue to pray Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 for ourselves and others.

-AP