Rooted and Grounded in Love

“that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith — that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19

In part 1 we discussed that our true identity is first answered in the question of “whose are we?”

We are children of the Most High God. Our position is so deep and so complete that as His children, our roots, our family roots, are ever expanding into the rich soil of His love.

While thinking with God one day, I asked Him of His love, because according to this scripture we can actually know, not with only understanding, but experientially, by faith; the breadth, the length, the depth, the height of His love. I remembered the scriptures of Jesus dying on the cross in our stead and His love was displayed as Jesus on the cross and cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Some think God turned His back, leaving Christ. But I remembered in Psalm 139 scripture states that “though I make my bed in hell, You are already there waiting on Me”. God saw it all. He felt the excruciating pain to see His son die, rejected and alone. Since eternity the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was one. Yet, in unity the love of the Godhead chose to pour all sin on the Son, literally ripping Him from the unity of the Trinity. In this atmosphere of inexpressible agony and loneliness, Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” With that cry from the Son, the Father clutched the veil in the temple that had separated humanity from Him, and with awesome vengeance, while the ground shook and the sky darkened, He ripped the separation open from top to bottom. By His hand, this unimaginable expression of Love opened the relationship to establish our identity as the sons of God. Then, completely defeating the enemy of any legal hold on the adopted sons of God, fueled by the power and love of the Holy Spirit, Jesus arose from the grave, as King of Kings and the full expression of God’s love and desire for His family, His adopted sons and daughters.

Is it true that before Jesus was born in the stable, known and still known as the Word, He was unrecognizable and not tangible to humanity? When the Godhead chose Jesus, the Word, to be embodied in humanity He would raise in a glorified body. So we, like Thomas, can touch his scars. We see the form of His face, His body clothed is Kingly robes dipped in blood, His eyes of blazing fire, and His snow white hair. And we will see Him returning, riding on a White Horse in all His splendor. What love to purposely choose to be identifiable, in a way contained, in a glorified body! What love to become fully God and fully man, limitless but identifiable.

Let us never make light of the manner of Love the Father has given us that we should be called the sons of God! (1 John 3:1)

Because of His great love we find ourselves sitting as His sons and daughters. There is nothing we can do except believe to receive this great love and identity as sons and daughters. Our first step into ‘who we are’ is to sit in Christ and His dealings of the cross and receive our identity as sons.

Challenge:

Let us take our identity as sons of God and delve to know, because scripture says we can know His love in Ephesians 3:16-19, in this light of His magnitude of expression of His love, pen a song or poem or sonnet to our Father.