The One Who Fills the Universe Emptied Himself

If you’re “full of yourself,” you are prideful, and there’s no room for anyone else, not even for God. I guess that pride allows you to love only you. To love someone else requires making room for others, an emptying, maybe even a humbling, submitting yourself to make someone else’s needs more important than your own. So the God who fills the universe paradoxically “emptied Himself” (Philippians 2:7) out of love, putting aside all that was rightfully His in order to make room for us. “God proves His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

His Greatness No One Can Fathom!

He knows them all by name.

“Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.” Psalm 145:3. I’ve looked recently at the latest pictures of known galaxies, which God spoke into existence. I also know that the brain He created has more neurons than the Milky Way has stars. As amazing as the brain is, we still can’t wrap out minds around it.

Augustine pondered this in Chapter 10 of the Confessions as he meditates just on our memory: “The power of memory is great, very great, my God. It is a vast and infinite profundity. Who has plumbed its bottom? This power is that of my mind and is a natural endowment, but I myself cannot grasp the totality of what I am” (Conf. 10.8.15).

But that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. Try to fathom God’s love as expressed in John 3:16. I think we cannot.

I’ve got a lot on my mind.

 

God Made Visible

We should surely love others. No one has ever seen God, but if we love, others will glimpse God in us. Meditation based on 1 John 4:8ff

God’s Love Paid the Price

“It is finished!” Greek: Tetelestai – “The debt is paid”

Worth is measured by “market value,” how much someone is willing to pay. Now, apply this principle to Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrated His love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” How much was it worth to Jesus to redeem me from Satan’s Slave Market? He paid the price, a ransom, with His precious blood, shed for the remission of my sins. He died my death. I received His Life. My worth to God is immeasurable.

Whereas I was once in Satan’s Slave Market marked “FOR SALE-REDUCED-CHEAP,” I am now seated in the Heavenly Places with Christ Jesus marked with a seal “VALUABLE-BOUGHT AND PAID FOR AT A HIGH PRICE.”