Most Christians know that God loves them.

At least, we know how to say it.

We learned John 3:16. We’ve heard sermons about God’s love. We’ve sung about it. We’ve told other people about it.

But do we really understand how much God loves us?

“May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge…” – Ephesians 3:18-19

Think about those words.

Breadth. Length. Depth. Height.

Paul describes the love of Christ almost as though he is asking us to measure something.

And then he tells us it “passeth knowledge.”

So how do you measure something that cannot be fully measured? How do you understand something that surpasses understanding?

Maybe we can’t completely. But perhaps Scripture can help us close the gap a little bit.

“For God So Loved…”

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…” – John 3:16

We know the words so well that sometimes we can miss what they are saying.

God loved the world.

Not because the world had earned His love. Not because humanity had finally gotten everything right.

God loved, and because He loved, He gave.

But someone could read John 3:16 and still keep God’s love at a distance.

After all, “the world” is a very big place.

Billions of people have lived upon this earth. It is easy to believe that God loves humanity while still wondering whether God really loves you.

That’s where we need to dig deeper.

He Loved Us While We Were Still Sinners

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8

Don’t hurry past the words “while we were yet sinners.”

God did not wait until we became worthy of His love. He didn’t say, “Clean yourself up first.” He didn’t wait until we had stopped failing.

He demonstrated His love while we were sinners.

That means God’s love isn’t a prize handed to somebody who finally becomes good enough.

And if you’ve ever looked at your past and wondered how God could possibly love somebody who has done what you’ve done, Romans 5:8 answers you.

He already knew. And He loved anyway.

But Scripture takes us even further back than our sins. It takes us back before we had done anything at all.

Before You Ever Took Your First Breath

Psalm 139 may be one of the most personal descriptions in Scripture of God’s knowledge and care for an individual.

“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.” – Psalm 139:13

“My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret…” – Psalm 139:15

“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect…” – Psalm 139:16

Before David accomplished anything, God saw him. Before anybody else knew what David would become, God knew him.

Before his victories. Before his failures. Before Goliath. Before the throne. Before his terrible mistakes.

God knew him in the womb.

“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” – Psalm 139:17

Now God’s love becomes difficult to leave somewhere out there among “the world.”

This is personal.

God doesn’t merely see crowds. He sees people. He sees the individual.

And perhaps one of the hardest truths for some of us to accept isn’t that God loves humanity.

It’s that God loves me.

Engraved Upon His Hands

“But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” – Isaiah 49:14

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” – Isaiah 49:15

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands…” – Isaiah 49:16

The original promise is spoken to Zion, God’s people. We should respect that context.

But look at what God chose to reveal about Himself through it.

“I will not forget thee.”

Then He gives them a picture they could understand: Engraved upon My hands.

Not written in pencil. Not placed somewhere easily overlooked. Engraved.

God was answering people who felt forgotten by telling them that their circumstances were not evidence that He had forgotten them.

That matters because sometimes we make exactly the same mistake.

We look at what is happening around us and conclude something about how God feels toward us.

But difficult circumstances and forgotten by God are not the same thing.

Imagine God Singing

“The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” – Zephaniah 3:17

We understand singing to God. Churches have been doing that for centuries.

But stop and think about what this verse says.

God rejoices over His people with singing.

We sing about Him. Scripture gives us a picture of Him singing over His people.

That’s a very different picture of God from the one many people carry around in their minds.

Some imagine God watching from heaven primarily waiting for them to make another mistake.

Zephaniah gives us another picture entirely: A God who rejoices over His people.

What About Jeremiah 29:11?

There is another familiar verse that belongs in this conversation, but we need to handle it carefully.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” – Jeremiah 29:11

Today we often see this verse printed on plaques, cards, shirts, and social-media posts as though God originally spoke these words directly to each individual Christian.

That’s not the historical setting.

Jeremiah was writing to the Jewish exiles in Babylon.

They were away from their homeland, and God had already told them through Jeremiah that their exile would not end immediately. They were to build houses, plant gardens, raise families, and seek the peace of the place where they were living.

Then came God’s promise concerning His purposes for His people.

That context doesn’t make Jeremiah 29:11 less beautiful.

It makes it more beautiful.

These were people living in circumstances that could easily have made them wonder whether God had abandoned them.

And God was telling them: I haven’t forgotten you.

Their present situation wasn’t the end of the story.

That’s something we have already seen in Isaiah.

Sometimes God’s people feel forgotten. That doesn’t mean they are forgotten.

And God’s love is not limited to the little piece of the road we can presently see.

He sees farther down the road than we do.

How Long Is His Love?

Now let’s return to Paul’s prayer:

Breadth. Length. Depth. Height.

How long is the love of God?

Psalm 139 takes us back to the womb. Romans 5:8 takes us into our sin. Jeremiah shows God still working when His people are in exile and cannot yet see the ending.

God’s love reaches backward farther than our memory and forward farther than our sight.

How deep? Deep enough to meet sinners where they are.

How high? High enough that Paul struggles even to give us language capable of describing it.

How broad? John tells us: “God so loved the world.”

But after everything we’ve read, “the world” doesn’t mean God sees one enormous nameless crowd.

Psalm 139 won’t allow us to leave it there.

He sees the person inside the crowd. He sees you.

Nothing Can Separate You From His Love

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39

Read Paul’s list slowly.

Death cannot do it. Life cannot do it. Things happening right now cannot do it. Things waiting somewhere in your future cannot do it. Height cannot do it. Depth cannot do it.

And just in case Paul left something off the list:

“Nor any other creature.”

Nothing in creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Now go back one final time to Ephesians:

“The breadth, and length, and depth, and height…”

Perhaps we’re beginning to understand why Paul needed four dimensions and still couldn’t finish describing it.

Maybe We Were Asking the Wrong Question

Perhaps the question isn’t simply:

Does God love me?

Scripture has answered that.

Maybe the question is:

Do I understand how much?

And the answer may be: Not completely.

Neither do I.

Paul himself called it a love “which passeth knowledge.”

We are trying to understand something bigger than our ability to completely understand it.

But perhaps today we can close that gap just a little.

When you were being formed in the womb, God saw you.

When His people believed they had been forgotten, God said, “I will not forget thee.”

When they could not see beyond exile, God could.

When we were sinners, Christ died for us.

Scripture describes God rejoicing over His people with singing.

And when Paul searched for something – anything – that might finally be powerful enough to separate God’s people from His love, he couldn’t find it.

Not life. Not death. Not the present. Not the future. Not height. Not depth.

Nothing.

So the next time somebody tells you: “God loves you.”

Don’t let those words pass by simply because you’ve heard them a thousand times.

Stop. Think about what they mean.

You may spend the rest of your life trying to comprehend the breadth, length, depth, and height of that love.

And you still won’t reach the edges.

Because the love of Christ “passeth knowledge.”

But maybe today… you understand it just a little more than you did yesterday.

Rooted in Faith – John 3:16

At Living Holly, we don’t claim to have every answer. We simply share what we see as we study God’s Word. You may understand a passage differently, and that’s okay. Our hope is that these articles encourage you to open your Bible, study it for yourself, and keep digging.