T H E O P H I L U S

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

– Ephesians 3:14-19

John Calvin, in his commentary on the gospel of John states: “if we wish to obtain the knowledge of Christ, we must seek it from the Scriptures; for they who imagine whatever they choose concerning Christ will ultimately have nothing of him but a shadowy phantom. First, then, we ought to believe that Christ cannot be properly known in any other way than from the Scriptures; and if it be so, it follows that we ought to read the Scriptures with the express design of finding Christ in them. Whoever shall turn aside from this object, though he may weary himself throughout his whole life in learning, will never attain the knowledge of the truth; for what wisdom can we have without the wisdom of God?”

Spiritual depth in revelation through scripture is something that Christians ought to yearn for. It is a pursuit in the spiritual disciplines and our meeting with the Lord daily that draws much deeper meaning to how we perceive, experience, and apply scripture to our lives and grow deeper in our understanding of who God is. The issue for many of us is that we take scripture either for granted or only interpret them as we desire to hear it.  We even often interpret them too much for face value with a shallow grasp on application by looking at the simple, most immediate themes of scripture rather than the much deeper truths that belay them that roots into our soul and character which shapes and prunes us to all degrees of both pain and joy.

The most painful part of reading scripture this way is that it leads me to a place of repentance and conviction, especially when it is something we never want to touch on or dig up from the depths of one’s most darkest insecurities. It challenges us to live in complete self-denial, to abandon ones pride, and for thorns and bullets that are embedded in one’s shoulder. Though it has healed over, the object of pain is still within the body. When the season comes, it is the most painful burden one could carry – even if it is only the size of a kernel. But when we dig deeper into the Word of God, so does it also put us through surgery to take out the arrowhead in which we thought we could live with.

Hebrews 4:12 says: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

The Word of God, eternal, manifested to us through our Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross bearing thorns in his brow, nails in his hands and feet, and with a spear through his side ministers to all the pain that we could bear. Not so that we should wear our sins with shame, but so that as Christ was resurrected we would also too be born again and raised to life from the sins that lead us to death.

Search deeper the Word of God today, and may it search you deeper within your heart and soul so that the glory of God and the works of the Holy Spirit may have his power within you today.