<p>3:18 <i>That you might be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height</i>- As noted on :17, the gift of the Spirit enables us to perceive the love of the Father and Son. Rom. 5:5 says the same- &quot;the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us&quot;. Again we have in view a gift of the Spirit within our spirit, or as Ephesians terms it, &quot;the inner man&quot;. The gift of understanding something of the dimensions of the Lord's love is not received by us in isolation; the heightened comprehension is &quot;with all the saints&quot;.</p><p>&quot;The love of Christ&quot; often refers to the Lord's sacrifice. We cannot sit passively before the cross of the Lord. That &ldquo;love of Christ&quot; there passes our human knowledge, and yet our hearts can be opened, as Paul prayed, that we might know the length, breadth and height of it. The crucified Son of God was the full representation of God. The love of Christ was shown in His cross; and through the Spirit's enlightenment we can <i>know</i> the height, length, breadth of that love (Eph. 3:18,19). But this passage in Ephesians is building on Job 11:7-9: &quot;Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea&quot;. The purpose of the connection is to show that through appreciating the love of Christ, unknowable to the unenlightened mind, we see the Almighty unto perfection, in a way which the Old Testament believers were unable to do. It was as high as Heaven, and what could they do? And yet it must be confessed that we do not in practice attain to such fullness of knowledge and vision. We look to the Kingdom, one of the excellencies of which will be the full grasp of the Almighty unto perfection, as manifest in the death of His Son. All we <i>now</i> know is that that cross was the fullness of God, it was &quot;the Almighty unto perfection&rdquo;. But then, we shall know, we shall find it out. And yet, paradoxically, in some sense even now we can <i>know </i>&ldquo;the love of Christ&quot; a phrase often used about the cross that <i>passes</i> human knowledge. Speaking of His upcoming death, the Lord warned that where he was going, the disciples could not then follow; but they would, afterwards. This doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean they too were to die the death of the cross. Rather could it mean that they later would enter into what His death really meant; then they would see with some understanding, rather than run away from the vision of the cross. And for us, one of the Kingdom&rsquo;s riches will likewise be that we shall then understand that final climactic act the more fully. Yet we begin that discovery now.</p><p>God has more spiritual culture, for want of a better way of putting it, than to describe the love of Christ just with a string of superlative adjectives. Paul prayed that his Ephesians would be strengthened by the Spirit's working in the inner man, so that they would &quot;be strong to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge&quot; (Eph. 3:18,19 RV). There is a paradox here; to know something that can't be known, that passes knowledge. We can only know that love by God working on our inner man, so that we realize the experience we have of the love of Christ, and by seeing it manifested in others.</p>