After we experience the breadth and length of Christ, we begin to experience the height of Christ and then the depth. Do not think that we firstly experience the depth of Christ. No, firstly we ascend and then we descend. Before we can have the depth, we must have the height. The spiritual experiences of the depth of Christ come from the experiences of the height of Christ. This means that firstly we grow upward and then we are rooted. Therefore, the proper understanding of the experience of the height and depth of Christ is contrary to our natural concept, which places depth before height.
In our experience of Christ, we should go on from the two dimensions to three, from a “square” to a “cube.” A cube is solid. Both in the tabernacle and in the temple the Holy of Holies was a cube. The dimensions of this cube in the tabernacle and temple respectively were ten cubits and twenty cubits. The New Jerusalem will be an eternal cube, twelve thousand stadia in three dimensions. The church life today must also be a “cube.” Furthermore, our experience of Christ in the church must be “cubical,” three-dimensional, with many lines going back and forth in all three directions. When we experience Christ in such a three-dimensional way, we are solid. In our experience of Christ we are firstly a “square” and then a “cube.” When we become a cube, we cannot fall, and we cannot be broken. Christ is the universal cube, and the church life today is also a “cube,” not a “line” nor even a “carpet.” What about our experience of Christ? May the Lord open our eyes to see that our experience of Him must be a “cube.” As we go back and forth and up and down in our experience of Christ, we eventually have a solid “cube.”
In verse 17 Paul speaks of “having been rooted and grounded in love.” We are God’s farm and God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9). As God’s farm we need to be rooted for growth, and as God’s building we need to be grounded for building up. Thus, in verse 17 Paul has in mind the matters of life and building. In speaking of our having been rooted and grounded, Paul indicates that the experience of Christ is for life and building. As those who have Christ making His home in our hearts and who are strong to apprehend the dimensions of Christ and to know His knowledge-surpassing love, we must have both the life and the building. All that we experience of Christ must be for this.
Paul says specifically that we are rooted and grounded in love. In order to experience Christ, we need faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith enables us to receive and realize Christ, and love enables us to enjoy Him. Both faith and love are not ours but His. His faith becomes our faith to believe in Him, and His love becomes our love to love Him. The love in which we are rooted and grounded is the divine love realized and experienced by us in a practical way. With such a love we love the Lord, and with that same love we love one another. In such a love we grow in life and are built up in life. Paul’s thought here regarding the relationship between the experience of Christ and the matters of life and building is surely deep and profound.
The more we grow up, the more we are rooted. Although this is opposed to our natural concept, it nonetheless corresponds to our experience. If you consider your experience, you will realize that you have had the sense, not firstly of being rooted and then of growing up, but of growing up and then of being rooted. As we grow upward, we are rooted downward.
In the first part of verse 19 Paul says, “And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.” The love of Christ surpasses knowledge; yet, we can know it by experiencing it. According to our mentality, the love of Christ is knowledge-surpassing. Our mind is not able to know it. But in our spirit we can know the love of Christ through our experience.
The love of Christ is Christ Himself. Just as Christ is immeasurable, so His love is also immeasurable. Do not regard the love of Christ as something belonging to Christ. This love is Christ. Because Christ is immeasurable, His love is knowledge-surpassing; yet we can know it in our spirit, not by knowledge but by experience. If we compare what we have so far experienced of the immeasurable love of Christ to all there is to experience, it is like comparing a raindrop to the ocean. Christ in His universal dimensions and in His immeasurable love is like a vast, limitless ocean for us to experience.