"The Ultimate Dimension: John 3:16e"

Number: 34 hreveport "“ermons JVIIU Preached by William E. Hull, Pastor THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN SHREVEPORT Ockley Drive at Highland Avenue. Shreveport, Louisiana 71106 (Volume I, Part 34) Preached 4-25-76 Published 6-13-83 THE ULTIMATE DIMENSION John 3:16e Looking at the four dimensions of God's love sketched in Ephesians 3:18 and given substance in John 3:16, what spacious vistas unfold before our eyes! In every direction we discover that the Everlasting Mercy fills our universe, leav¬ ing us no escape from its reality and claim. But any sphere, no matter how vast its circumference, proceeds from a fixed center. Therefore, having looked outward at the objective dimensions of God's love, we need now to look inward at the subjective dimension which enables us to internalize a universe of love in one human heart. Only as we learn how to let love fill the little world of selfhood will we be "filled with all the fullness of God" that knows no bounds (Ephesians 3:19). Consistent with its comprehensiveness at every other point, John 3:16 also gives adequate definition to this final dimension in its one remaining phrase which we have not yet considered, "... that whoever believes in him ..." Paul anticipated this crucial connection between divine love and human faith in his Ephesian prayer by suggesting, in successive phrases, that, when Christ dwells in our hearts "through faith" (3:17a), we are thereby rooted and grounded "in love" (3:17b). Let us now draw out the significance of this linkage between