The Well That Never Runs Dry
Ephesians 3:8 NKJV
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
Paul had a good understanding of grace. He recognized that the reason he was a preacher was not due to his talent. Nor was it a function of being more zealous than your average Pharisee. No, it was grace that Paul knew made him what he was. God's power working on his behalf, even though he did not earn or deserve it. If he had deserved it, then grace would not have been grace; it would have been works. Paul may have had the best understanding of grace of any New Testament author.
And Paul had great understanding into what God has done for mankind through Jesus. He knew that by God's grace, he was a preacher to the Gentiles. And Paul was proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ. At first blush, it appears that what we have in Christ is not accessible to us. The unsearchable riches mean we can't search them. Or can we? The key is the usage of the word 'unsearchable'. The Weymouth translation calls unsearchable the exhaustless wealth of Christ'. And now we have a whole new ball game. Exhaustless wealth means that we will not be able to plumb the depths of all we have in Christ. I appreciate the NLT for its bluntness and to-the-point message. How they translate verse eight gives us the most insight. "Though I am the least deserving of all God's people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ." And that is why I titled this devotional, The Well That Never Runs Dry. The endless treasures available to us in Christ speak to spiritual truths that we will be discovering throughout eternity.
This book of Ephesians gives us a wonderful picture of the treasures available to us in Christ. But many Christians are not aware of those treasures. The entire book is revealing what belongs to us because of what Jesus did for us. For example, in verses three through seven, we find that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. I am still meditating on that verse in order to further grasp just what every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places means. I believe that when we get to heaven, we will spend even more time learning what Christ has done for us, but I am aiming to get a head start before I get there. Chosen in Christ, destined to live holy and without blame before God. Adopted as sons to God in Christ. Accepted or highly favored in Christ and redeemed by the blood of Jesus, which includes the forgiveness of our sins. Okay, and this is just the first seven verses of the book. Repeatedly, we see the phrases 'in Him', 'in whom', 'by Him', 'through Him'. All of these verses found predominantly in Paul's letters reveal the endless treasures available to us in Christ. And we have not exhausted the riches and blessings of being united with Jesus; there are so many more.
Sometimes I sense people are struggling to praise and thank God. They seem to carry the idea that God hasn't done anything for them because they did not see an answer to prayer, or something with God's people did not turn out well. But if we focus on the endless treasures we have because of our union with Jesus, we stay grateful. An oil well that never ran dry would make us rich. The treasures that we have in Christ have made us richer.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for what You did for me in Your plan of redemption. Thank You for the endless treasures in Christ that belong to me.