#311 WHEN CHRIST BECOMES GREATER TO THE SOUL 10-20-26
Perhaps there is a danger in becoming familiar with the things of God while remaining strangely unfamiliar with God Himself. We may learn the language of faith, grow accustomed to the pages of the Bible, and become occupied with the work of the kingdom, yet somewhere beneath all that activity, the soul may still be longing to see more of Jesus. We know the story, but have we begun to glimpse the glory? We know what He has done, but are we learning who He is?
As believers, we are not just on a journey to greater Bible knowledge. This is a journey into an ever-deepening apprehension of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not simply the beginning of our faith, a subject for our study, or an example for our imitation. He is the very center of God’s eternal purpose. Everything finds its meaning in Him, and nothing in the spiritual life can be rightly understood apart from Him.
This is why Paul’s prayer for the believers in Ephesus reaches beyond anything that mere human instruction could accomplish. He asks that God would give them “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,” that “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened” might enable them to comprehend the hope of His calling and the riches of His inheritance (Ephesians 1:17-18).
Paul is praying for opened eyes. There is a seeing that belongs to the heart, a spiritual perception that enables us to recognize the significance of what God has already revealed. The truth has been given, yet we need God to bring us into a fuller apprehension of its meaning. We need more than an accumulation of facts about Christ. We need to see Christ in the truth, until the truth begins to govern the deepest places of our being.
When that happens, nothing about Jesus remains quite the same to us. The cross is no longer merely an event we commemorate, but the revelation of a love that reaches into the depths of our ruin. The resurrection is no longer merely a doctrine we defend, but the declaration that death cannot overthrow the purposes of God. His lordship ceases to be a phrase upon our lips and becomes the governing reality of our lives. We begin to understand that God’s answer to the deepest needs of humanity is not first a system, a program, or a method. His answer is His Son.
And as Christ grows greater before our eyes, other things begin to diminish in their proper perspective. Our troubles may not disappear. The questions that trouble us may not receive immediate answers. The burdens we carry may remain heavy. But the circumstances that once seemed to fill our entire horizon can no longer occupy the throne of our hearts. We have begun to see something greater than the things we are passing through.
The Holy Spirit brings us into this deeper knowledge through the truth God has given us. He does not turn us away from the written word, but opens our understanding to the One of whom it testifies. As we behold the patience of Jesus, we discover how impatient we have been. As we consider His humility, our pride is exposed. As we contemplate His obedience to the Father, our resistance to God’s will becomes painfully clear. The revelation of Christ does not merely comfort us. It searches us, corrects us, and calls us into conformity with Him.
Perhaps this is where we must pause and examine ourselves. It is possible to be so occupied with serving the Lord that we have little time to be still before Him. We may spend our days teaching others, defending the faith, caring for the needy, and fulfilling our responsibilities, yet gradually lose the inward wonder that once made those things precious. The work continues, but the springs of the work grow dry. We are still speaking about Christ, but are our hearts being freshly drawn to Him?
The answer is not necessarily to abandon our responsibilities, but to rediscover their true source. The branch cannot bear fruit by becoming preoccupied with fruitfulness. It must abide in the vine. Our service must flow from our fellowship with Christ, or even good works can become an outward substitute for inward communion (John 15:4-5).
We never reach a point in the Christian life where we have outgrown our need to see Him. The more we know Him, the more we discover how much remains to be known. The more His greatness fills our vision, the more clearly we recognize our own poverty apart from Him. There is no spiritual maturity that makes Christ less necessary. True maturity brings us into a deeper dependence upon His sufficiency.
Let us, then, return to the prayer of Paul. Let us ask God to open the eyes of our hearts. Let us seek not merely to know more about the Lord, but to know Him more deeply through the truth He has revealed. For the supreme treasure of the Christian life is not simply what Christ can accomplish for us, nor even all the blessings that come through Him. The treasure is Christ Himself. And when the soul begins to see His worth, the whole direction of life begins to change.
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Father, open the eyes of our hearts. Lead us beyond a merely outward acquaintance with the things of faith into a deeper knowledge of Your Son. Keep us from becoming so occupied with Your work that we neglect the One for whom we work. Through Your word and by Your Spirit, make the greatness of Jesus increasingly real to us. Let His life shape our character, His love govern our actions, and His glory become the desire of our hearts. May we never be satisfied with knowing about Him when we have been called to know Him. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
BDD
