Standing under the Waterfall

Which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight (Eph 1:8).

Ever stand under a waterfall?  My wife Deb and I had the opportunity to put ourselves under the the rushing water of Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica.  

It's certainly not Niagara, but the feeling is absolutely overwhelming.  The crisp, cool water takes your breath away.  

But it's the power and the volume of water that knocks your socks off.  And it just keeps on coming.  It never stops.  And you don't want it to.  

I'm struggling to find the words because it's almost impossible to describe.  

Here in this opening chapter of his letter, Paul tries to let his friends in Ephesus know what it's like to stand under the waterfall of God's grace.  

In Ephesians 1:3-14, the apostle does his dead level best to let folks know what it's like when Jesus unleashes His Tsunami of Blessing.  

The entire passage is actually one, long run-on sentence in the original text.  Bad grammar?  Poor writing?  

I'd rather think of Paul as being so stoked by God's goodness that he simply can contain himself.  Once he starts, he simply can't stop.  

One smart dude said that the apostle is in "a state of controlled ecstasy."  Our man from Tarsus is simply trying to function as a conduit for the Lord's overwhelming, breathtaking blessings.  

In other words, it's what happens when you suddenly find yourself under the waterfall of God's grace.

Paul's just talked about how Jesus has redeemed us and forgiven us "according to the riches of His grace" (Eph 1:7).  Christ has a vast fortune of goodness and He wasn't stingy with it.  

The apostle lets us in on the fact that Jesus "lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight” (v8).  What did He drench us with?  His grace.  His overwhelming goodness.  His descending one-way love.  

Paul uses the Greek verb περισσευω/perisseuo.  When we drill down on this wonderful word, we get a gusher of grace.  Stand back!  She's gonna blow!!!  

It means to overflow, be way more than enough, increase, abound, provide a huge abundance over and above a fixed number of measure. 

With apologies to sportscaster Dan Patrick, you can't stop it.  You can't even hope to contain it.  

So what do you do?  You can't measure it.  So just enjoy it.  Let it take your breath away.  Let yourself simply be overwhelmed under the waterfall of God's grace.

So just how much grace are we talking about here?  Well, in one of Paul’s letters to the folks in Corinth, Jesus tells His apostle, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2Cor 12:9).  

I might misread that and think that Christ just barely has enough grace for me.  I'm pretty jacked up so I'll certainly need a lot.  

He’s not squeezing the end of the tube to get just enough grace.  Oh, believe me.  God has more grace than we can ever imagine!

So we don't need to worry about Jesus running out of grace.  Not a chance.  The grace of Christ is more than enough.  WAY more than enough.

Jesus' grace is over the top.  You might say "when," but He keeps pouring.  Running down the sides.  Messy.  WAY more than we need.  

It’s a fire hose.  It’s a waterfall.  We’re thinking we'd like a Big Gulp and God gives us the entire bottling plant.  

But isn't that extremely wasteful?  Is Jesus getting careless and sloppy?  Not gonna happen.  He does all this "in all wisdom and insight" (v8).  

He knows EXACTLY what He's doing.  This is EXACTLY how He planned it.  

Remember, God had this all meticulously organized and scheduled long before He created the universe (Eph 1:4).  

This isn't some last minute decision to throw down some extravagant party.  Jesus did this with every bit of His all-knowing wisdom.  

He's using His divine insight to overwhelm us under the waterfall of His grace.  He actually planned for this!

Let that soak in just a moment.  Despite all of my sin.  Despite all of my rebellion.  

Despite all of my jacked up, goofed up and messed up problems.  

Jesus STILL planned from the very beginning to drown me in the whitewater of His grace.  Not a thimble full.  

Even that's more than I deserve.  As a matter of fact, what I truly deserve is held under the torrent of His divine wrath until I'm dead.  

But for some reason, He reached out to me.  He pulled me out.  He rescued me.  

And as a result, I placed my trust in Jesus.  I placed my trust in what He's done for me that I could never do for myself.  

He lived that perfect life that I've completely failed to live.  He died the brutal death that I more than deserved to die.  He rose to new life that I didn't earn.  

But in Jesus, I am perfect.  In Jesus, I have new life.  That's what happens when I find myself under the waterfall of God's grace.

Paul stands there sopping wet in Jesus' blessings.  Is there anyone who's ever walked the planet who better understands God's grace?  

Let's flip back a few pages and check out the apostle's story.  As a matter of fact, back in the day the dude known as Saul of Tarsus would have been voted "most likely to persecute Jesus' followers."  

As a rising superstar Pharisee in the Jewish big leagues, he led a black ops team that captured, tortured and killed members of this radical cult called The Way (Acts 8:1-3; Gal 1:13-14; Phil 3:5-6).  

But something crazy happened while Saul was moving into position for a raid on Christ's followers in Damascus.  Jesus ambushed Saul (Acts 9:3-6).  

The Lord transformed this terrorist into an evangelist (Acts 9:15-16).  Eventually, He changed his name to Paul and sent him all throughout the Roman Empire telling folks the Good News.  

The Apostle Paul found himself in Ephesus for three years (Acts 19).  Jesus used him to absolutely turn this huge, sinful city upside down.  The waterfall of God's grace tends to do that.

Several years later, Paul writes from a Roman prison cell.  Surely doing hard time in the joint has changed his tune.  The waterfall of God's grace must have dried up, right?  

Nope.  The apostle wants his Ephesian friends to know that Jesus' goodness can't be stopped.  A measly dungeon certainly can't contain them.  

He desperately wants us to know that God continually drenches us under the waterfall of His grace.  

King David wrote one of his greatest hits about it.  The Shepherd King raves about the the all-you-can banquet, his overflowing goblet and how the Lord's grace literally chases him throughout his life (Ps 23:5-6).

Stand under the waterfall of God's grace.  Let Him take your breath away.  

©2013

Jay Jennings