8 Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
Something about the grace of God is impossible to understand. Why would God choose to put up with me, let alone make me one of His family? Paul struggled with this as well. He had been on the militant side of religion, killing Christians who he thought were corrupting his pure religion. Talk about a radical religious fanatic! And yet right in the middle of one of his zealous trips to continue his radical agenda God shows up and knocks him for a loop. And now Paul is sharing a message he thought he understood, but now truly understands because he has experienced it personally. For Paul the Gentiles had been the enemy. Now they become the object of his love and life. God sends him to the very people he once thought were untouchables and in that process Paul starts to understand the unsearchable riches of Christ. These riches are so great it is impossible for a human being to grasp it. As soon as we think we understand the extent of God’s grace in Jesus, we have limited God in our minds. We have reduced Him to meet our own need to feel powerful. His riches are always going to be greater than our need, and I am not talking about bank accounts and cash advances. God is not a heavenly ATM machine, there to dispense cash when our HDTV payment is due. We in the West selfishly consume when there is a world dying without Christ, let alone without sufficient food. That does not mean the Gospel gets reduced to a charity organization, but it also means that meeting the physical needs of the poor does not get removed from the Gospel. The spiritual riches that meet all the deep needs of humans are met in Jesus. Hope, purpose, meaning, future all find their fullest understanding and completeness in Jesus. When those deepest questions of the human heart get answers, we can live with the craziness of this world. So I ask you right now, take of His unsearchable riches found only in Jesus.
The Arnold Journey 