"He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me; for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity; but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because He delighted in me." (Psalm 18:17-19)
Again, in Psalm 31, we read, "I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy; for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities; And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: You have set my feet in a large room. Once more:" (Psalm 31:7-8) "I called upon the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place." (Psalm 118:5)
What is this "large place" in which the Lord sets those at liberty to call upon Him and put their trust in Him? and how large is it? A few texts of Scripture will tell us. In the 1st chapter of the Ephesians the apostle prays by the Spirit that we may be enlightened to "know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power toward us who believe." (Ephesians 1:18)
In the tenth and eleventh verses we are told that it is in Christ that we obtain this inheritance; and in the 2nd chapter (verses 4-10) we learn that we are made partakers of the inheritance in Christ because of the great love wherewith God loved us. Now read the sum of the whole matter in one of the most wonderful prayers ever uttered: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19)
Here we have set before us the "large place," and the size of it. The large place is the love of God which passes knowledge.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man's mind.
--Frederick William Faber, There's a Wideness in God's Mercy, 1862.
But the size of it? Well, that is a thing that it will take us all eternity to discover. As soon as we are rooted and grounded in love, we may begin to comprehend with all saints what is "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height," so as to know the love of God in Christ for us.
Take your stand wherever you please, and begin the measurement. First, the breadth. Measure both ways from you, as far as there is any breadth. Where will you stop? There will be no stopping place, for space is as infinite as God himself. So it must be with the length. The depth and height likewise. There is no limit. The inheritance, and the riches of the glory of it, which belongs to the saints, is the whole universe.
This is all in Christ, in whom we have redemption, "For in Him were all things created, and the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him and unto Him; And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." (Colossians 1:16-17,RV) "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) "He that overcomes shall inherit all things." (Revelation 21:7)
But as we are even now to know what is the riches of the glory of the inheritance, which we now obtain in Christ, it is a fact that the large place which God sets us in, so that we may be free, is the boundless universe which His love has prepared for us. The Psalmist said, "I will walk at liberty; for I seek your precepts." (Psalm 119:45)
And here we have before us "the glorious liberty of the sons of God." (Romans 8:21)
Here is room in which the mind can expand. Who is it that presumes to say that the religion of Jesus Christ is narrow?--Present Truth, November 8, 1894--Psalm 18:17-19.