The earth contains five oceans (the Arctic, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Southern), all of which are designed to display the glory of God in a number of ways. Last week I wrote that, first, the oceans are massive and mysterious, inviting us to dive deep into the greatness and glory of who God is. Further, I wrote, the oceans are marvels of engineering, for their multiple systems (each of which is stunning in itself) not only create a habitable place for life but also regulate the entire atmosphere of the earth making it possible for all life to have life.
This week I’d like to bring one more feature of the oceans to our attention. The vast and complex oceans that cover the earth are in fact a repository for some of the material riches of God. To begin with, we all know that the oceans are rich with salt, but did you know that if all of the salt in all of the oceans was mined a placed upon the dry land it would form a uniform layer some five-hundred feet tall? Please take a moment to think about this and picture it in your minds. There is enough salt in the oceans to create a forty-story building of salt the world around!
And as if that’s not enough, the oceans are also rich with gold. In fact, scientists estimate that there are some twenty-million tons of gold in the oceans which at current prices is worth no less than $600,000,000,000,000! Please take a moment to let this sink in. The oceans hold more the six-hundred trillion dollars-worth of gold and enough salt to bury the earth many times over.
Now take a moment to realize that these are but two of a great number of resources that are held in store by God’s great waters and marvel with me at this fact—the oceans are a vast and living metaphor of the vast riches of God in Christ. As Paul taught us in Colossians 2:9, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily in Christ which means, among other things, that he is the unthinkably rich repository of all the riches of God.
This is why Paul strongly warns and encourages us with these words: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”
O Beloved, please let that last line sink in: Christ is the storehouse of all the riches of God and we have been filled in him! If we owned the oceans we would own all the salt and gold in the oceans as well as everything else that’s in them. In a like manner, since we are owned by Christ, everything that belongs to Christ is ours by grace in him. May we, therefore, make a life of diving deep into the ocean of him who is all in all—for us to the glory of his Father. More on the oceans and the glory of God next week.
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