The gospel: the good news in the ocean
If we could just become humble children, I think we would be in much more awe of how the gospel is everywhere. Intellectualism can drown wonder. Let us come to appreciate the ocean. The ocean is a place of mystery; only 25% of the ocean floors have been discovered as of 2025, and only a dwindling 10% of all ocean waters have ever been discovered. We wonder how much we don’t know out in the heavens and universe, but we can’t even explore our backyard pond!
God is a Person who is everywhere, and He certainly is infinite and mysterious. It seems that so many religions struggle to comprehend how this infinite, holy God can possibly become a man. The irony is that the “creature” thinks it knows what God can and can’t do. This is why creatures create their own god, and all kinds of religions spring forth. God can transcend into all realms. We see the ocean as an entirely different realm from land. The ocean, the world of water, is a place where the power of gravity is slightly freed. You can float, you can fly, you can swim, but if you are a mammal, you can’t live in this world for long unless you have oxygen that comes from air. But there is one creature that can live in both realms, the whale.
The blue whale is an incredible beast, the largest creature on planet Earth. A whale is a gigantic mammal that can live in both realms. He can live in the water with the same air we use, only x90 times longer (without an oxygen tank). But, say you, oh man, have an eternal oxygen tank, you still can’t survive in the realm of the ocean! How will you eat? How will you drink water? Ah, but this masterful beast can borrow from both realms, the realm of the air and the realm of the seas. The mighty blue whale contains the breath of life, and we see it constantly having to come back to the surface to live for a moment in the air, and then return to the ocean depths.
Similarly, God became flesh, God became a man. He entered into a world of death, where mankind has been plagued with sin, dying creatures. Yet, Jesus Christ could remain in such a realm because He had the breath of the Spirit from above and beyond the surfaces of the earth and heavens.
And this is why the Lord Jesus Christ is also like a fish. A fish can live in death. The fish can fully thrive on the oxygen that is in the water. How unique, a particle of the air in the water? And that little particle brings life into a world of death. The Lord Jesus Christ is One who lives beyond death. He is the One alive from the dead, and He has made us creatures that live in death, that is, His death, and survive off the life of His resurrection power.
The ocean is a world full of discovery, full of wonders, and is the path untraveled. How many crowds and people pack themselves on the surfaces, the edge of the entrance of the ocean. The sandy, earthly life of superficiality, superfluous, and sinful vanities. And how many will step foot out into the waters at ankle height, or waist height, and then withdraw themselves because of fear and a lack of comfort, because the waters are “too cold.” How a select few go into the water and start to snorkel, explore, feel, and find. These snorkelers think they have gone so much farther than everyone else, but even they are still in the shallows. Even fewer are willing to strap up the fullness of a scuba diver and plunge themselves into the depths of the sea.
It is the scuba diver, the one who does not find any satisfaction with the sands and the surface, and not even the shallows. The scuba diver is never content with their past experiences and discoveries, they don’t deem themselves as these spiritually advanced people, they are not special, they are just looking to new waters, waters that no one has dared to touch. But, at some point, the scuba diver, after being in this realm, must come back to the surface of the water, and like a whale exhales a mighty burst of air from her blowhole, the scuba diver, too, must release himself and tell the world of “his new discoveries.” Otherwise, the scuba diver will suffocate! We must exhale in order to inhale more.
The Lord is calling you to be a scuba diver in His wonders. A scuba diver, one who is called out from the beach life, and into the depths of His life. To discover all His hidden mysteries that are often right in front of our faces. Don’t let the public beach, the shallow end swimmers, and any other thing tell you, “You can’t live out there!” But, our Lord indeed, “lived out there” as we see in His creatures, who all contain and consist in and through the Son of God. This is the path He has made for us, to live in the depths of His death, and the depths of His life.
So, I encourage you, my reader, to look beyond the horizon of that ocean before you, take a deep breath, and dive into Jesus Christ.
“Deep calls to deep at the noise of Your waterfalls…I have not spoken in secret; in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right” (Psalm 42:7, Isaiah 45:19).
The word “right” in the passage of Isaiah in Hebrew comes from the root word, ‘yasar’, which means “straight forward” or “direct.” The paradox is that there are so many hidden and mysterious things about the Lord, but they are all right in front of us. When Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe, made flesh, walked this earth, it seems as if no one recognized Him, as if He were hidden, but He declared Himself yasar. So, what does this mean?
We need faith to see Him. So, let us become as humble children and, with faith, venture into the seas of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, and one last thought, is it not remarkable that our Lord Jesus was baptized? Yes, Jesus Himself held His breath, submerged, and rose up again.
Does that not sound familiar?