Glimpses: Hooper Balloons

The message of Rom 8:32 is essentially that, to have an idea of what God can – and will – do for us, we need to look at what He already did for us at the Cross.

When God gave you Christ, He gave you His all – literally. At the Cross, the sinless Christ took our place and died our death. His resurrection was not going to be a normal resurrection, because His death was not a normal death. It was actually the death God warned Adam about in Eden (Gen 2:17); it was total separation and wrath from God. But, Hallelujah, on the third day, to show that He was satisfied, God raised Him up from death.

And how did He raise Him? Paul gives us a hint in Eph 1:18-20. He says he prays that we know what is the “EXCEEDING greatness” of God’s power toward us who believe, “according to the working of his mighty power, Which he performed in Christ, when he raised him from the dead...

The word, “exceeding” before greatness is the Greek HUPERBALLO. It’s  is a combination of two words, “huper” (which means “over, above, beyond, exceeding abundantly, etc.”) and “bal'-lo” (“to throw, cast, strike, throw (down), thrust, etc.”). Thus huperballo means to throw BEYOND the usual mark, to SURPASS, to excel.

Paul is saying that at the Resurrection, God displayed an excessive, overreaching show of power. We were united with Christ at the Cross: His death was our death, we were buried with Him, and on the third day – to show how pleased He was that the whole salvation process was successful – God inundated the grave with all His Huperballo, exceeding great power!

Huperballo is when a billionaire pays a million dollars for the damage his son did to a window.

Huperballo is buying the hotel because you want to sleep for the night.

Huperballo is getting a 200-acre club when you ask for a club to play golf with...

Huperballo is the famed “exceeding” from Eph 3:20 that Martin Nystrom had difficulty translating in his song.

The Cross doesn’t just show God’s love for you, it also shows the extent of His love. It shows the profligate, extravagant, all-in, all-out gesture God did just to redeem you. Let Huperballo be a reminder of just what you have available as a Believer. Because “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?” (Rom 8:32).

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN