Our Resources in Christ (1:15-23)

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For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. (1:15-23)

In verses 3-14 Paul has set forth the amazing and unlimited blessings believers have in Jesus Christ, blessings that amount to our personal inheritance of all that belongs to Him. In the remainder of the chapter (vv. 15-23) Paul prays that the believers to whom he writes will come to fully understand and appreciate those blessings. In this prayer he focuses on believers’ comprehension of their resources in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In verses 15-16 he praises them, and in verses 17-23 he makes petitions to God for them.

PRAISE FOR BELIEVERS

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; (1:15-16)

In light of their marvelous inheritance in Jesus Christ (For this reason), Paul now intercedes for the possessors of that treasure. As mentioned in the Introduction, these initially included not only the believers in Ephesus but probably those in all the churches of Asia Minor. It had been about four years since Paul ministered there, and he was now in prison. But from letters, as well as through personal reports from friends who visited him in prison, he had received considerable information from and about the churches. He heard two things that indicated the genuineness of their salvation, and for those two cardinal marks of a true Christian—faith in Christ and love for other Christians—he affectionately praises them. Those two dimensions of spiritual life are inseparable (cf. 1 John 2:9-11).

PRAISE FOR THEIR FAITH

the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, (1:15b)

The emphasis here is on true saving belief, with the lordship of Jesus as the object of that belief. Some Christians, perhaps intending to protect the gospel from any taint of works righteousness, underplay Christ’s lordship almost to the point of denying it. Others would like to accept the term Lord only as a reference to deity, not sovereignty. But such a separation is artificial, because deity implies sovereignty. The One who alone is God rules alone. Yet those who teach that a person must believe in Christ as sovereign Lord in order to be saved are sometimes described derisively as “lordship Salvationists.” The New Testament, however, does not separate Jesus as Savior from Jesus as Lord. He is both, or He is neither. Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9; cf. Acts 16:31). Jesus becomes Savior when He is accepted as Lord. “For to this end,” Paul explains later in Romans, “Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (14:9). Believers say—in fact, only believers can say—“Jesus is Lord” because they possess the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3), who was given to them when they were saved (Rom. 8:9). To receive Jesus as Savior but not as Lord would be to divide His nature in two. When we receive Him, we receive Him wholly as He is.

Granted, no person receives Jesus Christ with a full understanding of all He is or all He requires as Lord of those He saves. Many Christians come to Christ with only the barest idea of His sovereign deity or of what it means to belong to and submit to Him. But they are willing to submit (cf. Matt. 8:19-22; 9:9; 10:37-39; Luke 9:57-62), to give up all they are and have (cf. Matt. 13:44-46; 18:3-4; 19:16-26), and to leave all and follow Him (Matt. 19:27). Once they have come to Him, some Christians lose their first love for Him as Savior and resist obeying Him as Lord. But their lovelessness makes Him no less Savior, and their resistance makes Him no less Lord. Christ is not accepted in parts, first as Savior and later as Lord. Jesus the Savior is Jesus the Lord, and Jesus the Lord is Jesus the Savior. He does not exist in parts or relate to believers in parts. Awareness, appreciation, and obedience to Him as Savior and Lord change. When we are faithful to Him those things increase, and when we are unfaithful they diminish. But the fact of Jesus’ lordship begins the same moment He becomes Savior, and neither His lordship nor His saviorhood changes for believers from that time through all eternity. All the commands of Christ, which are to be taught to all believers (Matt. 28:19-20), assume His sovereign right to give orders and to be obeyed. That is precisely why Paul calls salvation “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5).

Paul is not praising the Ephesians for some later, supplemental act of faith but for the original faith that brought them to saving submission to the sovereign Lord. The faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you refers to this same saving faith with which they entered the Christian life and in which they were continuing to live.

PRAISE FOR THEIR LOVE

and your love for all the saints, (15c)

A second mark of genuine salvation is love for all the saints, and because of such love Paul offers thanks for the Ephesian believers.

Christian love is indiscriminate; it does not pick and choose which believers it will love. Christ loves all believers, and they are precious to Him. By definition, therefore, Christian love extends to all Christians. To the extent that it does not, it is less than Christian. Paul calls for believers to be “maintaining the same love” (Phil. 2:2), which is to love all believers the same.

Sometimes we hear Christians say, “I love him in the Lord,” which seems to imply that they have no personal affection for nor commitment to the needs of the individual. They extend a certain spiritualized kind of love only because the other person is a fellow believer. But that is not genuine love. To truly love a person in the Lord is to love him as the Lord loves him—genuinely and sacrificially.

“We know that we have passed out of death into life “John says, “because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14). Important as it is, sound theology is no substitute for love. Without love the best doctrine is like “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). True salvation goes from the head and heart of the believer out to other believers and out to the world to touch unbelievers in Christ’s name. True salvation produces true love, and true love does “not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). Always in the New Testament true spiritual love is defined as an attitude of selfless sacrifice that results in generous acts of kindness done to others. It is far more than a feeling, an attraction or emotion. When the Lord had washed the feet of the proud and self-seeking disciples, He told them that what He had done for them was the example of how they were to love each other (John 13:34). John emphasizes the same truth: “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (l John 3:16-18).

That is the sort of love the Ephesian Christians then had for all the saints. Sadly, however, their love did not last. They kept the faith pure and persevered in it. Yet in His letter to the seven churches of Asia Minor the Lord says of the church at Ephesus, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev. 2:2-4). They had lost the great love for Christ and their fellow believers for which only a few decades earlier Paul had so warmly praised them.

Faith and love must be kept in balance. Many monks, hermits, and countless others throughout the history of the church have endeavored to keep their faith pure but have not reached out to others in love as the Lord commands every believer to do. They often become heresy hunters, eager to tear down what is wrong but doing little to build up what is good, full of criticism but deficient in love.

It is unfortunate that some Christians have a loveless kind of faith. Because it is loveless there is reason to doubt that such faith is even genuine. True faith cannot exist apart from true love. We cannot love the Lord Jesus without loving those whom He loves. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him” (l John 5:1).

The Christians to whom Paul wrote his Ephesian letter had the right balance, and it was for their great faith and their great love that the apostle assured them, I… do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.

PETITION FOR BELIEVERS

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in

accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. (1:17-23)

The remainder of the chapter is a petition in which Paul prays for God to give believers true comprehension and appreciation of who they are in Jesus Christ, in order that they might begin to have some idea of how magnificent and unlimited are the blessings that already belonged to them in their Lord and Savior. The petition is directed to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, a designation of God which links God the Father to Christ the Son in terms of essential nature (see also Rom. 15:6; Eph. 1:3a, 17a; 2 Cor. 1:3; Phil. 2:9-11; 1 Pet. 1:3; 2 John 3). The One to whom all glory belongs is the same in essence as the Lord Jesus Christ. For the second time in three verses Christ is called Lord (see v. 15).

In essence Paul prayed that the Ephesians would be spared from frantically searching for what was already theirs, but rather would see that the great God who is their God is the source of all they need and has it ready for them if they are open to receive it. Such a receptive attitude requires that God Himself give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Warren Wiersbe tells the story of how William Randolph Hearst once read of an extremely valuable piece of art, which he decided he must add to his extensive collection. He instructed his agent to scour the galleries of the world to find the masterpiece he was determined to have at any price. After many months of painstaking search, the agent reported that the piece already belonged to Mr. Hearst and had been stored in one of his warehouses for many years.

It is tragic that many believers become entangled in a quest for something more in the Christian life, for something special, something extra that the “ordinary” Christian life does not possess. They talk of getting more of Jesus Christ, more of the Holy Spirit, more power, more blessings, a higher life, a deeper life—as if the resources of God were divinely doled out one at a time like so many pharmaceutical prescriptions or were unlocked by some spiritual combination that only an initiated few can know.

To say, “I want to get all of Jesus there is,” implies that when we were saved Christ did not give us all of Himself, that He held some blessings in reserve to be parceled out to those who meet certain extra requirements.

Peter explicitly says, “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3). The New Testament teaching of salvation is that the new birth grants every believer everything in Christ. There is consequently no need and no justification in searching for anything more. Though it does not do so intentionally, such searching undermines the essence of God’s revealed truth about salvation. The germ of this great truth is found in the words of the Preacher: “I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should [reverence] Him” (Eccles. 3:14).

The Colossian church apparently had been troubled by that sort of philosophy, thinking they were missing something from God that had to be supplied by some act, ritual, or other requirement in addition to salvation. For some of the members the idea had turned into actual heresy, which was taught and promulgated in place of apostolic teaching.

They were being taught that a person needs Christ plus human philosophy, the same approach to the gospel seen in modern liberalism, neoorthodoxy, existentialism, and other theological-philosophical systems that appear under the guise of Christianity. Of such heresy Paul says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).

The false teachers in Colossae also taught Christ plus legalism. They advocated observance of special days, feasts, and various rituals in order to attain higher spiritual standing and favor with God. Of this heresy Paul said, “Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (2:16-17).

A third error taught by the Colossian heretics involved both the sin of pride and the seeking of mystical experiences and visions to supplement the finished work of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. What they taught as something more really brought something less, Paul warned, because it took away from Christ’s perfect work. “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God” (2:18-19).

A fourth error promoted in the Colossian church was asceticism, the belief that one can gain special favor and reward from God through extreme self-denial, forsaking of physical pleasure and comfort, and avoiding contact with the “common” people by living in isolated and austere situations. That error, even more than the others, feeds human pride. Under the name of suppressing the flesh, such ideas and practices actually stimulate it. As Paul points out, the teachings “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch … are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (2:21, 23).

Paul’s counsel to the Colossian believers in response to those serious threats to the faith is introduced in 1:12, where he says that “the Father … has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light,” and is summarized in 2:9-10—“For in Him [Christ] all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete.” All of God’s fullness is in Jesus Christ, and He keeps back none of that fullness from believers. “In Him … we have been made complete,” because we are sufficient, authorized saints (as the use of hikanoō [to qualify, make sufficient] in 1:12 proves). John gives a warning about the same problem in his first letter, saying, “These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him” (1 John 2:26-27).

Yet today many Christians spend a great deal of time and effort vainly looking for blessings already available to them. They pray for God’s light, although He has already supplied light in abundance through His Word. Their need is to follow the light they already have. They pray for strength, although His Word tells them they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them (Phil. 4:13). They pray for more love, although Paul says that God’s own love is already poured out within their hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). They pray for more grace, although the Lord says the grace He has already given is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9). They pray for peace, although the Lord has given them His own peace, “which surpasses all comprehension” (Phil. 4:7). It is expected that we pray for such blessings if the tone of the prayer is one of seeking the grace to appropriate what is already given, rather than one of pleading for something we think is scarcely available or is reluctantly shared by God.

The Christian’s primary need is for wisdom and obedience to appropriate the abundance of blessings the Lord has already given. Our problem is not lack of blessings, but lack of insight and wisdom to understand and use them properly and faithfully. Our blessings are so vast that the human mind cannot comprehend them. In our own minds we cannot fathom the riches we have in our position in Jesus Christ. Such things are totally beyond the human mind to grasp. Only the Holy Spirit Himself can search the deep things of the mind of God, and only the Spirit can bring them to our understanding. “Just as it is written,” Paul says, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:9-12).

God’s deeper truths cannot be seen with our eyes, heard with our ears, or comprehended by our reason or intuition. They are revealed only to those who love Him.

Every Christian has many specific needs—physical, moral, and spiritual—for which He must ask the Lord’s help. But no Christian needs, or can have, more of the Lord or of His blessing and inheritance than he already has. That is why Paul tells us, as he told the Ephesian believers, not to seek more spiritual resources but to understand and use those we were given in absolute completeness the moment we received Christ.

Paul prays specifically that God may give the faculty of understanding so that we can know our resources, which he calls a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

The spirit of wisdom is given through the Holy Spirit, but this spirit does not refer to the Holy Spirit Himself, as some interpreters suggest. Pneuma (spirit) is anarthrous here, meaning that it has no article before it. In such cases the indefinite article is usually supplied in English, as in our text: a spirit. Believers already possess the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9), for whom their bodies are temples (1 Cor. 6:19). Nor does it seem that Paul was speaking of the human spirit, which every person already possesses (1 Cor. 2:11).

The basic meaning of pneuma (from which we get such English words as pneumatic and pneumonia) is breath or air, and from that meaning is derived the connotation of spirit. But like our English spirit, pneuma sometimes was used of a disposition, influence, or attitude—as in “He is in high spirits today.” Jesus used the word in that sense in the first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). He was not referring to the Holy Spirit or to the human spirit but to the spirit, or attitude, of humility.

Paul prayed for God to give the Ephesians a special disposition of wisdom, the fullness of godly knowledge and understanding of which the sanctified human mind is capable of receiving. “Let them know how much they possess in your Son,” he says, in effect. “Give them a keen, rich, deep, strong understanding of their inheritance in Christ.” He prays for the Holy Spirit to give their spirits the right spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Revelation, though used here as a synonym of wisdom, deals with God’s imparting knowledge to us, whereas wisdom could emphasize our use of that knowledge. We must know and understand our position in the Lord before we are capable of serving Him. We must know what we have before we can satisfactorily use it. This additional wisdom goes beyond intellectual knowledge. It is far richer; and Paul desired that the Ephesian Christians, like those in Colossae, would “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is” (Col. 3:1).

In his praying for the Ephesian believers Paul asks God to give them revelation and wisdom in three particular areas of God’s magnificent, incomparable truth. He prays for them to come to a clearer understanding of the greatness of God’s plan, the greatness of His power, and the greatness of His Person.

UNDERSTANDING THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S PLAN

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (1:18)

In most modern cultures, the heart is thought of as the seat of emotions and feelings. But most ancients—Hebrews, Greeks, and many others—considered the heart (Greek kardia) to be the center of knowledge, understanding, thinking, and wisdom. The New Testament also uses it in that way. The heart was considered to be the seat of the mind and will, and it could be taught what the brain could never know. Emotions and feelings were associated with the intestines, or bowels (Greek splanchnon; cf. Acts 1:18, where the term clearly refers to physical organs, with Col. 3:12; Philem. 7, 12, 20; and 1 John 3:17, where it refers to affections and feelings).

One cause of immaturity in the church at Corinth was reliance on feelings above knowledge. Many believers were more interested in doing what felt right than in doing what God declared to be right. Paul therefore told them, “Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart [kardia] is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections [splanchnon]. Now in a like exchange—I speak as to children—open wide to us also” (2 Cor. 6:11-13). The apostle said, in effect, “I can’t take God’s truth from my mind and give it to your minds, because your emotions get in the way.” Instead of their emotions being controlled by God’s truth, their emotions distorted their understanding of His truth.

Paul therefore prays for the minds of the Ephesians to be enlightened. Emotions have a significant place in the Christian life, but they are reliable only as they are guided and controlled by God’s truth—which we come to know and understand through our minds. That is why we are to “let the word of Christ richly dwell within [us]” (Col. 3:16). When the Holy Spirit works in the believer’s mind, He enriches it to understand divine truth that is deep and profound, and then relates that truth to life—including those aspects of life that involve our emotions.

While Jesus talked with the two disciples on the Emmaus road, their hearts (that is, their minds) burned within them; but it was not until “their eyes were opened [that] they recognized Him” (Luke 24:31-32). Before the Spirit enlightened them they had the information but not the understanding; what they knew was true, but they could not in the power of their own minds grasp the meaning and significance of it.

The first thing for which Paul prays is that believers be enlightened about the greatness of God’s plan. In the most comprehensive of terms, the apostle asks that they be given understanding of the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. He prays for God to enlighten them about the magnificent truths of election, predestination, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, wisdom and insight, inheritance, and sealing and pledge of the Holy Spirit about which he has just been instructing them (vv. 3-14).

Those truths summarize God’s master plan for the redemption of mankind, His eternal plan to bring men back to Himself through His own Son, thereby making them His children. Now that they belonged to Christ by faith (v. 13), Paul’s supreme desire was for the Ephesian believers to fully realize what their new identity meant. “You were no afterthought of God,” he says. “God not only chose to save you, but He chose to save you eons before you existed, eons before you would have opportunity by His grace to choose Him. That is who you are!”

Until we comprehend who we truly are in Jesus Christ, it is impossible to live an obedient and fulfilling life. Only when we know who we really are can we live like who we are. Only when we come to understand how our lives are anchored in eternity can we have the right perspective and motivation for living in time. Only when we come to understand our heavenly citizenship can we live obedient and productive lives as godly citizens on earth.

It is God’s great plan that every believer one day “become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). That is the hope of His calling—the eternal destiny and glory of the believer fulfilled in the coming kingdom. The fullness of that hope will be experienced when we receive the supreme riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. It is truth too magnificent for words to describe, which is why even God’s own revelation requires the illumination of His Spirit in order for believers even to begin to understand the marvelous magnitude of the blessings of salvation that exist in the sphere of the saints.

Our being glorious children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ of all God possesses is the consummation and end of salvation promised from eternity past and held in hope until the future manifestation of Christ. There is nothing more to seek, nothing more to be given or received. We have it all now, and we will have it throughout eternity.

UNDERSTANDING THE GREATNESS OF GOD S POWER

and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, (1:19-20)

Paul’s second request is for the Lord to give the Ephesian believers understanding of His great power that will bring them to their inheritance in glory. In verse 19 Paul uses four different Greek synonyms to emphasize the greatness of that power.

First is dunamis (power), from which we get dynamite and dynamo. This power is only for Christians, for those who believe. Not only that, but it is all the power we are ever offered or could ever have. There could be no more, and it is foolish and presumptuous to ask for more. The surpassing greatness of God’s power is given to every believer, not just to those who believe and then have a mystical experience, second blessing, or some other supposed additional work of grace. When we are saved we receive all of God’s grace and all of His power, and that assures us of the realization of our eternal hope.

Second is energeia (working), the energizing force of the Spirit that empowers believers to live for the Lord. Third is kratos (strength), which may also be translated “dominion” (1 Tim. 6:16) or “power” (Heb. 2:14). Fourth is ischus (might), which carries the idea of endowed power or ability. In all those ways the Holy Spirit empowers God’s children.

Paul did not pray for power to be given to believers. How could they have more than what they had? He prayed first of all that they be given a divine awareness of the power they possessed in Christ. Later in the letter (chaps. 4-6) he admonished them to employ that power in faithful living for their Lord.

We need not pray for power to evangelize, to witness the gospel to others. Believers already have that power. The gospel itself “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul reminded them, “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5).

We need not pray for power to endure suffering. As an introduction to mentioning the many afflictions he had endured for the Lord, Paul commented, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:7).

Nor do we need to pray for power to do God’s will. “It is God who is at work in you,” Paul assures us, “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Paul accomplished his work for the Lord through the strength the Lord supplied, “striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Col. 1:29). Just before His ascension Jesus assured the disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8), an enduement every believer receives at the time he is saved. God “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20). To ask God for more power is an affront to His gracious love which already has provided us everything.

The supernatural power … working … strength and might with which God supplies every believer and with which He will glorify every believer is that which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. Later in the letter Paul deals with the matter of using God’s power in His service (3:20), but his prayer here is that we understand the power of His keeping, His securing us and His fulfilling the marvelous hope which is ours in Christ. The resurrection and ascension power—the divine energy that lifted Christ from the grave to the earth, and from the earth to heaven—is the power that will lift us to glory.

At times all of us are tempted to doubt, to wonder if God can do a certain thing for us or through us or ultimately bring us into His presence. But when we look at what He brought about in Christ, at what He faithfully accomplished on behalf of His Son—and at His assurance that He will just as faithfully accomplish His work on our behalf (through the surpassing greatness of His power toward us)—what ground do we have for doubting? In light of such assurance, how can a Christian feel insecure, forsaken, or powerless? The same unlimited divine power that raised Him from the dead will raise us from the dead, and the same power that seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places will seat us there with Him. In the meanwhile, that resurrection power is at our disposal for living to His glory (Eph. 1:19-20; 3:20). It is so certain that this power will bring us to glory that Paul spoke as if it has already occurred, because it has already occurred in God’s eternal plan (2:6).

UNDERSTANDING THE GREATNESS OF GODS PERSON

far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. (1:21-23)

Moving from Christ’s might to His majesty, Paul’s third request is for the Lord to give believers understanding of the greatness of His Person who secures and empowers them.

Once when Timothy was intimidated by criticism from fellow Christians, he understandably became discouraged. Paul wrote to him, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:8-10). “Remember the greatness of the Person who lives within you,” Paul says. “He was raised from the dead and seated at God’s right hand. He was born of the seed of David, as a man just like us. He identifies with us, understands us, and sympathizes with us.”

Every Christian should continually have that focus. When we look at Him, our physical problems, psychological problems, and even spiritual problems will not loom so all-important before us. We not only will be better able to see our problems as they really are, but will then, and only then, have the right motivation and power to work them out. It is sad that we read and hear so much about the peripheral things of the Christian life and so little about the Person who is the source of Christian life. How much happier and more productive we are when our primary attention is on His purity, greatness, holiness, power, and majesty. Paul calls the Corinthians to gaze intently on His glory with the clear vision provided in the New Covenant, and thus be made like Him by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:18).

What great blessing we can have when we take time to set our own concerns and needs aside and simply focus on the Lord of glory, allowing the Holy Spirit to do in us what Paul asked Him to do in the Ephesians—give us deep understanding of the truth that our Lord is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. The terms rule (archē, meaning leader or first one), authority (exousia), power (dunamis), and dominion (kuriotēs, lordship) were traditional Jewish terms to designate angelic beings of great rank and might. The point here is that the power of Christ applied in the believer’s behalf cannot be overthrown or negated or defeated, because it far surpasses that of the hosts of Satan who design to defeat it.

It should be noted that the matter of the cosmic war between God and His angelic hosts and Satan and his demons is a matter of great importance in Scripture. Redemption is a demonstration of God’s power before the angels (3:10). Our conflict is with these fallen angels, who endeavor to halt our efforts for God (6:12; cf. 1 Pet. 3:18-22, which shows Christ’s triumph over those fallen angels, accomplished in His death). Satan and his hosts have endeavored to thwart the plan of God from the beginning and are the constant enemy of the work of the kingdom, but they are destined to be overthrown and eternally banished (Rev. 20:10-15).

Our Lord not only is above, but far above, everything and everyone else. He is above Satan and above Satan’s world system. He is above the holy angels and the fallen angels, above saved people and unsaved people, for time and for eternity. He is above all names, titles, ranks, levels, powers, and jurisdictions in the universe. God put all things in subjection under His feet (a quote from Ps. 8:6; cf. Heb. 2:8). There is no limit on time, as Paul said Christ will be supreme not only in this age, but also in the one to come—that is, in the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 2:7).

Most importantly, as far as believers are concerned, God gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. Christ not only is the head of the church but its fulness. Since He has such a unique and intimate relationship with the redeemed whom He loves, all His power will be used in their behalf to fulfill His loving purpose for them. He is completely over us and completely in us, our supreme Lord and supreme power. The church is the fulness or complement (plērēma) of Christ. As a head must have a body to manifest the glory of that head, so the Lord must have the church to manifest His glory (3:10). Jesus Christ is the only One for whom the word incomparable truly applies; yet in a thrilling and securing wonder, He has chosen us to display His incomparable majesty. We are guaranteed to come to glory in order that we might forever manifest His praise.

The incomparable Christ is incomplete until the church, which is His body, is complete. Jesus Christ fills all in all, giving His fulness to believers. But in God’s wisdom and grace, believers, as the church, are also the fulness of Him. John Calvin said, “This is the highest honor of the church that until He is united to us, the Son of God reckons Himself in some measure incomplete. What consolation it is for us to learn that not until we are in His presence does He possess all His parts, nor does He wish to be regarded as complete.”

The point of this great petition is that we might comprehend how secure we are in Christ and how unwavering and immutable is our hope of eternal inheritance. The power of glorification is invincible and is presently operative to bring us to glory.