Ephesians 1:15-23

The Surpassing Greatness of God's Power Toward Us

In vv. 3-14, Paul gives an extended blessing (one long sentence) to God who has orchestrated every detail of history in order to give you, the church, everything that is being summed up in Christ.  Nothing is left out.  Everything in the heavens and on the earth is your present inheritance in Christ.  God's purpose in you, even from before the foundation of the world, has been fulfilled in Christ through which God has purchased you with the precious blood of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Pet. 1:19).  God is not content with simply showing you his goodness in some small way.  Rather, he has lavished his rich grace upon you so that you have become his own precious, treasured possession.  You are the "apple of God's eye" and he has given you everything in Christ.  Like a man who lavishes his lover with gifts, or a mother who would give the whole world to her child, God has taken everything in his possession, everything that belongs to his son, and he has wonderfully lavished it upon you in Christ and he assures you that what he has given to you is not only your present possession but it is your eternal possession.  God will never take back what he has poured out upon you.  He has given you his very own Spirit as a down payment to assure you that what you already possess in Christ is your eternal treasure.  But he has given you his Spirit also as a foretaste of an even greater gift to come when your knowledge of this gracious God will no longer be seen merely through faith but when you will have the immense joy of seeing him face to face. 

It is clear that no words can appropriately describe the richness and glory of what God has done for you in Christ.  You have received an opulent treasure that will take you all eternity to even begin to fathom.  It is for this reason that Paul now turns to encourage you by reporting why he is thankful for you and how he regularly prays for all who are at rest in Christ (cf. v. 13).  Again, Paul attempts to express the fullness and richness of what God is doing for you in Christ and in one long sentence (vv. 15-23) Paul tries to grasp at the height and width and peer into the depth of God's marvelous grace to once again attempt to display for you the "surpassing greatness" of God's love which has been poured out into your hearts through his Spirit (cf. Rom. 5:5).

In v. 15, Paul says "for this reason" in which he looks back to the previous thanksgiving of vv. 3-14 and ties it into his present encouragement of the church.  In vv. 15-16, Paul explains why he is thankful for the church, for their faith in Christ and their love towards one another (cf. Col. 1:3-4), and then he turns to give the reasons why he continually lifts you before the throne of God's grace.  Paul wants you to fully comprehend and appropriate everything that has been mentioned in vv. 3-14.  Here, Paul gives us a wonderful example of what we ought to long for one another and therefore, how and what we should be praying for for one another (cf. D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Grand Rapids:  Baker, 1992)).  It is not enough that you simply hear what God has done for you in Christ, Paul wants you to fully comprehend and continually apply and become mature in the grace and love of God towards you (cf. 3:14-19).  Paul indirectly gives us a prescription for how and what we ought to speak to and pray for for one another.  The glorious truths of these verses ought to constantly be on our lips when we talk to one another has fellow believers in Christ.  As we sit around the table together and enjoy one another's fellowship we ought to be reminding each other of these glorious truths contained here.  We ought to meet together regularly and explore and meditate on these truths.  We ought to look upon one another, seeing pass the warts and blemishes that plague us all, and see and speak of these truths by faith.  This is who you are in Christ and this is how God eternally sees you.  It is now Paul's prayer that you will, more and more, fully comprehend this work of God for you.

In v. 17, Paul once again links the Holy Spirit, as God's means, to your appropriation of God's gifts. It is Paul's prayer that God will give you his Spirit so that you may have wisdom, a practical understanding of the blessings of God, and that you may have a further revelation into the knowledge of God and your relationship to him in Christ (cf. vv. 8-10).  As we said at v. 9, God's revelation ("made known") has to do with his making known the mystery of his will in summing up all things in Christ.  This mystery has been opened and revealed to us through the apostles and prophets of Jesus (cf. 3:3; 2:20).  That wisdom and revelation, which Paul prays for, is the gospel of your salvation (cf. v. 13) and is contained in God's word.  Though it has already been revealed to you (vv. 9-10) you need to grasp the full significance of your place in it.   It is Paul's pray that God's Spirit will be given to you to illuminate his word so that as you continually meditate on the gospel then the "eyes of your heart" may be enlightened to what God has done for you in Christ.  Paul uses the phrase "the eyes of your heart" to refer to our minds that have been awakened by God's Spirit.  In 2:1-3, 4:18, and 5:8 Paul speaks of our minds as formerly being darkened by sin, but now through the power of the gospel the Spirit has brought light or illumination to our minds so that we now have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) and we are now taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).  Paul says to the Corinthians:

For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6)

Therefore, Paul will go on to tell the Ephesian church:

You were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (5:8).

This saving illumination of the gospel, which has already become the power of your salvation, will bring Christ-like maturity to you in three ways:  first, that you will know what is the hope of God's calling you to himself (v. 18 b); second, that you will know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance given to you (v. 18 c); and third, that you will know what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward you (v. 19 a).

1.  The hope of God's calling -- Paul refers to our settled hope in God's work of saving us to himself.  God has called us to be his own precious possession and his calling of us began in his eternal choice before the foundation of the world (1:4).  Paul says in 4:4:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling.

We have been called forth out of darkness and into life through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is especially important to us as Gentiles who at one time had no hope in God (2:12). 

2.  The glorious wealth of God's inheritance -- Paul is referring to God's inheritance in which we now belong to him as his portion and to which he is giving us everything in Christ.  Paul tells the Romans:

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:16-17a).

You must constantly place before you the extraordinary value that God places upon you by looking upon you as God looks upon his own son and treating you accordingly.

3.  The surpassing greatness of God's power -- Paul sees an amazing power at work within you.  It is a power that exceeds or surpasses greatness.

Paul grounds his prayer in the immense power and absolute sovereignty of the Father of glory who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and seated him in the heavens far above all other authority.  The answer to Paul's prayer for you is assured in every way because of the power of God, which has been gloriously displayed in the resurrection, exaltation and cosmic and eschatological rule of Christ.  Jesus Christ, the second Adam, has already subdued and taken dominion over this entire creation.  He is already the king of kings and lord of lords and every possible power or force that is hostile and rebellious to God's authority has been placed under his feet. 

You can be assured of God's answer to Paul's prayer for you because God has taken the one who is the head over all things and he has given him to you.  What is most important is Paul's prayer is not that Christ is over all things, but that God has given Jesus Christ, who is over all things, to you.  You are the body of Christ and your privileged possession of all things is due only to your union with Jesus Christ.  You are assured of God's answer because he has given you the one who is above all and in all.  As Paul says to the Romans:

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Rom. 8:32)

Paul sees it as his purpose to do everything within his ability to convince you of the amazing power that is at work in you to accomplish everything that God has ordained for your life in Christ.

The church is in a unique relationship to Christ distinct from all the rest of creation.  Jesus Christ is the head of all things but you alone are his body.  Jesus Christ is filling all things and everything in the heavens and on the earth is being summed up in Christ, but you are uniquely the fullness of Christ and you alone are the ones to whom God is pouring out the Spirit, the grace, and the possessions of Christ.  No longer are you to be downtrodden in your weaknesses and fearful of God's condemnation of ever-present failure in the face of temptation.  From now on you are to think of yourselves and be reminded that God thinks of you only from the vantage point of who you are in Christ (cf. Col. 3:1-4).  F. F. Bruce has said:

That God should set such a high value on a community of sinners, rescued from perdition and still bearing too many traces of their former state, might well seem incredible were it not made clear that he sees them in Christ, as from the beginning he chose them in Christ (Quoted in O'Brien, 136).

Because Jesus has been exalted in the heavens above all things and is filling all things, then you now enjoy the glorious benefits of being united to your heavenly lord.  The very one who fills every atom of this creation with his glorious presence is made known and experienced only in the body of Christ, the church.  But that which is begun in you will eventually become visible for all to see when Christ's lordship will eventually encompass the entire creation so that the whole cosmos will be filled with the glory of the lord. 

Paul's prayer is again theocentric and christocentric in nature.  But Paul only focuses upon God's work in Christ to make you more fully aware of its benefit towards you.  Ultimately, the focus of Paul's prayer is the church and what great lengths God has gone to pour his love and grace upon you in Christ.  The extent of your joy in your Christian life is exactly proportional to your knowledge of the grace of God towards you.  Therefore, it is Paul's prayer that you will more fully comprehend the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of the love of Christ so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Amen! -SDG-