January 2010 - Page 3 of 3 - The Gospel for Christians

We are looking at Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers…

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Yesterday, I talked a bit about where this prayer is heading… “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” What a glorious destination! But what does God reveal to us through Paul’s prayer about how we can arrive there?

Paul’s first request in the prayer is… “that according to the riches of his (the Father’s) glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”

In the Greek language that Paul was writing in, this first petition is linked with the next phrase that is in verse 17. “…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…” The words “so that” are not literally present in Greek. Rather v. 17a is another way of expressing the same idea that is in v. 16b. In other words, “being strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being” and “Christ dwelling in your hearts through faith” are two sides of the same coin. They are two ways of expressing one reality. It is through the Holy Spirit that Christ dwells in our hearts. And as Christ dwells in our heart (which represents our inner being, our innermost self) we are strengthened with the Spirit’s power.

At this point, you may be thinking, “But why is Paul praying this for Christians? Isn’t it true that Christ already dwells in the heart of every true Christian? Isn’t it true that every believer already has the Holy Spirit indwelling him? (Romans 8:9 “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”)

Yes, that is true, but Paul is not referring here to Jesus’ initial taking up residence in our lives through the Holy Spirit when we are converted. He is referring to an intimate experience of Jesus that is given to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is the same reality that Jesus was referring to in John 14 when he promised his disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit.

He says in John 14:21-23…

21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

When Jesus promises that he and the Father will “come” to the one who loves him and “make their home” with the one who loves him, he is not talking about conversion, but about a fuller experience of the “manifest” presence of Jesus with the believer through the Holy Spirit.

We do not (and cannot) love Jesus apart from the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives, and this promise Jesus gives is to those who “love him.” He is referring to the wonderful experience of the believing Christian that through the Holy Spirit we can be with Jesus… we can experience his real presence in our lives.

An illustration might help… Imagine that I adopt a child, but that child is in New York, while I live in Los Angeles. That child is legally mine, but he does not experience my presence with him until I go to New York and “make my home with him.” In a similar way, God makes us his children. He adopts us into his family, but subsequent to that he comes to us through the Holy Spirit and “makes his home with us.”

I mentioned yesterday that one of the marks of every true Christian is a desire to be more like Jesus. Another mark of the true Christian is the the desire to be close to Jesus. Haven’t you experienced a longing to have a closer, more intimate, walk with Jesus. Doesn’t you heart ache to know how to “abide in Christ” as Jesus says in John 15?

Be encouraged by what Paul prays for the Ephesians here, and by what Jesus promises his disciples in John 14. Through the Holy Spirit, we can have an intimate experience of Jesus’ presence in our lives. Why not ask the Lord today to come in the power of the Holy Spirit and to reveal to you the indwelling presence of the Lord Jesus in your life.

Paul says, “Christ dwelling in your hearts through faith” May the Holy Spirit grant you the faith to believe that no matter what experience of Jesus’ presence in your life you have already experienced, there is a deeper and fuller experience awaiting you as you reach out to him in faith and ask him for it. Not just for yourself, but for your spiritual family as well.

Paul says in v. 16a that his prayer for the Spirit’s strengthening (Christ’s indwelling) is, “according to the riches of his (the Father’s) glory.” Think about the words, “according to” Paul is asking for a “strengthening” that is proportional, or in line with (according to) the riches of the Father’s glory. You don’t have to be a whiz at math to see that this is a pretty amazing “strengthening!” The Father’s glory is infinite, boundless. So no matter what experience you may have had in the past of the Holy Spirit’s fullness in your life, there is more that God has for you.

Throughout the years, I have often prayed with great longing the same prayer that Paul prays in Ephesians 3:14-21 for the Ephesian believers. It truly ranks as one of the greatest prayers ever prayed, and if God were to do in us what Paul asks him to, we would be forever changed. Do you believe that God wants to answer Paul’s prayer for you? Trust him to do it! Not just in you, but in your spiritual family as well!

In the next several posts, I want to explore this prayer with you. I will not treat all of the exegetical questions that this passage presents (along with the scores of additional beautiful insights that a fuller study brings), but will try to give you a brief summary of what I think Paul is asking God to do for his beloved brethren at Ephesus, and by extension, for us as well. My prayer is that God will use this to bring you to a deeper experience of his love for you and to a deepening maturity in your walk with him.

Here is the prayer…

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

It might be helpful to look first at where Paul is heading in this prayer and then see how he gets there. In this first post, we will look only at Paul’s “destination”, then in future posts, I will take up the steps that get us there.

Look forward to the end of verse 19 and you can see what the end result of Paul’s petition is: that we as believers might be “filled with all the fulness of God.” The “fulness of God” refers to the very nature of God that is imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. The new life that God has implanted in us as regenerated sinners is nothing less than the very divine life that is in Jesus himself (see John 5:26). Jesus doesn’t just give us part of himself. He gives us his whole self. He gives us his fullness, Paul says.

When the Holy Spirit indwells us at our conversion, we become united with Jesus. Remember what Paul says of Jesus in Colossians 1:19 “…in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (cf. Col. 2:9). Because we have Jesus as the source of our life — and because the fullness of God dwells in Jesus — through our relationship with Christ, it is possible for us to be filled up with all the fullness of God!

This doesn’t happen all-at-once in our experience, however. As we mature in Christ, we begin to “partake” more and more of this glorious inheritance of God’s fullness that we have been given in Christ. That is why Paul is praying this prayer. He wants the Ephesians to experience this fullness that is already theirs by virtue of what Jesus has done for them in saving them.

That is also why the apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1:4, “…(God) has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature…” Note that Peter doesn’t say we “have become partakers,” but that we “may become.” We are already united with Christ so that all that he has is ours, but we are also progressively receiving from him more and more of his nature so that we become more and more like him in our experience.

I believe that one of the marks of a genuine Christian is a desire to be like Jesus. Praise God for a verse like Ephesians 3:19 which gives us hope that we can indeed achieve that by the grace of God. Praise God for his “great and precious promises” that fill us with hope that we can partake more and more of God’s own moral excellence. It is possible to be filled with all the fullness of God. Believe that! God wants you to experience this and that someday you will. Keep reading in future posts to discover from Paul’s prayer how we can be “filled with all the fullness of God.”