For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Although Paul is writing from prison you would think by the tone of his message he had just won the lottery. Reading Ephesians all the way through you find it is laced with superlatives where Paul is attempting to describe his windfall (and ours)….. 

God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…. His grace which He lavished on us …. an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is the the summing up of all things in Christ….  God works all things after the counsel of His will….  the surpassing greatness of His power, 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 fullness of Him who fills all in all ….. He seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace, the unfathomable riches of Christ, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known, his eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

I believe, with Paul’s superlatives he is stretching language because God had stretched him. As a vessel Paul had in fact been stretched so far that he was able to contain both profound humility as well as profound confidence. In Paul’s heart we see something of a destination where only Christ can lead us. Yet, with all the strength he can muster, he is trying to say, “By all means, travel in this direction; you can get there. You will truly be blown away at how near you actually are!” 

Paul longs that all we saints would inherit our lottery windfall. However, to partake he knows that the eyes of our hearts must be opened so that we may comprehend. His knee is bowed as he reveals just how near we are to our windfall. In fact he is saying, if you can grasp this, “You have already arrived!” He is reminding us that by faith, Christ is now dwelling in our hearts. His Spirit is now residing in our inner man. He is saying, if you can grasp this, even now you are rooted deeply and therefore powerfully established in a love so vast that it is utterly incomprehensible yet knowable.

We know that it was through supernatural revelation that Paul was entrusted much of the previously hidden mystery of Christ in us. I believe it is likely that those tastes of God’s love and glory ruined him for this world and he was left straining with the frailty of human language to describe the indescribable. Paul said that he was shown things that he was not even permitted to speak but I wonder, if also, he was not also simply incapable of speaking them because they transcended the limits of what human thought and language could convey.

How unique that this great mystery was revealed to someone who considered himself to be the very least of all saints yet not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostle. As Paul walked through his life, he did so acknowledging that the resurrected Christ was at the center of it. He experienced, through a great many tests and trials, the re-shaping of his own heart.  His re-shaped heart became truly humble – knowing that in itself, without Christ, it had been less than nothing (no matter how impressive it might have looked). At the same time, his identity, rooted and grounded in Christ, enabled him to be profoundly confident in who he was. Bearing humility and greatness simultaneously is a telling mark of a saint who is at rest in his destination in Christ. 

So Father, it is for these reasons we bow our hearts before you and ask you that they too would realize with all the rest of our family the unfathomable riches of Christ you have lavished upon us. In the fulness of our times let our hearts be summarized in Christ. As we grasp that in Christ we are seated even now with Him in the heavenly places display your manifold wisdom and eternal purposes though us. Through us Lord, put all things in subjection to your rule. Now to You who are able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to You be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

 

 

 

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap