Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:19a-What Constitutes the Father’s Incomparable, Great Power on Behalf of the Church Age Believer

Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, after I myself heard about the faith among each and every one of you in the one and only Lord Jesus as well as you are practicing divine-love, which is on behalf of each and every one of the saints, 16 I never permit myself to cease regularly expressing thanks to the one and only God because of each and every one of you. I do this while disciplining myself to make it my practice of remembering each and every one of you during my prayers. 17 I make it a habit of occupying myself with praying that the God, that is, the glorious Father of the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit, who is Jesus Christ, would cause each and every one of you to receive divine wisdom, specifically, divine revelatory wisdom provided by the one and only Spirit with respect to an experiential knowledge of Himself. 18 Namely, that the eyes of your heart are enlightened in order that each and every one of you would possess the conviction of what constitutes being the confident expectation of blessing produced by His effectual call, what constitutes His inheritance, which is characterized by glorious wealth, residing in the person of the saints. 19 Also, what constitutes being His incomparable, great power on behalf of each one of us who believe which is equivalent to the exertion of His absolute, omnipotent power to overcome. (Lecturer’s translation)

Ephesians 1:19 continues Paul’s thought from Ephesians 1:15-18.

First of all, this is indicated by the fact that it contains a categorical or qualitative question which is in addition to the previous two recorded in Ephesians 1:18.

Secondly, it presents the third intercessory prayer request, which Paul presented to the Father on behalf of the recipients of this epistle.

Specifically, it presents the third purpose of Paul wanting the Father to cause them to receive divine revelatory wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit, which he describes as having the eyes of their heart enlightened by the Spirit.

As was the case when the word appeared twice in Ephesians 1:18, the nominative feminine singular form of the interrogative pronoun tis (τις), “what constitutes” here in Ephesians 1:19 introduces a categorical or qualitative question.

Here it is expressing the idea of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle possessing the conviction regarding “what constitutes” the Father’s incomparable, great power which He exercised on behalf of the church age believer, which is equivalent to the exertion of His absolute, omnipotent power to overcome.

The referent of this interrogative pronoun is the exercise of the omnipotence of the Father through both the work of His Son and the Spirit.

It was manifested through the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session of His Son Jesus Christ.

These events delivered all of sinful humanity from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, enslavement to the sin nature, Satan and his cosmic system, spiritual and physical death and personal sins.

This deliverance is appropriated by the sinner when they exercise faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, which results in the Father declaring them justified.

Simultaneously, at the moment of justification, the omnipotence of the Father was manifested at the church age believer’s justification through the baptism when the Holy Spirit identified them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.

This identification provides the church age believer the necessary omnipotence to experience deliverance from the power of the sin nature as well as the power of Satan and his cosmic system.

The omnipotence of the Father is manifested in the life of the church age believer who appropriates by faith their union and identification with Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the referent of the interrogative pronoun tis (τις), “what constitutes” here in Ephesians 1:19 is the Father’s incomparable, great power, which was manifested on behalf of the church age believer through His Son’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.

As we noted, Paul also describes this power as the Father’s absolute, omnipotent power to overcome.

This omnipotence we also noted was also manifested at the moment of the church age believer’s justification through the baptism of the Spirit, which identified them with the Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.

Again, as we noted, this identification with Jesus Christ in these events in His life provides the church age believer the necessary omnipotence to experience deliverance from the power of the sin nature as well as the power of Satan and his cosmic system.

In other words, these events in the Lord’s life provide the church age believer the necessary power to overcome sin, Satan and his cosmic system.

We also noted that the omnipotence of the Father is manifested in the life of the church age believer who appropriates by faith their union and identification with Jesus Christ.

This post-justification enables the church age believer to overcome sin, Satan and his cosmic system.

The noun megethos(μέγεθος), “great” describes the Father’s omnipotence as preeminent and superior in relation to the power of His moral rational creatures, namely angels and human beings.

The articular nominative neuter singular present active participle conjugation of the verb hyperballō (ὑπερβάλλω), “incomparable” describes the Father’s omnipotence as eminent and beyond comparison.

The noun dunamis(δύναμις), “power” refers to the exercise of the Father’s omnipotence and specifically, it first refers to the omnipotence of God the Father which He exercised on behalf of the church age believer through the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session of His Son Jesus Christ.

Secondly, it refers to the Father’s omnipotence, which He manifested through the work of the Holy Spirit on behalf of the church age believer at their justification when the Spirit identified the church age believer with Jesus Christ in these events in His life.

The accusative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ). “each and every one of us as a corporate unit” since the word not only refers to Paul and the recipients of this epistle as a corporate unit but also the word is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.

This would indicate that the Father’s omnipotence was manifested through both the work of His Son and His Spirit on behalf of “Paul” and “each and every one of” the recipients of this epistle.

In other words, the Father’s power was manifested on behalf of “each and every” church age believer without exception.

This word is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), “on behalf of” since the word is functioning here as a marker of benefaction or marker of advantage.

Therefore, this prepositional phrase is expressing the idea that the Father’s incomparable, great power was manifested through both the work of His Son and His Spirit “on behalf of” each and every church age believer without exception. In other words, it was “for their benefit.”

The articular accusative masculine plural present active participle conjugation of the verb pisteuō(πιστεύω), “who believe” refers to the church age believer as having been declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

This verb is expressing the idea of each and every church age believer believing in the content of the gospel at justification.

Namely, they believe that Jesus Christ is both God and man and that He died and rosed from the dead on behalf of them in order to deliver them from eternal condemnation, person sin, enslavement to the sin, Satan and his cosmic system, spiritual and physical death and condemnation from the Law in the sense that they consider this as fact or true.

Consequently, this word speaks of the Father’s declaring the church age believer justified or other words, it speaks of their faith at their justification.

The present tense of the verb pisteuō as a perfective present, which is used to emphasize that the results of a past action are still continuing.

Therefore, this would emphasize that the results of Paul and the recipients of this epistle being declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son at their conversion are still continuing and are still binding.

It is emphasizing that the results of being justified through faith in Jesus Christ are still continuing in the sense that they can experience the omnipotence of God by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Jesus Christ in order to overcome sin, Satan and his cosmic system.

This would be the direct result of possessing the conviction that they will receive a resurrection body at the rapture and rewards for faithful service at the Bema Seat, which we noted constitutes their confident expectation of blessing.

All of these results would be the direct result of the recipients of this letter possessing the conviction that they possess the power to overcome sin, Satan and his cosmic system because of their union and identification with Jesus Christ.

It would also be the direct result of possessing the conviction that the Father’s power resides in this union and identification with His Son.