The Riches You Have
The Riches You Have
Having stated that positionally the Gentile and Jewish believers are “one new man” (2:15), which is the body of Christ, Paul now prayed that they may be united experientially. He desired that they might genuinely know and experience Christ’s love and thus exhibit it toward each other.
I The Cause
For this reason, refer back to chapter 2 with its description of what the Gentiles had been by nature and what they had become through union with Christ. Their astonishing rise from poverty and death to riches and glory drives Paul to pray they will always live in the practical enjoyment of their exalted position.
His posture in prayer is indicated: I bow my knees. This does not mean kneeling must always be the posture of the body, though it should always be the posture of the soul. We may pray as we walk, sit, or recline, but our spirits should be bowed in humility and reverence.
The prayer is addressed to the Father. In a general sense, God is the Father of all mankind, meaning He is their Creator (Acts 17:28, 29). In a more restricted sense, He is the Father of all believers, meaning He has begotten them into His spiritual family (Gal. 4:6). In a unique sense He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, meaning They are equal (John 5:18).
3:15 The particular role of the Father which Paul has in view is as the One from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. This may mean:
1. All the redeemed in heaven and on earth look to Him as Head of the family.
2. All created beings, angelic and human, owe their existence to Him not only as individuals but as families as well. Families in heaven include the various grades of angelic creatures. Families on earth are the different races springing from Noah and now divided into various nations.
3. All fatherhood in the universe derives its name from Him. The Fatherhood of God is the original and the ideal; it is the prototype of every other paternal relationship. Phillips translates the verse, “from whom all fatherhood, earthly or heavenly, derives its name.”
II The Core
We cannot help but be struck by the vastness of Paul’s request: That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory. He is going to ask that the saints might be spiritually strengthened. But to what extent? Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown answer: “in abundance, consonant to the riches of His glory; not ‘according to’ the narrowness of our hearts.” Preachers often point out that there is a difference between the expressions “out of the riches” and according to the riches. A wealthy person might give a trifling amount; it would be out of his riches, but not in proportion to them! Paul asks that God will give strength according to the riches of His perfections. Since the Lord is infinitely rich in glory, let the saints get ready for a deluge! Why should we ask so little of so great a King? When someone asked a tremendous favor of Napoleon it was immediately granted because, said Napoleon, “He honored me by the magnitude of his request.”
Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.
—John Newton
Now we come to Paul’s specific prayer requests. Instead of a series of disconnected petitions, we should think of them as a progression in which each petition lays the groundwork for the next. Picture them as a pyramid: the first request is the bottom layer of stones. As the prayer advances, Paul builds toward a glorious climax.
The first request is that they would be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. The blessing sought is spiritual power. Not the power to perform spectacular miracles, but the spiritual vigor needed to be mature, stable, intelligent Christians. The One who imparts this power is the Holy Spirit. Of course, He can give us strength only as we feed on the word of God, as we breathe the pure air of prayer, and as we get exercise in daily service for the Lord.
This power is experienced in the inner man, that is, the spiritual part of our nature. It is the inner man that delights in the law of God (Rom. 7:22). It is the inner man that is renewed day by day, even though the outward man is perishing (2 Cor. 4:16). Though it is of God, our inner man needs strength, growth, and development.
3:17 The second step is that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. This is the result of the Spirit’s invigoration: we are strengthened in order that Christ may dwell in our hearts. Actually, the Lord Jesus takes up His personal residence in a believer at the time of conversion (John 14:23; Rev. 3:20). But that is not the subject of this prayer. Here it is not a question of His being in the believer, but rather of His feeling at home there! He is a permanent Resident in every saved person, but this is a request that He might have full access to every room and closet; that He might not be grieved by sinful words, thoughts, motives, and deeds; that He might enjoy unbroken fellowship with the believer. The Christian heart thus becomes the home of Christ, the place where He loves to be—like the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany. The heart, of course, means the center of the spiritual life; it controls every aspect of behavior. In effect, the apostle prays that the lordship of Christ might extend to the books we read, the work we do, the food we eat, the money we spend, the words we speak—in short, the minutest details of our lives.
The more we are strengthened by the Holy Spirit, the more we will be like the Lord Jesus Himself. And the more we are like Him, the more He will “settle down and feel completely at home in our hearts” (KSW).
We enter into the enjoyment of His indwelling through faith. This involves constant dependence on Him, constant surrender to Him, and constant recognition of His “at home-ness.” It is through faith that we “practice His presence,” as Brother Lawrence quaintly put it.
Up to this point Paul’s prayer has involved each member of the Trinity. The Father is asked (v. 14) to strengthen the believers through His Spirit (v. 16) that Christ might be completely at home in their hearts (v. 17). One of the great privileges of prayer is that we can engage the eternal Godhead to work in behalf of others and ourselves.
The result of Christ’s unrestricted access is that the Christian becomes rooted and grounded in love. Here Paul borrows words from the worlds of botany and building. The root of a plant provides nourishment and support. The groundwork of a building is the foundation on which it rests. As Scroggie says, “Love is the soil in which our life must have its roots; and it is the rock upon which our faith must ever rest.” To be rooted and grounded in love is to be established in love as a way of life. The life of love is a life of kindness, selflessness, brokenness, and meekness. It is the life of Christ finding expression in the believer (see 1 Cor. 13:4–7).
3:18 The preceding requests have outlined a program of spiritual growth and development which prepares the child of God to be fully able to grasp with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height.
Before we consider the dimensions themselves, let us notice the expression, with all the saints. The subject is so great that no one believer can possibly grasp more than a small fraction of it. So there is need to study, discuss, and share with others. The Holy Spirit can use the combined meditations of a group of exercised believers to throw a flood of additional light on the Scriptures.
The dimensions are generally taken to refer to the love of Christ, although the text does not say this. In fact, the love of Christ is mentioned separately in the following clause. If the love of Christ is intended, then the connection might be shown as follows:
Width
—
The world (John 3:16)
Length
—
Forever (1 Cor. 13:8)
Depth
—
Even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8)
Height
—
Heaven (1 John 3:1–2)
F. B. Meyer expresses it well:
There will always be as much horizon before us as behind us. And when we have been gazing on the face of Jesus for millenniums, its beauty will be as fresh and fascinating and fathomless as when we first saw it from the gate of Paradise.
But these dimensions may also refer to the mystery which holds such an important place in Ephesians. In fact, it is easy to find these dimensions in the text itself:
1. The width is described in 2:11–18. It refers to the wideness of God’s grace in saving Jews and Gentiles, and then incorporating them into the church. The mystery embraces both these segments of humanity.
2. The length extends from eternity to eternity. As to the past, believers were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (1:4). As to the future, eternity will be a perpetual unfolding of the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus (2:7).
3. The depth is vividly portrayed in 2:1–3. We were sunk in a pit of unspeakable sin and degradation. Christ came to this jungle of filth and corruption in order to die in our behalf.
4. The height is seen in 2:6, where we have not only been raised up with Christ, but enthroned in Him in the heavenlies to share His glory.
These are the dimensions, then, of immensity and, indeed, infinity. As we think of them, “all we can do,” Scroggie says, “is to mark the order in this tumult of holy words.”
3:19 The apostle’s next request is that the saints might know by experience the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. They could never explore it fully, because it is an ocean without shores, but they could learn more and more about it from day to day. And so he prays for a deep, experimental knowledge and enjoyment of the wonderful love of our wonderful Lord.
The climax in this magnificent prayer is reached when Paul prays that you may be filled with (lit. unto, Gk. eis) all the fullness of God. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in the Lord Jesus (Col. 2:9). The more He dwells in our hearts by faith, the more we are filled unto all the fullness of God. We could never be filled with all the fullness of God. But it is a goal toward which we move.
And yet having explained this, we must say there are depths of meaning here we have not reached. As we handle the Scriptures, we are aware that we are dealing with truths that are greater than our ability to understand or explain. We can use illustrations to throw light on this verse, for example, the thimble dipped in the ocean is filled with water, but how little of the ocean is in the thimble! Yet when we have said all this, the mystery remains, and we can only stand in awe at God’s word and marvel at its infinity.
H. Paul’s Doxology (3:20, 21)
III The Conclusion
The preceding requests have been vast, bold, and seemingly impossible. But God is able to do more in this connection than we can ask or think. The extent of His ability is seen in the manner in which Paul pyramids words to describe superabundant blessings:
Able
Able to do
Able to do what we ask
Able to do what we think
Able to do what we ask or think
Able to do all that we ask or think
Able to do above all that we ask or think
Able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think
Able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think