6b Praying to the Soverign God

Second, Paul intercedes with the sovereign God to accomplish His glorious purposes. Specifically, the apostle asks God to give believers the spiritual wisdom and understanding necessary to know him more: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him” (v. 17). The first petition on Paul’s list is that these believers grow in their knowledge of God. He prays similarly in Colossians 1:9-10: “asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” According to Ephesians 4:13, God intends for the church to “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

And so Paul asks in Ephesians 1:17 for God to give believers wisdom and revelation, mediated by the Spirit, to the end that they might know God more. In Scripture, the term “revelation” sometimes refers to the full disclosure of God’s purposes that find their climax in Jesus Christ, and in other places “revelation” means spiritual illumination or enlightenment of one’s mind to understand and embrace God’s revealed truth and standards.3 Paul here has in mind the second usage—spiritual illumination that enables believers to grow in their knowledge of God.

Paul’s prayer is spelled out further in verses 18-19. Interpreters have understood the meaning of verse 18 in several ways. Some understand this verse to be a prayer requesting illumined eyes. Others explain that “having the eyes of your heart enlightened” refers to believers’ present status, which enables them to know God. Paul explicitly states that they have been sealed with the promised Spirit when they believed (see Eph. 1:13 ). Thus as commentator Clinton Arnold explains, the apostle “is praying that the already-present Spirit of God will work to reveal God to them in more profound ways.”4

Verses 18-19 highlight three fundamental spiritual truths that Paul prays Christians will see with enlightened eyes. First, he wants the church to know “what is the hope to which he has called you” (v. 18). Formerly, the Ephesians lived “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12 , NIV). But now they have put their hope in Christ and await a glorious inheritance, which is ultimately nothing less than life in God’s presence forever. Christians confidently anticipate and wait for the glorious return of Jesus as our Savior and King, when Christ will “present the church to himself in splendor” (5:27). We far too quickly lose sight of our future consummation of our salvation and fail to live in a way that reflects eternity’s values. Thus we need help from God to illuminate the eyes of our hearts so that we might understand the true nature of our great hope.

Additionally, Paul prays that believers may know through the Spirit’s enlightening work “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (1:18). Christians hope for the return of Christ and for our future inheritance in God’s kingdom (see 1:14; 5:5). But notice here that Paul refers to God’s inheritance in His saints. In John 17:9 , Jesus prays for those people whom the Father has given Him, and the Psalms frequently refer to God’s people as His chosen heritage.5 We need to know who we are, as God sees us. We have been chosen and redeemed and called God’s inheritance, and we need God’s help to perceive our glorious new identity and to live to God’s praise.

Paul asks further that Christians will see with enlightened eyes the incomparable power of God, which He puts to work for believers. Ephesians 3:14-21 (the focus of session 7) elaborates significantly on what God’s power accomplishes as it operates in our lives, and in Ephesians 6:10 Paul exhorts the church, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” In verse 15 he gives thanks for tangible evidences of God’s powerful work in a Christian’s faith and love. Now he prays that they might recognize that God’s power is still operative in their lives. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13 ).

We have seen that Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 highlights various aspects of God’s sovereignty and illustrates how we may pray to the sovereign and personal God. First, Paul thanks God for His sovereign and gracious work in believers’ lives (vv. 15-16). Second, he petitions God to accomplish His glorious, sovereign purposes (vv. 17-19). Now third, in verses 20-23 Paul rehearses three dramatic illustrations of God’s sovereign power. The Bible contains no shortage of material on the incomparable power of God. One need look no further than Genesis 1:1 : “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” As Isaiah observes, God brings out and names the heavenly bodies “by the greatness of his might” (Isa. 40:26 ). The sun is over 864,000 miles in diameter, with a surface temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit—and it is only an average-sized star, joined by billions of others that God set in place. The psalmist declares, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host,” and then summons the earth’s inhabitants to “stand in awe of him!” (Ps. 33:6 ,8 ). The power of God’s breath summons fiery balls of gas into being and perfect order, leaving us breathless with wonder.

However, for an omnipotent God there cannot be degrees of difficulty. Thus, in Ephesians 1:19-23 Paul appeals Jesus’ resurrection, His exaltation, and His appointment as head over all as three events that reveal the glorious power of God at work toward believers. Paul notes first the demonstration of God’s death-defeating power in Jesus’ resurrection—“his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (vv. 19-20). Remarkably, God now exercises this same resurrection power for the church. This is why Paul prays, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11 , NIV).

Next, Paul highlights the great might of God on display in Jesus’ exaltation, when God “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (v. 20). There are levels of authority and power in our world, from the branch manager to the CEO, from the local mayor to the commander in chief. In the first century world, the Roman emperor was unquestionably at the top of the power pyramid, with various officials hierarchically arranged underneath him. But early Christians confessed that the risen and exalted Jesus was “Lord” (kurios) and “King,” thereby relativizing the absolute claims of Caesar.6 Elsewhere Paul also mentions heavenly, invisible rulers and authorities, which Christ created and then triumphed over at the cross (see Col. 1:16 ; 2:15 ). Thus Jesus is exalted “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph. 1:21 ). Paul spells out the implications of these basic theological truths in Ephesians 2:5-6 : God “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God’s power overcomes our sin and spiritual death and gives us new spiritual life and a new standing and identity in Christ. Paul prays that the Ephesian believers will have divine illumination to grasp the profound ways that God’s great power is at work in believers’ lives.

Finally, God demonstrates His glorious and great power by subjugating everything under Christ and appointing Him as head over all things for the church. The opening line of verse 22—“He put all things under his feet”—is a quotation of Psalm 8:6 , which reflects on humanity’s humble dignity in God’s creation. According to 1 Corinthians 15:25-27 , God has subjected all things to the risen, exalted Jesus, who will reign until all His enemies, even death, are destroyed. To be sure, the nations still rage. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” (Ps. 14:1 ). “The poor are plundered, because the needy groan,” (Ps. 12:5 ), while the righteous cry out, “How long O Lord?” (Ps. 13:1 ). Some may wonder why, if Jesus declared that the kingdom of God is at hand, the brokenness, violence, injustice, and godlessness of our world continue on. Hebrews 2:8-9 points out, “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor.” This is what Paul prays that the church will “see” in Ephesians 1 . He longs for believers to have their spiritual faculties tuned to recognize that the crucified and risen Jesus is presently reigning as head over all things in the midst of this broken world that He will one day make new.

Not a drop of rain can fall outside the orb of Jesus’ sovereignty. All our days—our health, our illnesses, our joys, our victories, our tears, our prayers, and the answers to our prayers—fall within the sweep of the sovereignty of One who wears a human face, a thorn-shadowed face. All of God’s sovereignty is mediated through One who was crucified on our behalf. The mysteries of prayer remain, but they dissolve in worship and gratitude. It is far easier to accept the mysteries of divine sovereignty when the divine love is as great as the divine sovereignty.