Faith, Love and Power
Faith, Love and Power
Ephesians 3:16-21 – “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the [saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.20 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, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
Verse 16 – “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,” The inner man is our heart and soul. Paul is praying here that those who have accepted Jesus Christ may be strengthened with power that will deeply penetrate them.
What does this offer?
- That they gain the supernatural abilities to carry out the purposes of God which is not only what they do, but more importantly, making them who we were meant to be.
- That they have the power to resist temptations, which will always be present with them in this age.
- That they can face up to and overcome the sufferings which all who live in a fallen world have to endure.
These are not things that can be gained in our own strength. Paul prays that they will be gained according to the riches of Christ’s glory through the work of the Holy Spirit. These can only be gained out of a living relationship with the Father. Not only does this give us strength to perform our calling before the Lord, but it builds in us a burden for the things He has called us to be involved in and provides us with the passion and determination to conform this world to His image.
It Is Christ Within Us
The power of our faith lies in the fact that, the living Christ is both the one who originated it AND is the one who constantly carries it along. We certainly activate it but it does not come from our personal source of strength. God is always calling us to perform above our own natural abilities.
God does not respond to human faith in Christ any more than He responds to a human observation of the Law. The, if WE have faith, God has to obey all our requests, is heretical. God does not respond to anything from a human perspective at all – He is the initiator of our faith, rather than a responder to it.
Everything good in us, including that which is increasing, comes from the Holy Spirit. This is the gift of Divine grace, and is evident from the expression used, that He would grant it to us.
It is never about how clever we are or that God stands back to watch us perform. He desires to be part of all our activities. This is not a legal thing or some anti-sin thing – it is about a Father wanting to spend time working with His children. Our big problem today was expressed by God at the Tower of Babel – that there is nothing we cannot do – which makes it so easy for us to leave God out.
Verse 17 – “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,”
Jesus is always present with us and seeking to influence us in all areas of life. He dwells in our hearts and as a result, we get grounded into a way of life that is able to produce His love and His ways in everything we do. However, we will fall short if we fall into the temptation of working our faith out in the realm of our intelligence or logic alone. Yes – these do play a part – we are not meant to leave our brain at the door and enter into some detached spiritual realm, but what Paul is affirming here is that Christ dwells in our hearts, meaning our faith is about a heartfelt experience, not just something obtained through knowledge.
In fact, Verse 19 tells that it surpasses all knowledge.
The Great, Majestic, Power of all of creation has come down to make His abode with us (John 14:23). The word abode (Gk. Mone) actually means a dwelling or inhabitance of continuance. The words endure and remain also come from this word and it is something intended to be everlasting.
Believing in Christ and having fellowship with Him are two very different things. Jesus suffered torture and death and rose from the grave on our account, but when we accept this offer and make Him our Saviour He allows His Spirit to dwell within us as an act of true love and fellowship.
This is not something distant. It is something warm, intimate and eternal. This is the love that He is calling us to be rooted and grounded in. In all of this though, we must remember that we love Him because He first loved us. We love Jesus as our Lord and our Saviour – but we don’t own Him – He owns us.
Verse 18 – “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,”
How can we do this? How can we comprehend such love which Verse 19 says surpasses knowledge? The answer is that it springs from faith. It is the highest wisdom that we can attain as believers. It is something that we believe in faith, knowing that God cannot lie and this is a promise that has been covenantally made to us.
Verse 19 – “and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
As we journey through life, we tend to place the most value on the relationships we have that have lasted the test of time. So, let’s think about this in regard to the love of Christ for us. We were in His heart before we were born (Psalm 139); He had a plan and a purpose for our life (Ephesians 2:10); He prepared a Kingdom for us in Christ before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20).
We not only can count on His love throughout our life on this earth – but He has pledged that it will continue throughout eternity.
This love should leave us breathless – not only does He express it as a Father to us, but He comes to us and makes us the recipients of His sacrifice, sufferings, and humiliation. He plants Himself in the very heart of this world, amongst so much ingratitude, rebellion and unbelief. His response to all of this is that He did not come to judge humanity – He came to save it by bringing us to God.
The more we know of this love, the more we are overwhelmed by it. It calls us on and constantly replenishes us in our journey through life. Does it have a limit? No – rather it tells us to continue with the goal of being filled up to all the fullness of God. This means it is unlimited – we are on a constant journey of growing in maturity, with the goal of attaining the highest level possible in our time here (Ephesians 4:13).
Verse 20 – “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,” Paul is praying sincerely for us here – but he makes it clear that even his requests and desire fall far short of what God is able to achieve in us. As a result, he adds the words to his prayer that he is addressing the loving Father who is able to do far more abundantly than anything we ask or think.
Whatever expectations we form of Divine blessings, the infinite goodness of God will exceed all our wishes and all our thoughts.
It’s Not About Us
The heart of this is not to encourage selfish requests. It is to promote confident hope in His new creation. Our petitions need to correspond with God’s intent for the role He would have us – His church – play in the present age.
It is about God’s purposes being expressed through us for the benefit of the whole His plan for the whole of creation. Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 6:31-33 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
This does not mean we don’t count or that our personal needs are not important to Him. But there is something much bigger and more important at stake here, that God has asked us to give our lives to. It is only here that all the true treasures of life are found as Matthew 13illustrates.
Conclusion
Ephesians 3:21 – “to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Everything that we have covered in these five verses is given in order to produce Verse 21 – which is that the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ will be made throughout all generations, forever.
To Him be the glory – not to us.
This is recognising that the blessings made available to us in Verse 16-20 are clearly owned by God and given for this purpose. We need to understand that the honour of Jesus is in the hands of His people – His Church – and, if we are going to draw on these great promises, and experience His power, we have to do so with the goal of bringing glory to His name.
Psalm 96:8 says – “Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name; Bring an offering and come into His courts.” Ascribing glory to God means that we ascribe all excellences and perfections to him. God is not there just for our requests – He is always worthy of our praise – not only for what He has done but also for who He is. Jesus brings us into the incredible presence and glory of God.
As one author said, “this brings us into the glow and the sunshine of the Fatherhood of God.” Another said, “He ascended up into heaven, not so that He might be removed from us but so that, through His passing from the material to the spiritual world, He might come into the closer contact with our souls.”
Colossians 3:1 reveals this by saying that we have been raised up with Christ, and as a result we should be seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
As we all know, this world is not what it was meant to be. It has been torn to pieces by forces that oppose the way of the Lord, such as hatred and strife. Nations are fighting against nations; cultures against cultures and even those in marriages, family and those who were close friends are turning against one another. Each of us also has a battle within ourselves as our fallen nature tries to rise up above our redeemed nature.
To counter this, God calls to us all to become one in Christ, so that He can send us out into the world on a mission to produce an expression of His Kingdom. We can only do this through the limitless love and power of Christ.
Let’s embrace what is promised in these verses and go out into the world armed with the power of God that is immersed in our love for Him.
God bless you.
Bruce Billington