Words for the Wise, Ephesians 3, God can do more than we expect

Ephesians 3 The Voice (VOICE)

For Paul there are two kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles, or to put it another way, insiders and outsiders. The Prince of Peace is establishing peace where division and hostility once ruled unchallenged. In the Jerusalem temple, a stone wall separated Jewish from non-Jewish worshipers. According to Paul, the cross is God’s instrument to dismantle the wall, end the segregation, and make the two into one. God wants one people of God. That has been His plan all along.

Today walls continue to exist, erected strategically to separate people by race, religion, class, culture, and sex. Those who erect these walls, protect them, and maintain them will find that they are enemies of the gospel that brings all together into one worshiping family.

3 All this is exactly why I, Paul, am a prisoner of Jesus the Anointed, His representative to the outsider nations. ² You have heard, haven’t you, how God appointed me to bring you His message of grace? ³ And how the mystery was made known to me in a revelation? I briefly wrote about it earlier. ⁴ When you read what I have written, you will be better able to understand the depth of my insight into the mystery of the Anointed One, ⁵ a mystery that has never before been shown to past generations. Only now are these secrets being revealed to God’s chosen emissaries^[a] and prophets through the Holy Spirit. ⁶ Specifically, the mystery is this: by trusting in the good news, the Gentile outsiders are becoming fully enfranchised members of the same body, heirs alongside Israel, and beneficiaries of the promise that has been fulfilled through Jesus the Anointed.

⁷ I became a servant and preacher of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace as He exercised His amazing power over me. ⁸ I cannot think of anyone more unworthy to this cause than I, the least of the least of the saints. But here I am, a grace-made man, privileged to be an echo of His voice and a preacher to all the nations of the riches of the Anointed One, riches that no one ever imagined. ⁹ I am privileged to enlighten all of Adam’s descendants to the mystery concealed from previous ages by God, the Creator of all, through Jesus the Anointed. ¹⁰ Here’s His objective: through the church, He intends now to make known His infinite and boundless wisdom to all rulers and authorities in heavenly realms.¹¹ This has been His plan from the beginning, one that He has now accomplished through the Anointed One, Jesus our Lord. ¹² His faithfulness^[b] to God has made it possible for us to have the courage we need and the ability to approach the Father confidently. ¹³ So I ask you not to become discouraged because I am jailed for speaking out on your behalf. In fact, my suffering is something that brings you glory.

¹⁴ It is for this reason that I bow my knees before the Father,¹⁵ after whom all families in heaven above and on earth below receive their names, and pray:

¹⁶ Father, out of Your honourable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit ¹⁷ so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together ^18-19 with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings.

This is a doxology of praise to the One with power that is beyond understanding.

²⁰ Now to the God who can do so many awe-inspiring things, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us, ²¹ to Him be all glory in the church and in Jesus the Anointed from this generation to the next, forever and ever. Amen.

NIV Application Commentary

The Doxology (3:20–21)

The doxology brings the first half of Ephesians to a close at the place it began in 1:3, in giving praise to God. Doxologies in the form “glory to God” are frequent in the New Testament, though most are much briefer. The use of “glory” in Ephesians and throughout the New Testament is fascinating. God is a God of glory (1:17; Acts 7:2), and his glory reveals who he is (John 1:14; Rom. 6:4; Heb. 1:3). God gives glory to Christ (John 17:22; Acts 3:13; 1 Cor. 2:8; 1 Peter 1:21) and people (Rom. 2:10; 8:30; 1 Cor. 2:7). Christians are transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). People are to do everything for God’s glory (1 Cor. 10:31) and are to give glory back to God (Eph. 1:6; Phil. 1:11). In the eschaton further glory will be revealed (Rom. 8:18). “Glory” is a word that virtually encompasses the whole of Christianity. Here the focus is on the praise and honor that should be given God for his saving work.

This doxology is striking in its assertion that glory is given to God “in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever.” No other passage mentions the church explicitly in a doxology, although other doxologies imply it because Christians are the ones giving the praise. To suggest that the church and Christ are accorded equal status is presumptuous. The passage only assumes an unending relation between God, his people, and Christ. The presence of the people with God, made possible by Christ, will be a cause for eternal praise. This is what Paul had in mind in 1:18 with the expression “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (see also 2:7).

In verse 19 the love of Christ is beyond understanding, and in verse 20 the activity of God is beyond expectation or thought. The heightened language throughout the prayer shows the depth of Paul’s emotion. A wordplay occurs in the Greek text of verse 20 between “to him who is able” (to dynameno) and “power” (dynamis). Note the preponderance of words for God’s activity, a theme that has marked the letter from 1:1.

This doxology sums up the intent of the first half of the letter. We should praise God for his astounding work in Christ Jesus. Paul’s point is not merely that God is able to do beyond what we expect. Rather, this power is already at work in us (cf. the similar language in Col. 1:29, which describes God’s work in Paul’s ministry). God does not fit the limitations of our expectations. The language is reminiscent of Isaiah 55:8–9: God’s ways and thoughts are exceedingly beyond our ways and thoughts. God is at work and eager to work in us to achieve his purposes for salvation.

The Bible Panorama

Ephesians 3

V 1–7: REVELATION The fact of the oneness of all believers in Christ leads Paul to pray the prayer that comes later in verse 14. But first, writing from prison, he digresses to disclose his apostolic authority which enables him to deal with some important things. God revealed to Paul individually what, through the Spirit, He revealed to His prophets and apostles collectively, that believing Gentiles would be part of the same body as believing Jews. Thus his message is not a subjective ‘bright idea’ of Paul’s own making, but one that can be seen objectively as having come from the Holy Spirit.

 V 8–13: RICHES His task is to make the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ’ known to the Gentiles and to make all see the wonderful things that God has done in Christ. He expects to suffer tribulation in doing this and tells them so. His tribulation will lead to their glory.

 V 14–19: REQUEST He prays, in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, that these Gentile believers will be strengthened by the Spirit inwardly, and know Christ’s indwelling in their hearts. He asks for stability in their Christian life and an understanding, with all of the Christians, of the immensity of the love, fullness and will of God.

V 20–21: REMINDER Paul reminds them that God is able to answer their prayers ‘exceedingly abundantly’ above their expectations. God acts with the power of the resurrection and of the Holy Spirit, which power is also experienced within each Christian and is limitless. Paul wants God to be glorified for ever in the church.