Here's more on Jesus reigning through the Church. As I was teaching this same series in Spanish, for our Spanish broadcasts, I came to understand it better myself. Here I discuss how the prayers in Ephesians 1, prayers Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus, are actually prayers that the Ephesians might come to know what God has created them, and us, and all Christians, to be.
The prayer is, I'm pretty sure, a Hebrew parallelism, i.e. Paul repeats the same idea in different ways. When we read it in English we tend to think he's talking about three different things. Here's the prayer and I've numbered the three items which I believe are parallels.
Ephesians 1:16-23
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know
Here Paul is praying for the Epesians, (It applies to us as well though.), to know something. Why doesn't he just tell us what he wants us to know? Why doesn't he just explain it to us? Well in some sense he is telling us, but he doesn't want us to know it with our intellect but in heart, our spirit. He wants us to receive a revelation of it. He wants us to KNOW IT.
What is it he want us to know:
1. what is the hope of his calling,
2. and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19
3. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,
When we read this in English we tend to think that he is talking about three separate things. When however, we understand that Hebrew is full of parallelisms like this, in other words the same idea repeated in different ways for emphasis, it occurs to us that this might be one of those. And I think it is. Paul is repeating the same idea in three different ways. He wants us to get it.
In the first clause he prays for us to know what God has called us to be. What the hope, the purpose, the end state, of his calling us is? Then he prays for us to know what is his inheritance in the saints. Not what our inheritance is but what is his inheritance. "His" means God's. What do we become to God as the result of our becoming saints? What ever it is it involves a lot of glory. "…the riches of the glory," Paul says. Whatever it is that we become to God, it is a very, very, very, glorious thing. Finally he prays that we would know, "what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe."
The first thousand time I read this I thought he was talking about the power that God makes available to us who believe, i.e. the power available to answer our prayers or heal us, or help, us who believe. But then I realized (I guess I should say the eyes of my understanding were enlightened.) he's talking about the power God exercised when we were born again, when we were raised from the dead, as it were. He wants us to know the tremendous degree and fabulous quality of the power God expended on us when we became Christians, when we were born again. Why? It's a sort of reverse way of seeing what that power has done for us. If we know the exceeding greatness of the power that was used to make us Christians we will be clued in as to what we have been made. We will know what we are, what he has called us to be, what we are to him. Can you see the parallelism now?
So what is that power like? He tells us in the next few verses:
Ephesians 1:19 …according to the working of his mighty power,
"According to" used to give me a lot of trouble 'til I looked it up in a dictionary. The NIV translation puts it this way: "…that power is like the working of his mighty strength,". I like to read that phrase this way: "which is just like the working of his mighty power…". What is this power, this power that God used toward us who believe, like? The next verse tells us. Here Paul begins to tell us what he wants us to know, what God has called us to be, what we have become to God, what is the tremendous great power that was expended on us. That power is just like the power…
Ephesians 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
So there it is. The power that was expended on us was just like that. The hope of his calling is just like that. His inheritance in the saints is just like. That is such a radical departure from what most of us have ever heard about being a Christian that I'm hesitant to put it into words, but Paul wasn't! Look what he says in the next chapter.
Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
We were raised with Christ, we are (Not going to be but, are!) seated with Christ in heavenly places. Where is Christ seated? Go up and read Ephesians 1:20 again. That's where we are seated.
Can you see now why I would say that Jesus reigns through the Church? What has God called us to be? What have we become to God as the result of our faith in Christ? What tremendous power, of his power, of his power, did God expend on us when he raised us from the dead? He made us alive with Christ and seated us with Christ, in the heavenlies far above all principality and power and name that is named both in this world and that which is to come. Can you now see why I'm saying Jesus reigns through the church, his body, the fullness of him?
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