Daily Bible Reading 22nd September 2024 // Ephesians 1:15-22
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 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. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The third and final phrase in Paul's prayer is an extended one: 'the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to His mighty power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead ....' It is a majestic utterance, and we see it to be so more and more when we study it and seek to understand its implications. The power the Apostle refers to is, of course, the Holy Spirit. It was He, the mighty Spirit of God that wrought in Christ in His death and resurrection. Christ offered Himself without spot unto God on the cross by the eternal Spirit, and was declared to be the Son of God with power at the resurrection by that same Spirit, called 'the Spirit of holiness' in Romans 1:4. And the wonder of what Paul is saying here is that the Spirit's working in us is of the same nature as His working in Christ. He wrought mightily in Christ in His death, resurrection, exaltation and assumption of power, and He comes to work the same pattern in us - death, resurrection, exaltation and assumption of power - His desire being to 'repeat' the same process in us. It is in this 'repetition' that Christian experience consists, and it is this that Paul prays that we should know, and know to the full.