Ephesians 3:14-21
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:14-21
God has a plan. No matter how we may rebel, sin, or undermine the Kingdom of God, intentionally or accidentally, He has a plan to unite all people in Christ. Despite concerns around the world with pandemics, diseases, war, prejudice, genocide, sexual slavery, human trafficking, and political division, God has a plan.
That plan centers on Jesus. That plan will express itself through our actions to unify all people as members of Jesus family, united by all having the same Spirit of God within us. When you talk to folks about Christianity, a lot of people will say, “I’m a Christian.” When you press them, they mean, “I believe in Christ. I believe in the truths of Christianity, basically.” But when you ask them how this translates into their experience, they’ll say, “I’m kind of stuck there. It hasn’t really changed my life.”
But today we’re going to get to the real power of Christianity. It’s not just about believing something in an abstract way. To become a Christian means that you experience something, that it changes every area of your life.
Being a Christian is more than about just believing a set of facts. It’s more than about attending church or being a moral person. In this passage we see what it’s all about. And that’s what we’re going to see in this prayer.
Paul knows what is ours in Christ, and his prayer is that we appropriate all that is ours by faith. He does not want us to go through life thinking that we have to add something to Christ's finished work in order to be acceptable by the Father, or that we have to wait to receive these amazing spiritual blessings.
Paul's prayer is that we understand who we are in Christ now, that we believe the Word of God and that we reckon on its truth. Paul wants us to stand fast on the truth of God's Word and know that our salvation does not depend on us and what we do, but that it depends on Christ and all that He did at Calvary. For this reason, Paul bows his knee in prayer before the Father.
It is only those that believe on the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and life everlasting that are given the right to become Sons of God. It is only those that have been saved by grace through faith in the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus Christ that have the right to approach the throne of grace for help in time of need.
How we praise God that we were not only born into the human race, but that by faith in Christ we were born again into His heavenly family and have become part of the new creation in Christ. Praise God that we are redeemed, born-again children of God, and joint-heirs with Him.
Paul is not praying for an outward show of miraculous miracles or declaring supernatural signs in the life of Christians. Paul is not naming and claiming economic prosperity, a powerful position, or a good job, but an inner spiritual vigour that steadies and secures the believer in the truth of God's Word and secures and strengthens an unshakable trust in His precepts and promises. Paul knows the importance of seeking first the kingdom of God.
The ultimate reason, and final result of being rooted and established in the indwelling Christ is love, the unbreakable, threefold love of the triune Godhead. Redemptive love was the first thought of the Father when He covered our fallen, guilty parents in the bloody skins of animals in the garden of Eden and redemptive love is the reason He convicted us of sin and the need of salvation.
Love is the preeminent, greatest, never-failing first-fruit of the Spirit, against which there is no law. Love for the church was the reason the Lord Jesus went to the Cross of Calvary. And when we are rooted and grounded in Christ we are rooted and grounded in His love.
The perfect Son of Man demonstrated to the fallen race of mankind how God designed all man to live on earth, by faith and in dependant submission to the Father. When Adam was created, he was to live by faith and in dependant submission to God, but he failed. We are to follow in Christ's footsteps and live in dependant submission to His Holy Spirit.
Our appropriate response is also to pray for each other, our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should pray for each other whether those other brothers and sisters in Christ are easy to love, have hurt us, been at odds with us, or even hate us. When we pray, we release the power of the Holy Spirit into each other's lives and that is the power that enables us to live into our better nature that has been re-created in us by the new birth into God's family.
We are to live and work for His glory. We are to listen to His voice and obey His Word. We are to do His will and glorify His name, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of us evermore, so that in the ages to come we may show forth His glory in the Church, and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forevermore!!!
Father thank You for this day and how good it is to glorify Your holy Name. Lord pour out Your abundant blessings from the windows of heaven upon my friend and family today. Lord how blessed we are to have been called out of spiritual darkness and death and brought into the light of the glorious gospel of grace and receive new life in You. Lord may we never become complacent in our faith, but live and work for Your glory. Lord You that we are part of the Body and that in the ages to come, we will demonstrate Your goodness and grace to all generations, forever and ever. Be a blessing.
Father, we love You. Amen !
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