14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

20 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,

21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

The parenthetical portion (3:1-13) being concluded, the Apostle resumes (3:14) the theme with which Chapter two closed. The thought of the Church in its corporate whole as a growing building of living stones in which God by His Spirit is pleased to dwell, now shifts to the experience of each individual who, being saved, has a share in that eternal structure. Here the Apostle recites those habitual desires of his heart toward God which enter into his oft-repeated prayers in behalf of the Ephesian believers. In this there is a close similarity to the former passage (1:15-23) where, as before pointed out, the Apostle is not then offering a prayer, but is rather indicating those themes which, being the constant burden of his heart, find expression in all his prayers. The first recital of prayer subjects includes his desire that the Spirit of wisdom and revelation may be given unto them that they may know from the heart what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints; so, also, the exceeding greatness of His power to all who believe. Whereas, in this second recital of his prayer themes he indicates that he prays that they may be able to comprehend, not now the marvels of their own position in Christ, but the marvels of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ; to this end being strengthened in the inner man by the same Spirit.

A Sacred Secret

However, in the preceding notable parenthesis much has been added to the sum-total of the revelation concerning the Church. While it is disclosed in Chapter two that a perfect union has been secured between those of Israel and those of the Gentiles who believe, this union constitutes one body of which Christ is the Head, and one building of which He is the Chief Corner Stone. It is revealed in the parenthetical passage that the forming of this one body from these widely separated peoples is a sacred secret hid in ages past and is therefore not a continuation of any former divine purpose. The Church in which the saved from among the Jews and from among the Gentiles are united is one eternal, heavenly fellowship and glory, and is the realization of a celestial, divine purpose far surpassing anything that ever was or ever will be on the earth. If the Church now serves to manifest the "manifold wisdom of God" before principalities and powers (3:10), so she will, in the ages to come, display the "exceeding riches of his grace" (2:7).

No such purpose characterized the divine undertaking as set forth in the Old Testament and, aside from the hope of heaven accorded to the individual saint who was renewed by the Spirit of God, there is in view in the Old Testament only an earthly destiny for an earthly people. They are to be regathered to their own land and there experience a marvelous glory, but it is a glory of the earth and not of heaven. No wider distinction could be created in the destinies of men than exists between Israel the nation, centered forever, as she is, in the earth, and the Church, belonging, as she does, only to heaven. If these two divine purposes are confused, there can be little understanding of the distinctive truth which the first section of this Epistle reveals, nor is there any adequate basis of the appeal which follows for a heavenly walk.

Much is contemplated by the first phrase of Chapter three, which phrase is again repeated as the parenthesis closes and at the beginning of verse 14, "For this cause"; that is, because of the limitless privilege accorded these believers in that they have been saved from the lost estate (2:13) to the heavenly glory (2:4 to 3:13), the Apostle bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of Whom all the family in heaven and earth is named. The object of the prayer which he here recounts is threefold.

A New Way to Pray

However, before entering into the features of his prayer, attention should be given to the important word with which the record of the prayer is introduced.

The Apostle declares that he bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Aside from the posture of prayer which is here indicated, the fact that the prayer is addressed to the Father is of great importance conforming, as it does, with the specific teachings of Christ. Anticipating the present age with the heavenly relationships and privileges which are now accorded to the members of His body He said, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you" (Joh 16:23). Christ thus reveals the new ground of prayer, namely, that it is now to be addressed to the Father in the name and mediation of the Son. Thus a perfect access to God is secured and a freedom is gained whereby the Father may not only hear us as He hears the Son, but may grant to us His limitless bounty as He would grant it to His Son.

Prayer which is addressed to Christ not only ignores His direct teaching that we are not now to ask Him anything, but becomes prayer to the Mediator rather than through the Mediator. Surely this is no slight error, and the Apostle is careful to record that he addresses his prayer to the Father, Who is indeed the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ -- a filial relationship which could have no beginning, nor can it have an ending. The Father is also here declared to be the One of Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. The phrase "the whole family" being better rendered "every fatherhood" -- naturally meaning those families wherein He is Father. The breadth of this relationship on the earth, let alone the vast unexplored associations in heaven, cannot be measured. Withal, His Fatherhood is personal and real in the case of the least of all saints, and will continue to be throughout the ages of the ages.

In the opening portion of this Epistle, the sovereignty of God has been emphasized. It has there been revealed that all things work according to the counsel of His will. If this truth stood alone there would be little to be gained by prayer, but it does not stand alone; there is a human as well as a divine side to the progress and life of each individual, and like every union of the divine and human -- as in the Person of our adorable Lord, and in the Scriptures of Truth -- the divine is not disqualified by its union with the human, nor is the human exalted by its union with the divine. In the field of prayer, it is clear, on the one hand, that there is that aspect of it in which God's unalterable purpose is to be realized with the absoluteness of Infinity. To this end, the Spirit, Who knows the mind of God, prays through the believer according to the will of God (Rom 8:26-27); and effectual prayer, it is disclosed, must be in the name of the Son, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (Joh 14:13).

Conversely, it is equally true that, on the human side, men are enjoined to ask, to seek and to knock; the implication being that "prayer changes things." The Apostle knows full well that the divine purpose in behalf of the Ephesian saints will be executed to perfection, but he also knows that it is a part of that divine purpose that he shall cooperate through the ministry of prayer, and that, from the human side, it is most imperative that he bow his knees and request God to grant these foreordained blessings to those for whom he prays.

How much of theological controversy might have been avoided and how much more of divine blessing might have been secured in past days had men been willing to allow both the divine and human aspects of truth to continue side by side unimpaired! Rather, men have too often insisted that, if the purpose of God is foreordained, there can be no room for the human responsibility. Likewise, others have as urgently insisted that, if there is a human responsibility, there is no unchangeable sovereignty in the will of God.

There could be no doubt but that the Apostle Paul believed in the divine sovereignty, yet he prayed that God would grant three important blessings to these saints, and he prayed with evident confidence that prayer does change things.

First, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." Thus the Apostle prays that the Holy Spirit may strengthen the inner life of these saints according to the sublime measurement of the riches of divine glory. This is the first mention of that theme -- the life that is energized by the Holy Spirit -- which is yet to occupy so large a place in this Epistle.

Too Marvelous for the Mind

To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, and upon the plane of the riches of God's infinite glory, is a request concerning things too marvelous for the human mind to grasp. Such divine energizing may be unto the exercise of a gift, unto effectual intercession, unto a holy walk, unto celestial joy, or unto a quickened spiritual understanding; but the spiritual understanding is most evidently in view here. During a period of more than three years the disciples were privileged to sit at Christ's feet and to learn of Him. He taught them most effectively, but within certain limitations; for at the end of this season He said to them,

"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you" (Joh 16:12-15).

The strong indication is that, until the Spirit came and took up His abode in them, certain truths could not be comprehended. Thus, even the divine instructions are, because of human limitations, classified in two general widely differing divisions -- that which the unaided mind might grasp, and that which cannot be revealed apart from the immediate and personal ministry of the Holy Spirit in taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto us. Hence, it will be observed that the objective in view in this petition was not for divine enablement unto outward activity and service, but rather that the believer might be enabled in general to enjoy the blessed portion which is his in Christ (this portion having been described at length in the first chapter of this Epistle), and that he may be enabled in particular to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, and so be filled with all the fulness of God. Of all the spheres in which the Spirit energizes the believer, there is none comparable to this that the inner man should be strengthened to know the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be thus strengthened according to "the riches of his glory." Could there be a greater sin on the part of the believer than that, when such heavenly association on the plane of heavenly glory is provided, he should continue to dwell on the lower level of the carnal man?

The Indwelling Christ

The second prayer petition which the Apostle here recounts is "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." There is a logical sequence here. The thing desired in this second petition is the sure result of the realization of the first petition; for when the inner man is strengthened by the Spirit, it is accompanied by the flooding of the heart with a greater realization of the Person and Presence of Christ. It is the Spirit's ministry to disclose not Himself but Christ (Joh 16:12-15). By a careful reading of Chapters thirteen to seventeen of John's Gospel, the almost limitless field of supernatural knowledge concerning Christ which the Spirit will impart is revealed.

It is pertinent to inquire at this point as to the precise meaning of the petition "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." True, the tense of this verb indicates that this is not a mere continuous dwelling, but is rather His coming to dwell as a single, definite act. Does the Apostle imply that all Ephesian believers were, until this time, void of the indwelling Christ? Such a meaning would be impossible. There are two most vital facts which distinguish the Christian as such -- he is in Christ as to position, and Christ is in Him as to the possession of the divine nature. Indeed, the Apostle has written, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom 8:9 Rom 8:9), and again, "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2Co 13:5). From what has gone before in this Epistle (2:1, 5, 6, 13), there can be no question as to the genuineness of the salvation of those to whom he is writing. Therefore, there can be no question as to the fact that Christ was then indwelling each and every one of them. The Apostle is not here making petition that these believers may be indwelt, but rather that they may come by faith into a fuller knowledge of the indwelling Christ. To this end he desires for them that Christ may ever be coming more into their consciousness as the One Who is nearer to each of them than the members of their own bodies.

Filled with All Fulness

The third petition is the completion of this sequence. It is,

"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" (verses 17-19).

The love in which they might be rooted and grounded is not some feeble love these believers might experience toward God, but it is the love of God toward them -- the love which has chosen them, which has predestined them, which has adopted them, which has made them accepted in the Beloved, which has redeemed them, which has provided an inheritance for them, which has sealed them by the Spirit, which has quickened them, and which has raised them and seated them in the heavenly in Christ Jesus. To be rooted and grounded in such love is to have entered sympathetically and understandingly into the measureless revelation of that love. So, also, with this experience of understanding of the divine love in general, there is to be a comprehending of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ in particular. Graphic, indeed, is the language employed here which assigns to this particular love the dimensions of space -- "breadth," "length," "depth," and "height -- but these are dimensions which are infinite.

This marvelous understanding and comprehending by a Spirit-strengthened inner man, and upon the plane of celestial glory, can result in nothing less than that those thus enriched will be "filled with all the fulness of God." The fact that they will be "filled with all the fulness of God" needs careful consideration. Only one among all that ever dwelt on earth or in heaven has been really filled with all the fulness of God. In Col 2:9-10, we read of Christ that "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and that the believer is "complete in him." So, again, in Joh 1:16 it is declared that "of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." God alone is the Container of all things, and not man. Likewise, all fullness dwells in Christ, but not in us. We may be filled with the fulness (Greek, pleeroma -- a great New Testament word -- cf. Eph 1:10, Eph 1:23; Eph 3:19; and Eph 4:13) of God in that sense which is presented in the context. We may come by the Spirit's strengthening to comprehend the knowledge of Him (1:17; Col 1:10), of His will (Col 1:9), of His glory (2Co 4:6), and of His love (Eph 3:19); and what God is to us as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be learning throughout eternity.

Both the record of these prayer petitions and the entire first section of this Epistle are closed by one and the same doxology (3:20, 21), which doxology is eminently fitting. All the glory is to be ascribed to God Who is the Father of the Savior and of the saints. He it is to Whom the Son ascribes all glory forever (Joh 13:31; Joh 14:13), and unto His glory and according to His perfect will He is working all things in behalf of those whom He has chosen and redeemed (1:11, 12). His eternal purposes, both in the Church and in Christ Jesus, are superlative even in the realms of infinity and heaven. Yet He is able to do all that He has purposed, which is here said to be more, indeed, than we can ask or think (understand); yea, and "exceeding abundantly" above this measure. What He purposed is none other than all that has been revealed in the early portion of this Epistle. Every spiritual blessing in Christ is in view, and these the Apostle has by the Spirit set forth in Chapters one to three. This surpassing glory, which is to be to the Father through the Church -- for she is chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to the praise of His glory -- and in the Son Who ascribes all glory to the Father, is a glory that endures "throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."