Ephesians 1:15-21

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

This evening’s Bible passage is Eph. 1:15-21:

¹⁵ For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward 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 the 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 toward 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.

First a confession: I’ve removed a comma from the English translation of this passage. It’s not there in the Greek and I think the meaning of the passage is clearer without it.

The persnickety action of a language geek? Perhaps, but please be patient with me. We’re focusing in these days following Easter on the significance of Christ’s resurrection for our lives here and now in the midst of the 2020 pandemic. Paul writes of “the immeasurable greatness of [God’s] power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (vv. 19-20). In the English translation, there’s a comma after “believe,” which ever so slightly separates the astonishing fact of our faith from the “great might” of God that brought about the no less astonishing resurrection of Christ. Without the comma, the two are inextricably linked.

Now why, you might ask, does this matter? Well, Paul’s point is that for God to take any one of us, who “were dead in our trespasses and sins” (2:1), and to have us actually unwrap and enjoy “the gift of God” (2:8) that is faith in Christ, takes a power no less than “the immeasurable greatness of his power … that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” Think of it! Your faith is living evidence (in you!) of the same divine power responsible for the astonishing miracle of raising Christ from the dead. Your faith, too, is a miracle of divine power.

All of which further strengthens Paul’s case in the first two chapters of Ephesians. God has loved us in Christ from “before the foundation of the world” and he is totally and unequivocally committed to making us “holy and blameless before him in love” (1:4). The divine power died for us in the apparent weakness of the cross, rose from the dead for us in the splendor of the resurrection, and worked in each of us a faith that required no less a divine “might” than the resurrection of Christ itself.

You might say sometimes, “But my faith is so weak.” Maybe, but take comfort in the divine power that was required to give you even so timid a faith, and take comfort in the promise that the God of love who has worked the miracle of faith in you will use his great might to preserve and strengthen your faith.

Finally, take comfort in the promise that the power that raised Christ from the dead is a power whose effects last forever. Christ was raised from the dead, is still alive, and will live forever. We, too, were “dead in our trespasses and sins,” but are now alive in Christ, believing (such a miracle of God’s power!) in the love of God shown to us in Christ. Our transformation, too, will last forever.

Your brother in Christ forever,

Max