Indwelt By The Triune God

INDWELT BY THE TRIUNE GOD

An Exposition of Ephesians 3:14-19

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   June 16, 2019

Series: Trinity Sunday

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Today on the liturgical calendar of the Western Church is marked ‘Trinity Sunday’. As an independent Baptist congregation we are under no obligation to commemorate this special day, which dates back to 12^th century England. And yet, the doctrine of the holy Trinity is such a foundational Christian doctrine, that it is useful to have a day set apart for our deliberate meditation upon it.

As biblical Christians, we do not believe in a generic, unknown deity in the skies or in ‘the man upstairs’ or in a vague ‘higher power’ or in an impersonal ‘ultimate reality’ or in mere transcendence or in an unknown and undefined ‘god’. Further, we do not even believe in a one-person God. There are a number of cults and heresies and false religions that do believe in a one-person God, and we are not among them. Instead, we believe in a personal, sovereign God who has revealed Himself to be tri-personal, consisting of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One God, three persons. As the hymn puts it: “God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.”[1]

As biblical Christians, we must be glad to stand in the truth of the Trinity. We must delight to confess the truth that is articulated in the Nicene Creed: ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth’; ‘And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made’; And in one ‘Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified’.

We do not affirm the doctrine of the Trinity because we were smart enough to climb up the intellectual stairway to heaven and figure God out. Quite the opposite: we affirm the doctrine of the Trinity because God was kind enough to lavish His grace upon us and reveal His divine nature to us. Although we are not able to wrap our little minds around such a large reality, we take God at His Word, humbly submit to His revealed truth, and embrace it as wonderfully good, true, and beautiful.

Trinitarian doctrine teaches us that salvation comes from the Father, who planned it all; and that this salvation comes in and through the Son, who obtained it for us by means of His death and resurrection; and that this salvation is finally driven home personally to us by the Holy Spirit, who is powerfully present in each saint and in the church as a whole.

For those of us who have entered into this gracious salvation, our entire life is now characterized in terms of our relationship to the Trinitarian Godhead, as we see throughout Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, including his prayer for the church in Ephesians 3:14-19.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says,

“¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^a]">[a] in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14-19)

A PRAYER FOR THE BELIEVER’S VITAL COMMUNION WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

In this prayer, Paul prays for believers to have vital communion, heartfelt fellowship, intimate spiritual connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul prays, he does so with a mind that is attentive to the Trinitarian Godhead. Paul is not praying to a generic ‘god’ or an undefined ‘lord’. He is praying to God the Father; He is asking the Father to do something by means of His Spirit; and He is asking the Father to do this thing, by means of His Spirit, so that the relationship between Christ and the church will deepen in profound ways. In this prayer, Paul isn’t giving us an abstract discussion about the Trinity; instead his prayer shows that he is immersed in Trinitarian truth. It is the theological air that he breathes, so to speak. Trinitarian reality is simply the way he thinks, the way he talks, and the way he prays. It is our privilege to listen in: not only to learn, but even more to yearn that we would experience the very things about which Paul is praying on behalf of the church.

Let me walk through the prayer in six points.

1) Paul Prays According to God’s Will (v. 14)

First, Paul prays in accordance with God’s will. He says, “For this reason” (3:14), and this takes us back to what Paul has been saying in chapter 2 and earlier in chapter 3. Let me focus on what Paul says in Ephesians 2:11-22 as foundational to his “reason” for praying as he does.

In Ephesians 2:11 Paul is specifically addressing Gentile (or non-Jewish) Christians. These Gentile Christians, before they became Christians, were in a bad spot: they were “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, having no hope and without God in the world.” (v. 12) They were disconnected from God, from God’s Messiah, and from God’s people, and thus they had no hope. “But now,” begins verse 13. That was then, this is now: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (v. 13) In times past you were “without God,” but now through Christ you have access to the Father: “For through him [Christ] we both [Jews and Gentiles] have access in one Spirit to the Father.” (v. 18) Now we are connected to the triune God. And, when you are connected to God you are, at the very same time, connected to His people: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” (v. 19) Now we are citizens of God’s kingdom. Now we are members of God’s household – and while we might assume that the point here is that we are members of God’s family (which of course is true), Paul takes the household metaphor in a different direction. For as we go on into verses 20-22 we see that God’s household is a reference to God’s dwelling place, which is His holy temple. And while it’s not surprising to read that God dwells in His holy temple, what is surprising is to read that we are that temple! We are God’s household means we are God’s dwelling place means we are God’s holy temple. While Paul doesn’t say it in as many words, the idea here (to borrow from the apostle Peter) is that we are “like living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) who are “being built together,” one block at a time, into a great cathedral. So let’s pick it up in the latter part of verse 19:

“you are… members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Verse 22 is clear: the church is the dwelling place of the triune God. It is in Christ that we are “being built together.” In chapter 4 we learn that “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16) We are “being built together” in Christ and we are growing up “into Christ,” and each member of the body has a role to play in this building up process. And, back to Ephesians 2:22, we are “being built together into a dwelling place for God.” The church is becoming a place where God is very much ‘at home’. God ought to be ‘at home’ in His house, right? God ought to be ‘at home’ in His holy temple – and indeed He will be ‘at home’ in His holy temple if His temple, His dwelling place, His church is, in fact, holy. The truth that we believers are “joined together” and “[growing] into a holy temple in the Lord” means, by way of application, that we are called to be holy, indeed that we are called to be holy together as a congregation, because it is as “joined together” and “being built together” believers that are becoming a beautiful “dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Elsewhere Paul writes that the church is God’s temple and that, as God’s temple, the church is indwelt by God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). So the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is spiritually present among His people because His Spirit – the Holy Spirit – dwells among His people.

So the vision of Ephesians 2:21-22 is that God would be ‘at home’ among His people. But God will not be ‘at home’ among His people unless He is ‘at home’ in the hearts of individual believers. After all, it only makes sense that spiritually shallow individuals would make for a spiritually shallow congregation. A vibrant, spiritually beautiful, God-glorifying congregation requires vibrant, spiritually beautiful, and God-glorifying Christians. And in Ephesians 3:14-19, Paul prays for the church and he prays for the church in terms of each individual, that each individual would experience “the fullness of God” that is found in Christ. Paul prays that God’s glorious plan would get increasingly worked out in their lives.

This is prayer at its best – prayer that arises from a consideration of God’s revealed truth. God reveals His purpose and plan for His people in Holy Scripture, and His people reflect that purpose and plan back to God in the form of prayer. Prayer leans into the purpose and plan that God has revealed and says, ‘Yes! Let it be so!’ Paul knows that “God, being rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4), has lavished great love and marvelous grace upon these dear brothers and sisters, therefore he prays that they would grasp more of God’s steadfast love and bask in its glory. Paul knows that these dear brothers and sisters “are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit,” therefore he prays “that Christ may dwell in [their] hearts through faith.” Paul prays in accordance with God’s revealed truth.

2) Paul Prays to the Father (v. 14-16)

Second, Paul prays to the Father: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.” The New Testament teaches us to pray to the Father, and Paul models it. When we recall Paul’s words at the beginning of the letter, it makes additional sense that he would pray to the Father, because the Father is the giver of every blessing: “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” is the One “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3). Now in Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul is praying for continued and increasing blessing on the church, so of course it makes sense that he would go to the Father, because the Father is the benefactor and grantor of any and all blessings. Just as earthly fathers provide good things for their children, so our heavenly Father provides good things – in fact, the very best things – for His children. 

The greatness of the Father is highlighted by two additional phrases in verses 15-16. In verse 15, the Father is the One “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” Our heavenly Father stands as the great sovereign over all families and over all the fathers who have established those families. The point is a simple one: the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the original, ultimate, and comprehensively sovereign Father. He is the One to whom we pray. He is the One who stands ready to pour out additional provisions and mercies on His beloved children. 

Then in verse 16, as Paul begins to describe his prayer, he indicates that the Father is abundantly resourceful: “that according to the riches of his glory.” Does that phrase sound familiar? We encountered a similar phrase in Philippians 4: “And my God will supply every need for yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) In Philippians 4:19 the focus was material provision, whereas in Ephesians 3:16 the focus is spiritual blessing. Our heavenly Father is abundantly rich in every conceivable resource: He generously supplies our practical needs “according to his riches in glory” and He generously supplies our spiritual needs “according to the riches of his glory.” This original, ultimate, comprehensively sovereign Father is gloriously rich in every good thing. Among all the good things of which our heavenly Father has a plenteous and infinite supply, none is so special to us as His mercy and grace. In Ephesians 1 Paul speaks of “the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us” (v. 7-8). In Ephesians 2 Paul said,

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)

In Ephesians 3 Paul refers to “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” (v. 8) It is out of these glorious riches of mercy and grace, secured for us through the sacrificial love of Christ, that the Father relates to us: He treats us far better than we deserve, and kindly He leads us into the fullness of life in Christ.

3) Paul Prays for Believers to be Strengthened by the Holy Spirit (v. 16)

Third, Paul prays for believers to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit: “I bow my knees before the Father…, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” (v. 14, 16) If we are going to “[grow] into a holy temple in the Lord,” if we are going to “[be] built together into a dwelling place for God,” then we are going to need divine power to be at work in our lives. We are, each and every one of us, so fragile and weak, so distractible and susceptible to getting off track, so “[prone] to wander”[2], so apt to settle for less than God’s best, so inclined toward a shallow spiritual life. Our great need is not to summons our power to the table, as if we were capable of building ourselves into a holy temple on the basis of our own strength. Instead our great need is for God to send forth His power into the depths of our being.

In verse 16 “strengthened with power” means “strengthened with [divine] power” – and the reason we know this is because this “[strengthening] with power” is something that comes “through his Spirit.” We also know that this power that strengthens us is divine power because of something Paul said in chapter 1. Paul prayed in chapter 1 that the church would know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his 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 and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (v. 19-20). God’s power is immeasurably great; God’s power raised Jesus from the dead; God’s power seated Jesus at God’s right hand; and it is this immeasurably great divine power (“his power”) that is operating “toward us.” It is this divine power that raised us from the spiritual dead (Ephesians 2:4-6) and created us anew in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10). It is this same divine power that continues to work in our lives, strengthening us and sanctifying us.

Now at this point we have to ask a question: What is the purpose of the Spirit’s empowering presence in the believer’s heart? There are, of course, a number of overlapping purposes that the New Testament sets forth. In Galatians 5, for example, we learn that the Spirit produces the good fruit of holy character in our lives. In 1 Corinthians 12 we learn that the Spirit empowers us for ministry that builds up the church. In Ephesians 5-6 we learn that the Spirit energizes our worship and enables us to live a God-honoring life in our respective callings as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants. All of this is important, of course, but we must understand that there is a more foundational purpose than all of these other good things I just mentioned. And it is this greatest, most foundational purpose that Paul emphasizes in Ephesians 3:14-19. What is it? Communion with Christ.

4) Paul Prays for the Spirit to Bring About the Believer’s Communion with Christ (v. 17)

So fourth, Paul prays for the Holy Spirit to bring about the believer’s vital communion, heartfelt fellowship, and intimate spiritual connection with Christ: “that… he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (v. 16-17). Although the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ is physically present at the Father’s right hand in heaven, He is spiritually present in and with His people, and His spiritual presence is mediated by the Holy Spirit. There is one Spirit, and this one Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and, equally, the Spirit of Christ. So, putting verses 16-17 together, Paul is asking the Father to grant that the Holy Spirit would bring Christ near and dear – nearer and dearer – to the hearts of God’s people. This is the holy Trinity in action for our good: the Father grants generously to us, the Spirit powerfully strengthens us, and the result is that the Lord Jesus Christ is increasingly ‘at home’ in our hearts.

If Christ is ‘at home’ in our hearts, then we experience the warmth of His love toward us, and we realize that He isn’t a remote Redeemer who reluctantly went to the cross for our redemption and is now happy to dwell far away from the miserable sinners for whom He died. No, not that! Christ is, in fact, a tenderhearted Savior who gladly went to the cross for our salvation and is now happy to dwell with the people for whom He died. If Christ is ‘at home’ in our hearts, then we must necessarily love what Christ loves, and desire what Christ desires, and hate what Christ hates. For if we loved all the wrong things, and desired all the wrong things, and hated all the wrong things, then Christ wouldn’t be very much ‘at home’ in our hearts, would He? So, we need to be transformed: our loves and desires need to be transformed, our values and priorities need to be transformed, and our capacity to enjoy spiritual food must be increased.

Some people have wondered how Paul can pray for Christ to dwell in His people when He already does dwell in His people. That is a good question. Christ is indeed spiritually present, through His Spirit, in the heart of every true believer from the moment of conversion (see Romans 8:9). So why does Paul pray for Christians “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”? Well, Paul is praying in terms of growth and progress – that we would be increasingly transformed into godly men and women who delight in Christ’s sovereign and holy presence.  

This spiritual experience of communion with Christ is mediated by the Holy Spirit and, for our part, is received and enjoyed “through faith”: through the faith that hears and sees with the ears and eyes of the heart; through the faith that spiritually eats and drinks, feasting on the excellence of Jesus; through the kind of true faith that rests in the greatness of who Jesus is to us and that treasures the words and promises that He has given to us.

Take this to heart and do not forget it: the Holy Spirit is given to us, first and foremost, so that we will have a close, loving fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our love for one another (4:1-3), our ministry to one another (4:11-16), our righteous and wise manner of life (5:3-17), must flow out of this close, loving fellowship that we have with our Lord.

5) Paul Prays That We Would Grasp The Fullness of Christ’s Love (v. 17-19)

Fifth, Paul prays that we would grasp the fullness of Christ’s love. In terms of the flow of thought from verses 16-19, it seems that this grasping of Christ’s love is closely connected to Christ dwelling in our hearts. In other words, what happens when Christ is dwelling in our hearts? What happens when we are communing with Christ? What happens when we are beholding the beauty of our Lord with the eyes of faith? What happens when we are listening to the words of our Lord with the ears of faith? What happens when the Holy Spirit brings Christ nearer and dearer to the believer’s heart? Well, many good and wonderful things happen, but especially this: we grasp more and more of His great love for us. Now what do we need, if we would actually grasp and lay hold of Christ’s love? We need spiritual strength, spiritual ability, the power of spiritual perception. It is the Spirit’s empowering and strengthening presence that enables us to perceive more and more of “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” So let’s pick up Paul’s prayer in the middle of verse 17:

“that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

Notice that this section goes from love (v. 17) to love (v. 19). There is a prerequisite to grasping the fullness of Christ’s love – the prerequisite is that you first of all “[be] rooted and grounded in love,” that is, in God’s love made known through Christ. It is with “great love” that the Father has “loved us” (Ephesians 2:4). “In love he predestined us” (Ephesians 1:4-5). The Father’s great love is on display through Christ: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 4:32–5:1).

In terms of verse 17, we must be steadied and settled and well-grounded in the love that Christ has for us. It is impossible to go on and grasp the deeper realities of Christ’s love for us if we are not settled in the basic truth that Christ loves us. In marriage, how can a husband and wife grow a deeper and more satisfying relationship if they lack even a basic heartfelt trust that they are each loved by the other? If a wife has serious doubts as to her husband’s love for her, or if a husband has serious doubts as to his wife’s love for him, then that will seriously inhibit their capacity for growth into a beautiful, fruitful marriage that keeps getting better and closer and richer. They’ve got to be rooted and grounded in mutual love. As to the point of Ephesians 3:17, we’ve got to be “rooted and grounded” in Christ’s love for us. This is an essential part of being “rooted and built up in him [Christ Jesus the Lord] and established in the faith” (Colossians 2:7).

Are you persuaded that Christ’s love for you is a definite, wonderful, and unchanging reality – not because you are worthy of it, not because you are lovely, not because you have done anything to deserve it, but simply because “[in] love” (Ephesians 1:4) the Father chose to set His saving love upon you and awaken you to the grace of the blood that His Son shed for you on the cross? Do you have the faith that is able to say, “He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them His very own; He bore the burden to Calv’ry, And suffered and died alone. How marvelous! how wonderful! And my song shall ever be: How marvelous! how wonderful Is my Savior’s love for me!”[3]

Now, if you standing on the firm ground of His costly and eternal love for you, then from that position of rootedness you are able – by the power of God’s Spirit – to soar into the vast riches of this indescribable love. By being grounded in Christ’s love, you are able to grow up in your understanding and experience of it. And this soaring, this growing, this depth of understanding, is something that we ought to experience together: “that you… may have strength to comprehend with all the saints.” So even though there is necessarily an individual component to this growth, we remember – going back to chapter 2 – that it is as “joined together” living stones that we “[grow] into a holy temple.” We “are being built together into a dwelling place for God.”

Verses 18-19 tell us what it is that we ought to be comprehending, knowing, and grasping. We ought “to comprehend… the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” I am treating “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” as explanatory of “breadth and length and height and depth.” So, taken together, the idea is that we ought to comprehend, know, grasp, perceive the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, which surpasses knowledge. We ought to know that which surpasses knowledge. We ought to comprehend the incomprehensible. We ought to lay hold of the vast expanse of divine love. To succeed at such an undertaking obviously requires a miracle, which is why Paul is praying: Father, grant that the Holy Spirit would open up their hearts and minds to the full scope of Christ’s love. The full scope of Christ’s love contains within it the glories that have been revealed earlier in the letter: “every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3), “the riches of his [the Father’s] glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18), “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19), “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8), and “the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10). Although doctrinal understanding is an important part of the spiritual growth equation, we must understand that what Paul is praying for is that the doctrine would become awe and wonder in the presence of Christ’s love.

How can it be that “God in Christ” has forgiven prolific sinners like us? How can it be that Christ, the beloved Son of God, should give Himself up for unlovely folks like us? How can it be that Christ’s love is so powerful that people who don’t know each other – and who quite possibly have reasons not to like each other – can be brought together into Christ’s body and actually and truly love each other?

What Paul calls us to do in Ephesians 4-6 is impossible to do in a beautiful and authentic way unless we are grasping the stunning dimensions of Christ’s love. How will be consistently and cheerfully “[bear] with one another in love” (4:2) if we don’t grasp the greatness of Christ’s love for us? How will we kindly and tenderheartedly “[forgive] one another” if we don’t grasp the wonder that “God in Christ” has forgiven us (4:32)? How will husbands “love [their wives], as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (5:25) if they don’t grasp the depth and delight of His sacrifice? How will wives “submit to [their] own husbands, as to the Lord” (5:22), and children “obey [their] parents in the Lord” (6:1) and servants “obey [their] earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as [they] would Christ” (6:5) unless they have a profound sense that the Lord is good and, specifically, that the Lord is good to them?

Friends, if your grasp of Christ’s love is dim, then your Christian life will be thin. Grasping the full scope of His love is the main thing. May we know the truth of which David spoke when he said: “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” (Psalm 63:3)    

6) Paul Prays That We Would Be Saturated in the Fullness of God (v. 19)

Finally, Paul prays that we would be saturated in the fullness of God. Remember, the truth of God’s plan for His people was set forth at the end of chapter 2: “In [Christ] you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul has been praying into that reality, and thus it culminates in the request “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (v. 19)

Brothers and sisters, Christianity is not mainly a strategy to get people to heaven, though it succeeds in doing so; Christianity is not mainly a strategy to get people to live morally decent lives, though it succeeds in doing so; Christianity is not mainly a strategy to get people connected to one another and caring for one another, though it succeeds in doing so. I don’t mean to say that these things are unimportant, for the Bible is clear that they are important – very important. And yet, these things are secondary to the main thing: Christianity is mainly the way to get people to God – to be reconciled to God, to know God, to grasp the greatness of His grace, to carry on communion and conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ, to have His Spirit at work “in your inner being,” and to be satisfied and saturated “with all the fullness of God.”

Notice the flow of thought: we need “to be strengthened with power” in our heart so that we are enabled to have a deep and deepening relationship with Christ; the Holy Spirit is the One who transforms us in the depth of our being so that obstacles are cleared away and the heart is opened up more fully to the presence of Christ. As Christ is nearer and dearer to us, and as we are “rooted and grounded” in His love for us, we come to contemplate and comprehend more fully the full scope of His love for us; and the result of all this is that we “be filled with all the fullness of God.” Notice the Trinitarian nature of our spiritual life: the Spirit strengthens us “in [our] inner being,” Christ dwells “in [our] hearts through faith,” and as a result “the fullness of God” –– that is, the fullness of the Father who gifted His Son and Spirit to us in the first place – “the fullness of God” fills us up and shapes the entire course of our life. Ephesians 2:22 and 3:14-19 say the same thing: the church is indwelt by the Triune God. That is the main thing. That is the defining reality of true Christianity.

“[All] the fullness of God” invites us to think about the Father’s eternal purpose and plan (1:9-10), His great love and mercy (2:4), His manifold wisdom (3:10), His “true righteousness and holiness” (4:24), His tenderhearted forgiveness (4:32), and His whole armor (6:11) – the Father draws us into and makes us participants in these divine realities. These things are not abstractions, but characteristics of the personal God who is our Father, and we are His beloved children, and we are to be ‘at home’ in Him, and He is to be ‘at home’ in us. If the Father is ‘at home’ in us, then Christ is ‘at home’ in us – as we are called to grow up “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). And if the Father and the Son are ‘at home’ in us, then the Holy Spirit is ‘at home’ in us – as we are called to “not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). The message is clear: our high calling is to live in the holy presence of the blessed Trinity, indeed to be “built together” in Christ “into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

BE FULL OF GREAT EXPECTATION

No program can accomplish this. There are no seven steps. There is no formula or checklist. But as we, like the Ephesians, trust in Jesus and love one another, we may humbly expect our heavenly Father to answer Paul’s prayer in our lives, and bring us ever closer to Him. And if we humbly expect Him to do this, then we will endeavor to live a certain way, to seek after God, and to join our prayer to Paul’s, and ask God to do this great work in our lives. As we pray such a great prayer, we must remember that God is infinitely greater than our best prayers, and His answers are even better than we can imagine, even as His love revealed through Christ far surpasses our ability to put it into words.

Consider the words of a hymn written by Haldor Lillemas:

“Far beyond all human comprehension,
Measured by an infinite dimension,
Wonderfully broad in its intention,
Is the boundless love of God.

“Great enough to sacrifice with pleasure,
And to give away its richest treasure,
And to drink of pain in brimming measure,
Is the wondrous love of God.

“Greater than my sin and condemnation,
Great enough to give me, full salvation,
And to fill my soul with jubilation,
Is the matchless love of God.

“Deep enough for those in degradation,
Higher than the highest elevation,
Broad enough to take in ev’ry nation,
Is the boundless love of God.

(Refrain)
“Love divine surpasses all that human tongue can tell,
While on earth or in eternity;
Higher than the mountains where the soaring eagles dwell,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea,
Love sufficient to redeem and set a captive free,
As shoreless and as endless as eternity.”[4]

Paul’s prayer is fittingly followed with a doxology to our glorious and sovereign Father:

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

  

ENDNOTES

[1] From the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” by Reginald Heber.

[2] From the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” by Robert Robinson.

[3] From the hymn “My Savior’s Love” by Charles H. Gabriel.

[4] Haldor Lillemas, “Far Beyond All Human Compehension.”