A Word in Season: God's Power Towards Us (Ephesians 1:19-20)

Human Powerlessness and Death in Sin

What power does a Christian have? Well, you could say absolutely none. By nature we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We had no instinct, no capacity, no desire for God or for any of his works and ways.

And we still would be dead in our trespasses and sins if God had not worked in us, if God had not brought us to himself, had not implanted us into Christ. But that power that God has exercised toward us is not a power that simply exists at the front end of the Christian life, the power that brings us to Christ and gives us life in Christ.

God’s Power Toward Believers in Ephesians 1

God does not then abandon us and leave us to rely upon our own resources and our own devices for the rest of our Christian existence. When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, he prayed that amongst other things, that they would know what is the exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

That is the power that not only has worked but is working in us. And Paul wants us to know that. Now that's more than just intellectually grasping that something exists. That's an experimental reality.

That means the experience, the effects of that power at work in God's people. It is a power that is exceedingly great. It is beyond calculation, beyond comprehension, beyond proper expression. And it's a power that is working toward us who believe.

And what kind of power is it? What extent, what depth, what purpose? Well, it is according to, it's after the pattern of the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

The Pattern of Resurrection Power

It is a power that carries from the grave to glory. That's the trajectory that the Christ was on when God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenlies. And that same power, that same pattern, that same progress is, says Paul, what is now at work toward all God's people.

Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't ask to know it better. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't desire to see more of its effects. But it's not something that we lack. It's something that God is already doing.

God is already at work in us to bring us from death to life. And that life is abundant. And that life will ultimately bloom in the glory which is to come. That then is the power and the pattern and the purpose that is at work in every child of God.

Progress in Christ Until Resurrection Glory

So we look at ourselves and we know that in ourselves we are powerless, that the power of God is working toward us. And that power that God has worked, God is working and he will keep working, that we, having been united to Jesus Christ by faith, may make progress in Christ, depending on him, growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, becoming ever more like him until the day when God in his mercy calls us to be with him, and then ultimately that day of resurrection when we shall be forever with the Lord body and soul.

And where Christ is, we now are in spirit and we will be ultimately, eternally, entirely. That's the promise and the prospect for God's people. Now, how do we then pray? Surely we should be praying with the apostle that we might know more of this, that we might grasp it, that we might enjoy it, that we might feel and see and pursue and cultivate all its glorious effects in us.

Yes, in ourselves we are powerless, but God's power is at work toward us, that exceedingly great power by which he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. And if we are in Christ, it is because God's power has worked toward us.

And if we go on in Christ, it is because God's power is at work in us. And if we come at last to be where Christ is, it will be because God's power has never ceased to pursue and accomplish all that he in his grace and mercy has intended for us.