Trinity 16
Eph 3:13-21
10/5/25
The apostle Paul begins our text this
morning by saying, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from
whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” He describes the
position of prayer, and then in most of our text expresses the content of his
prayer. He states what he wants God to
do in the lives of the Ephesians, and in the same way in the life of every
Christian – in your life.
Paul introduces this prayer by saying “for
this reason.” It is apparent that the apostle is drawing a conclusion from what
he has just said. But just like you and I, sometimes Paul goes off in a
digression that wanders away from his main point. And it turns out that this is
what he has done in the beginning of chapter three.
He begins the chapter by saying, “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.” Again, we find that the apostle is drawing a conclusion from what he has just said. But instead of actually drawing the conclusion, he gets thrown off track as the thinks about God’s grace for the Gentiles – something that he describes as a mystery.
He says, “When you read this, you can
perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known
to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy
apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” Paul refers to a mystery that had not
been known in the past – a mystery that now has been revealed by the Spirit of
God to the apostles.
What is this mystery? He says, “This
mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the
same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the
gospel.” The surprise that had not been
known in the past is that those who are not Jewish and descend from Abraham –
that means most of you – are fellow heirs in God’s salvation. You are part of
the body of Christ – the Church which is God’s people.
And so in our text, Paul finally gets back on track as he says, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” What is the reason for his prayer? It is what he has been taking about in chapter two.
There Paul had described what the Ephesians had once been. He said, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Dead in trespasses and sins; those walking
the ways of the devil; by nature those receiving God’s wrath – that’s what the
Ephesians were. And that’s what you were like the rest of mankind. If you are
looking for a positive affirmation about yourself apart from Christ, don’t go
looking for it in the Bible. Because you
won’t find it there.
Instead, you will learn the ugly,
unvarnished truth. Adam was created in the image of God. But after the fall
into sin, Eve gave birth to a child who was born in the image of Adam. We have
lost the image of God, and everyone born since has entered this world as a
sinner cut off from God by sin. Jesus said that flesh gives birth to flesh.
Sinful fallen nature brings forth more sinful fallen nature. And sinners do as
sinners do, as soon as they are able to do. In thought, word, and deed we put
ourselves first as God and our neighbor come in a distant second.
We
were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Yet then Paul
adds, “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.” In his grace – his unmerited
loving favor – God acted to save us through his Son. The apostle had already
said in the beginning of the letter that in Christ, “we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”
You have been baptized into Christ, the
crucified and risen Lord. Paul told the Colossians that you have “been buried
with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith
in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Because of Christ’s death you are holy in God’s eyes. Because of his
resurrection, you will share in the resurrection. In fact because you are in
Christ, Paul can say that you are already raised and seated with him in the
heavenly places.
And so in our text Paul says, “For this
reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in
heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his
glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his
Spirit in your inner man.” Paul’s
prayer is that according to God’s glorious riches the Ephesians – and all
believers - will be strengthened with power in their inner man through the work
of the Spirit.
The “inner man” to which he refers is your
whole person as you live in Christ. It
is the new man that exists because as Paul tells the Corinthians, “if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away;
behold, the new has come.” This inner
man – this being in Christ – is the work of the Holy Spirit. It began when you received the washing of
regeneration and renewal by the Spirit in baptism.
The Spirit who does this the Spirit of
Christ. And so Paul further explains what this means in our text as he adds, “so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Baptized into Christ –
united with his death and resurrection - it is now Christ who dwells in
us. Or as Paul told the Galatians, “I
have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ
who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Christ dwells in you through the work of
his Spirit. This means that there is great power at work in you. In the first
chapter Paul expressed the wish that God would lead the Ephesians to recognize 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.” It is the power of the risen Lord. It is the power of God the
Father, in Christ, through the Spirit, and so at the end of our text Paul
exclaims, “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.”
You are being strengthened through the Spirit in the inner man. Christ dwells in your heart through faith. In Christ, through the work of the Spirit, God’s power is at work in you. So what does this mean for us? Immediately after our text Paul says, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
We have been called to be the people of God
in Christ. And so Paul urges us to walk in a manner worthy of what God has
called us to be. The very fact that the apostle feels the need to say this
indicates that this isn’t automatic – it doesn’t “just happen” all the time.
While Paul has strongly asserted the power that is at work in us as we live in
Christ, he also knows that the old Adam is still present as well. The remnants
of sin and the fallen nature continue to weigh us down. Paul expressed this
succinctly when he told the Galatians, “For the desires of the flesh are
against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for
these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you
want to do.”
But Paul also tells us that the power of
Christ and his Spirit is greater than sin and the old Adam. The Spirit who
created new spiritual life continues to sustain and empower that life so that
we can walk in a manner worthy of our calling. Our will has been freed so that
we can follow the Spirit’s leading by the power that he provides. And so in
this way we cooperate in living a God pleasing life. We commit and exert
ourselves to living according to God’s will.
The apostle teaches us that this life is
one of humility and gentleness. Humility is not a characteristic the world
praises. Big and brash as you call attention to yourself on social media – that
is the way of the world. But Jesus Christ is the One who humbled himself to
save us. He is the One who served others
– who served us. And so humility is the way of those who are in Christ. This is
the humility of faithfully serving in the vocation where God has placed you. It
is the act of being a supportive husband or wife; of a father or mother who
cares for the needs of the family; of the employee who serve as unto the Lord
and not unto man.
Paul says that we are to live “with patience, bearing
with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace.” So don’t overreact. Be
willing to give people time to see their error and change their ways. Recognize
the challenges that they may be facing and how it impacts their behavior.
Paul says that we are to bear with one
another in love. Sometimes, living in Christ means that we endure each other.
When the other person is tired, or sick, or just in a bad mood choose not to respond
as you bear one another in love.
This is true as we deal with all people. But it is especially true as we deal with other Christians. Paul says that we are to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” After all, we are those who have been united in Christ through the work of the Spirit. We have all been baptized into Christ. As the apostle goes on to say, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call - one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Paul’s prayer is that Christians be strengthened with power through the Spirit in their inner man. It is that Christ may dwell in our heart through faith. Where this is happening it serves the goal that he expresses near the end of our text as he says “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.”
It is through the work of the Spirit that
we recognize how broad and long and high and deep God’s love for us is. This
love in Christ – this love of Christ - has given us the status of those who are
saints through our share in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We have
received the mercy of God. We have been blessed by God’s grace. And so we are
able to rest in God’s love no matter what is happening in life. We trust his
love and care because of what he has done for us through Christ.
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