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"Now unto Him Who is of power . . . . . according to the power that worketh in us."
What is this power that both works in us, and also moves the mighty arm of God?
Eph. 1: 19-23 presupposes that this fact will have been grasped before Eph. 3: is
reached. There the apostle prays that we may know:--
"What is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to
the inworking of His mighty power, which He inworked in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead........far above all..........Head over all things to the Church..........which
is His fulness."
The power that worketh in us is the resurrection power, the power that placed Christ at
the right hand of God, the power that put all things else under His feet, the power that
made us members of His body, and His very fulness. That is the power that answers
prayer. This power "in-worketh in us". One may say, "I do not feel it"; "Should I not
have a fuller demonstration of it if I really am energized thus?" In chapter 2: we read of
the unsaved that they walk according to the age of this world: that is, they are just
ordinary everyday people of the world, whatever "rudiments of the world" maybe they
follow. They walk in the lusts, they fulfil the wills of the flesh and the mind, they are
certainly not greatly conscious of the one fact we have omitted from our quotation, they
are not conscious that when they are pleasing themselves they are nevertheless walking:--
"According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now INWORKETH in
the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2: 2).
In the same way we now seek to walk worthy of our calling, and fulfil the will of God,
being guided by His written Word, and as we do, we must be INWORKED by the power
of His resurrection, for no other power is possible. To this same power the apostle
looked for the ability to fulfil his high office:--
"According to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the INWORKING of His
power" (Eph. 3: 7).
The doxology has been interrupted while this revelation of the power has been made,
and is now resumed by the repetition of the words "Unto Him". There is a threefold
ascription of praise in Eph. 1: 3-14. The Will of the Father, the Work of the Son, and the
Witness of the Spirit finish with the words "to the praise of His glory" or "the glory of
His grace". The first prayer is offered to the Father of glory.
"Unto Him be glory by the church and by Christ Jesus."--Glory shall one day be
seen as the rightful possession of One only, and all who shall in that day be glorified and
presented "in glory" shall confess that it is in all its parts the plan and the perfecting of
God alone. The company of saints gathered on earth and called "The church" will not be
broken up and dissolved in the life to come, at least not for a period which can be spoken
of as "the generations of the age of the ages". A little previously the apostle had written
that through "the church" the heavenly beings were learning the manifold wisdom of God
(3: 10), and in chapter 2: 7 he reveals that the church was raised to its high place in the
heavenlies:--