Ephesians 1:15-19 The Half Bible Lesson

A Bible teacher who is on my short list of favorite Bible teachers of all time has said that Christians should study the prayers of the apostle Paul.  If Paul was inspired to write books of the Bible that we call Scripture, then the prayers that Paul prays that are included in them are prayers that we would do well to pray ourselves.

One such prayer is found in Ephesians 1:15-19:  15 . . . I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of the strength of His might . . . .

As I considered this prayer and teaching on it, I realized that no matter what I say about it, you are going to need God to open your spiritual eyes for you to fully understand this.

Like in Luke 24:45, where it says that Jesus “opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.”

I can tell you what things God has to open your mind to understand, but until He does, you will only have a bare handle on the truths that God wants you to understand.

Paul prays for three things, and they are not entirely separate.

He prays first that they (we) might know the hope of God’s calling.

Romans 8:29,30 says that we were predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Notice the past tenses.  Those whom God called, He also justified and glorified.  Glorified.

Where?  How? 

We need to have our eyes opened here.  We too often think of the Christian life as a bunch of sinners that God saved so they can now go to heaven when they die.  That narrative fails to grasp the whole picture of what God has done for us and still has in store for us.  But in Romans, much of that has already been done, and we just don’t see it in our everyday ho-hum lives. 

It’s like you were adopted as a child, and you then discovered that you are actually the child of the richest and most powerful person in the world.  And they want you to come home.  That changes everything.

Then Paul prays that we would know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. 

I think we tend to think of this as OUR inheritance, heaven, but it’s God’s inheritance.

Look at these passages from the Old Testament first:

Deuteronomy 9:29  ‘Yet they are Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’

1 Kings 8:51–53 51 (for they are Your people and Your inheritance which You have brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace), 52 that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and to the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You. 53 “For You have separated them from all the peoples of the earth as Your inheritance, . . . .

Psalm 28:9  Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.

Psalm 33:12  Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

Psalm 78:71 From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.

And someone will say that these verses are talking about Israel.

Yes, and one of the main themes of the book of Ephesians is that God has joined the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, into one new body, partaking of the same covenants.

Ephesians 2:11–15  remember  . . . that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.

We are now God’s inheritance.  And Paul wants us to know the riches of the glory of that, but we’re going to need God to open our eyes to fully see and understand that.

And then, lastly, somehow, in some way, God has exceeding great power which He wants to or is exercising on our behalf.

But, again, we need to ask God to open our eyes to it. 

I wish this lesson could have made you to see the greatness of God’s plans and power on behalf of His people, but at least I think we were able to show what we need to look for and ask for from God.  And that’s a big first step.