We can hardly do justice to the whole of ch. 3 in one segment, so we shall have to be selective. The chapter is in two quite obvious parts:
1. Verses 2 - 13 and
2. Verse 1 and verses 14 - 21
In v. 1 Paul starts to say a thing, then breaks off for an aside, and doesn't pick up the thread again until v. 14. Verse 1 reads: " For this reason, I Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles ..." and then he breaks off to talk about his commission to be an apostle to them, and he doesn't get back to where he left off till v. 14, where he repeats the phrase he started with, "For this reason ...". You can read straight on from v. 1 at v. 14, leaving out everything in between, and the discussion flows quite smoothly: "For this reason, I Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, bow my knees before the Father from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named ..." and so on.
We shall put the emphasis on verses 14-21, but for the sake of completeness, let me make a brief comment on that parenthesis.
What Paul says there sounds immodest, as though he is boasting! ... v. 4: "when you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ", he says, and you could be forgiven for thinking, "Bighead!"
But Paul isn't boasting. Really he's not. Sheer enthusiasm for the goodness of God has led him into this seeming immodesty. He's not saying, "See what a cluey guy I am." What he's saying is, "Look at what God's shown me; isn't it exciting? This is what He's given me to share with you Gentiles: the fulness of God's blessing is as much for you as it is for His chosen people the Jews! You're in! You're really in - absolutely - "no-holds-barred". You're as much a part of God's plan for the ages as ever the Jews were. His appointment of me is evidence for that. Think of it ... ME! ... a special messenger to Gentiles, to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ for YOU! It's really on, isn't it, for one and all!"
Remember from the first study in this series (God's master-plan for history - the reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth into a comprehensive unity) Paul offered two clues: one is Christ, the other is the Church. Paul here presents, in fact, a third clue ... his own apostleship!
That God appointed him to such a ministry is one more indication what it is God's after - the reconciliation of all peoples. If He chose an apostle specially for the Gentiles - and equipped him fully for the job - then the Gentiles loom as large in God's Unification Program as the Jews do.
What Paul was doing here is a thing that's quite difficult to do rightly - to call attention to what God has done with you, and commend it as evidence for what He means to do for others. You won't make the point if you're mealy-mouthed about it; you've got to say it forthrightly or not at all: "Look what God's done with me! It's for your sake He's done it, so think what He must have in mind for you." How can you make a point like that without appearing to boast? To say it at all, you just have to take the risk.
Paul took the risk. It wasn't himself he was excited about, but God's purpose for others; and his own apostleship was evidence for it. It had to be substantial evidence, or there wasn't any point in mentioning it.
That's why he's so concerned that his Gentile readers shouldn't draw the wrong conclusion from his imprisonment, v.13: it's merely part of the price that has to be paid, and he's more than willing to pay it because the advantage to them is so huge.
Paul was mature enough to stand off from himself, so to speak, and look dispassionately at his own call to ministry and the gifts God had given him for it, and recognise in it all a sign - as significant as the other two - of what God was doing in history.
That's all we need to say about the parenthesis now, except to draw the obvious conclusion from it for ourselves, which is: however underprivileged you may feel you are, however much of an "outsider" you may feel yourself to be, be sure of this nonetheless: that God will not, on that account, hold back anything from you ... not anything. The fulness of God's blessing is for you, whoever you are.
Now to the real meat of the chapter ... which is the prayer Paul prays in 3:16 - 19.
Let's come at it the way Paul did.
He starts by saying, "For this reason ...".
Well, what reason? He started off to say it at 3:1, remember, so the reason he's referring to has to be found back in ch. 2. Here's how he ended ch. 2 - here's the reason he's referring to:
"So then, you're no longer outsiders or
aliens, but fellow-citizens with all the saints - you belong now to
the household of God. The foundation it rests on is the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone, and in
Him (because we're all reconciled to God in His person) He's building
a temple fit to dwell in Himself, by fitting every piece properly to
its neighbour ... you included."
"For that reason ... because God has given you a place - a real place
- in the growing fellowship that demonstrates His age-long plan ...
for that reason, I pray that according to the riches of His glory,
you may be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man
..." and so on.
Now how shall we break this up?
Let me pick out just three salient points.
First, in rhythm with the will of God, he prays that we may be inwardly strong.
God means you to be strong, not weak.
We're inclined to think that the only right posture a man can adopt before God is on his knees - or better still, on his face, prostrate. To be sure, we have to be brought to that position ... to have the stuffing knocked out of our sinful pride, as it needs to be.
But God doesn't mean us to grovel.
Remember what happened to Ezekiel. He had a
vision of God - a vision that flattened him ... as a real sight of
God always must. Listen to what he says: "Such was the appearance of
the glory of the Lord that when I saw it, I fell on my face."
Ezekiel. 1.28
We nod our heads approvingly: "Very proper. So he should." And
certainly no man will ever be any use to God unless he's first been
humbled that way. But then Ezekiel goes
on: "Then I heard the voice of One speaking to me - "Son of man,
stand upon your feet and I will speak with you". And when He spoke to
me, the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my
feet."
That's exactly what Paul says here will happen to the person who meets God in Christ. "May you be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man."
On one of my visits to Israel, I remember looking through the entrance doors into the El Aksa Mosque on the Jerusalem Temple Mount. We weren't allowed to go in at that time, because as our guide explained, "There is a preachment ... only for the faithful!" And since we Europeans were presumably ranked, not among the faithful, but among the infidels, we had to remain outside. But as I looked in, I saw scores of Arab Muslims all in an attitude of prayer, row upon row of them, like tulips in a garden bed, all kneeling so their foreheads touched the ground. And I remember having a curiously mixed feeling about it. Part of me felt it was right and good, as though the spectacle of all those hunched-down Arabs was a picture of the way all men should present themselves before the face of God. "To Him every knee shall bow ..." But another part of me said, "How ridiculous! That's not how God wants us to be - rendered useless by perpetual prostration. Heaven won't be a glorified version of that Mosque, with God lounging on a Throne touching a fan to His chin, enjoying the spectacle of rows and rows of behinds upraised to His view!"
Men whose spirits are humble He is looking for, yes ... but so He can trust them with His affairs. And for that He needs them on their feet. "To them that have no might, He increases strength."
God doesn't mean us to go about perpetually bemoaning our weakness. That will make us no sort of credit to Him ... no credit to Him at all.
He will teach you your weakness, yes ... but so you may discover that the secret of strength is not in self-reliance, but in reliance on Him. And having learned that He wants you to be a "mighty man of valour", in the ranks of the King's men, doing Him high service.
Notice now that that strength is given to us by the infusion of His own Spirit. Paul prays - literally - "that we may by power become mighty through His Spirit."
Our Lord's promise, remember, was that when the Spirit came upon the disciples, they would be "endued with power from on high", Acts 1:8.
As Paul loved to say, "God has not given us a spirit of slavery, so we do everything we do for Him out of fear, but a spirit of Sonship, so we stand erect and clear-eyed before Him, bold to call Him Father."
God has made us in His image That is to say, there is kinship between us and Him in our spiritual nature. Between our spirit and His, there is a vital connection.
Let's not hesitate to say that it is supernatural. As God Himself is "above nature", so is the gift of His Spirit to dwell in us from "beyond nature". That is His gift to the believing heart - the communication of His own essential self to your "inner man" - into your true, deep self. All the labyrinths of your inner being are accessible to Him, as to no-one else.
You and I can act upon one another from the outside: He acts on us from the inside. We can influence one another ... move each other this way and that a bit ... by persuasion, or by threatening, or by encouragement. But God can influence us from deep within. He implants His own Spirit in us as a fountain of spiritual vitality, flowing up from within as a spring of motivation and energy ... "a well of water springing up into eternal life" is how Jesus Himself described it, John 4.14.
The man who is born again is born from above, because he is born of the Spirit.
God means you to be strong with His own strength.
In ch. 1 v. 19 Paul has already prayed that we might "know what is the immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe - the same divine power that He exercised when He raised Christ Jesus from the dead and exalted Him to His own right hand." And God means us to enjoy the exercise of this power especially in the ministry of reconciliation to which He has called us.
Finally, notice the climax of this prayer: "that you might be filled with all the fulness of God."
With all the fulness of God! That's an astonishing phrase. Does Paul know what he's saying? Has his enthusiasm got the better of him and led him into absurd exaggeration? What does he mean?
The "fulness of God" is another way of saying, "everything that God is" - the whole sum of His characteristics. Think of them -
His righteousness - clear as a mountain stream.
His pity - big with yearning.
His sufficiency - hugely adequate.
His love - such as to rejoice the heart with unutterable and exalted joy.
His glory - so as to uplift and thrill our souls.
His regard for us - so we are as the apple of His eye.
We see these things in God, and like Paul in the Law, "we delight in them in our inmost selves." (Romans 7.22)
Are they present in us? ... as they are present in God?
What energies and qualities go to make up our natures?
Righteousness ... or self-righteousness?
Pity ... or self-pity?
Love ... or self-love?
Glory ... or self-glorification?
Regard for others ... or self-regard?
The questions have only to be asked to be answered ... to our condemnation.
We know what God is full of. What are we full of?
If only we could be emptied of these ugly caricatures of the beauties that fill up the nature of God. If only we were filled with His fulness, instead of being so full of ourselves!
Not as though the human soul has a capacity
so large you can pour God into it and leave nothing over, of course!
You and I can no more be "filled with all the fulness of God" in that
sense than you could pour the whole Pacific Ocean into a child's
beach bucket!
But ... if you fill the child's bucket from the sea, then you have in
that bucket everything that sea water is in its chemical composition.
All that sea water is, you have in that bucket.
Just so, God can so fill a human spirit with His own Spirit that
everything in God will be found in us ...
the same righteousness
the same compassion
the same sufficiency
the same love
the same splendour
the same regard for others.
If it be true of Jesus that in Him "all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in bodily form", then all that fulness can be contained in a human life! And if that Christ "dwells in our hearts by faith ..."?
"Of His fulness" wrote John (1.16) "have we all received, grace upon grace."
Do we fail to desire it because we fear that first we must be emptied? ... must experience the dreadful pain of being nothing? We're prone to think so - though to empty ourselves of ourselves is a thing, in any case, we are powerless to do!
If (to illustrate) we wish to fill a glass with oil instead of water, we first have to tip out all the water, we think, and have an empty glass to be filled. But we don't. There is another way ... just pour in the oil till the water spills out.
That's God's way. He's not a careful chemist, but a genial host ... not rationing His Spirit, drop by careful drop with never an ounce of spillage ... but striding up and down the long table where His guests recline, laughing to fill their goblets from His flagon, careless of the spillage since He has an inexhaustible supply!
Let us open our hearts to the Lord, and hold our vessels out to Him, and beseech Him:
Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord;
Come and quench this thirsting soul of mine.
Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup Lord ... fill it up and make me whole.
All God ever asks of us is that we offer Him, not an empty vessel, but one with the lid off!
Take the lid off your soul to God, and trust Him to pour His fulness in!
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