“Superlative ~ Adjective (modifies nouns/pronouns)
“1. of the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme; extreme:”[1]
The Apostle
Paul loved using superlatives. In fact, he loved to use the best, and the most,
and the greatest superlatives he could find. After all, he was telling us about
God. And the only true God is the most superlatively wonderful person we could
know.
This morning’s
thoughts came from this verse, “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.”[2]I
had already considered the first phrase for a couple of days, and now wanted to
consider how this unlimited work of God was “according to” the power that was
already “at work within us." This brought me to consider how Paul had already
written about this power at work within us in an earlier description of prayer
in the first chapter of the letter.
19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.[3]
When we want to know how God will “do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think,” and that this is always “according
to the power at work within us,” we are talking about the “immeasurable greatness of his power toward
us who believe.”
In reference to anything we could
possible face in life, every other power is smaller than the “immeasurable greatness of his power.”
Does it take power to deal with bad circumstances, and broken hearts, and sin,
and demons, and Satan, and the worldwide enemies of God? Of course it does.
However, if we were to add together every enemy of God in the physical and
spiritual realms, there is a limit to the measure. We would have a huge number
of enemies, for there are many who are on the wide path to destruction and few
on the narrow path to eternal life. But it is still true that the enemies of
God are a limited, finite number.
God could tell us the exact number of
world leaders, the exact number of financial manipulators, the exact number of
CEO’s, and executives, and presidents, and prime ministers, and kings, and
commanders, and armies, and soldiers, and politicians, and lobbyists, and
celebrities, and whatever other designation we could possibly come up with. God
could immediately tell us the precise number of living human beings who are
presently dead in their “trespasses and
sins,” who are “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,” living “in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and
the mind,” who are “by nature
children of wrath.”[4]
God could also tell us about the
limitations of his great arch enemy, “that
ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world,”[5]
and how the “great red dragon”[6]
“was thrown down to the earth, and his
angels were thrown down with him.”[7]God
knows the exact number of the angels who were thrown down with Satan, who are
working to destroy the people God created, and who are utterly defeated through
the cross of Jesus Christ. God knows their number, and that we “are from God and have overcome them, for he
who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”[8]
No matter how many people rise up
against God and his church, and how many evil spirit beings gather against Jesus
and his work, they are a finite, limited, defeated number, and the one who is
in us has the “immeasurable greatness of
his power,” working “toward us who
believe.” Our enemies can be measured, even though none of us could do it. Our
God, and him alone, without any help of all the angels of heaven, and without
any assistance from his little children in heaven or on earth, has “immeasurable greatness” to “his power,” and he expresses all that
power “toward us who believe.”
Now, if the superlative description of
God’s power as immeasurably great toward his children isn’t clear enough (it
is, but Paul loves to EMPHASIZE!), Paul clarifies that this “immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe”
is, “according to the working of his
great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.”[9]
There is something so utterly sin and
Satan defeating in the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead, that it can only
be described as “the immeasurable
greatness of his power.” Consider the enemies of God who called for Jesus’
crucifixion. Consider the spiritual realm where Satan and his demons conspired
to destroy the eternal Son of God. Consider how every enemy of God in the
physical and spiritual realms gathered together against God to destroy Jesus,
and the Father showed the immeasurable greatness of his power by raising Jesus from
the dead.
As the Psalm-writer of old expressed
so gloriously:
The kings of the earth set themselves,and the rulers take counsel together,against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,“Let us burst their bonds apartand cast away their cords from us.”[10]
But how does God look at such arrogant
rebellion?
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.Then he will speak to them in his wrath,and terrify them in his fury, saying,“As for me, I have set my Kingon Zion, my holy hill.”[11]
Long before Jesus came, God announced
how he would respond to his enemies when they took their stand against Jesus,
and sought to be free of God’s redemptive and loving bonds by putting Jesus to
death. The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe laughed at
the foolishness of their puny attempts to thwart his plans, and he spoke over
their unified cacophony of rebellion and terrified them in his wrath.
There is a coming fury of God that
will terrify his enemies so completely that they will call “to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of
him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great
day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’”[12]
The point is that, when God exercised “the immeasurable greatness of his power
toward us who believe,” he not only raised Jesus Christ from the dead, but
fully defeated sin, death, hell, the grave, and all the powers of darkness at
the same time. All that is left is for Jesus to return.
Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.[13]
Our faith in that future hope is based
on “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.” He will do then what he
promised, because he has already done what he promised in the redemptive work
of Jesus Christ our Savior.
However, our superlative loving older
brother is not finished glorifying the “immeasurable
greatness” of God’s power “toward us
who believe.” God not only raised Jesus from the dead, but he “seated him at his right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and
above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to
come.”[14]
You see, all the rulers, and
authorities, and powers, and dominions are measurable. But the power of God
against these expressions of power is immeasurable. All the names of the power
brokers in the physical and spiritual names are measurable. They can all be put
on a list. In fact, they can be put on a list with every power and authority
named in order of significance, or in order of authority, or influence. And, at
the end of the day, the list will be finished, and the number of names counted,
and it will be a finite, limited measure, lost completely in “the immeasurable greatness” of God’s
power toward us who believe.
While all the enemies of God, by rank,
by influence, and by name, are a limited, measurable number that is always less
than God in every way, the “immeasurable
greatness of his power” seated Jesus at “his
right hand in the heavenly places,” the place that is the ultimate
authority. This is why the great multitude cries out, “with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the
throne, and to the Lamb!’”[15]
It is the “immeasurable greatness” of
the power of him who sits on the throne, and him who has been seated at the
right hand of the Father, who provide a salvation that cannot be taken away
because their power in giving salvation is immeasurable, and all the enemies
and opponents of God are limited, measurable, finite, and powerless against the
God of our so great salvation.
However, Paul is not finished. Not
only has this immeasurably great power of God raised Jesus from the dead, and
seated him at the right hand of the throne of God, but God has seated Jesus, “far above every name that is named, not
only in this age but also in the one to come.”[16]
Once again, “every name that is named,” is a finite, measurable, limited
number, even when we add together every name that is named in both the material
and spiritual realms, throughout every age of space, time, and matter, and the
whole age that is yet to come. Both now and forever are covered. Both great and
small are covered. Both humans and demons are covered. Jesus has been raised,
and seated, above every name, power, and authority that could be named. No
exceptions!
This is why Paul said elsewhere,
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.[17]
God gave Jesus the name that is above
every name, “King of kings, and Lord of
lords,”[18]
and every other name is limited, finite, measurable, and unable to stand
against his sovereign glory. Satan and his demons will bow before Jesus Christ
and confess that he indeed is King of kings and Lord of lords, giving all glory
to God the Father. In light of this glory, Satan will have no glory whatsoever.
Not only are there superlatively
wonderful things for us to know and exclaim about our God, but the Father also “put all things under his feet and gave him
as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him
who fills all in all.”[19]As
Jesus is raised up and seated on the throne at the right hand of the Father, and
given the name that is above every name, all other things are put under his
feet in defeat. This has very
significant meaning to the church of the present day.
Since all powers and authorities are
under Jesus feet in his resplendent victory, and Jesus is “head over all things,” where is Jesus in relation to the church
and our enemies? God “gave him as head
over all things to the church.” God not only gave us the Son of God as
the meek and mild baby born in a stable and laid in a manger. He gave the
church the Son of God who is “head over
all things.” We are to see that the one who has been given to the church as
our head is above every possible combination of rulers and events that could
ever come against the church. He is OUR head. We are HIS body.
Now, in some inconceivably powerful
and awesome way, Paul speaks of Jesus’ relationship to the church as “the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
No wonder he needs superlatives to describe God and his relationship to his
people. We are not this miniscule “few”
who are powerless against the principalities, powers and authorities in the
spiritual realm. No, we are the,
great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”[20]
I have already spent some wonderful
time considering Paul’s superlatively superlative prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19. This
week I have been meditating on his benediction to that prayer, also completely
full of wonderful superlatives of the glory of our God and Father who answers
our prayers. Paul exulted,
20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.[21]
Because the “to him” is God, and his glorious Son, Jesus Christ, and his
glorious Holy Spirit, all working on behalf of the church which is, “a holy temple in the Lord,” that is “being built together into a dwelling place
for God by the Spirit,”[22]we
who lay claim to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior by faith also receive the
obligation of faith, which is to pray “all
that we ask or think,” to God in accordance with his will. If he is “able to do far more abundantly than all
that we ask or think,” let us pray according to who he is, superlatively
wonderful in every way.
Why is this so
important? Because in our day there are all kinds of enemies of God rising up
in religion, politics, activism, financial markets, nuclear advancements,
environmental destruction, and the people of God need to know that these are a
finite, limited, temporary, measurable expression of sin, rebellion, and
defiance against God, and they are being met by “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.”
Therefore, we
do not live by sight of the many people we see rising up against God and his
anointed one. We live by faith in God that he will continue to fulfill all he has
promised to do for us, and that he is fully able to do so.
©
2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless
otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/superlative)
[2]
Ephesians 3:20
[3]
Ephesians 1:19-23
[4]
Ephesians 2:1-3
[5]
Revelation 12:9
[6]
Revelation 12:3
[7]
Revelation 12:9
[8]
I John 4:4
[9]
Ephesians 1:19-20
[10]
Psalms 2:2-3
[11]
Psalm 2:4-6
[12]
Revelation 6:16-17
[13]
Matthew 24:30-31
[14]
Ephesians 1:20-21
[15]
Revelation 7:10
[16]
Ephesians 1:21
[17]
Philippians 2:9-11
[18]
Revelation 17:14; 19:16
[19]
Ephesians 1:22-23
[20]
Revelation 7:9-10
[21]
Ephesians 3:20-21
[22]
Ephesians 2:21-22
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