Delighting in the Knowledge of God, Eph 1:15-21
By Jay Wegter
INTRODUCTION:
It has been said that a swine has never seen a star. That is no doubt true; but it is not because their vision is vastly inferior to ours—it is because they have no interest in stars. A swine has never seen a star because pigs were not created to be worshippers. Mankind is created to worship. Therefore, man is endlessly curious—he maps, explores, adores, investigates, composes, cheers, and interprets. Man was created to be an enthusiastic spectator of God’s excellence. You might say that inside of us is a little ‘radar’ turning—always looking for beauty, excellence, and nobility.
God has created us to find happiness in Himself—by pursuing God as our object of desire. But that God-given yearning was perverted by the Fall. Romans one tells us that since the entrance of sin, our object of our worship has changed from God to the creature and the creation. Every unregenerate person is subservient to created things because it’s inescapable that we serve what we worship (Rom 1:25). Only by the gracious miracle of regeneration is a person restored to become a true worshipper of God (Jn 4:23-24).
Our text (Eph 1:15-23) is about finding your source of excellence in God. When Paul wrote Ephesians one, he was opening up the topic of transformed seeing. In his epistles he sends us to the heavenlies—which deal with our matchless position in Christ—in order to instill in us transformed seeing. Paul knows that transformed seeing produces transformed living (thrust of Ephesians).
In both of Paul’s prayers in Ephesians he is praying for supernatural sight on behalf of believers. Transformed living is a lifestyle of worship in which the believer is a living sacrifice. That means that our faculties of thought, speech, and affection are devoted to Christ and focused on things above (Col 3:1-3).
Concerning delight in God, it’s self-evident that we can only love what we know personally. And we can only know personally what we have beheld. Thus, we draw from our text an exhortation to stir ourselves to improve our spiritual sight. You were created to be a worshipper—therefore you cannot, NOT worship! Your heart refuses to live as a dry salt waste with no object of desire. This helps us understand why idolatry is a perversion of worship.
Our hearts know well our object of greatest desire. Christ refers to one’s object of desire as a man’s ‘treasure’. Every man is always reviewing his treasure; adding to his treasure; speaking of his treasure (Mt 6:19-21). No wonder Puritan John Howe referred to delight in God as: “the top, middle, and foundation of true religion.” Jonathan Edwards offers a similar observation, “True religion consists primarily in the affections.”
Delighting in God is a Scriptural command (Ps 37:4). It would not be rash to say that delighting in God is a felt experience. When the Scriptures speak of exulting in God, terms are utilized such as taste, pant after, thirst, pleasure and enjoyment. Romans 5:5 describes the love of God being shed abroad, or poured out, in the heart of the believer. But delight in God is not a passive thing. Maurice Roberts (Thought of God), says that if we do not stir ourselves to have fresh encounters with God, a chill will come over the soul and our hearts will go in search of other lovers.
Our theme of delighting in God centers upon the truth that God is known by the manner in which He saves us—by His sovereign mercy communicated to us in Christ crucified and risen. The chief object of our meditation is our relationship with God as it is settled in Christ.
Salvation imparts a relationship which is to control our lives—our purpose is to press on to know the Lord by means of considering His saving work towards us (Acts 20:32). Paul’s invitation for us to delight in the Lord is found in three access points found in our text: the hope of His calling, His inheritance in the saints, and
His power toward us who believe—found in Ephesians 1:15-23.
Vs. 15-16 – “For this reason 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, while making mention of you in my prayers. . .” Paul’s prayer is an extension of the praise he has offered for God’s sovereign grace catalogued in verses 3-14; “spiritual blessings in Christ.”
Key to our message is WHAT Paul is praying for; AND, for WHOM he is praying—for folks who are already believers—that the Ephesians’ knowledge of God would continue to grow dramatically. As you grow in the knowledge of God, you are transformed by degrees—the better you know Him, the more you become like Christ; the more you progress toward maturity (2 Cor 3:18).
Vs. 17 – “. . . 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.” Paul’s intercession concerns the outworking of the Lord’s work in these believers. It is God’s will to keep growing in the knowledge of the Lord (2 Pet 3:18).
As Paul models in his prayer, you are to begin by asking God to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in order to know Him better. Have you ever prayed that for your own spiritual growth? “Lord, I want to know you better . . .” When you pray this way, it is an admission of your dependence upon the Holy Spirit to grow in your knowledge of God. For the Spirit of God reveals more of the Lord, and His ways. He reveals truths so wonderful that they cannot be comprehended by natural reasoning alone. Unaided cognition won’t apprehend them—they must be illuminated by the Spirit. For the Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God. It is His task to unfold them through the Word (1 Cor 2:9-16). He is our gracious Guide to show us the things freely given to us (1 Cor 2:12).
A spirit of ‘wisdom and revelation’ is vital because there is nothing more important than knowing God. Your relationship with Him is the one thing you will take with you to glory.
V. 18 – “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” “Eyes of the heart” is a fitting metaphor to describe your religious affections. The Spirit reveals, but we must have certain faculties enlightened in order to grasp what He reveals. The heart of the saved man sees what the five senses cannot.
What does Paul want us to see? There are three things which Paul casts as three questions. The FIRST truth to be revealed in order to know God better is, “what is the hope of His calling?” (v. 18). The HOPE of one’s calling is that aspect of salvation for which we are waiting—what we are looking forward to. That hope refers to life in the new heavens and the new earth in the presence of God (Rom 5:2; Eph 5:27; Col 3:4).
Redemption has an outcome which is the hope of the godly. It is ultimate conformity to Christ—what you are ‘saved unto’—the hope of glory (Col 1:27). “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love” (1:4). That is conformity to Christ.
All history is moving towards this event in which the glorified sons of God will be presented publicly to the rational universe (holy angels). The entire creation is poised for this event (Rom 8:18-25). The public presentation of the glorified saints is synchronized with the new heavens and earth (lifted curse).
The goal of redemption is not adequately described simply as deliverance from sin, death, and sorrow. The consummation of your calling will be the enjoyment of God in Christ communicating Himself to us forever. It is eternal love attending you: it is Christ given to be your life, light, and blessedness without cessation. It is the redeemed enjoying God and pleasing God perfectly.
In glory, the Church will be a spotless reflection the character of the Godhead—His communicable attributes will have reached maturity in her. She will be as much like God as a finite creature can possible be. Relations within the society of the redeemed will reflect the excellence of relations within the Trinity perfect love, honor, deference, goodness, humility, wisdom, truthfulness.
God’s redemptive plot is to have an eternal temple to dwell in. Not a temple made of inanimate things, but a temple of living stones. That is how God describes you, the saints—as living stones growing together, being built up into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit; a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (Eph 2:21-22; 1 Pet 2:5).
At the consummation the ages, the aim of redemptive history shall be realized, as announced from the throne of God—“Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them. . .” (Rev 21:3).
When Puritan Richard Baxter went house to house, visiting church members, he always asked his parishioners this question, “Do you see all of life as preparation for the next life?” Do you see how meditating upon the hope of your calling deepens your delight in knowing God? It melts our heart and keeps us tender toward God. What a powerful influence in your life to know for certain that your hope is nearer than when you believed. (EX. as one poet said, “the barrier between time and eternity is paper thin.”)
The SECOND truth to be revealed to know God better and delight in Him is, “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints?” (v. 18b). We know from Ephesians 5, and numerous other texts, that the saints are a gift from the Father to the Son (see Jn 6 & 17).
Here’s where we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation; our slumbering spiritual eyes must be opened to take in this glorious light. We need to know who we are in the Son in order to fix our minds upon things above (Col 3:1-4). When we are hung up on basing our intrinsic worth on temporal things, we are unable to reason spiritually. Our culture says you are your physical body, your car, house, job, possessions, earthly accomplishments, likes, your business decisions. (EX. Duke and spunky Tasha, Prov 27:2.)
Paul prays that his readers would grasp the riches of God’s inheritance in the saints. EX. God’s inheritance is not the holy angels, nor is it the nearly infinite rainbow of beautiful galaxies, it is a company of redeemed sinners who are conformed to their Savior and Head; the society of the redeemed that make up God’s eternal companions. This will only grip you, captivate and ravish your heart if the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. So, ask—“Father, grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You!”
We who make up the company of the redeemed are Christ’s inheritance; that the Lord Jesus Christ might be the First-born among many brethren (Rom 8:29). Not only do we form Christ’s inheritance; Christ comprises our inheritance.
My friends the cosmos is a stage for God to showcase the two greatest gifts ever given: Christ given for sinners, and the Church given to Christ. Do you see the ‘mutuality’ in these two matchless gifts? Heaven is about mutuality—I am my Beloved’s and He is mine (Song of Songs 6:3). We are Christ’s inheritance and He is our inheritance. Mutual ownership will take our joy over the top.
Mutuality means that we give ourselves to God and He to us, in a covenant of co-ownership. As Spurgeon said, “I’ll be able to say on that day, God on yonder throne is mine!” This is where God is taking us—glory is moving closer to us—this must animate our affections; like a virtuoso on a stringed instrument.
To be in glory is to be in God’s presence; it is to behold God. The pure pleasure involved in beholding God has begun in the saints (2 Cor 3:18). But for the present in our beholding we see in a mirror dimly—then it will be face to face. “And it will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us” (Is 25:9).
And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bondservants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads (Rev 22:3-4).
The experience of seeing God was described by the Reformers as “The beatific vision.” To beatify is to bring a person to a state of exalted joy above anything possible on earth. It means the vision that makes us blessed, or happy. To look at God will change us and make us like Him: “We shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1 Jn 3:2).
The beatific vision, which will bring us endless exalted joy, will be our beholding of Christ in His glory. This is what our Lord prayed for in John 17:24— that the saints would behold His glory.
The sight of Christ glorified will ravish our souls (2 Thess 1:10). We will never cease to marvel at the sight of God looking out at us through eyes of flesh. Our amazement will never cease as we behold our glorified Savior with the marks of our atonement on His glorified body. For the slain Lamb is the center of heaven; the Light of heaven (Rev 21:22-23, 22:5). (EX. The invalid Puritan, Isaac Ambrose, said, God’s desire is to converse with us after our form.)
This vision of God will be the consummation of our knowing God and will give us full delight and joy for all eternity: “In your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps 16:11).
Though you behold in a mirror dimly now (1 Cor 13:12), you are being fitted to behold face to face. In order to behold face to face, you must be a partaker of God’s holiness so that you can look upon Him without fear, shame and without covering your face.
(APPL. Beholding produces delight in the knowledge of God. Is beholding so as to delight in the Lord a part of your vocation now? If so, then you are experiencing the answer to the prayer in our text. The more the eyes of your heart can ‘see’ your eternal inheritance; the more you will treasure the Lord and trample upon the world’s temptations. ‘Spiritual victory is spiritual sight’.)
Vv. 19-20 -- The THIRD truth to be revealed in order to know God is, “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe?” (v. 19-20 ff.) Paul puts our focus on the power of God exerted when Christ was raised from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the vindication of Christ. It is the destruction of sin; it is the conquest of death. It is the guarantee of our justification.
Beloved, the resurrection of Christ is the cause of your new birth. God can make a sinner into a new creature by means of the new birth BECAUSE Christ has dealt decisively with sin and guilt by means of the cross and the empty tomb. In verses (19-20 ff.) “and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” The Apostle tells us something amazing about our new birth. “The same superhuman power was needed to make us believe, as was needed and exerted to raise Christ from the dead (vs. 20)” JFB.
Think of it—the same magnitude of power necessary to raise Christ from the dead was also exerted by God when He reached down and saved you! This must be perceived by the “eyes of your heart”—that a miracle of Almighty God was necessary to produce spiritual life and saving faith in you (before the new birth, you and I were as dead as stinking Lazarus in his tomb).
What a deep mystery, for our sakes, the only begotten Son of God lay in a dark stone tomb for three days as a human corpse. Then He was raised with power (Rom 1:4) and seated above all authority.
After His death on the cross, He went from a human corpse—to Ruler of the universe. He did all this to resurrect His eternal Bride, the Church—her death had to become His death. He had to span the chasm that lay between dust and glory; He had to bridge the infinite void that lay between death and the throne of heaven so we could go from dying to glorified. He had to span the gap between depravity and burning holiness so that we could go from rebels to worshippers. By the sacrifice of Himself, Christ has dealt decisively with everything that separates us from God. By the wounds of Christ, God was conquering all of His enemies and ours. If you know Christ, then right now God is exercising His infinite love, wisdom, and power to bring you to glory.
HOW God is taking the Church from dust to glory—through the Son, reveals who God is (Eph 3:8-10). APPL. as you take delight in all that He is toward you in Christ, your knowledge of God will grow. As you dwell upon Him as the God of all grace who is exercising His mighty attributes on your behalf, you will take delight in knowing God.
Vv. 21-23 – “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection 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.” Paul declares the power of Christ over everything for the sake of the church. Christ is the wisdom and power of God; He holds His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King in order to bring His people all the way home to God (to finish ‘building His church).
There is endless delight in knowing who God is toward you in Christ. It is always Christ’s perfect suitability to answer in Himself our brokenness and ruin by sin. It is always Christ who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30).
CONCLUSION:
The three access points which lead to a growing knowledge of God: hope, inheritance, and power are just a few in Scripture. Do you long to love God in response to His love to you? Then search out access points to delight in God from Scripture; hunt for them as you would treasure. Stir yourself to take hold of God in prayer—guard your quiet times with Him. Make it your passion to grow in your knowledge of God.
A full Christ-centered assurance in which you know God, and know that you are beloved of God is the most powerful influence for holiness that you can have (Heb 6:11-12). Delight in the knowledge of God is a powerful fortress against sin. This delight forms a perimeter around the heart to guard it from yielding to temptation. The joy of the Lord is truly your strength (Neh 8:10).