Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. JohnMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Ephesians -- Commentaries; Bible. Epistle of John, 1st -- Commentaries; Bible. Peter -- Commentaries
The gift has in itself no limit short of participation in the likeness
of Christ. In another place in this letter the measure of that might
which is the guarantee of Christian hope is set forth with an abundance
of expression which might almost sound as an unmeaning accumulation of
synonyms, as being 'according to the working of the strength of His
might which He wrought in Christ'; and what is the range of the working
of that might is disclosed to our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus,
and the setting of Him high above all rule and authority and power and
lordship and every creature in the present or in any future. Paul's
continual teaching is that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was wrought
in Him, not as a mere human individual but as our head and
representative. Through Him we rise, not only from an ethical death of
sin and separation from God, but we shall rise from physical death, and
in Him the humblest believer possessing a vital union with the Lord of
life has a share in His dominion, and, as His own faithful word has
promised, sits with Him on His throne, even as He is set down with the
Father on His throne.
That gift has in itself no limit short of its own energy. In another
part of this epistle the Apostle indicates the measure up to which our
being filled is to take effect, as being 'all the fulness of God' and in
such an overwhelming vision breaks forth into fervent praise of Him who
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and
then supplies us with a measure which may widen and heighten our
petitions and expectations when He tells us that we are to find the
measure of God's working for us, not in the impoverishment of our
present possessions, but in the exceeding riches of the power that
worketh in us--that is to say, that we are to look for the limit of the
limitless gift in nothing short of the boundless energy of God Himself.
In the Epistle to the Colossians Paul uses the same illustration with an
individual reference to his own labours. In our text he associates with
himself all believers, as being conscious of a power working in them,
which is really the limitless power of God, and heartens them to
anticipate that whatever limitless power can effect in them will
certainly be theirs. God does not leave off till He has done and till He
can look upon His completed work and pronounce it very good.
III. This boundless grace is in each individual case bounded for the
time by our own faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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