Ephesians 1:18-19 18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the richness of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
The result of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is enlightened hearts. The participle “having opened” or “illuminated” modifies “eyes” but but also describes how we experience God’s revelation. Paul uses the image of our hearts having eyes. Eyes in this sense refer to the awareness and acknowledgement that comes because of God’s revelation and our deeper insight about Jesus. The Holy Spirit will bring enlightenment to our hearts. This is where we really need to know God. The heart would be our deepest inner person, our minds and spirits, where we make our decisions and determine the course of our lives.
The purpose of God’s gift of light is that Paul wants the Ephesians to understand the hope they have in Jesus Christ. This hope is to what all people have been called. As Paul has shown in the earlier section, the very reason we have been created is to experience life in Jesus Christ. Paul describes two things about this hope in vv. 18-19 using two parallel statements.
First, this hope is expressed as the richness of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints. Paul describes God’s grace with the word richness. He uses this word “rich” six times in the letter, each in the context of God’s grace and salvation towards us (1:7, 18; 2:4, 7; 3:8, 16). God’s treasure for us is that we experience redemption. This inheritance is in the saints. It is what works in us to help us become participants in God’s eternal plan.
God gives us more grace than to just get by but to have total victory in this life. Sin does not need to be master and cause us to be spiritually defeated. God’s plan is for us to know the fullness of his love for us experienced in relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the second time in just a few verses that Paul has used the word “glory.” This glorious inheritance awaits those who have been adopted into God’s family through faith. This is another way Paul expresses the hope of salvation, eternal life in the presence of our Creator, the very thing for which we have been created. But we do not need to wait for death for this to happen. We can participate now in the gospel to be fulfilled some day at Jesus’ coming again. The church is an eschatological community, living out now the promise of the gospel.
The second parallel phrase focuses upon God’s power. Paul uses another superlative word: “immeasurable greatness.” Together, there is nothing greater than God’s richness and God’s immeasurable power. This is the same power that created the universe with simply the spoken word (Genesis 1:3). There are two prepositional phrases that end these parallel statements, using the words in the saints and toward us who believe. Those who believe get to participate in this power. Paul will expand his thoughts about this power in the following two verses.
Paul uses several words to describe what God does in us: power, work, and might. We get “dynamite” from the word for “power.” We get “energy” from the word for “work.” The word for “might” we use in words like democracy. Paul is referring in this chapter to the very power that set all things in motion.
The theological basis for this power comes from the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is very significant. The same power that created the universe, the very awesomeness of God, the power that brought life from death, is the same power that works in us to help us to know God better. This is life-transforming, eternal power. This is God’s plan for us.
For older posts, click here.