Word of Encouragement (5/14/2021)

Today, we conclude our reflection on Paul’s prayer in Eph. 3:14-19: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Paul’s prayer culminates with the petition, “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” What a bold prayer! But what is he asking for?

Having the fullness of God in us doesn’t mean that we will somehow become divine. Whatever is created cannot be divine: to be divine is to be self-existent, uncreated. Steve Baugh paraphrases the expression this way: “That God may fill you to the full measure of his own presence” (Ephesians, EEC, p. 180). He explains what that means: “Paul’s request, then, is that God would fill his new creation temple, the new covenant church, with his glorious presence through the Spirit (2:22)” (p. 180). This temple imagery is helpful, isn’t it? The temple, with its tripartite structure (the Most Holy Place, the Holy Place, and the Court), was a microcosmic representation of the whole creation, which was divided into three domains as well—the heaven above, the earth beneath, and the water under the earth (Deut. 5:8). Even though the world is fallen, it can still be said, “the whole earth is full of [God’s] glory” (Isa. 6:3). But the fullness of God’s glory in the earth is the full glory of God’s general/natural revelation. We can see that the glory God manifested in filling the temple was the glory of God’s special/supernatural revelation. The new creation at the end of this present age will be full of the special/supernatural glory of God.

But how does that work for believers? How can we be filled with all the fullness of God? Not in this life; this is an eschatological (which means, pertaining the end of the world, or the world to come) vision, toward which God is working out all things. This prayer will be fully answered when we are glorified both in body and spirit. What is glorification? It is the perfection of the image of God in us. It will be shown in the glory of our resurrection body and in the purification of our soul, by which we will be “not able to sin.” As we render our joyful, perfect obedience to God’s good, loving, absolute authority over us, the fullness of God will be manifest in us. When we are filled with the fullness of God, we will be truly and fully happy—not only because there will be no more tears or mourning or crying or pain or death but also because there will be no division or conflict between our sense of duty and desire, between our knowledge of what is right and wrong and our will to do what is right.

Let us pray this prayer as our greatest longing. If this is not our burning desire, let us pray that our hearts would genuinely desire God’s fullness to fill us, so much so that our lives would be transformed and sanctified by it—our love for sin decreasing more and more and our love for God increasing more and more.

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