There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
To be left uncorrected would be a fatal sign: it would prove that the Lord had said, “He is given unto idols, let him alone.” God grant that such may never be our portion! Uninterrupted prosperity is a thing to cause fear and trembling. As many as God tenderly loves He rebukes and chastens: those for whom He has no esteem He allows to fatten themselves without fear, like bullocks for the slaughter. It is in love that our heavenly Father uses the rod upon His children.
Yet see, the correction is in measure”: He gives us love without measure but chastisement “in measure.” As under the old law no Israelite could receive more than the “forty stripes save one,” which ensured careful counting and limited suffering; so is it with each afflicted member of the household of faith-every stroke is counted. It is the measure of wisdom, the measure of sympathy, the measure of love, by which our chastisement is regulated. Far be it from us to rebel against appointments so divine. Lord, if Thou standest by to measure the bitter drops into my cup, it is for me cheerfully to take that cup from Thy hand and drink according to Thy directions, saying, “Thy will be done.”
3:20–21 Paul burst into a grand doxology concerning God’s majestic abilities. He prayed that God’s glory be abundantly manifested in the church and in Christ. Even in the eternal state, the church will bring glory to God forever and ever.[1]
3:20 the power at work within us. See 1:19–23; 2:5, 6. The first half of the letter climaxes as Paul considers the overwhelming power of God, who carries out His gracious (2:7) and all-wise (v. 10) plan for the reconciliation of the human race.
3:21 glory. Because of the power that God has given to the church, Paul gives glory to Him.
in the church and in Christ Jesus. In this letter Paul uses a variety of images to describe the mutual relationship between the church and Christ: the body and the head (1:22, 23), the reconciled and the reconciler (2:14–18; 4:3), and the bride and her groom (5:22, 33).[2]
3:20Now to the one Jewish prayers often ended with a blessing to God (compare 1 Chr 16:35–36; Rom 16:25–27).
power Paul uses several Greek terms related to power and work in Ephesians, including dynamis (“power”) and its related verb dynamai, and ergon (“work”) and its related verb energeō. In this verse, Paul praises God both as “the one who is able” (tō dynamenō) and as the “power” (dynamis) that is “working” (energeō) in believers (Eph 3:20).
3:21glory Denotes honor and majesty. See note on Rom 1:23.
Amen Paul closes several sections of his letters this way (Gal 1:5; Rom 11:36; Phil 4:20). See note on Gal 1:5.[3]
3:20 When the conditions of vv. 16–19 are met, God’s power working in and through believers is unlimited and far beyond their comprehension.
3:21 to Him be the glory. Only when His children meet this level of faithfulness will Christ be fully glorified with the honor He deserves from His church.[4]
3:20, 21 These two verses form a doxology, or praise, to God in which Paul points out that God can do exceedingly abundantly above anything we may ask. Neither God’s love nor His power is limited by human imagination.[5]
3:20. Paul brings this breathtaking prayer to a close by reminding the readers that he is praying to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. God is able and willing to do much more than what believers ask or even think. They can do all according to the power that works in us. God in His power can do anything. In times of distress it comforts believers to know that whatever they might request or imagine, God is able to accomplish it if it is in line with His will for them.
3:21. Paul concludes his prayer that to Him, God, would be given glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. The world will see the glory of God through the Savior, Jesus Christ, as revealed by His chosen instrument, the Church. As His body, all believers everywhere are to serve Him, not through their own strength, but rather through God’s strength and power as He works within each of them as they walk by the power of the Spirit. Believers bring honor and glory to God through Jesus as they live their lives in His mighty power.
This first half of Paul’s powerful letter to the church at Ephesus ends with the word Amen. From this doctrinal treatise in chaps. 1–3, Paul turns to how to apply it in chaps. 4–6.[6]
Paul’s Doxology (3:20, 21)
3:20 The prayer closes with a soul-inspiring doxology. The preceding requests have been vast, bold, and seemingly impossible. But God is able to do more in this connection than we can ask or think. The extent of His ability is seen in the manner in which Paul pyramids words to describe superabundant blessings:
Able
Able to do
Able to do what we ask
Able to do what we think
Able to do what we ask or think
Able to do all that we ask or think
Able to do above all that we ask or think
Able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think
Able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think
The means by which God answers prayer is given in the expression, according to the power that works in us. This refers to the Holy Spirit, who is constantly at work in our lives, seeking to produce the fruit of a Christlike character, rebuking us because of sin, guiding us in prayer, inspiring us in worship, directing us in service. The more we are yielded to Him, the greater will be His effectiveness in conforming us to Christ.
3:21To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. God is the worthy object of eternal praise. His wisdom and power are displayed in the angelic hosts; in sun, moon, and stars; in animals, birds, and fish; in fire, hail, snow, and mist; in wind; in mountains, hills, trees; in kings and people, old men and young; in Israel and the nations. All these are intended to praise the name of the Lord (Ps. 148).
But there is another group from which endless glory will be given to God, that is, the church—Christ the Head and believers, the Body. This redeemed community will be an eternal witness to His matchless, marvelous grace. Williams writes:
The eternal glory of God as God and Father will be made visible throughout all ages in the Church and in Christ Jesus. Amazing statement! Christ and the Church as One Body will be the vehicle of that eternal demonstration.
Even now the church should be giving glory to His name “in the services of praise, in the pure lives of its members, in its world-wide proclamation of the Gospel, and in its ministries to human distress and need” (Erdman).
The duration of this praise is to all generations, forever and ever. As we hear Paul call for eternal praise to God in the church and in Christ Jesus, the response of our hearts is a hearty Amen![7]
The Ascription of Praise (3:20–21)
3:20–21. Paul closed this prayer with a doxology. He praised God who is able to do far more than one could ask or imagine, according to the standard of His power (dynamin; cf. v. 16; 1:19) that is at work (energoumenēn; cf. 1:19) within us. No human or angel (cf. 3:10) would ever think that Jews and Gentiles could function together in one body. But with God’s power of love in each believer’s life, Paul was confident that Jewish and Gentile believers can function and love one another. This is astounding and though it is not naturally possible, God is able to accomplish it. Paul therefore ascribed to God glory which is to be manifest in the church, where the miracle of love will occur, and in Christ Jesus, who made the union of Jewish and Gentile believers possible.
Praise to Him for this accomplishment is to continue throughout eternity (cf. Rom. 11:36; 2 Tim. 4:18). This doxology serves as a fitting conclusion not only to this prayer but also to this book’s first three chapters.[8]
3:20–21. The closing doxology encourages readers and praises God. First, with language reminiscent of 1:19 they are reminded that He has the power to grant such bold requests and more still. Second, glory is given to Him, who alone deserves it (cf. Rm 16:25–27; Rv 4:11).[9]
Paul’s Great Doxology (vv. 20–21)
Supporting Idea: God should receive eternal glory for what he has done for us.
3:20. Paul ends his discussion of the mystery of the church and his prayer for power with a spontaneous burst of praise to God. His prayer forms a great doxology to the Lord for his power and glory. We see three things emerging from this doxology. First, we see the sovereignty of God. God in his sovereignty may choose to do whatever he wills. What he can do far exceeds anything we can dream or imagine, must less ask for. God’s sovereignty means our prayers can be answered far beyond even what we ask.
Second, we see the omnipotence of God. God manifests his great power in many ways. Most obviously, he manifested it when he created the world. He used that kind of power to bring Jews and Gentiles together and form them into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. The power we see in creation and in the church is the power of God that works in us in the love relationship of prayer.
3:21. Finally, we see his glory. The power God has manifested and continues to display has a purpose—bringing glory to him. All that God has done is to resound to his glory forever. God has done things in the church among his people and in Christ Jesus where his people now abide and where God completed his plan of salvation. As we see and recognize God’s work in the church and in Christ, we respond in praise and worship, giving God glory.
Main Idea Review: Members of Christ’s church should mature spiritually and experience the fullness of God.[10]
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:20–2120 Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
3:20“to Him who is able” This begins one of Paul’s marvelous doxologies which closes the doctrinal section of this circular letter. This is a wonderful title for God used three times in the NT (cf. Rom. 16:25; Jude 24).
This is a characteristic Pauline COMPOUND SUPERLATIVE meaning, “exceeding, abundantly more” (cf. 1 Thess. 3:10; 5:13). It is bad grammar, but great theology!
3:21 “be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus” Here is the exalted place of Jesus’ Bride and Body, the Church (cf. 1:23). His blood-bought, Spirit-filled people! The term “church” is from two Greek terms, “out of” and “to call.” It was used in Greco-Roman culture for town meetings (cf. Acts 19:32). In Jewish life this term was used to translate the significant theological concepts of “the assembly of Israel” or qahal (cf. Exod. 12:6; 10:3; Lev. 4:13; Num. 14:5; 20:6; Deut. 5:22; 9:10; 10:4; 18:16). The early believers saw themselves as the true and on-going “People of God” (cf. Gal. 6:16; 1 Pet. 2:5–9; Rev. 1:6).[11]
20, 21. When the apostle surveyed God’s marvelous mercies whereby, through the supreme sacrifice of his beloved Son, he brought those who were at one time children of wrath into his own family, and gave them “the courage of confident access,” the privilege of contemplating in all its glorious dimensions the love of Christ, and the inspiring task of instructing the angels in the mysteries of God’s kaleidoscopic wisdom, his soul, lost in wonder, love, and praise, uttered the following sublime doxology: Now to him who is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever; Amen. It is immediately clear that this doxology is not only a fitting conclusion to the prayer but also a very appropriate expression of gratitude and praise for all the blessings so generously poured out upon the church, as described in the entire preceding contents of this letter. Besides, it is Paul’s way of making known his firm conviction that although in his prayer he has asked much, God is able to grant far more. On this point the apostle, who relished superlatives (see N.T.C. on I and II Timothy and Titus, p. 75), speaks very strongly. Literally he says, “Now to him—that is, to God Triune—who is able to do super-abundantly above all that we ask or imagine (or: think, conceive),” etc. In order to appreciate fully what is implied in these words it should be noted that Paul’s reasoning has taken the following steps: a. God is able to do all we ask him to do; b. he is even able to do all that we dare not ask but merely imagine; c. he can do more than this; d. far more; e. very far more. Moreover, the apostle immediately adds that he is not dealing with abstractions. The omnipotence which God reveals in answering prayer is not a figment of the imagination but is in line with (“according to”) that mighty operation of his power that is already at work “within us.” It called us out of darkness and brought us into the light, changed children of wrath into dearly beloved sons and daughters, brought about reconciliation between God and man, and between Jew and Gentile. It is God’s infinite might which he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead, and which is now operative in our own, parallel, spiritual resurrection.
Therefore to the One who does not need to over-exert himself in order to fulfil our desires but can do it with ease, “be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” In other words, may homage and adoration be rendered to God because of the splendor of his amazing attributes—power (1:19, 2:20), wisdom (3:10), mercy (2:4), love (2:4), grace (2:5–8); etc.—manifested in the church, which is the body, and in Christ Jesus, its exalted head. (On the concept glory see N.T.C. on Philippians, pp. 62, 63, footnote 43.)
The apostle’s ardent desire is that this praise may endure “to all generations.” The word generation, in addition to other meanings, has especially two connotations that should be considered in the present connection: a. the sum-total of contemporaries (Matt. 17:17); and b. the duration of their life on earth; that is, the span of time intervening between the birth of the parents and that of their children. In the present case, as well as in verse 5 above, the latter or chronological sense is indicated, for the phrase “to all generations” is reinforced by “forever and ever.” The latter expression means exactly what it says. It refers to the flow of moments from past to present to future, continuing on and on without ever coming to an end. Rather strangely it has been defined by some as indicating “the opposite of time,” “time without progress,” “timeless existence,” etc. But as far as creatures and their activities are concerned, the Bible nowhere teaches such timeless existence. The popular notion, also found in some commentaries and in religious poetry, namely, that at death—or according to others, at the moment of Christ’s return—believers will enter upon a timeless existence, finds no support in Scripture, not even in Rev. 10:6 when properly interpreted. If in the hereafter believers will acquire one divine “incommunicable” attribute, namely, eternity, why not the others also, for example “omnipresence”? For more on this see the work mentioned on p. 174, footnote 97.
The blessed activity of which believers have a foretaste even now but which in unalloyed and superabundant grandeur will be their portion in the intermediate state, and far more emphatically in the day of the great consummation, an activity with which the apostle is deeply concerned and for which he yearns in prayer, consists, therefore, in this, that forever and ever the members of the Father’s Family ascribe praise and honor to their Maker-Redeemer, whose love, supported by the illimitable power which raised Christ from the dead, will lift their hearts to higher and higher plateaus of inexpressible delight and reverent gratitude. Arrived in glory, their minds unobscured by sin, advance from one pinnacle of spiritual discovery to the next, and then to the next, in an ever ascending series. Their wills, then fully delivered from all the enslaving shackles of willfulness, and invigorated with a constantly growing supply of power, find more and more avenues of rewarding expression. In brief, the salvation in store for God’s children resembles the Healing Waters of Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek. 47:1–5), which, though when one enters them they are ankle-deep, soon become knee-deep, then come up to the loins, and are finally impassable except by swimming. And because of this constant progress in bliss, the answering progress in praise to God also never ceases, for
“When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.”
(John Newton)
When the Holy Spirit inspired the prisoner Paul to write this overpowering doxology, Paul’s heart was moved by that same Spirit to express hearty approval by means of the solemn “Amen.”[12]
Doxology (3:20–21)
The doxology is a fitting end to the section on theology and a poignant beginning to the discussion on ethics. Our neat categories, however, might not have been embraced by Paul. Could it be that he saw chs. 4–6 as outlining ways to worship? That the strength empowering the church in their daily activities was a form of worship? Perhaps specific words of praise are not the only means of worship, but worship might include each act consecrated by the indwelling Christ and the Spirit’s power. Paul sets the tone for obedience—it comes from the church’s new vision of reality—the unsurpassed love and wisdom of God the Trinity. From this place of awe and with the power given through the Spirit, the obedient walk of faith can be a joyful journey of worship.
The doxology highlights themes found throughout Ephesians, including God’s power in creation, in the church, and in Christ. In 3:20 Paul twice uses terms rooted in “power” emphasizing God’s capability to do what Paul has requested. Indeed, Paul recognizes that his requests merely scratch the surface of God’s power to realize his wisdom and will over his creation. This power works in us, the church. The plural used here reflects Paul’s conviction that God chooses to work through his people. God’s glory is to be known and praised in the church and in Christ. God’s glory is reflected in Christ, as the fullness of God dwells in Christ (Col 1:19). And since the church is Christ’s body (1:22–23), it too reflects God’s glory, in a secondary way. Paul’s prayer and doxology share similar themes with Jesus’ prayer in John 17:1–26, including an emphasis on power, glory, knowledge, love, and the important role of the church. Both are permeated with a profound concern for the church. One might say that Eph 3:16–21 is Paul’s high priestly prayer for the church.[13]
Vers. 20, 21. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.—
Grace abounding:—It is necessary that we should emphasize the fact that this describes the Divine disposition; for although men think, perhaps, that it makes but little difference, if God only does what we ask, whether He does it from a direct, voluntary purpose, or whether it is the tendency of the Divine mind previous to our petition, yet it does make a great deal of difference. It makes, perhaps, but little difference to me whether a river is supplying Brooklyn with water, or whether it is supplied by a reservoir; but it does make a difference in respect to abundance and continuity. There is that old iron slave, the steam-engine—the only slave that you have a right to keep in bondage—and night and day it stands lifting, and lifting, and lifting the vast supplies of water, and pouring them over into the Ridgewood reservoir. I know that there will be enough; but when you are talking about endlessness, copiousness, what is this compared with that which I see every day under my chamber window, where the whole ocean sweeps in and out, and, night and day, without pump, or steam, or any like mechanical force, is always there, as it was before there was a man on these shores, and as it will be after the last man shall have died in future ages? The copiousness, the abundance of the ever-flowing ocean, may fitly represent the abundance of the Divine thought, and mercy, and goodness; where most men think of God as one from whom favours are obtained, if at all, by what may almost be called the pleading of prayer; by the bringing to bear upon Him influences which at last persuade Him to grant the things asked for, so that when the persuasion stops, the supply stops. Many seem to think that prayer is but an engine that lifts—abundantly lifts, it may be—blessings upon the heads of those that employ it; but that if the engine stops for a moment, the reservoir will run dry. No! it is the eternal disposition of God to be full of love, and mercy, and kindness, and He inspires in you those impulses which lead you to go and ask Him for those things which you need. Now this quality of the Divine disposition is shadowed forth in God’s natural government. When I look into nature, I see—what? Not sticks, stones, flowers, trees—I see Him that made them. I see things that were created by Christ Jesus. When I look upon the heavens of the natural world, I behold Him who made the natural world. If I see frugality, narrowness of compass, want of variety, I am not mistaken as to the disposition of the Creator; but if, on the other hand, I find abundance, superabundance, endless change, and endless variety, I cannot be mistaken as to their meaning. In the revelations of nature, then, we see God’s disposition. We see His housekeeping. These are His gardens; these are His fields; this is His colouring—His frescoing; these are His seasons; and I can, from these elements in nature, infer His disposition, as much as I can infer a man’s disposition from those things which go to make up His housekeeping. What is their language? Do they not corroborate the declaration of our text? Is He not a God that does exceeding abundantly beyond what we ask or think? Variety is another term for abundance. From the infinite variety that abounds throughout nature, one would think that God never wanted to have two things to be alike. An endless diversity, that tends to endless unity, is the characteristic of creation. Abundance by continuity and succession is another of these hints; for everything which takes place in nature occurs in such a way as constantly to link it with something that is to come. There is a tendency in nature to reproduce and continue, so that there shall not only be great variety and great abundance at any one time, but greater variety and greater abundance in time to come. Abundance by increase affords an illustration of the Divine nature. Men say, “We get just according to what we do.” They suppose that the effect which we gain from natural laws is measured by the cause which we employ. It is not true. I plant a single kernel of Indian corn, and I gain from that kernel a stalk with two or three ears, and not less than a hundred kernels on each ear. I plant one kernel and get three hundred. Is there any proportion between what I do and what I get? The seedsman goes forth, sowing not one seed, but many seeds. He, taking them, and scarcely knowing their nature, gives them to the furrow, and they germinate, and the earth nurses them in its bosom, and persuades them to come forth, and the wind searches for them, and the dews and rains hunt them, and all warming and stimulating influences begin to play upon them, and they give back not according to what the sower gave to the earth, not according to the power which he has exerted upon them, but according to that nature which God has infused into the material creation; and therefore they give abundantly beyond what the sower did, and beyond what he had reason to expect before he had experience of God’s bounty. On my summer nook stands a venerable apple tree, probably a hundred and fifty years old. It has now lost much of its hair. It is dead and bald at the top. I let it stand because it is a sentinel of ages. It has buried generation upon generation. It heard the old revolutionary cannon; balls fell not far from its foot. For probably a hundred years it has borne its annual crop of apples, and a great abundance of them. There was a time when a boy eating an apple, took from his mouth a seed, and snapped it, and it fell into the grass, and the rain worked it into the soil, and the soil coaxed it to grow. That little seed of an apple, not so large as your finger-nail, struck down its root, and lifted up its trunk, which has stood the greater part of two centuries, and produced a thousand bushels of fruit and myriads of seeds. Now, is God’s nature indicated by this? Yes, because the way God makes the natural world act indicates how He thinks. It indicates what His thoughts and tendencies are, and these mark His disposition. Would that we had a more frequent sense of God’s bounty! No man can look upon what he brings to the work, and what the work becomes in his hand, without being humbled in view of his own weakness, nor I trust, also, without being filled with admiration and reverence for that loving Heart that does exceeding abundantly more than we ask or think. If these views and experiences are correct, there is every encouragement for men to ask in prayer for what they need. Now how have you been dealing with this God who has dealt with you on this pattern of doing exceeding abundantly more than you asked or thought? You have treated Him on the assumption that He was penurious, and willing to give only on terms that were strict and severe. Many men seem to shrink from prayer as though it were a matter of doubt whether they could pray. God, then, does not limit Himself by the desert of those to whom He gives mercies, but takes His patterns from the largeness and generosity of His own nature. He pleases Himself by giving. (H. W. Beecher.)
Measureless power and endless glory:—The form of the text marks the confidence of St. Paul’s prayer. The exuberant fervour of his faith, as well as his natural impetuosity and ardour, comes out in the heaped-up words expressive of immensity and duration. He is like some archer watching, with parted lips, the flight of his arrow to the mark. He is gazing on God, confident that he has not asked in vain. Let us look with him, that we, too, may be heartened to expect great things of God.
I. The measure of the power to which we trust. Now there are three main forms under which this standard, or measure, of the Redeeming Power is set forth in this Epistle, and it will help us to grasp the greatness of the apostle’s thought if we consider these. Take, then, first, that clause in the earlier portion of the preceding prayer, “that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory.” The measure then, of the gift that we may hope to receive is the measure of God’s own fulness. The “riches of His glory” can be nothing less than the whole uncounted abundance of that majestic and far-shining nature, as it pours itself forth in the dazzling perfectnesses of its own self-manifestation. And nothing less than this great treasure is to be the limit and standard of His gift to us. But another form in which the standard, or measure, is stated in this letter is: “The working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead” (Eph. 1:19, 20); or, as it is put with a modification, “grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Eph. 4:7). That is to say, we have not only the whole riches of the Divine glory as the measure to which we may lift our hopes, but lest that celestial brightness should seem too high above us, and too far from us, we have Christ in His Human-Divine manifestation, and especially in the great fact of the resurrection, set before us, that by Him we may learn what God wills we should become. In Him we see what man may become, and what His followers must become. The limits of that power will not be reached until every Christian soul is perfectly assimilated to that likeness, and bears all its beauty in his face, nor till every Christian soul is raised to participation in Christ’s dignity and sits on His throne. But there is a third form in which this same standard is represented. That is the form which is found in our text, and in other places of the Epistle—“According to the power that worketh in us.” What power is that but the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in us? And thus we have the measure, or standard, set forth in terms respectively applying to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. For the first, the riches of His glory; for the second, His resurrection and ascension; for the third, His energy working in Christian souls. The first carries us up into the mysteries of God, where the air is almost too subtle for our gross lungs; the second draws nearer to earth and points us to an historical fact that happened in this every-day world; the third comes still nearer to us, and bids us look within, and see whether what we are conscious of there, if we interpret it by the light of these other measures, will not yield results as great as theirs, and open before us the same fair prospect of perfect holiness and conformity to the Divine nature.
II. The relation of the Divine working to our thoughts and desires. The apostle, in his fervid way, strains language to express how far the possibility of the Divine working extends. He is able, not only to do all things, but “beyond all things”—a vehement way of putting the boundless reach of that gracious power. And what he means by this “beyond all things” is more fully expressed in the next words, in which he labours by accumulating synonyms to convey his sense of the transcendent energy which waits to bless: “exceeding abundantly above what we ask.” And as, alas! our desires are but shrunken and narrow beside our thoughts, he sweeps a wider orbit when he adds, “above what we think.” He has been asking wonderful things, and yet even his farthest-reaching petitions fall far on this side of the greatness of God’s power. One might think that even it could go no further than filling us “with all the fulness of God.” Nor can it; but it may far transcend our conceptions of what that is, and astonish us by its surpassing our thoughts, no less than it shames us by exceeding our prayers. Of course, all this is true, and is meant to apply, only about the inward gifts of God’s grace. That grace is like the figures in the Eastern tales, that will creep into a narrow room no bigger than a nutshell, or will tower heaven high. Our spirits are like the magic tent whose walls expanded or contracted at the owner’s wish—we may enlarge them to enclose far more of the grace than we have ever possessed. We are not straitened in God, but in ourselves. “According to thy faith,” is a real measure of the gift received, even though. “according to the riches of His glory” be the measure of the gift bestowed. Note again.
III. The glory that springs from the Divine work. “The glory of God” is the lustre of His own perfect character, the bright sum total of all the blended brilliancies that compose His name. When that light is welcomed and adored by men, they are said to “give glory to God” and this doxology is at once a prophecy that the working of God’s power on His redeemed children will issue in setting forth the radiance of His name yet more, and a prayer that it may. So we have here the great thought expressed in many places of Scripture, that the highest exhibition of the Divine character for the reverence and love—of the whole universe, shall we say?—lies in His work on Christian souls, and the effect produced thereby on them. Amid all the majesty of His works and all the blaze of His creation, this is what He presents as the highest specimen of His power—the Church of Jesus Christ, the company of poor men, wearied and conscious of many evils, who follow afar off the footsteps of their Lord. How dusty and toil-worn the little group of Christians that landed at Puteoli must have looked as they toiled along the Appian Way and entered Rome! How contemptuously emperor and philosopher and priest and patrician would have curled their lips, if they had been told that in that little knot of Jewish prisoners lay a power before which theirs would cower and finally fade! Even so is it still. Among all the splendour of this great universe, and the mere obtrusive tawdrinesses of earth, men look upon us Christians as poor enough; and yet it is to His redeemed children that God has entrusted His praise, and in their hands He has lodged the sacred deposit of His own glory. Think loftily of that office and honour, lowly of yourselves who have it laid upon you as a crown. His honour is in our hands. We are the “secretaries of His praise.”
IV. The eternity of the work and of the praise. As in the former clauses, the idea of the transcendent greatness of the power of God was expressed by accumulated synonyms, so here the kindred thought of its eternity, and consequently of the ceaseless duration of the resulting glory, is sought to be set forth by a similar aggregation. The language creaks and labours, as it were, under the weight of the great conception. Literally rendered, the words are—“to all generations of the age of the ages”—a remarkable fusing together of two expressions for unbounded duration, which are scarcely congruous. We can understand “to all generations” as expressive of duration as long as birth and death shall last. We can understand “the age of the ages” as pointing to that endless epoch whose moments are “ages”; but the blending of the two is but an unconscious acknowledgment that the speech of earth, saturated, as it is, with the colouring of time, breaks down in the attempt to express the thought of eternity. Undoubtedly that solemn conception is the one intended by this strange phrase. The work is to go on for ever and ever, and with it the praise. As the ages which are the beats of the pendulum of eternity come and go, more and more of God’s power will flow out to us, and more and more of God’s glory will be manifested in us. It must be so. For God’s gift is infinite, and man’s capacity of reception is indefinitely capable of increase. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
God’s ability:—The apostle does not give this text as a detached sentence. It is the culmination of a statement; it is something that comes after a serious, anxious effort which he himself has made; and we must look into the preliminary statement if we would know how Paul was dazzled, overwhelmed, made speechless by the infinite capacity of God to transcend all mortal prayer and all finite imagination. The apostle has been uttering a prayer which reads thus:—“That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man—able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith—able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask: That ye being rooted and grounded in love—Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask: May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge—Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask: That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God—Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask.” Reading the prayer in this manner, using the text as a kind of refrain to each petition, and each petition itself seeming to exhaust the very mercy and love of God, we get some notion of the apostle’s conception of God’s infinite wealth, infinite grace, and infinite willingness to give. Understand, then, that in coming to God and availing ourselves of the doctrine of this text, it is incumbent upon us that we should specify what we want from God. Suppose that a number of petitioners should go to the legislature with a petition worded thus: “We humbly pray your honourable house to do everything for the nation, to take infinite care of it, to let the affairs of the nation tax your attention day and night, and lavish all your resources upon the people.” Suppose that a petition like that should be handed into the House of Commons, what would be the fate of it? It would be laughed down, and the only reason, the only good reason, why the petitioners should not be confined to Bedlam would be, lest their insanity should alarm the inmates. That is not a petition. It is void by generality; by referring to all it misses everything. You must specify what you want when you go to the legislature. You must state your case with clearness of definition, and with somewhat of argument. If it be so in our social, political prayers, shall we go to Almighty God with a vagueness which means nothing, with a generality which makes no special demand upon his heart. Read the text in the light of the gospel, and you will see the fulness of its glory, so far as it can be seen by mortal vision. Ask anything of God and I am prepared to quote these words of the text in reply. What will you ask? Let us in the first instance ask what we all want—whatever may be our condition, age, circumstances. Let us ask for pardon. Is your prayer, God forgive my sins? Now you may apply the apostle’s words: “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask.” You cannot conceive God’s notion of pardon. You have an idea of what you mean by forgiveness; but when you have exhausted your own notion of the term forgiveness, you have not shown the Divine intent concerning the soul that is to be forgiven. When God forgives, He does not merely pardon, barely pardon—He does not by some great straining effort of His love, just come within reach of the suppliant, and lay upon his heart the blessing which is besought. He pardons with pardons. He multiplies to pardon! What will you ask for now? Ask for sanctification. Is your prayer, Sanctify me body, soul, and spirit? Then I am ready once more to quote you the apostle’s text: “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Now this ought to stimulate us in all saintly progress, to inspire us in the study of Divine truth, to recover our jaded energies, and tempt, lure, and draw us by the mighty compulsion of inexhaustible reward. This is the peculiar glory of Christian study—that it does not exhaust the student. His weakness becomes his strength. At sunset he is stronger than at sunrise; because Christian study does not tax any one power of the mind unduly. It trains the whole being, the imagination, the fancy, the will, the emotion; lifts up the whole nature equally, with all the equability of complete power—not by snatches and spasms of strength, but with the sufficiency, breadth, and compass of power which sustains the balance always. This ought to rebuke those of us who imagine we have finished our Christian education. I believe there are some persons in the world who are under the impression that they have finished God’s Book. They say they have “read it through.” There is a poor sense in which it may be read through; but there is a deeper, truer sense in which we can never get through the Book of God. It is an inexhaustible study—new every day, like morning light. You have seen splendour before, but until this morning you never saw this light. So it is with this great wonderful Book of God in the study of it. God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Here then is a stimulus, a spur to progress, a call to deeper study. We think we have attained truth. We have not attained all that is meant by the word truth. No man who knows himself and who knows God will say that he has been led into all the chambers of God’s great palace of truth. This is the sign of progress; this is the charter of the profoundest humility. The more we know the less we know. We see certain points of light here and there, but the great unexplored regions of truth stretch mile on mile beyond all our power to traverse the wondrous plain. How is it with us to-day then? Are we fagged men, exhausted students? Do we sit down under the impression that there is nothing more to be known? If we have that idea let us seek to recover our strength and to recover our inspiration by the word—He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. There are attainments we have not made, depths we have not sounded, and heights, oh, heights! We can but look up and wonder, expect, adore. If this be so, we ought to look calmly, with a feeling of chastened triumph, upon all hindrances, difficulties, and obstacles in the way of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth. We may look at these in relation to our own puny strength, and quail before them. But, we are not to depend upon our own resources, but upon God’s, in attempting the removal of everything that would intercept the progress of His holy kingdom in the world. There is a great mountain: I cannot beat it down, all the instruments I can bring to bear upon it seem utterly powerless. But God touches the mountains and they smoke. The Alps, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, and great Himalayas, shall go up like incense before Him, and His kingdom shall have smooth uninterrupted way. I say, in my hours of weakness, yonder is a stone which I cannot remove. If I could get clear of that obstacle all would be right; but the stone is heavy, the stone is sealed, the stone is watched. What can I do? I go up the hill wearily, almost hopelessly, and behold! the stone is rolled away, and on the obstacle there sits the angel of God. Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think! It may be difficult for some minds to follow the argument out spiritually; we must therefore descend to illustration. Here is a very clever artist, who has made a beautiful thing he brings before us, and we gather round it and say, “It is most exquisitely done. What is this, sir?” “That,” replies the artist, “is my notion of a flower, and I am going to call that flower a rose.” “Well, it is a beautiful thing—very graceful, and altogether beautifully executed: you are very clever.” So he is, and now that exhausts his notion of the rose. But let God just hand in a full-blown rose from the commonest garden in the world, and where is your waxen beauty? Underneath every leaf is written, “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Let Him just send the sweet spring morning in upon us with the first violet, and all your artificial florists, if they have one spark of wit left, will pick up their goods and go off as soon as possible. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. The meanest insect that flutters in the warm sunlight is a grander thing than the finest marble statue ever chiselled by the proudest sculptor. Now we are going to have a very festive day. We are going to pluck flowers and fashion them into arches, and we shall make our arches very high, very beautiful—and, so far as the flowers go, they are most gorgeously and exquisitely beautiful. We have put up the wires; we have festooned these wires, and we say, “Now, is not that very beautifully done?” and of course, we who always drink the toast “our noble selves,” say yes. But God has only to take a few rain-drops and strike through them the sunlight, and where are your paste-board arches and your skilful working! He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. My fellow students, in this holy mystery, believe me, as in nature, so in the higher kingdom of grace. As in matter He beats all your sculptors, and is in all schools infinitely superior to men, so in the revelation of truth to the heart, in the way of redeeming man from sin, in the way of sanctifying fallen corrupt human nature—all your theorists and speculators, all your plaster dealers and social reformers and philanthropic regenerators, must get out of the way as artificial florists when God comes to us with the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. Then let us leave all inferior teachers and go straight to the Master Himself. We have to deal with sin, and the only answer to sin, which answer is comprehended in one word, is the Cross. God’s foolishness is better than our wisdom. God’s weakness is infinitely superior to our strength. “He everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” (J. Parker, D.D.)
Abundant answer to prayer:—Miss Hopkins, in her story of Miss Robinson’s work among our soldiers at Portsmouth, relates that when the “Institute” was first projected Miss Robinson one day went to her, almost in despair at the hopeless aspect of affairs. Opposition to the scheme was strong, and funds were sorely needed. The look-out was dark enough, but the eye of faith pierced the gloom. “We knelt down,” says Miss Hopkins, “and prayed that, if it was His will, He would give us the means to stay this flood of iniquity that was sweeping away His work in the army, and enable us to do the right thing. I fear our faith was not strong enough,” she continues, “to ask for more than a few hundreds, but still it was the prayer of faith. The answer to that prayer was £15,000.”
Divine ability for human necessity:—In this remarkable verse we have a wonderful instance of St. Paul’s cumulative way of speaking. Whenever I get fairly into one of St. Paul’s Epistles, I always feel as though the man is in bonds. Language is too poor a medium for him. He cannot get out all that is in for the dear life of him, eloquent though he was. If you had asked him about it, he would have said, “Language is bankrupt. It will not meet the case.” I remember once, in the north of England, hearing a very celebrated, and eloquent, and powerful Welsh preacher, who was wonderfully fluent in the English tongue, too, but he was preaching to a full congregation of English people, and his soul was in his message. It flashed in his eye, it fired his Celtic tongue, and he was so thoroughly elevated and raised by the nobility of his theme, and the thoughts within him burned and breathed at such a rate, that Saxon would not do, and he paused a moment and said, “Oh, if you only understood Welsh!” Then he would have been able, in his more familiar tongue, to climb somewhat higher to the point he aimed at. I think that it is just like that with St. Paul. He beggars language, and then he says: “It is not enough.” Now look at it. There is that passage in which he compares the light afflictions of the present with the glory of the future. Do you see how he piles it up? He says, “A far more exceeding weight of glory.” And if you analyse this verse, it will take you a long time to read it. Let us try; it is worth it. “God is able.” Thank God for that. “God is able.” “God is able to do.” Plenty of gods who can boast. “God is able to do.” “God is able to do abundantly.” “God is able to do exceeding abundantly.” “God is able to do exceeding abundantly all.” “God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all.” “God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask.” “God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.” Here I think he flung his pen down and said, “It is no use.” It could not be. He climbed up the ladder to the very highest rung that words could take him; and then he got on a higher ladder, and climbed up as far as thoughts could take him; and then he wanted Jacob’s ladder to reach to the throne of God in order to tell us what God will do to any man who says in his heart, “Be my God.” The way in which Paul moves upward in his passion, struck me once when I was in Wales. I was moving up a high and rocky slope. First of all it led me through a meadow. After the meadow there was an upward pathway through a wood. Up a little higher and I caught a gleam of the river beyond. Higher still I saw the shaggy rocks, and tall hills behind; higher still and I saw the golden cornfields at their feet. And still higher went I, until right away yonder on the horizon I saw the black-capped mountains higher than them all. And still I had to rise, and rising at last I stood upon the summit, and said, as I looked around, “This is perfection.” But it was not; for on turning in one direction I perceived a sight I had not caught before. What do you think it was? It was a glimpse of the infinite sea stretching away beyond all ken, to meet the infinite sky. St. Paul gets up to that height, and then he wants a pair of wings to fly with. (J. J. Wray.)
An Omnipotent Helper:—Let us note some of the applications of the truth here taught of God’s Almightiness to help. I am in the grasp of some great temptation. I long to break away. I have tried; but I am impotent. The case seems hopeless. Like a spent, exhausted swimmer, I am about to give over, and to sink helpless beneath the dark waves. But what is that I hear above the noise of the waves? “Call on Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that thou canst ask or think; call on Him.” He is mightier than sin, stronger than the strongest temptation. Satan is bold. He has great courage. His victories are countless. “But Satan trembles, when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.” I once walked the deck of an ocean steamer with a man who related to me the sad story of his life. There had been a time when he thought he was converted, and was united to a Christian Church. For years he thought he knew the peace and joy of a justifying faith. But he had yielded to passion, and now thought his case utterly hopeless. I spoke to him of reform, recovery. “Impossible,” he said. “You know nothing,” he added, “of the terrible might of a reigning passion. Resolution and effort are useless. I am lost.” Such were his declarations, as we paced the deck beneath the midnight stars. And it was then that, admitting all that he said, I rejoiced to point him to One who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that he could ask or think, an Omnipotent Helper. Reader, I know not what there may be that is peculiar and disheartening in your case, but I do knew you are not beyond the help of the Infinite Helper. All you can ask, or even think, and more too, He is able to do. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” (W. Lamson, D.D.)
Abundance:—The grace of God is marked by the affluence which characterizes all His works. What abundance in that sun which has shone so many thousand years, and yet presents no appearance of exhaustion, no sign of decay! What abundance of stars bespangle the sky; of leaves clothe the forest; of raindrops fall in the shower; of dews sparkle on the grass; of snow-flakes within the winter hills; of flowers adorn the meadow; of living creatures that, walking on the ground, or playing in the waters, or burrowing in the soil, or dancing in the sunbeams, or flying in the air, find a home in every element—but that red fire in which, type of hell, all beauty perishes and all life expires! This lavish profusion of life, and forms, and beauty, in nature, is an emblem of the affluence of grace, of God’s saving, sanctifying grace. In Christ all fulness dwells. We are complete in Him. There is in His blood sufficient virtue to discharge all the sins of a guilty world, and in His Spirit sufficient power to cleanse the foulest and break the hardest heart. Ye are not straitened in Me, says God, but in yourselves. Try Me herewith, He says—ask, seek, knock! Who does will find that it is only a faint image of the plenitude of grace we behold in that palace-scene where the king, looking kindly on a lovely suppliant, bends from his throne to extend his golden sceptre, and says, “What is thy petition, and what is thy request, Queen Esther, and it shall be given thee to the half of my kingdom?” (T. Guthrie, D.D.)
Men do not avail themselves of the riches of God’s grace:—They love to nurse their cares, and seem as uneasy without some fret, as an old friar would be without his hair girdle. They are commanded to cast their cares upon the Lord; but, even when they attempt it, they do not fail to catch them up again, and think it meritorious to walk burdened. They take God’s ticket to heaven, and then put their baggage on their shoulders, and tramp, tramp, the whole way there afoot. (H. W. Beecher.)
Distrusting God’s sufficiency:—A man says to his agent, “I want you to go on a business tour for me. First go to Buffalo. Here is the money, and here are the directions that yea will need while there. Thence go to Cleveland, and there you will find remittances and further directions. When you get to Cincinnati you will find other remittances and other directions. At St. Louis you will find others; and at New Orleans still others.” “But,” says the agent, “suppose when I get to Cleveland, or any of the other places, I should not find anything?” He is so afraid that he will not, that he asks the man to give him money and directions for the whole tour before he starts. “No,” says the man, “it will be sufficient if you have the money and directions you need for each place when you get to it: and when you do get to it you will find them there.” Now, God sends us in the same way. He says, “Here is your duty for to-day, and the means with which to do it. To-morrow you will find remittances and further directions; next week you will find other remittances and other directions; next month you will find others; and next year still others. I will be with you at all times, and will see that you have strength for every emergency.” (Ibid.)
Unmeasured bounty:—Exceeding poverty of thought is one of the characteristics of fallen man. When the poison of sin began to work, it introduced this poverty—those poor low thoughts about God, which made man think that his Maker was jealous of his knowing too much. And ever since, has this pauperizing influence kept working—always narrowing, always lowering, ever tending to what is mean and small. And with our poverty of mind has come poverty of action. Small thoughts produce small deeds: we do not run in the way of God’s commandments, until He has enlarged our hearts. How merciful, then; it is of God to deal with us in the power of His own thoughts, and not ours. God is very merciful and long-suffering in doing this; for he might have said “According to their thoughts so be it unto them.” And what could we have said, if this had been His method of acting? We might have sorely felt our loss, as there was revealed to us that to which we might have attained; but we must have acknowledged that we had been dealt liberally with, nevertheless. He might have said, “As they expected but little from Me, they shall get but little—they shall get up to file full measure of their own poor mean thoughts, but nothing more”; and that would leave us very poor indeed. The teaching is this. Leave all of eternity to the thought of God; do so as a child; do not perplex yourself with your thinkings, you will soon come to things too deep for you; let it be enough for you that you shall enjoy the fruit of His thought. You will begin to reap the fruit thereof the moment you close your eyes on earth; you will find yourself encompassed with it; like the new-born babe you will find yourself provided for in every particular; and wherever you go, whatever you are, throughout eternity, you will always find yourself surrounded by the thoughts of God. No doubt we could think of many things which would, if we were sure that matters would be so arranged, calm and assure us much as regards the other life. Whatever these thoughts are, we may be certain we shall have what is better than the best of them—God will have thought kinder, tenderer, nobler things by far. In all things concerning eternity, I wish to repose myself upon the fact that “God has thought.” Further: this little sentence says, “Never be afraid of thinking a great thought of God; for if it be one worthy of Him in kind, He will be sure to be far greater than it, in degree. Let your mind go out in a great thought of God. Do not cramp yourselves by the limitations with which you are so familiar in practical life; your mind is dealing with One to whom mere earthly rules and reasonings do not apply.
Never be afraid of expecting a great thing from God:—We have no desire for any real good, but that it is overtopped by His desire that we should have good; we have no imagination of a good, but lo! it has been surpassed by a previous thought of His, out of which He has prepared a greater good. With the world the rule is, “not up to what we can think”; with God it is “above what we can think.” The water-pots which are to hold our wine He wills to be filled up to the brim; the feast which He spreads is to have baskets of fragments which remain. And as coming after the idea, “above what we can ask,” these two words are very useful. Our want of faith makes us afraid to ask; this little sentence takes the most effectual way of lifting us above our fears; for it says, “You cannot think, how much less ask too much.” The region of thought must, here at least, always be vaster far than that of fact; God says, “you could not exhaust that great field, then how can you the little one; therefore, ask largely, leaving me to act out of resources beyond your thought—resources unseen.” (P. B. Power, M.A.)
The inworking power:—“According to the power that worketh in you.” What does this mean? St. Paul is speaking here of the conditions upon which the Divine ability will be exerted for us. The dew and the rain will refresh the plant and the flowers according as they open their hungry pores to take them in. You cannot get much verdure—you cannot get much green life and beauty off a rock, however heavily the dew falls upon it. No; it is the open pores that take it in. Never forget that God’s blessings are bestowed according to the desires and the askings of our heart. The flow and volume of the river are according to the height at which the hills and mountains draw to themselves the wealthy clouds; and the good gifts of God are poured out according as the soul lifts up its thoughts and wishes to the skies. The produce of the farm is according to the diligence of the farmer and the generous character of the soil. You have got soil the most generous in the world. All you want is the farmer’s intelligence, and the power that worketh in you. Then comes the “able to do abundantly above all you think.” If the miller lift the sluice so as to turn aside the water, his mill is silent; the stones are idle. No flour in his meal bag, no coin in his purse—however full the millstream is. And if you and I are so guilty before God as by our indifference to turn aside the rivers of possibility and privilege and help that He pours out, then there will be no reward for us. (J. J. Wray.)
God’s grace inexhaustible:—As the scattered rays of light are all included in the focus, as the fountain contains the streams, as the object reflected is prior to and nobler than the different reflections of it—so all finite and created good is contained in Him who is the supreme good; all earthly excellence is but the partial emanation, the more or less bright reflection of the Great Original. To have a portion, therefore, in God, is to possess that which includes in itself all created good. The man who is in possession of some great masterpiece in painting or sculpture, need not envy others who have only casts or copies of it. The original plate or stereotype is more valuable than any impressions or engravings thrown off from it; and he who owns the former owns that which includes, is capable of producing all the latter … Surveying the wonders of creation, or even with the word of inspiration in his hand, the Christian can say, “Glorious though these things be, to me belongs that which is more glorious far. The streams are precious, but I have the Fountain; the vesture is beautiful, but the Weaver is mine; the portrait in its every lineament is lovely, but that Great Original, whose beauty it but feebly depicts, is mine, my own. God is my portion, the Lord is mine inheritance. To me belongs all actual and all possible good, all created and uncreated beauty, all that eye hath seen or imagination conceived; and more than that, for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love Him. All things and beings, all that life reveals or death conceals, everything within the boundless possibilities of creating wisdom and power is mine; for God, the Creator and Fountain of all, is mine.” (J. Caird, D.D.)
Christ more than satisfies:—But you will tell me that man’s wishes are very large, and that it is hard to satisfy them. Ah! my brethren, I know it is—with anything here below. You may have heard, I dare say, of the gentleman who told his servant—“You have been a very faithful servant to me, John, and as you are getting old, I should like to give you a pension. Now, what do you think would satisfy you?” “Well, master,” said he, “I think if I had fifty pounds a-year I should be very well satisfied indeed.” “Well, think it over,” said the master, “and come to me and let me know.” So the day comes. “Now, what do you want to satisfy you?” “Well, sir, as I said before, I should never want for anything, or wish for anything in this world, if I had fifty pounds a-year.” “Well, John, it shall be done; there is the settlement for you: you shall have it.” That man went out of the door, and said to a friend, “I wish I had said a hundred.” So, you see, it is not easy to satisfy man. When he thinks he is satisfied, he still sees something beyond, the horse leech in his heart still cries, “Give, give.” But God is a satisfying portion. You cannot wish for anything more than this. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Unknown riches of grace:—There are shores paved with shells which no human foot has trod; there are fields carpeted with flowers which human eyes have never seen; there are seas inlaid with pearls which human research has never found out; so there are things in the great mind of God itself, and in the Scriptures, which lie concealed from the most powerful mental efforts of human intellect. (T. Guthrie, D.D.)
The work of the Spirit:—
I. What this work is. It is the direct acting of God the Holy Ghost, the third Divine Person in the adorable Trinity, as a Person, upon our spirit. It is, farther, His working in us to restore perfectly that image of God in our soul which the fall of man into sin has so grievously blurred, and which in all those who have fallen into wilful sin has been by their own act still more obliterated. On the one side, then, it is, so far as regards the agent, supernatural. It is the working in us, and on us, of the creative Spirit. It is the power of another within us: and that other the eternal God; the self-existent Being; to whose gracious will we owe our existence; by whose perpetual power encompassing and upholding us we continue to be; “in whom we live, and move, and have our being”; of Him whose all-pervading power upholds the universe, whose presence and whose will rolls the countless worlds which people universal space along their pathless way. He is working within us; working upon our souls by the one, indivisible, Almighty power of Godhead. Now though, on the one side, that into which we are inquiring is thus truly a power far above any natural to man, even the energy of the Divine power working within us; yet, on another side, it is most really a work in which we have a share; it is, as I have said, a work in us, as well as on us; it is a work in the will of a being with a will—in the affections, heart, desire, and reason of one who can pervert that reason so that it cannot be wrought on, or can yield it up to this power; can harden the heart, can freeze up the affections, can poison the desires, can stiffen the will, against the operation even of Him who is Almighty. But again: not only may we discover that this work is thus on the one hand wrought upon us supernaturally, whilst on the other it advances through the action of our natural powers, and with our conscious co-operation; but further, we may trace the part of us on which it operates. It is “in the spirit of our minds” that we are to be “renewed”; it is “in the inner man” that we are to be “strengthened with might by His Spirit.”
II. But further still: we may trace in many particulars the law of this Divine work, as it advances in those who yield themselves to its blessed processes for their renovation. For it has about it special characteristics of its own, on which we shall do well to meditate. 1. It is a real work. It is not the mere calling up out of the depths of our nature certain passing impulses or actions, but it is so truly a new modification of its very constitution that there are cast forth new emanations of desire and action, which show that the very fountain of spiritual being from which they arise has undergone a change. There is first a desire to act in all things with an eye to God. Next, there is the practice of offering up to Him each day as it passes by; and with this a crying of the soul to Him against its remaining selfishness, earnest supplications for a clearer eye, truer affections, and a simpler purpose. And all of these mark on the soul which He is training this first great character of His working, that a real change is passing on it; a change of the nature itself in true harmony with the laws of its own constitution, and yet a change which could not have sprung from itself, and so which proves that the power of One above itself is working on it by His own might. 2. But again, it is another characteristic of this work that in each one in whom it is wrought it is an increasing work. No mark is set down oftener than this in Holy Scripture. It is a growth: “Grow in grace.” It “increaseth with the increase of God.” And in nothing is the distinction between this heavenly work and any lower change more clearly shown than in this, that whereas the vigour of all inferior powers is soon exhausted, this tends ever to perfection. 3. Further, this is a gradual work. The very word “growth” implies so much. That which increases by the putting forth of an inner life is always distinguished by this feature from that which is enlarged by occasional and external increment: and this is eminently true of the work of God’s grace in the soul. The conflict of the spirit with the flesh is inevitable, and so the progress of the final victory is of necessity gradual. 4. This may lead us to another mark of this great work. Marvellous as it is in its results, it is in its progress most secret. Here, too, it is as in nature so in grace. All growth is secret, so secret that eye of man never saw the separate parts of that mighty mystery of growth which every succeeding spring-time repeats so profusely around him. The grass, the green herb, the tree, each leaf, each blade, each bough, each flower, in gradual living growth most secretly accomplishes around us its own law of increase. We see the result as we mark each developed part, and gaze upon the rich beauty which, unseen by us, though close beneath our sight, has painted the glowing flowers with all the lights of heaven. But we saw not the process. This is that “path” of God’s secret doings “which the vulture’s eye hath not seen.” And so most truly is it with that “kingdom of heaven” within the renewing soul which is “like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.” That marvellous life which the Spirit is quickening in the soul which He renews, which “is hid with Christ in God,” is secret as is the quickening of the living flesh in the dark chambers of the womb, or as the growth of those members “which day by day were fashioned when as yet there was none of them.” 5. But there is yet another mark of this work, where it is truly accomplished, which we shall do well to note. Though gradual and secret, it is also universal. Herein again it differs palpably from all merely human operations. For every reform of the moral character which is accomplished by secondary powers is more or less partial. There is no object short of God which can duly draw forth all the capacities which He has implanted in man’s nature, and there is no power less than that of God which can duly accomplish that development. There is, moreover, about this universal progress one essential character of all true life. The change which proceeds from an inward principle, essentially one and indivisible, is yet multiform in its external manifestation. The same one inward power of life casts itself equably forth in the growth of every several limb, and every other adjunct of the body; the growing tree at the same moment expands in its stem and thickens in its branches, and multiplies its leaves and adorns itself with flowers: and “the fruit of the” living “Spirit,” in like manner, “is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” And from this it follows, that whilst each character is growing in all graces, yet every separate character, as it has its own law of perfection, grows and ripens according to its separate kind. And hence the beauty of the army of the saints of Christ: they are uniform in the midst of their diversity, and multiform in their unbroken unity. (Bishop Samuel Wilberforce.)
Latent power:—It is impossible to over-estimate, or rather to estimate, the power that lies latent in the Church. We talk of the power that was latent in steam—latent till Watt evoked its spirit from the waters, and set the giant to turn the iron arms of machinery. We talk of the power that was latent in the skies, till science climbed their heights, and, seizing the spirit of the thunder, chained it to our surface, abolishing distance, outstripping the wings of time, and flashing our thoughts across rolling seas to distant continents. Yet what are these to the moral power that lies asleep in the congregations of our country, and of the Christian world. (T. Guthrie, D.D.)
Ver. 21. Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.—
God’s all-sufficiency and glory:—
I. Consider the acknowledgment, which the apostle makes, of God’s all-sufficiency. God’s ability intends not merely His power, but all those perfections which render Him a suitable object of our faith in prayer. It imports an exact knowledge of what our wants are, a ready disposition to supply them, wisdom to discern the proper time and manner of granting supplies, as well as power to effect whatever His wisdom sees best to be done. 1. God often does for men those favours which they never thought of asking for themselves. 2. God answers prayer in ways that we think not of. He will not always bestow the particular things which we ask, for we often mistake our own interest; but He will grant us things more valuable in themselves, or better adapted to our condition. Or, if He gives us the blessings in substance, He will send them in a more suitable time and manner, than we had proposed. I remember to have heard, on good authority, a remarkable story of an African, which will illustrate this thought. The poor negro, in his own country, was led, by contemplation on the works of nature, to conceive that there must be, though invisible to him, a supreme, all-powerful, wise, just, and good Being, who made and governed the world. Impressed with this sentiment, he used daily to pray to this invisible Being, that he might, by some means or other, be brought to a more distinct knowledge of Him, and of the service due to Him. While in this contemplative and devout state of mind, he, with a number of others, was treacherously and perfidiously taken by some of his own countrymen, and soon after was sold for a slave. Now his faith began to waver. “For,” thought he with himself, “if there is such a just and good Being, as I have supposed, who governs the world, how is it possible that fraud and iniquity should be successful against innocence and integrity? Why are I and my fellow-prisoners, who have acted with openness and simplicity, made to suffer, while our enemies are permitted to triumph in the success of their deceit and violence?” The poor fellow, after several changes of masters, was finally sold into a pious family in New England, where he was carefully instructed in the Christian religion, which he embraced with great appearance of sincerity and joy, and obeyed with exemplary diligence and zeal. And, in the relation of his story, he often made this pious reflection, that while he was perplexed to see the triumph of fraud over innocence, God was really answering his fervent prayers, and bringing him to the enjoyment of the means of religious knowledge and eternal salvation; that what he had thought was an objection against the justice of Providence, was really a wonderful and merciful compliance with his daily supplication. 3. The mercies which God is pleased to grant us, often produce happy consequences far beyond what we asked or thought, 4. The worth of the blessings which we ask and God bestows infinitely exceeds all our thoughts.
II. Consider the ascription of glory which the apostle makes to this all-sufficient God. 1. God is glorified by the increase of the Church. 2. God is glorified in the Church, when a devout regard is paid to the ordinances which He has instituted. 3. God is glorified by the observance of good order in the Church, and by the decent attendance of the members on their respective duties. 4. That God may be glorified, there must be peace and unity in the Church. 5. That glory may be given to God in the Church, there must be exemplary holiness in its members. (J. Lathrop, D.D.)
Glory to God through Jesus Christ:—
I. Glory must be given to God. The apostle, as may be inferred from the connection of the words, has chiefly in view the signal benefits of redemption in this elevated ascription of praise.
II. Through whom glory is to be given. “Through Jesus Christ.” Of Him, through Him, to Him, are all things. He is appointed Head over all. He is the only Mediator between God and man, whether for supplication or intercession or thanksgiving. In Him God bestows all grace upon us, and in Him all our words and our works are sanctified. Whatever we do in the service of God, if it be not done in the name of Christ, and in dependence upon His mediation and Lordship, it is done according to our own carnal will; it is not done according to the will of God.
III. By whom glory is to be given to God. “The Church.” By the Church is meant the congregation of faithful men, among whom the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments rightly administered. All God’s works show His praise, but His saints shall bless Him.
IV. During what period. “Throughout all ages.” Every work of man has its limit and its end: all the glory of the creature is as the flower of the field; the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. But it is not so with the glory of God; His praises are endless as His life. Eternity only is the full scene of God’s praise, “As it was in the beginning, so it is now, and shall be evermore.” (H. J. Hastings, M.A.)
The glory of God:—It must be remembered that no praise can add to God’s glory, nor blasphemies detract from it. The blessing tongue cannot make Him better, nor the cursing any worse. Nec melior si laudaveris, nec deterior si vituperaveris. As the sun is neither bettered by birds singing, nor injured by dogs barking. He is so infinitely great, and constantly good, that His glory admits neither addition nor diminution. (T. Adams, D.D.)
Glory is God’s alone:—Cæsar once said to his opponent, “Either I will be Cæsar, or nobody.” So the Lord saith, “Either I will be a great God, or no God.” That man disparages the beauty of the sun who sets it upon a level with the twinkling stars, which only borrow their light therefrom. (Archbishop Seeker.)
How God is glorified:—The glory of God is from His perfection, regarding extrinsically, and may in some degree be described thus:—It is the excellency of God above all things. God makes this glory manifest by external acts in various ways (Rom. 1:23; 9:4; Psa. 8:1). But the modes of manifestation, which are declared to us in the Scriptures, are chiefly two; the one, by an effulgence of light and of unusual splendour, or by its opposite, a dense darkness or obscurity (Matt. 17:2–5; Luke 2:9; Exod. 16:10; 1 Kings 8:11). The other, by the producing of works which agree with His perfection and excellence (Psa. 19:1; John 2:11). (Arminius.)
God’s glory eternal:—Agesilaus … might have led Tigranes, King of Armenia, captive at the wheels of his chariot. He rather chose to make him an ally; on which occasion he made use of that memorable expression, “I prefer the glory that; will last for ever to that of a day.” (Plutarch.)
God glorified in Christ:—A sick woman said to Mr. Cecil, “Sir, I have no notion of God. I can form no notion of Him. You talk to me about Him, but I cannot get a single idea that seems to contain anything.” “But you know how to conceive of Jesus Christ as a man,” replied Mr. Cecil; “God comes down to you in Him, full of kindness and condescension.” “Ah! sir, that gives me something to lay hold on. There I can rest. I understand God in His Son.” “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” (W. Baxendale.).[14]
The conclusion of his prayer (verses 20–21)
We notice now that the apostle’s four petitions are sandwiched between two references to God. In verses 14–16 he is the Father of the whole family and possesses infinite riches in glory; in verses 20 and 21 he is the one who works powerfully within us. Such a God can answer prayer.
God’s ability to answer prayer is forcefully stated by the apostle in a composite expression of seven stages. (1) He is able to do or to work (poiēsai), for he is neither idle, nor inactive, nor dead. (2) He is able to do what we ask, for he hears and answers prayer. (3) He is able to do what we ask or think, for he reads our thoughts, and sometimes we imagine things for which we dare not and therefore do not ask. (4) He is able to do all that we ask or think, for he knows it all and can perform it all. (5) He is able to do more … than (hyper, ‘beyond’) all that we ask or think, for his expectations are higher than ours. (6) He is able to do much more, or more abundantly (perissōs), than all that we ask or think, for he does not give his grace by calculated measure. (7) He is able to do very much more, far more abundantly, than all that we ask or think, for he is a God of super-abundance. This adverb hyperekperissou is one of Paul’s coined ‘super-superlatives’. English equivalents which have been proposed are ‘immeasurably more’ (niv) or ‘vastly more than more’, but perhaps the feel of it is best conveyed by ‘infinitely more’ (AG, jbp). It states simply that there are no limits to what God can do.
The infinite ability of God to work beyond our prayers, thoughts and dreams is by the power at work within us, within us individually (Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith) and within us as a people (who are the dwelling place of God by his Spirit). It is the power of the resurrection, the power which raised Christ from the dead, enthroned him in the heavenlies, and then raised and enthroned us there with him. That is the power which is at work within the Christian and the church.
Paul’s prayer relates to the fulfilment of his vision for God’s new society of love. He asks that its members may be strengthened to love and to know the love of Christ, though this surpasses knowledge. But then he turns from the love of God past knowing to the power of God past imagining, from limitless love to limitless power. For he is convinced, as we must be, that only divine power can generate divine love in the divine society.
To add anything more would be inappropriate, except the doxology. To him be glory, Paul exclaims, to this God of resurrection power who alone can make the dream come true. The power comes from him; the glory must go to him. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus together, in the body and in the Head, in the bride and in the Bridegroom, in the community of peace and in the Peacemaker, to all generations (in history), for ever and ever (in eternity), Amen.[15]
Paul’s benediction of God’s capability (3:20–21)
Context
Paul has just spent much of the last three chapters expounding the idea that as God’s people, believers have gained access to God’s power and capability. In a final exclamation, he extols that capability to deliver the strength to the believer that he has described. We cannot even imagine, and nor should we limit considering, what God can do for us as he transforms us from sinners dead before God to children who live out his character. That God would have such a plan and give such a capability is worthy of praise and honour to the one who has so graciously given these blessings.
Comment
20. A doxology closes the doctrinal section of the letter. Such notes of praise are common in Paul (Rom. 11:36; 16:25–27; Gal. 1:5; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:18). Paul ascribes honour to God especially because of his power: Now to him who by the power that is working in us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think. The honour goes to the God whose power is present in us and is working through us. The point is made with the use of three words that point to power or enablement: able (dynamai), power (dynamis) and working (energeō). This looks back to 1:19–20 and 3:7–8, 16–19.
The power and working are from God for us. In fact, that power is at work in ways we cannot even conceive of as taking place. The key word here is hyperekperissou; this is an emphatic superlative meaning ‘very much in excess of’ or ‘beyond all measure’. It is beyond all we ask or can even think. So the ability here is comprehensive. In giving such praise, Paul is also reminding his audience that God can deliver on the hope being expressed here. In fact, he can do so in ways beyond what we think about or plan to do.
21. To this powerful one who is gracious with that power, Paul ascribes honour: to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Such vast power and graciousness are worthy of endless, eternal praise. One supplies the verb in such outbursts of praise. So the idea is ‘Let glory be to you, O God’ (imperative) or ‘Such glory is to you’ (indicative) or ‘May glory be to you’ (optative). An optative idea may be too soft for the confidence of this affirmation. This is more than a wish: it is a declaration. That glory is now and for ever in Christ and in the church. The term ‘glory’ (doxa) refers in non-technical contexts to something with splendour or something that is radiant. So it is greatness or honour to be made manifest that is the point of the word, a visible prestige. This takes place when God is honoured and when his fullness is present among his people in the church.
This is certainly to be the case in the church, as well as within the position of the church in Christ Jesus. All that happens in God’s strength happens in Christ (1:22–23; 2:20–22; 4:15; 5:23). The church is where God is expressing himself most visibly in the world, which is why it is imperative that the church reflects the enablement Paul is asking for here. The church mediates the perception of God in the world. It is a mirror from God and for God to the world. This is why what Paul is about to exhort the church to in terms of practice is so important. Reflecting the character of God is central to how the church is to relate to a world that struggles in relationships. The chief end of man is to bring glory to God, but that is also the chief end of the church. The church is a unique place where this happens in and for the world, to the honour of God. This is why we invite people into it. It is also why its key calling is to witness to the world by the way it relates to those who are to be invited in.
The duration of this praise is also unending. That is expressed emphatically with the expressions to all of the generations of the age of the ages (author’s translation). That means for ever. The closing expression of amen means ‘so be it’ or ‘let it be so’. It represents an emphatic affirmation of what has just been said. We use the word so often today that it has lost some of its emphasis. A good paraphrase of it might be ‘absolutely’. God’s power is available to help us live as we should and, even beyond that, in ways we cannot imagine. The church is to believe so deeply in God that it lives in a way that honours God, empowered by him to love well with the strength and perseverance that enables them to live distinctly from the world with a humility that shows dependence on God. He is glorified—that is, lifted up—when we reflect him.
Theology
Our enablement, identity and security rest in the power of the God who works on our behalf. This final note of honour of God is both an expression of gratitude and a declaration of understanding about what believers have access to in Christ. This honouring of God or ascribing glory to him is not only to be a matter of words and the mind; it should have an impact on how we live (1 Pet. 4:11). So Paul will follow this doctrine with three chapters of exhortation about life and practice that grows from appreciating what he has said in the letter up to this point. Prayer and praise undergird it all by forming a heart that is dependent and responsive.[16]
20. Robinson well says, ‘No prayer that has ever been framed has uttered a bolder request.’ Yet ‘unabashed by the greatness of his petition, he triumphantly invokes a power which can do far more than he asks, far more than even his lofty imagination conceives.’ Often with Paul intercession takes up from praise, and here it also leads to praise because of the thought of the greatness that is the Lord’s and the magnitude of the gifts that he knows he has been able to ask of him in faith. He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Other New Testament doxologies speak thus of his infinite ability (e.g. Rom. 16:25 and Jude 24). There is no limit to his power; only human words and thoughts about it are limited. This power, moreover, Paul will repeat, is the power ‘according to’ which (niv and see on v. 16) God acts, and that not as an external force, but as that which is at work within us. It is present in human lives when Christ is indwelling (v. 17), and when the Holy Spirit is operative in the inner being (v. 16), energizing them there (energoumai—see on 1:19).
21. In the manner of most doxologies Paul says that to God glory is due through all eternity—to all generations, for ever and ever. If we are to analyse such an expression, its implication is that his praise is to go on to all generations to the consummation of time in eternity. The distinctive feature of this doxology lies in the two ways in which that glory is said to be shown and the praise declared. Firstly, it is in the church. The church is the sphere of the outworking of God’s purpose on earth, and even in heaven it will have the task of proclaiming the manifold wisdom of God (3:10). It is never to take glory to itself (cf. Ps. 115:1); its goal is to give praise and glory to God (1:6, 12, 14). Then secondly, it is in Christ Jesus himself, for it is God’s purpose ‘in Christ’—Christ the beginning, Christ the saviour, Christ the source of unity—that has been the apostle’s theme in these chapters. This is the goal of Paul’s vision that inspires all his work. ‘God is all in all. At this furthest horizon of thought, Christ and His own are seen together rendering to God unceasing glory’ (Findlay). They are coupled in the infinitely wonderful purpose of God—perhaps already there is a hint of the imagery of chapter 5 and of Revelation 21—bride and bridegroom, redeemed and redeemer. The glory of God is most gloriously seen in the grace of his uniting his sinful creatures to his eternal, sinless Son.[17]
20. Now to him. He now breaks out into thanksgiving, which serves the additional purpose of exhorting the Ephesians to maintain “good hope through grace,” (2 Thess. 2:16,) and to endeavour constantly to obtain more and more adequate conceptions of the value of the grace of God.
Who is able. This refers to the future, and agrees with what we are taught concerning hope; and indeed we cannot offer to God proper or sincere thanksgivings for favours received, unless we are convinced that his goodness to us will be without end. When he says that God is able, he does not mean power viewed apart, as the phrase is, from the act, but power which is exerted, and which we actually feel. Believers ought always to connect it with the work, when the promises made to them, and their own salvation, form the subject of inquiry. Whatever God can do, he unquestionably will do, if he has promised it. This the apostle proves both by former instances, and by the efficacy of the Spirit, which was at this very time exerted on their own minds.
According to the power that worketh in us,—according to what we feel within ourselves; for every benefit which God bestows upon us is a manifestation of his grace, and love, and power, in consequence of which we ought to cherish a stronger confidence for the future. Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, is a remarkable expression, and bids us entertain no fear lest faith of a proper kind should go to excess. Whatever expectations we form of Divine blessings, the infinite goodness of God will exceed all our wishes and all our thoughts.[18]
3:20 / The apostle has prayed earnestly for certain things, but he realizes that even his requests fall far short of what God is able to do. Thus he concludes this doctrinal section with an appeal to the infinite wealth and understanding of God: To him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. He has opened to his readers the marvels of God’s secret and how they have been incorporated into the body of Christ. But in spite of this vast and eternal plan of God, he reminds them that God has the resources to do much more according to his power that is at work within us. “Our experience of his power, as it is brought to bear within us, is a limited but true index to the nature of the power that governs the universe and brings all things to their appointed end” (Beare, p. 680).
3:21 / Most of the doxologies in the nt connect the glory of God to Christ in some way (Rom. 11:36; 16:27; Gal. 1:5; 1 Tim. 1:17; 1 Pet. 4:11; Jude 24, 25); this is the only passage that refers to glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. Some commentators take this as part of the author’s liturgical language, which should not be pressed for any kind of theological precision (see Houlden, p. 305). However, given the teaching about the church in Ephesians, the relationship of the church as the body to its head, Christ, and the occurrence of so much liturgical language, it seems more likely that this statement is chosen deliberately. Christ (head) and his church (body) form the entire sphere of God’s glory as well as provide the means by which that glory is proclaimed to all humanity. This praising of God’s glory is to go on throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. This amen is a final liturgical declaration that everything the apostle has written may indeed be so.[19]
Paul’s praise to God (vv. 20–21)
God “is able,” Paul says in verse 20, “to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” Witness the salvation of the Gentiles! Who would ever have asked or thought that God would save such spiritually profligate people! But he did! And God has done the same for many reading this book as well! Perhaps, in former days, you were just the sort of “far off” and spiritually mixed-up person we thought about in the last chapter. Who would have dreamed that you would be sitting where you are at this moment, enjoying a commentary on Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians? But look at what God has done! God is indeed “able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” And to the God who does such things belongs great “glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen” (v. 21).[20]
He Is Able
Ephesians 3:20–21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Eph. 3:20–21)
Some time ago, I needed to make a difficult financial announcement about our seminary because stock market dynamics were creating serious pressures on our finances. I was stewing about the announcement during my early morning jog around a neighborhood lake. Deep in thought, I came to the top of a hill just as some Canadian geese were approaching the lake from the other side of the rise. The result was that for a split second I found myself face-to-face with a flying goose. I ducked to my right but he dodged to his left so that we were still on a collision course. I froze anticipating the crash of our noggins. But then, in one of those sequences that seem to unfold in slow motion, he tweaked his tail and lifted a leg so that his body twisted, and he went by my shoulder with an outstretched wing grazing the top of my head.
Once I realized that I had been spared, I could not help being a little philosophical. “Oh great,” I thought, “wouldn’t that have been a sad way to go out!” I could imagine the headlines: “Seminary President Taken to Heaven on the Wings of a Goose.” Though it may seem a bit silly, in a strange way being saved by that little flick of a goose’s tail gave me a great deal of peace that day.
My peace came from considering the protection God provided for me on that day I was so worried about dear friends, the place I serve, and many months of pressure to come. I began to consider what God had to arrange in order to make that split-second event of reassurance happen. What kind of planning did it take for a person—raised in Tennessee over fifty years ago—and a goose—probably hatched in Canada three years ago—to simultaneously approach a rise in Missouri and come within two feet of one another on the very day that I needed encouragement because of a difficult announcement that I had to make as a result of stock market dynamics that had taken years to develop in a worldwide economy?
The sequence of plans needed to make all of those events and entities converge so precisely is truly mind-boggling. The wisdom and power of God that made that goose’s tail twitch at the precise moment needed to fan into flame a flicker of hope in me were beyond anything I could ask or even imagine. In a world that whirls in an endless procession of unpredictable events and personal challenges, we lose track of what God does moment by moment to preserve us and his purposes for our lives. We know that our God loves us, but amidst the pressures of rents to pay, jobs to perform, medical results to await, tests to take, and transitions to make, we wonder still, “Is our God able to help me here today?” The Bible’s message of a sovereign God who rules over all things in all places among all people and for eternity calms our hearts and stimulates our prayers with the simple affirmation: “He is able.”
But how can we be assured that he is able? Paul unfolds the answer by “singing” this little doxology in the midst of his epistle (Eph. 3:20–21). Paul also breaks into similar doxology in Romans 11:33–36; 16:25–27; Philippians 4:20; 1 Timothy 1:17. Shorter outbursts of apostolic praise such as “to God be the glory” appear throughout the New Testament (e.g., Gal. 1:5; 1 Tim. 6:16; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 13:21; 1 Peter 4:11; 5:11; 2 Peter 3:18) and especially occur repeatedly in the Apocalypse (e.g., Rev. 1:6; 4:11; etc.). Such doxologies draw on themes reminiscent of many Old Testament hymns of praise. This doxology, focusing initially on the ability of God, opens in a manner quite similar to Jude 24–25 and to Romans 16:25–27. The term in Ephesians 3:20 for “able” (from Greek dynamai) is related to the strength vocabulary (e.g., dynamis) found later in this same verse (and elsewhere in Ephesians). Paul intends for this doxology to begin with the answer to a simple question related to God’s power:
How Much Can God Do? (3:20a–b)
The answer is, more—“immeasurably” more than we can ask, and more than we can even imagine. The Greek word for “immeasurably” (hyperekperissou) is the “highest form of comparison imaginable” and could even be translated as “infinitely more than.”
More Than We Can Ask (3:20a)
For children of all ages, Christmas is the asking time of year. While we may not be asking for “mutant turbo-blaster robo-dinosaurs” or “Diamond Dancing Barbies,” we adults still have our “asks.” The adult requests are more in the form of secure jobs, incomes adequate to pay for the turbo-blasters, good health, diplomas, peaceable families, and a world without war. There is no reproach in the apostle’s words for asking. That we would ask is, in fact, a natural outgrowth of Paul’s earlier conclusion that we have confident and free access to the Father by virtue of Christ’s work on our behalf (Eph. 2:18; 3:12). We come to a Father who is able to do what we ask, and invites us to come to him (Phil. 4:6).
But the apostle does not limit the Father’s care or ability to what we ask. There is too much of our humanity in our requests for them to govern God’s responses. Because we are human our requests are feeble and finite. We want dessert when we need meat, success when we need humility, and safety when we need godly courage—or Christlike sacrifice. We ask within the limits of human vision, but he is able to do more. He sees into eternity what is needful for our soul and for the souls of those whom our lives will touch across geography and across generations; and, seeing this, he is able to do more than we ask.
In 1983 a childless woman named Mary Nelson was working in her garden in St. Louis, praying while she worked. She asked God to help not only in her grief for the absence of children in her life, but also in her bitter awareness of women who could have children but choose to abort them. The absence of a child in her home created such a longing for life in her heart that Mary asked God, there in the garden, to help her give life to children in whatever way he would lead. Nine months later, Mary “gave birth” to the first Pregnancy Resource Center in St. Louis, and since that time literally thousands of children have been spared due to the prayers and labors of Mary Nelson and others who have followed her. She, who once asked to be a life-giving mother to one, has become life-saving mother to thousands.
Our God is able to do immeasurably above what we ask. I know to ask only what I think is good for my immediate family; he knows what is good for my children’s children, and what will bring multitudes into his kingdom from places I cannot name or imagine.
More Than We Can Imagine (3:20b)
The ways of our Lord cannot be limited to what we ask, because his wisdom and power—and, therefore, his intentions—are beyond our imagining. Earlier in this chapter of Ephesians we were told that his love is so wide and long and high and deep that it surpasses our knowledge (Eph. 3:18–19), but now we are told that this is not a passive or powerless love. His loving surpasses our knowledge, but his doing surpasses our requests and even our imagination. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9; Isa. 64:4). For those in Christ, T. S. Eliot says, “the impossible union of spheres of existence is actual. Here the past and future are conquered, and reconciled.”
He who loved us so much that he spared not his own Son to make us his children (Rom. 8:32) invites us to come to him freely and confidently, but he also promises to bring the full measure of the wisdom and powers of his Godhead to answer us. How do we measure what he can do? He holds the whole earth in his hand; he created the universe but continues to control the light in your room and the decay of an atom in the most distant galaxy; he makes the flowers grow and the snow fall; he rides on the wings of a storm and holds a butterfly in the air; and he who was before the beginning of all we know still uses time as his tool of healing, restoration, and retribution. Our thoughts are as a window to him; generations to come from us are already known fully to him who loves our family more than we do. He looks at the length of our life as a handbreadth, and makes our soul, though sinful, his treasure forever. Such is the God who hears our prayers and is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or can even imagine.
God’s greatness allows me to believe in his good will even when something I ask for is not answered when I desire or how I imagine. At this year’s Thanksgiving service in my church I listened in fresh-found awe as believers gave their reasons for thanksgiving. One gave thanks for a child soon to be born after three different doctors said a child for this couple was impossible. But this thanksgiving came just after the words of a mother thanking the church for its ministry to her during the year that her husband had been dying of liver cancer. And while the one rejoiced in the coming of a child, I watched the eyes of another couple turn red and their eyes brim with tears because no such miracle child had come to them in their years of marriage. Days later I learned that one of our alumni families, who had just suffered their fourth miscarriage, yet prepared a meal in their home for college students to celebrate the coming of the Christ child.
If the world or any cynic were to look on all of these accounts at once, I can only imagine that the response would be: “Now wait a minute. This one gives thanks when a prayer for new life is answered. That one gives thanks when a prayer for continued life seems unanswered. Then this other couple grieves because a child does not come to them but also gives thanks to God because he let his Son come for us. Does all of this make sense?” No. It does not make earthly sense. But if the God of all things earthly and eternal were at work, would you expect him to be limited by our wisdom and perceptions? No, you would expect him to be at work in ways beyond our imagining. And that is just what he is promising: to do immeasurably above all that you would ask or even imagine.
It must be this way, for inevitably that for which we pray is limited by our human perspective. We think that we shall be happy if we see the perfect sunset, meet the right person, get the right job, or get relief from the person or disease that troubles us. But the One who sees beyond the sunrise, into the heart and after the disease, knows that in a fallen world perfect solutions do not exist and their dim reflections may only distract us from dependence upon him who must redeem us from all that falsely promises fulfillment. J. R. R. Tolkien wrote that our ultimate joy “lies beyond the walls of the world.” Ultimate satisfaction is not in a lover, a landscape, or a livelihood; although they may rightly please us, they will pass. That which is eternal and on which the soul must rest is “higher up” and “further back” (as Cornelius Plantinga puts it) than those things we presently relish, and it can be provided only by the One who is able to do more than we would ask or even think. But how will he do such things?
How Will God Do More? (3:20c–d)
Sovereignly (3:20c)
Paul says that our Lord is able to do immeasurably more than all we would ask or imagine, “according to his power.” These words already have a rich history in this epistle. Paul uses “according to” as a way of indicating that something will be expressed to its full extent. In the first chapter we are told that we have forgiveness “in accordance with” the riches of God’s grace (Eph. 1:7). That is to say, God pours out his mercy from the fullness of his storehouses; he is not budgeting a meager supply for us and saving more till later. We have the fullness of his forgiveness and love. “Power” is the expression of God’s sovereign force of creation. By his power he brought the world into being, brought us from death to life, and will transform this world into a new creation (Eph. 1:4, 10, 18, 19–23). He is the One who made our lovers, landscapes, and livelihoods, along with the universe and the eternity that contain them. Thus, when Paul says that God is able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or imagine, “according to his power,” the apostle urges us to believe that God can do more than we can imagine because he is God, and will use his sovereign power—the creative power of the physical and spiritual universe—in our behalf.
Personally (3:20d)
But how will God apply this sovereign power? The answer to that question will truly stretch our imagination—and our faith. For what the apostle claims is that God will work sovereignly according to his power that is “at work in us.” God works in us personally. This is a return to the theme that Paul began at the end of chapter 1 where he identified the church as the means by which God would fill and transform creation with his own fullness. Now Paul speaks to those in the church, and he says that God will do more than we can imagine through his power (yes, I can get my mind around this, so far) and that this power will be expressed through “us” (now that is a lot for a mind to handle). You and I are the instruments by which God is going to accomplish more than we can ask or even imagine.
This sounds more than a little far-fetched and perhaps rings a bit idealistic. After all, some of us enjoy places of security and esteem, while others endure great difficulty and depressing obscurity. Some see the effects of their lives in great brush strokes of glory and accomplishment. Others look back on the last twenty or thirty years of their lives and honestly question, “Did I do anything?” How can we honestly affirm that God is doing more than we ask or imagine through us? How could Paul say it while chained to a guard in prison at Rome while he is writing to the few people in the crude and simple house churches of Ephesus?
In a photograph displayed at Auschwitz, a Nazi guard points a pistol at the head of a child. Beneath the picture there is a caption: “He who saves one soul saves the world.” Our temptation is to look for heroism, significance, and success in noteworthy deeds and great accomplishments. But faith accepts that God is working out his plan—for the world and for eternity—one moment, one act, one life at a time. Our finite wisdom in a mortal existence makes it hard to act with unnoticed integrity, to persevere without apparent results, to show courage when there is no gain and no one to cheer the sacrifice. But by such integrity, perseverance, and courage among his people in a church worldwide, God is changing the world.
Consider a woman who teaches prostitutes alternative employment as hairdressers in Thailand; a man who teaches a mentally handicapped adult to paint; a woman who offers comfort to a newlywed distressed by the unfaithfulness of her husband; a woman who gives up a holiday to spend an evening with high school girls needing a friend; a woman who changes the diaper of a disadvantaged infant saved from the uncertainties of the foster care system; a man who lingers over a catechism with an African in a remote village so that the man will be an effective elder in a church of ten; a man who refuses to pay a bribe from mission funds to a rebel leader in India; and a secretary in a government office who encourages her boss with a promise to pray for him today. None of these acts of persons I know can be counted on to make any difference in the eyes of the world, but collectively the power of God is at work in these Christians to change this world. In ways unseen, unheralded, and unknown, God is transforming the world according to his power through us even now.
It is beyond our imagining but necessary for our endurance to remember often that it is God’s way to work his infinite wisdom and divine power through us. This is something that we will need to remember when we face obscurity while serving in a small church, when God chooses others for recognition, when failure knocks at our door, when we face anger or ridicule from foes or friends, when our envy of others in more prestigious or lucrative positions threatens to rob us of our commitment to our calling, or when we wonder if the spouse that God gave us is the right one. Because God is working sovereignly and personally we know that for the purposes of our own Christlikeness and his own glory he gives us the spouse he intends, the church he intends, the position he intends, and the challenges he intends. God’s provision may not always be what we would ask, and often stretches what we can imagine. But God gives us what he does in order to prepare us, to strengthen us, to humble us, to bless us, and to grow in us a greater dependency on himself and a lesser attraction to this world, according to his power in us.
When God put his Son in a stable, it must have been hard to imagine that there was “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). But what may be harder yet to imagine is that we too “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). In each activity of the Spirit, in each transition of our lives and in each challenge that makes us question how something so humble, difficult, or unnoticed could be significant, there is a new advent of the glory of God, a new incarnation of his presence and power. Think of that: no matter how obscure or insignificant the act, when we serve the purposes of the Savior, the glory of the Son of God shines in us with increasing glory because of his power that is at work in us.
How shall we treat a God who so dignifies and empowers the humble offerings of service that we give to him? If what we do is, in reality, the result of his power at work in us, then there is only one thing to do: give him glory.
What, Then, Is His Due? (3:21)
God does more—more than we can ask or imagine; and he does this according to his power—sovereignly and personally. Our response must be praise. He is deserving of more glory than we can offer. More glory is due him. Glory in the church, glory in Christ, and glory in perpetuity are due the One who is so able and so loving.
In the Church (3:21a)
Glory is due God “in the church” because he has chosen to use her as the instrument of his purposes on this earth and for eternity. Here his gospel is proclaimed, his law taught, and his people are nurtured in his grace and equipped for his service of world transformation. Thus, when Paul earlier pictured the temple of living stones rising to heaven where the angels sing glory, the apostle also pictured the Spirit indwelling as a Shekinah glory—the presence of God’s power and glory.
Whatever is accomplished by us in the church, it is done because our God is able and has enabled us, and therefore the glory belongs to him. Thus the church throughout all time proclaims along with Paul that God is indeed “the glorious Father” (Eph. 1:17). This fits with the concept Paul began earlier in the epistle that God’s grace and our redemption are to “the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). And from God’s “riches of glory” flow his inheritance in the saints (Eph. 1:18) and the Spirit’s strengthening of our inner man (Eph. 3:16). There will be glory in the church because God is working his power through each of us.
In Christ (3:21b)
The church that has been in Paul’s mind since the first chapter—that temple made of living stones that rises to heaven with the Spirit indwelling—is a natural place for giving glory to the enabling God. We readily understand what it means for there to be glory to God in the church. But what does it mean for there to be glory to God “in Christ” (Eph. 3:21b)? The answer involves understanding our position and our God’s passion.
If there is glory in the church, then the thought naturally follows that there is glory in Christ. After all, we have learned in the first chapter of this epistle that the church is Christ’s body (Eph. 1:23). So if there is glory in the church, there is glory in Christ. This is not merely an abstraction but, yet again, an affirmation of our union with Christ. Those who are in the church are recognized by God as having the identity of Christ. As his body, we have his attributes accounted to us: his righteousness, his holiness, his life. We may approach the Father who is able to help us, and we may approach him with confidence, because we are recognized as having the privileged position in and of his own Son. Because we are his body, we have his position, and, conversely, whatever we do is to his glory. But there is more than a tie of words between glory being given in the church and in Christ; there is also progression of thought.
We need both of these truths—that we represent him and he represents us. Since his glory is reflected in what we do as his body, we must always consider if our actions actually are bringing him glory, and repent if they do not. At the same time, the realization that we have his position answers a question that has been hanging in the air since the outset of this chapter. Early on, as the apostle’s thought unfolds, we may be willing to agree with him that our God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. The question that remains is whether “he who is able” is willing to do such things. The answer is, yes. Because we are in Christ Jesus, he is willing to do more in our behalf than we would ask or even imagine. We have Christ’s position, and thus we have our God’s love.
Yet there is something even more than love, and perhaps even stronger than God’s love, that assures me that he is willing to do what he is sovereignly and personally able to do for those who are in Christ Jesus. The immediate subject of the apostle is not the love of our Savior but the glory of our Savior. The reason that I rest assured that my God is willing to use his power for those who are in Christ Jesus is that he is passionate for the glory of the Son who represents the wonders of his love and the beauty of his own nature.
We sometimes mistakenly think of grace as some material blessing or privileged circumstance that God provides to us. But grace is simply an expression of his character. His grace is evident in the glory that is in Christ Jesus. The One who loved us and gave himself for us is an expression of the character of the Father. The fact that there is glory to the Father in him means that the love that Jesus possesses and reflects is the nature of the Father. The glory that is in Christ is also in the Father. Thus the mercy, love, and compassion of the Son are the glory of the Father; they are the expression of the glory that is his chief passion.
Recently I received a letter from a good friend of mine, a pastor who had just resigned from a very difficult church situation. He had endured years of stress, financial sacrifice, family strain, and career jeopardy. Yet, through it all, this man has been one of my chief encouragers. However great his difficulties have been, he has always taken the time to write to me, to encourage me, and to remind me of the eternal promises of the gospel. In the letter in which he told me that he had submitted his resignation, he did so again. He wrote, “I rest in God’s passion for his own glory.” Whatever happens, whatever is required of sacrifice or success, this wonderful pastor trusts and teaches that God is not only able to do more than we can ask or imagine, but is also willing to do so because we are the body of Christ and our God is passionate for his glory.
Sometimes this is all that can make sense of things in the world. Today I worry about funds; my readers may be worrying about their jobs or relationships; but in many parts of the world there are faithful Christians in far worse circumstances. A Christian mother in the Sudan will hold a child dying of starvation, and she will remain faithful. While you read this, somewhere in this world a Christian is being tortured and is crying out to God for help. While we enjoy Christmas celebrations to commemorate the Savior coming to a stable two thousand years ago, other Christians will depart this life at the hands of persecutors and will see Jesus face to face. How does it all work together? I don’t know. It’s beyond what I would ask or even imagine. God’s sovereign and good intent is more than I could believe were it not for the coming of the Savior to suffer and die in my behalf.
When tragedy and heartache come to believers, what evidence is there that God is truly sovereign and loving? The answer will not be found in our circumstances, but rather in the character of God revealed in Christ. Cancers do come; tragedies do strike; one baby of a faithful couple lives and another dies; capable people serve in difficult and obscure places all of their lives. There may be no evidence of the sovereign, personal love of God since what he is doing is beyond our asking or imagining, but there is yet glory to give to Christ in these situations. He is the One whose very life and ministry make evident that what God is able to do on an eternal plane, beyond what we can ask or imagine, is for his glory and for the eternal blessing of those who love him.
As I write these words, the longtime chairman of our board of trustees is fighting a very aggressive cancer that has already claimed one of his lungs. He once said this to me: “We are praying for God to heal, but I know that whatever he does will bring glory to God. God will reserve the glory to himself.” That is a mature faith, and it is a sustaining faith: “My God is working beyond my asking or imagining according to his power at work in me, because he is zealous for his own glory.”
I remember a pastor who told me of a man who, having just come to faith, said, “I always thought it would be great if God were like Jesus.” He is. God’s glory is in Christ, and that is the reason that we know that our God is able and willing to help us.
In Perpetuity (3:21c)
How long will God keep this zeal for his own glory? Forever. We should never limit God’s glory to the time of our finite measurement. Perhaps that is why the apostle says that the glory due our God is throughout generations and throughout time. The expression “for ever and ever” (a Greek metaphor, literally “unto the age of ages”) is often found in Paul’s expressions of praise (Gal. 1:5; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Tim. 4:18) and elsewhere in the New Testament (e.g., Heb. 13:21; 1 Peter 4:11; often in Revelation). This is not merely a redundancy. There is an intended emphasis that our hearts are meant to endorse.
With saints of old we thus proclaim, “Amen!” (Eph. 3:21). This word is frequently used in the New Testament to signal a wholehearted corporate endorsement of a prayer or praise (especially 1 Cor. 14:16; 2 Cor. 1:20; see for examples in Paul: Rom. 1:25; 9:5; 11:36; 15:33; 16:27; Gal. 1:5; 6:18; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16; 2 Tim. 4:18). Paul invites us to join our hearts with his in this reminder that God will continue working throughout this generation. He is not simply the God of a former people. There is still work for this generation and every generation to do, and he is able for this generation, even as he was able for the generations of the past.
And he is able for ever and ever. There will never be a moment that glory is not due him, and therefore there will never be a moment that he is not working through you to do immeasurably more than you would ask or even imagine. In your moments of great success, he is able. In your moment of greatest fear, he is able. When you have failed, he is still able. When the challenge ahead is too great, he is able. For ever and ever glory is due him, for he is always able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, and continues to be at work for the purposes of eternity.
At this year’s Thanksgiving service I listened as the wife of one of our pastors gave glory to God. She spoke in the light of the recent murder of her brother. For some years this brother had lived in rebellion against God but, through the witness of his family and others, a glorious transformation had occurred. She reported how her brother had one day come to her father and said, “Now I know where I am going and Whom I trust.” After that, the brother changed and the circumstances surrounding that change were already more than the family could ask or imagine; God had worked sovereignly and personally to bring the young man to himself. After so much pain before knowing the joy of his salvation, one would think that the murder of this young man would totally devastate this loving family. Of course, in many ways, it did. But this dear sister reported how, after her brother’s death, and even while her father held his dead son in his arms, the father said that he was at peace. He knew that God had preserved the son until the time that his eternity was secure with the Lord. But even this promise of eternity was not all that caused the sister to rise to her feet to give glory to God.
She rose to her feet to give the glory to God that her family was now praying for the salvation of the man who had murdered her brother. The Lord is using the family of a man recently saved to pray for the eternity of the man who killed him. Is this senseless? To the world, yes, it is. It is even more than I would normally ask or imagine could be right. But in the church, and for those who are in Christ Jesus, such amazing love is but another reason to give glory to God, for we know it is more evidence that he is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work in us. We give him glory not only because he is able to work immeasurably above all that we would ask or even imagine, but also because in Jesus Christ we know that our God is willing to give supernatural blessing so that there will be glory due him in the church and in Christ, through all generations for ever and ever. Amen.[21]
DOXOLOGY (3:20–21)
20 Now to him who can do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power that operates in us—
21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all the generations of eternity. Amen.
20 Has Paul sought too much from God for his fellow-believers—praying that they may be filled up to the level of the divine fullness? They might think so as they heard this letter read aloud, but Paul reassures them: it is impossible to ask God for too much. His capacity for giving far exceeds his people’s capacity for asking—or even imagining.
The contemplation of God’s eternal purpose and its fulfilment in the gospel calls forth a doxology. A doxology takes the basic form, “To God be the glory,” but it may be variously expanded as the immediate occasion for ascribing glory to God is elaborated. Other doxologies of this pattern in the Pauline writings are found in Rom. 11:36; 16:25–27; Gal. 1:5; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Tim. 4:18. Such ascriptions, together with such utterances as “Praise God!” or “Blessed be God!” were common in temple and synagogue worship and were taken over into the liturgy of the church.112
Here, in the light of the far-reaching prayer which has just been offered, God is described as the one “who can do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.” The power by which he can do this is the power which he has implanted in his people—“the surpassing greatness of his power in us who believe” which, as has been said in Eph. 1:19–20, is nothing less than “the operation of his mighty strength” exerted in the resurrection of Christ. By the Spirit who imparts this power to believers the full realization of God’s gracious purpose for them and in them becomes possible.
21 The wording “to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus” is unusual. It does not imply that “the church” and “Christ Jesus” are placed on a level with each other. God is to be glorified in the church because the church, comprising Jews and Gentiles, is his masterpiece of grace. It is through the church that his wisdom is made known to the spiritual forces of the heavenly realm. “The heavens declare the glory of God” but even greater glory is shown by his handiwork in the community of reconciliation. This community, moreover, consists of human beings who are united in Christ, members of his body, in whom Christ dwells: the glory of God “in the church” cannot be divorced from his glory “in Christ Jesus.” The “glory of God in the face of Christ” has illuminated the hearts of his people (2 Cor. 4:6) and is reflected in the glory which, in life as well as in word, they ascribe to God through Christ.
This ascription of glory will have no end: not only now but “in the ages to come the surpassing wealth of his grace” continues to be shown “in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7), and provides occasion for eternal praise.
The “Amen” which follows the doxology would be the congregation’s response as it was read in their hearing. It is through Christ, as Paul says in another letter, that his people “utter the Amen … to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:20). With this loud “Amen” the first half of the present letter is concluded.[22]
20 Paul concludes the first half of his letter in grand style—with an exalted doxology that both exalts God (it may even be part of the prayer, though the conjunction de clearly signals a break from what preceded) and assures the readers that God is completely able to answer his elevated prayer for them. In the event that anybody, wondering whether Paul’s request has been too expansive, should ask whether God can really grant to his people this “fullness,” Paul answers in no uncertain terms: “Yes, he can! Nothing limits God’s ability.” Power language dominates what follows: “him who is able” (dynamenos, GK 1538), “power” (dynamis, GK 1539), and “at work” (energoumenēn, GK 1919). God can perform the unthinkable in his people because of his invincible potency and his indwelling presence. Paul directs his praise to the one “who is able to do [above all] immeasurably more” (hyper panta poiēsai hyperekperissou). The adverb hyperekperissou (GK 5655) conveys something “quite beyond all measure (highest form of comparison imaginable)” (BDAG, 1033). With this hyperbolic expression (note the two uses of hyper), Paul pushes the boundaries beyond limits.
Paul then extends what God is able to do beyond what humans may ask of him or what they are capable even of imagining. Paul used the common verb noeō (GK 3783) in v. 4 with the sense of “understand”; here it has the extended sense of “imagine, think” (BDAG, 674). Paul explains that beyond the boundaries of our asking or even imagining for ourselves, God is able to do according to (kata; the basis or norm of his operation) his power (dynamis) that keeps on working (present tense and middle voice of energoumenēn) within or among us. In other words, it is well within God’s ability to accomplish far beyond what his people can ask for, or even imagine as possible, because God keeps working in ways that are in keeping with his mighty power. Recall, this power raised Christ from the dead, seated him in the heavenly realms, and made him head over all things “for the church” (1:19–22). Paul has made an incredibly audacious claim. As Lincoln, 216, affirms, “Neither the boldest human prayer nor the greatest power of human imagination could circumscribe God’s ability to act.”
We may translate the last phrase, en hēmin, as either “within us” or “among us.” Does Paul pray for this power to work inside individual Christians, or in the framework of the body? The answer must be, “Both.” The love Paul has requested for his readers must be demonstrated in the body of Christ, the local church. This requires God’s powerful working “among us.” This, I believe, is the primary focus here, as we’ve seen corporate emphases throughout. For this to happen, however, it requires the work of God’s power within each individual believer. It would diminish Paul’s request in this context to ignore either of these components—individual or corporate.
21 With the use of the personal pronoun “to him,” Paul picks up the thought that began v. 20: “Now to him who is able …” To or for this one (i.e., God) there is “glory” (doxa, GK 1518). We must insert the verb “be,” as Greek often assumes its presence. Paul has pointed to the praise of God’s glory above (1:12, 14; see comments there). Here doxa refers to “honor as enhancement or recognition of status or performance, fame, recognition, renown, honor, prestige” (BDAG, 257). God receives the kind of recognition he well deserves “in the church” and “in Christ Jesus,” where in both cases the preposition “in” (en) has a locative intent. Both phrases pick up the central themes in the broader context of chs. 1–3. “In the church”—its very existence, identity, and godly activities—God’s fame and honor are proclaimed. But, as Paul has made clear, the church is the corporate Christ, and so “in Christ” God receives glory. The church’s glory derives from its head, Christ (cf. 5:26–27). Christ and what he has done in constituting the church—Jews and Gentiles together in one glorious body—manifest the glory of God. Who could imagine what God was up to? In fact, it was a mystery! How glorious is the God who could accomplish this!
How long will God receive this glory? Forever! Paul concludes the doxology with a complex and unique prepositional phrase that reads, literally, “to all the generations of the ages of the ages. Amen.” Paul employs a similar expression of praise in Galatians 1:5, but it lacks “all the generations.” The plural “generations” speaks of ongoing progressions of generations of people. What of the “ages” (aiōnōn)? Paul spoke of this age and the age to come (1:21), of coming ages (2:7), and the purpose of the ages (3:11). Again, the point is an unending passage of time into the future. This praise to God will know no limits: as far as time and eternity take us—forever—God receives the glory he deserves. God’s glory never ends. Amen! With this solemn final word, Paul exclaims, “This is true!”[23]
A Great Doxology
Ephesians 3:20–21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Bible study is a kaleidoscopic experience. The lessons we learn and the experiences we have are multiple. At times the Bible humbles us, making us conscious of our sin. At other times it thrills us as we think of all God has done in Christ for our salvation. Some Bible passages instruct us. Some rebuke us. Some stir us up to great action. In some passages we seem to gain a glimpse into hell. In others, a door is opened into heaven.
The last is the case as we come to the closing verses of Ephesians 3. They are a great doxology, perhaps the greatest in the Bible. In the verses just before this Paul has reached a height beyond which neither reason nor imagination can go. He had been speaking of God’s purposes for his redeemed people, and he had expressed the wish that we should “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (v. 19).
This is beyond comprehension; we cannot even begin to imagine how we can be filled with God’s own fullness. We stand on the edge of the infinite. And yet, Paul is still not satisfied. He has prayed that God will do something we cannot even imagine; and now, having exhausted his ability to speak and write along that line, he bursts out in praise to God who, he says, “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (v. 20).
What an amazing doxology! In the last study I spoke of Paul’s ascending requests for the Ephesians as a “prayer staircase.” But here is another staircase, a “doxology staircase.” Ruth Paxson makes this vivid by arranging the doxology as a pyramid (kjv).
Unto him
That is able to do
All that we ask or think
Above all that we ask or think
Abundantly above all that we ask or think
Exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think
According to the power that worketh in us
A verse of this scope deserves careful consideration.
The first thing the apostle says about God is that he is able to do something. The word for “do” is poieō, which actually means “to make, cause, effect, bring about, accomplish, perform, provide, or create,” as one Greek dictionary has it. It points to God as a worker, which means, as John Stott says, that “he is neither idle, nor inactive, nor dead.”
What a contrast then between this God, the true God, and the so-called gods of the heathen! In Isaiah’s day the people of Israel had fallen away from the worship of the true God and were worshiping idols, and God gave Isaiah words for that situation. He described the idols. They are, he said, nothing but pieces of lumber carved up by the worshiper. “They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand” (Isa. 44:18). God calls an idol just “a block of wood” (v. 19). He issues this challenge:
“Present your case,” says the Lord.
“Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.
“Bring in your idols to tell us
what is going to happen.
Tell us what the former things were,
so that we may consider them
and know their final outcome.
Or declare to us the things to come,
tell us what the future holds,
so we may know that you are gods.
Do something, whether good or bad,
so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.
But you are less than nothing
and your works are utterly worthless.”
Isaiah 41:21–24
According to these verses, the proof of the true God’s existence is that he is able to do things. The idols can do nothing, not even evil.
Ask and Receive
The second thing Paul says about God is that he is able to do what we ask. That is, the ability of God to work is not related merely to his own concerns and interests but extends to the concerns and interests of his people. It is a statement about prayer.
Most of us are probably quite cautious in our prayers, unless we have learned to pray through a lifetime of growing in this discipline. So often we hold back in asking, afraid of embarrassing either God or ourselves. But that is not the kind of prayer God commands in the Bible.
To be sure, we do often pray wrongly. James says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3). But for every verse that warns us about wrong prayers there are others which by example and precept teach us to pray frequently and with confidence. A favorite of mine is 1 John 3:21–22: “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”
That verse is a great prayer promise. It says that (1) if we are praying with a clear conscience, that is, if we are being honest and open before God, and (2) if we are doing what God in his Word has commanded us to do, and (3) if we are seeking to please God in every possible way, then we can know that what we ask of God we will receive. We can know, to use Paul’s words, that God “is able to (and will) do … [what] we ask.”
What about our thoughts? Have you ever had the experience of thinking about something you would like to ask God for, but not asking him because you had no real confidence that the thing was God’s will for you? I have. There are things I pray for with great confidence. I know it is God’s will for me to conquer sin, to bless my preaching of his Word, and many such things. There are other things that I would like to see happen—the type of things God blesses and that I think would please him—but I do not always pray for them, because I have no real confidence that God wants to do them through my life and ministry or that he wants to do them now. So I hold back, only thinking about them and only occasionally mentioning them as possibilities in my prayers.
I do not know whether I am right in this. I may be wrong. I should probably be much bolder in what I pray for. But whether that is the case or not, it is a comfort to come to a verse like this and read that “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” It says that God is able to do those things that I only think about but am afraid to ask for.
All We Can Ask or Think
Paul’s doxology would have been great if he had stopped at this point, for it would be wonderful to know that God is able to do what we imagine (or think) as well as what we explicitly ask for. But at this point we are only halfway up this great ascending staircase. The next thing Paul tells us is that God is able to do all we can ask or think. It is not a question of God being only fifty percent or even ninety-nine percent able. God “is able to do … all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
It is God’s ability to do all we can ask or imagine that encourages us to stretch forward spiritually and ask for more. My father-in-law was a banker in New York City, and he frequently passed on to me the kind of jokes bankers tell one another. One was about a loan officer who tried to run a gas station in his retirement years. He had been a successful banker, but failed at running a gas station. Whenever a customer came in and asked for ten gallons of gas, he would respond, “Can you get by with five?” Paul tells us that God is not like that. He does not give half of what we ask for (if we ask rightly), but all. Indeed, it is his ability to give all we ask or imagine that encourages us to come with big petitions.
More Than We Ask
It is greater even than this, for Paul has amplified his doxology to say that God is able to do even more than all we might ask or imagine. I put it to you: Is that not your experience of God? Have you not found it to be true that whatever you ask of God (assuming you ask rightly and not with wrong motives, as James warns), God always has something bigger and greater for you—something more than you asked for? It is generally something different, something you would not have anticipated.
That would have been the testimony of all the great biblical characters. I think of Abraham. God called Abraham when he was a pagan living in Ur of the Chaldeans. He told him that he would make him into a great nation, that he would bless him and that he would make him to be a source of blessing to others. I do not know what Abraham would have understood by that at first. In time he probably came to see that the blessing to others would come as a result of the work of the Messiah who would be born in his life. But I suppose that at the beginning he just thought about having a large family which would eventually become a nation similar to those around it. Through most of his life his prayers would have focused on his lack of even one son, and he would have repeatedly asked God to give him children.
How did God answer? We know the story. We know that God did eventually give him a son, a son born to him and Sarah in their old age. And we know that Abraham had other children after that—Genesis 25:2 lists six—and that Abraham’s immediate clan grew substantially so that, at the time of the battle against the four kings of the East, Abraham was able to muster 318 trained men of war to pursue them.
But that is only the most obvious of Abraham’s blessings. In Abraham’s case the “much more” would have included the fact that Isaac, the son of promise, became a type of Jesus Christ and was used to teach Abraham about the future work of Christ, and that the nation promised to Abraham was not limited to his natural descendants, the Jews, but included the entire family of God collected from among all nations throughout all human history. These are the people who have become “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (Gen. 22:17).
Certainly Abraham would testify that God is able to do more than we can ever ask or think.
Moses would say the same thing. God told Moses that he was going to cause Pharaoh to let the people of Israel leave Egypt, where they had been slaves for four centuries. Moses did not want to go. He had failed once, and did not want to fail again. But when God insisted and when he showed Moses that he would work miracles through him, changing his staff into a serpent and then back again and making his hand leprous and then healing it again, Moses went.
Could Moses have anticipated the full extent of the plagues God brought on Egypt: the turning of the water of the land to blood, the multiplication of frogs, gnats, and flies, the plague on the livestock, the boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and eventually the death of the firstborn? Could he have anticipated the miracles of the Exodus: the parting of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Egyptians, the cloud that accompanied the people during their years of wandering and protected them, the manna, the water from the rock, and other miracles? Could Moses have guessed that God would appear to him again and give him the law or that he would work through him to give us the first five books of the Bible?
Moses would not even have dreamed of these things. He would have testified freely that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine.
David would speak along the same lines. God called him from following after the sheep. He made him the first great king of Israel, replacing Saul. He blessed him beyond his greatest dreams. At the end of his long and favored life God announced that through his descendant, the Messiah, his house and kingdom would be established forever. David replied, “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant.… What more can David say to you?… How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears” (2 Sam. 7:18–20, 22).
David would have joined others in confessing that God is able to do more than any of us can possibly ask or think, and that he does do it.
Is this not your experience? Life may not have gone exactly as you would have planned it for yourself; you may have had many disappointments. But if you are really trying to obey God and follow after him, can you not say that God’s fulfillment of his promises toward you has been more than you have asked?
Immeasurably More
There is one more statement in Paul’s doxology in which he says that God is not only able to do more than all we can think but that he is able to do immeasurably more than we can contemplate. The word translated “immeasurably” (niv) is another of Paul’s coined words: hyperekperissou. It occurs only here and in 1 Thessalonians 3:10 in Greek literature. It can be rendered “exceeding abundantly” (kjv), “infinitely more” (Phillips), “far more abundantly” (rsv), “exceeding abundantly beyond” (nasb), and so on.
How can this be? Even though Abraham, Moses, David, and others may not have anticipated the full measure of what God was going to do in their lives, what they experienced is measurable. It may take time, but it can be spelled out. Was Paul just carried away in this passage? Was he exaggerating for effect? I do not think so. After all, in the previous chapter, in a complementary passage, Paul wrote that “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6–7). In this verse Paul uses the word “incomparable” rather than “immeasurable” but his thought is much the same and indicates to my mind how the word in Ephesians 3:20 should be taken. Paul is not thinking of earthly blessings here. He is going beyond these to think of the blessings of God’s inexhaustible kindness toward us through Christ in eternity. Since eternity is immeasurable, so also are the works that God will do for us in the life to come.
In this sense the doxology ends as the prayer ended just a verse before, with reference to our being filled forever to the measure of all the fullness of God, which is immeasurable.
Power and Glory
After a doxology like this we may be so overwhelmed by the promises implied in it that we find ourselves thinking that it cannot possibly apply to us—for others maybe, for Abraham (he was a giant in faith) or Moses or David—but not for normal people like ourselves. Paul does not allow this. He ties it down to our experience by showing that the power of God which is able to do these things is the same power that is already at work in all who are God’s children. It is “according to his power that is at work within us.”
In other words, although we have not realized the full extent of God’s working—and never will, precisely because God is infinite in his workings—what we are yet to experience is nevertheless of the same substance as what we have already known, if we are genuine believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation in Christ is a resurrection from the dead, for we were “dead in … transgressions and sins” (Eph. 2:1), and it is precisely that resurrecting power of God that we are to go on experiencing. It is by that power and not by our own that these great promises are to be accomplished.
What can be added to this? Nothing but the final, direct ascription of praise to God, which is what Paul does. “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” John Stott says, “The power comes from him; the glory must go to him.” And so it shall![24]
The Lord’s Glory
Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (3:20–21)
In culmination of all he has been declaring about God’s limitless provision for His children, Paul gives this great doxology, a paean of praise and glory, introduced by Now unto Him.
When the Holy Spirit has empowered us, Christ has indwelt us, love has mastered us, and God has filled us with His own fullness, then He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. Until those conditions are met, God’s working in us is limited. When they are met, His working in us is unlimited. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:12–14).
There is no situation in which the Lord cannot use us, provided we are submitted to Him. As is frequently pointed out, verse 20 is a pyramid progression of God’s enablement: He is able; He is able to do; He is able to do exceeding abundantly; He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask; He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. There is no question in the minds of believers that God is able to do more than we can conceive, but too few Christians enjoy the privilege of seeing Him do that in their lives, because they fail to follow the pattern of enablement presented in these verses.
Paul declared that the effectiveness of his own ministry was that “my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 2:4), because “the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power” (4:20). Throughout his ministry the apostle was concerned about “giving no cause for offense in anything, in order that the ministry be not discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God” (2 Cor. 6:3–7). Everything Paul did was in the power of God, and in the power of God there was nothing within the Lord’s will that he could not see accomplished. That same power works within us by the presence of the Spirit (Acts 1:8).
When by our yieldedness God is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, only then are we truly effective and only then is He truly glorified. And He deserves glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, not only now, but to all generations forever and ever. The Amen confirms that worthy goal.[25]
[1] Wallace, D. B. (2017). Perseverance of the Saints. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 1875). Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Eph 3:20–21). Lexham Press.
[8] Hoehner, H. W. (1985). Ephesians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 632). Victor Books.
[9] Peterman, G. W. (2014). Ephesians. In M. A. Rydelnik & M. Vanlaningham (Eds.), The moody bible commentary (p. 1851). Moody Publishers.
[23] Klein, W. W. (2006). Ephesians. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians–Philemon (Revised Edition) (Vol. 12, pp. 101–102). Zondervan.
Is uncertainty synonymous with humility? Most postmodernists seem to think so. They definitely equate certainty with arrogance. The belief that no one can really know anything for certain has emerged as virtually the one dogma postmodernists will tolerate. Uncertainty is the new truth. Doubt and skepticism have been canonized as expressions of humility. Right and wrong have been redefined in terms of subjective feelings and personal perspectives.
My friend James used to be a personal trainer. He often posts pictures on social media of himself working out. Even when he’s working hard, he is usually smiling. If most of us were in his place, we probably wouldn’t be. Training takes discipline, and discipline can be uncomfortable. In today’s reading, the author of the book of Hebrews compares an athlete’s experience to that of Christ’s disciples. He notes that there are two kinds of discipline involved for both. One is the personal discipline required to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (v. 1). This is a course set for us by God. He knows the difficulties we experience and has permitted them to enter our lives for our good. An athlete endures the discomfort of training to reach a desired goal. Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him” (v. 2). We must do the same so that we do not lose heart and give up (v. 3). The other type of discipline is corrective. This is the sort of training a parent does with their child (vv. 5–6). In both cases, the experience often comes in the form of hardship (v. 7). We should not think that God has abandoned us when difficulties enter our lives. The opposite is the case. We are training “for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness” (v. 10). God Himself is our personal trainer. Even better, God is our loving Father. His only goal is to give us life and make us more like His Son Jesus Christ. We have nothing to fear from Him. The application of verses 12–13 employs figurative language that encourages us to look at our hardships and struggles differently. We must endure hardship with an eye on God. >> How do you see your circumstances? Can you discern the hand of God in them? As we discover things about ourselves that need to be changed, we must submit to His discipline.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” Matthew 5:4
I’m all alone in this world. I don’t know what I am doing. I always make bad decisions. .People say I’m ugly. My face is long and my nose is big. So is my butt. I never finish school.. I can’t afford cute clothes. . I had an abortion. I don’t deserve to live. My kids deserve better. Nobody loves me. My parents kicked me out. My dad is on drugs. My mom is a drug addict. I’m an alcoholic. I used to sell my body. Some people call me a slut.
I have a lot of tattoos. I am a single parent. All my friends are fakes. If I really listened to everything people told me I’d already be dead. But I chose a new life. I decided to take my old life and kill it. I choose to be an optimist and know that God has a plan for me. Most people are selfish and self-absorbed, so why should their opinion matter. I choose to surround myself with people who like me for me. Even if it is only one or two people. one true friend is worth more than many who surround themselves around my beauty, my talent, my self-worth just to be in my entourage. I’m glad God showed me the way. I’m thankful for second chances. I choose to accept myself and to give second chances to the people around me. I will accept the positive and shield the negative. For I know I have a purpose and my talents will not be wasted. Amen, never give up on yourself or your dreams, things change, people change physically and emotionally. Money does not rule the world.
Life would be meaningless without God in our lives, because He is our strength and our hope. Sometimes we don’t know why we are even alive, but know this. Your every breath on this earth serves a purpose. It’s not by mistake you find yourself here on this planet. It’s not by chance that Jesus was born over 20oo years ago. The Creator loves His creations. All He wants is you. It pleases Him when all of His children come back to Him. Let the joy of the Lord fills you, so that you can be a blessing to others. Things may not make sense now now you don’t understand how things in life work, but God knows everything, what’s best. Just trust in Him. God’s plans are unlike man’s plans. We don’t think like God thinks and His ways are far better than our ways. We tend to go astray and turn to the world for help, when God is there all the time with His hands wide open to help you. Go back to the place where you are loved most…His embrace. Just tell Him how much you need Him and He’ll accept you and fill you with His love.
It is difficult to believe in things that seem so unreal and impossible. But that is what faith is, believing in the presence of doubt. So, take this step of faith, tell God that you are hopeless and helpless without Him, tell God how afraid you are, how angry and frustrated you are with life, how worried you are about the future, practically just how tired you are with life. Just close your eyes and start pouring out to God until you feel the weight on your shoulder is lighter. Let the tears, all the hurts and pain pour out from your heart. It is between you and God, no one else. There’s no pretense, no hiding, no holding back. Be transparent in front of Jesus, lay all your junk and burden at His feet, for it is not for us to carry all these burden in life. It had never meant to be ours to bear.
Imagine it empty, where Jesus was once hung. Just think about His sacrifice and love for you. All Jesus ever cared about was you. Nothing else mattered to Him but you. He loves you so much that His heart aches whenever He sees yours ache.
Jesus loves us dearly. We are the world to Him.
Don’t you think He would have a great future for us? Don’t you think He would provide us with our every need?
All our bondage have been broken when Jesus took our place at the cross. It is us today who bound ourselves to chains when the key to these chains were all this while in our hands. Let’s make Jesus’ death worthwhile. Go back to basics, go back to your first love, go back to the roots to why you call yourself a Christian today. Going back to basics is always the best move to make when you are lost. Go back to your Abba Father.
Initial tranches of men for Russia mobilization arrive at military bases Britain said on Monday that initial tranches of men called up for Russia’s partial mobilization have started arriving at military bases. “Russia will now face an administrative and logistical challenge to provide training for the troops,” the British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update. Many of the drafted troops will not have had any military experience for some years, the intelligence update added.
Physicists Prove You Can Make Something out of Nothing by Simulating Cosmic Physics An experiment designed to study the flow of “low valence” electrons accidentally succeeded in producing an analog of particle-antiparticle pairs where nothing had previously existed, using only an electric field and the nearly magical properties of the 2-D material graphene. The experiment was performed in January by a research team working at the University of Machester. Previous theories held that such a process could only take place in ultra-high energy environments like the vicinity of a black hole or the center of a neutron star. However, the latest breakthrough was performed using standard lab equipment.
Weekend Ends with Fresh Tennessee Earthquake Seismic activity for the weekend wrapped up with a fresh, albeit weak, earthquake in eastern Tennessee today. According to USGS, an earthquake rated as a magnitude 1.9 event rattled the area beneath Madisonville, Tennessee
UAE signs deal to supply Germany with gas, diesel The United Arab Emirates agreed Sunday an “energy security” agreement with Germany to supply liquefied natural gas and diesel as Berlin searches for new power sources to replace Russian supplies. Emirati industry minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber called it a “landmark new agreement” that “reinforces the rapidly growing energy partnership between the UAE and Germany” a
Chinese authorities allegedly torture 5 Tibetans, 1 to death, for praying in public Chinese authorities in Tibet have allegedly arrested and tortured five Tibetans, killing one of them, for publicly lighting incense and praying, two Tibetan sources living in exile told RFA. the sources said the religious activities did not violate any law. RFA was unable to identify any charges.
Nancy Pelosi Booed At NYC Festival: ‘Doesn’t Bode Well For Dems Ahead Of Mid-Terms’ Nancy Pelosi made a surprise appearance at a Saturday night music festival in New York City, called the “Global Citizen music festival”. She was introduced on stage by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, wife of American singer and actor Nick Jonas, to speak about climate change and carbon pollution. But instead of the climactic “surprise” celebratory moment that organizers were hoping for, Pelosi’s presence triggered loud boos from the sizeable audience, as multiple videos from the event show…
Pound Flash Crashes 500 pips To Record Low Amid Global FX Carnage As Things Start Breaking But the imminent conclusion of Japan’s MMT experiment notwithstanding, the real highlight of the session so far has been the total collapse in sterling, whose implosion after Friday’s mini budget has accelerated and moments ago cable flash crashed to a new all time low of 1.0350, below the previous record low set in early 1985, and just millimeters away from parity as every single stop was taking out to the downside. .
Italy on brink of having most Right-wing government since Mussolini Italy looked set to have its first woman prime minister and most Right-wing government since the Second World War on Sunday night after exit polls suggested the country’s election was won by an alliance of three rightist parties. Early exit polls, released after voting finished at 11pm local time, indicated that the alliance had won 41-45 per cent of the vote, which would give it control of both chambers of parliament in Rome.
Proving that quantum entanglement is real: Researcher answers questions about his historical experiments n the 1930’s when scientists, including Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger, first discovered the phenomenon of entanglement, they were perplexed. Entanglement, disturbingly, required two separated particles to remain connected without being in direct contact. Einstein famously called entanglement “spooky action at a distance,” since the particles seemed to be communicating faster than the speed of light.
Over 1,100 dead in Pakistan floods in worst monsoon season in decades Over 1,100 people have died and 33 million have fled their homes in what appears to be the worst monsoon season in decades, the Pakistani government said. Between one million and two million livestock animals have died, and millions of acres of agricultural land are under water.
US official: We’ll respond decisively to Russian use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned on Sunday that the United States would respond decisively to any Russian use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine and has spelled out to Moscow the “catastrophic consequences” it would face. “If Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia. The United States will respond decisively,” Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, as quoted by Reuters.
Iran indicts 14 over elimination of top nuclear scientist Iran on Sunday filed indictments against 14 individuals for involvement in the 2020 elimination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, PressTV reported. Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Ali Salehi, said the charges brought against the individuals include “corruption on earth,” “participation in intelligence and espionage cooperation for the benefit of the Zionist regime,” “collusion with the aim of disrupting the security of the country,” and “acting against the country’s national security.”
Only 36% of Israelis believe next gov’t should push two-state solution Just 36% of Israelis either “strongly” or “somewhat” agree that the government formed after the election should try to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Israel Democracy Institute’s Voice of Israel Index for the month of September.
‘DISGUSTING’: Christian group bashes California Gov. Newsom for pro-abortion ads quoting Jesus Governor Gavin Newsom has launched a billboard campaign in 7 states encouraging women to come to California for an abortion. At the bottom of one of the billboards is a Scripture verse from the Bible. I’m sorry Governor, but you cannot invoke the Word of God to advocate for killing an unborn child. It doesn’t work that way.
Philippines evacuates coasts, cancels sea trips as supertyphoon nears Philippine authorities started evacuating people from coastal areas on Sunday and hundreds were unable to travel by sea as the main island Luzon, including Manila, braces for a category 3 typhoon that continues to strengthen, officials said.
Fire breaks out at world’s biggest produce market in Paris A billowing column of dark smoke towered over Paris on Sunday from a warehouse blaze at a massive produce market that supplies the French capital and surrounding region with much of its fresh food and bills itself as the largest of its kind in the world.
Governor Abbott Designates Mexican Cartels As Terrorist Organizations | Office of the Texas Governor Governor Greg Abbott today issued an executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations and instructing the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to take immediate action to keep Texans safe amid the growing national fentanyl crisis. At a roundtable discussion and press conference in Midland today, the Governor also sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris requesting federal terrorist classifications for the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel, as well as other cartels producing and distributing deadly fentanyl.
‘Live a martyr’s life’: Hundreds march in DC to raise their voices for persecuted Christians Hundreds of Americans from around the country gathered on the National Mall Saturday for the third-annual March for the Martyrs. Religious freedom advocates called on American Christians to learn from those overseas who chose to die rather than renounce their belief in Jesus Christ.
“Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty, ought to have it ever before his eyes, that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America, and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it.” —James Madison (1788)
The House GOP agenda is a stark contrast to the one pushed by hate-America Democrats.
Nate Jackson
What is the main issue of the 2022 election? Is it a referendum on Donald Trump or Joe Biden? The answer to those questions will play a key role in who wins. Democrats clearly would rather keep Trump front and center. Republicans want the election to be about Biden, who is, after all, the current president and whose policies have been a nearly uniform disaster for the country.
With the release of “The Commitment to America,” Republicans have clearly laid out their agenda of positive policies for a country in need of, shall we say, some hope and change. As our Douglas Andrews put it earlier this month when previewing the GOP agenda, “The House GOP is betting you care more about inflation, crime, schools, immigration, and a rigged system than Donald Trump’s documents.”
“This November, you have to choose to be a nation of hope, unity and optimism, or a nation of fear, division and darkness,” said one national politician. “I believe America will move forward to the future, a future with possibilities, a future in which we can build, dream and hope.” That was, of course, Joe Biden, who is responsible for much of the fear, division, and darkness, and whose policies put the future in doubt.
So, to the planks of the GOP agenda.
An Economy That’s Strong
Inflation is at its highest point in 40 years thanks to the grossly profligate spending passed by Democrats in Congress since the foolish and destructive pandemic shutdowns. What’s Biden doing? Celebrating because he signed a law that has nothing to do with inflation, other than goosing it with more spending on left-wing goodies.
Republicans, by contrast, aim to curb inflation by reducing federal spending (to be fair, that will mean at best slowing the increase), working to boost American energy production, and bolstering the supply chain in part by moving more things out of China and back into the U.S.
A Nation That’s Safe
Democrats exploited the death of George Floyd to inflict their racist vision on the country, breeding resentment against law enforcement and unleashing a record wave of violence and murder around the nation. They changed from a party that supported a secure border to one that opened the border to illegal entrants. Biden has allowed in more than 3.5 million known illegals during his presidency, even flying them secretly around the nation while feigning outrage when Republican governors fight back.
Republicans plan to fully fund and support police, while pushing district attorneys to prosecute crime. On the border, they plan to “end catch-and-release loopholes,” enforce requirements for legal employment, and “eliminate welfare incentives” for migrants to come in the first place.
A Future That’s Built On Freedom
Democrats are busy stripping parents of say-so in their children’s education or healthcare, taking away personal liberty over the pandemic, and censoring any opinions they don’t like.
Republicans plan to tackle all three things. They want to “put students’ futures first,” not teachers union bosses. They want to unleash the “best medical care in the world” by getting rid of “top-down, one-size-fits-all” government mandates and control. And they aim to confront Big Tech censorship head on, while protecting Americans’ privacy and data and equipping parents to “keep their kids safe online.”
A Government That’s Accountable
For the last six years, there’s only one person Democrats wanted to hold accountable: Donald Trump. Never mind the double standard for Hillary Clinton or Joe and Hunter Biden. Pay no attention to the two-tiered justice for January 6 rioters compared to BLM and antifa thugs. As for Democrats upholding their own oaths to support and defend the Constitution? Don’t be silly; they’d never do such a thing. They’re too busy siccing the FBI on concerned parents, or targeting more Americans with an army of IRS employees, or putting kids way behind on education by shutting down our schools.
Republicans noted some things with Biden’s favorite number: Zero. As in, “0 House hearings on the origins of COVID, 0 House hearings on the Biden Administration’s failure in Afghanistan, and 0 House hearings on Biden’s Justice Department labeling parents as ‘domestic terrorists.’” That will change as Republicans work to “hold Washington accountable” for these and other gross failures.
Now, to be sure, few Americans are clamoring for more theatrical congressional hearings, but it is essential to have a government that is accountable to the people and protects our constitutional rights and freedoms.
The GOP hopes to relive the success of Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract With America” that swept Republicans into control of the House for the first time in 40 years. Today, the GOP needs to win only five seats to retake the majority. They won’t be able to pass many laws with Biden still in the White House, but a GOP-controlled Congress can stop a lot of bad stuff.
Democrats know their only hope of winning is to distract voters from their own record of inflation, crime, border crisis, national security disasters, and censorship by heaping scornful labels like “MAGA Republicans” and “semi-fascists” on their political opponents. Nancy Pelosi derided this GOP plan as an “alarming new extreme MAGA platform.”
Republicans can realize the predicted red wave by instead standing for something positive. The challenge will be talking over the Democrat propagandists who control the media to get that hopeful message out to voters.
The Democrats certainly can’t run on Joe Biden’s record, which is why they’re doing everything they can to distract the American people from it.
Douglas Andrews
Nothing animates the Republican base like Donald Trump. He’s the undisputed leader of the party, and he still packs ‘em in like a rock star.
Unfortunately, the former president also animates the Democrats’ base — which is why the party of Joe Biden has been desperately trying to put their guy in witness protection while keeping Trump in the headlines 24/7. Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted as much yesterday.
“Yeah, look,” said Psaki, who’s now an MSNBC talkinghead, “I think that Democrats, if the election is about who is the most extreme … then they’re going to win. If it is a referendum on the president, they will lose. And they know that.”
We agree with Psaki’s adroit analysis when it comes to Biden, but we’re sort of slack-jawed about that “most extreme” comment. After all, it’s not the Republicans who think men can get pregnant and women should be able to abort their babies up until the moment of birth. It’s not the Republicans who believe in open borders and unchecked illegal immigration. It’s not the Republicans who locked down our schools and businesses and think toddlers should be masked and vaccinated. It’s not the Republicans who preached “unity” while demonizing their political opponents as “semi-fascists” and “an extremist threat to our democracy.”
Psaki went on to reveal two other obvious problems for the Democrats: crime and the economy. “They also know that crime is a huge vulnerability for Democrats, I would say one of the biggest vulnerabilities. And if you look at Pennsylvania, for example, what’s been interesting to me is it’s always you follow the money, and where are people spending money. And in Pennsylvania, the Republicans have been spending millions of dollars on the air on crime ads against [John] Fetterman because that’s where they see his vulnerability. So yes, the economy is hanging over everything. But you do have to look at state-by-state factors, and crime is a huge issue in the Pennsylvania race.”
As for whether Trump is a drag on the Republicans’ chances of retaking the House and the Senate, that’s debatable. Yesterday, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pointed to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll that poured cold water on the idea that Trump hurts the Republicans’ chances. “And if the 2024 race is again between Biden and Trump,” said Stephanopoulos, “48 percent of registered voters say they would support Trump while 46 percent would support Biden, a difference within the poll’s margin of error.”
In any case, what’s clear is that the Democrats can’t be honest about their policies — because they’re deeply unpopular. So, instead, they’ve been smearing, suing, and snooping on Le Bête Orange in the hope that enough voters will be fooled into forgetting about the calamity that is Joe Biden and instead pull a lever for the Democrats on November 8.
Between now and then, Republicans must focus the electorate exclusively on the miserable failures of the current administration. Everything else is just noise.
Catholic Church endorses GOP abortion-limiting bill, Leftist group outlines Biden’s play for federal takeover of elections, and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Catholic Church endorses GOP abortion-limiting bill: “Extreme” is a term Joe Biden loves to apply to Republicans whenever he opposes their policy positions. Inevitably, however, when GOP policy positions are objectively viewed, the “extreme” descriptor quickly fades. One recent example of this dynamic was Biden’s condemnation of Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) abortion-limiting legislation known as the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children From Late-Term Abortions Act. Biden labeled the bill “extreme” over its provision limiting abortions after 15 weeks only to instances of the mother’s health, rape, or incest. “I happen to be a practicing Roman Catholic, [and] my church doesn’t even make that argument now,” Biden sanctimoniously declared. Republicans have, he insisted, “gotten more extreme in their positions.” Well, Biden might want to check with the Catholic Church before he makes pronouncements regarding its policy positions, as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops actually endorsed Graham’s bill. Archbishop William E. Lori, who chairs the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, wrote: “The Catholic Church remains clear an consistent in asserting that true justice demands the right to life, the most basic human and civil right, for every child, from conception onwards. No person or government has the right to take the life of an innocent human being, regardless of its stage of development.” Lori also contended that the USCCB “strongly agree[s] that there is a federal role for protecting unborn human life.”
Leftist group outlines Biden’s play for federal takeover of elections: When Joe Biden came into office, one of his agenda items was to increase the federal government’s role over national elections. It is a blatantly anti-federalist agenda driven by the Democrats’ desire to control “democratic” electoral outcomes. It is indeed ironic given the fact that Democrats are the ones claiming Republicans are “threatening democracy.” The truth is just the opposite. Last September, Biden signed one of his many executive orders, this one directing federal agencies to push get-out-the-vote efforts. The Biden administration has been largely opaque on how it’s implementing this order but has touted its effort as nonpartisan. Nothing could be further from the truth. The leftist group Demos has effectively written the playbook for a federal takeover of America’s electoral system, a playbook that unsurprisingly the Biden administration appears to be following step by step. One example has been Demos’s history of lobbying both federal and state governments against the passage of what it calls “excessive Voter Identification requirements.” Biden ridiculously and erroneously characterized Georgia’s election integrity law as “Jim Crow 2.0” because it prominently includes updated voter ID requirements for mail-in ballots. This is straight out of Demos’s playbook. Biden’s EO on voting is also following the script from Demos. According to the group, “The Biden-Harris administration can make voting more accessible by directing specified federal agencies, in their administration of federal programs, to act as voter registration agencies, including providing voter registration applications, assisting clients to complete applications, and transmitting completed applications to state authorities.”
Obama Foundation has classified documents in abandoned furniture warehouse: Why is the Justice Department running an investigation into Donald Trump’s keeping of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida when Barack Obama’s Foundation had been holding onto classified documents for years after the former president left office? According to a letter dated September 11, 2018, the Obama Foundation admitted that it had classified documents in its possession and that those documents had not been stored in a manner that met National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) standards. The letter states, “The Obama Foundation agrees to transfer up to three million three hundred thousand dollars ($3,300,000) to the National Archives Trust Fund (NATF) to support the move of classified and unclassified Obama Presidential records and artifacts from Hoffman Estates to NARA-controlled facilities that conform to the agency’s archival storage standards for such records and artifacts, and for the modification of such spaces.” Furthermore the Obama Foundation agreed to a deal with NARA to continue storing some of the classified documents, even as the FBI was sicced on Trump’s estate for the exact same behavior as that of Obama. Is it okay for Obama to hold onto classified documents but not so for Trump? Furthermore, why is it not a threat to national security when Obama is holding classified documents that don’t meet NARA standards for storage for years after he leaves office, yet it suddenly is a national security issue when Trump is doing the same? Inquiring minds want to know.
A majority of voters approve of GOP governors busing of illegals to “sanctuary” states: A recent poll conducted by RMG Research found that 60% of voters approve of Republican Governors Greg Abbott (TX), Doug Ducey (AZ), and Ron DeSantis (FL) busing illegal aliens to self-declared “sanctuary” cities and states. Votes called these “sanctuaries” “hypocritical” over their response to busing efforts. The poll concluded that “sending illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities is politically popular.” This polling flies in the face of several Democrat politicians’ claims that the action is “inhumane.” Most hypocritical of all was Joe Biden’s denunciation of busing illegal aliens, which he blasted as “simply wrong,” “un-American,” and “reckless.” Biden further and falsely claimed: “We have a process in place to manage migrants at the border. We’re working to make sure it’s safe and orderly and humane. Republican officials should not interfere with that process by waging these political stunts.” Meanwhile, the Biden administration has flown tens of thousands of illegal aliens all across the U.S. without alerting state or local authorities to these deliveries, often in the dead of night. Thankfully, it appears that the vast majority of voters are seeing Biden’s and Democrats’ objections for what they are — hypocrisy.
Headlines
Hurricane Ian forms in Caribbean, prompting Hurricane Watch for Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Tampa Bay (Fox Weather)
Florida petitions Supreme Court in fight with big tech over social media access rules (Washington Times)
Creepy Joe’s comment deserves closer examination given his lurid touching and sniffing habits with young girls.
Mark Alexander
Friday night, Joe Biden surprised high-profile entertainer Elton John with the National Humanities Medal, declaring he is “an enduring icon and advocate with absolute courage, who found purpose to challenge convention, shatter stigma and advance the simple truth — that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.”
Indeed, everyone does deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, until they demonstrate they deserve neither.
Notably, after embracing John, Biden then put his arm around the “gay” advocate and said: “By the way, it’s all his fault that we’re spending $6 billion in taxpayer money this month to help AIDS, fight HIV AIDS.” That curious comment caught John off guard, but it did not get a mention in the Leftmedia’s fawning coverage of the event. The clumsy reference was to Elton John’s collaboration with other entertainers to find a cure starting in the 1980s, when the disease was spreading worldwide in promiscuous homosexual communities.
If you were caught off guard by Biden’s claim “we’re spending $6 billion in taxpayer money this month,” so was everyone else who is still in possession of their mental faculties. Fact is, the total expenditures for AIDS have been $7-$7.4 billion annually for the last three years.
But it was Creepy Joe’s comment earlier in the day that deserves closer examination given his lurid touching and sniffing habits with young girls.
Speaking to a teachers union confab, Biden singled out a female attendee and said: “You gotta say ‘Hi’ to me. We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30. But anyway…” What?
Creepy. And even more creepy is that his “joke” was received with applause and laughter from the crowd of teachers.
Creepy, but it follows a pattern. It is likely that Biden’s disturbed family has something to do with his own disturbing proclivities.
As an extension of his pathos, Biden and his handlers have focused their efforts on promoting gender disorientation nationwide because undermining faith and families is the most effective way to undermine resistance to their socialist agenda opposing American Liberty.
That accounts for why this week, the federal utility Tennessee Valley Authority was boldly listed as a sponsor of “Pride Week” in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where TVA is based. “Pride Month” was June, but as Nate Jackson noted in July, “The Rainbow Mafia is never done.”
There is nothing new about federal agencies using your tax dollars to promote the Left’s agenda, but what makes TVA’s support of these events notable is that included among them are numerous “youth” venues promoting gender dysphoria targeting vulnerable children.
This past weekend, there was Friday’s “Youth Kickoff Party” and Saturday’s “Youth Day.”
While videos are still emerging from those groomer venues, one very disturbing clip was posted on social media by Andy Ngo, a high-profile journalist who is homosexual but who has made a practice of exposing such child abuse. In that video, Ngo notes the video from “the Chattanooga Pride youth event at Wander Linger Brewing Company on Saturday shows a child stroking a performer’s groin area and children watching provocative drag dance routines.” Notably, the attendance is sparse, and the attendees appear to be primarily mothers, all of whom are amused and none of whom take any action to stop the groin-stroking by a little girl.
While similar events were shut down by Memphis police over the weekend, there has been no word from Chattanooga police about the incident.
As for TVA, just more of your hard-earned tax dollars at work!
PS: No small irony that part of the complaint filed by the FBI J6 whistleblower who was suspended last week was that he was diverted from his job tracking pedophiles and child pornographers to DoJ’s political hit list.
This new estimate likely blows the old estimate out of the water.
Emmy Griffin
As we have written before, the amount of COVID relief fraud is astronomical. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that $45.6 billion alone was taken in unemployment schemes. “The new tally,” the Journal says, “is nearly three times last summer’s estimate of over $16 billion in fraudulent payments.”
This huge new estimate comes on the heels of two bigger COVID fraud stings.
In Minnesota, 50 fraudsters were brought to justice for a nonprofit scheme costing $250 million. The alleged nonprofit, Feeding our Future, exploited a government-funded child nutrition program by claiming to feed hungry children but pocketing the money instead. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said: “The fraudsters took advantage of the generosity of the American people. That’s wrong. That’s reprehensible. That’s why they’re facing criminal indictments. That’s why they’re going to be held accountable for what they did and were glad we’re able to play a role in providing the investigation needed to hold them accountable.”
In Chicago, three residents were apprehended for small business loan schemes. They were involved in wire fraud and money laundering. In total, they stole $2.75 million. That money was used to purchase real estate and luxury vehicles.
The amount of fraud and the varying ability of criminals to get their hands on taxpayer dollars is astounding. If the $45.6 billion in unemployment fraud is three times the original estimate, one can only assume that the overall fraud estimate — which The Washington Post has stated was about $163 billion — isn’t accurate either. In a memo sent from the Assistant Inspector General for Audit in the Department of Labor, Carolyn R. Hantz emphasized, “Despite the OIG’s [Office of Inspector General] continued efforts to identify potentially fraudulent payments to ineligible claimants, we continue to experience delays in obtaining the needed unemployment insurance data.”
The biggest question the American people are left asking is this: Why has it taken so long to discover the amount of fraud — one whose numbers continue to bubble alarmingly?
Theories for this oversight include inadequate technology — in the case of unemployment, there was insufficient digital infrastructure to keep track of who was dead, in prison, or using a stolen social security number. Others claim that they were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fraud increase. The Wall Street Journal states that misspent government money in terms of unemployment rose exponentially from 9% pre-pandemic to 19%. These excuses all ring hollow in the face of the daunting amount of money that was stolen from the American people.
If this administration has its way, it would love to pass through even more COVID relief money with Congress’s approval (another $22 billion) for supposedly better vaccines and other purposes.
Seems like a funny thing to be pushing for when Joe Biden just declared correctly that “the pandemic is over.”
Recent polling shows a continuing trend of Democrats disliking America, whereas Republicans continue to love her.
Thomas Gallatin
A recent poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal demonstrates that much of the polarization and divide between Americans has much to do with fundamentally differing worldviews. It’s easy to point to certain political figures such as Donald Trump or Joe Biden as the “cause” of national division, but in truth they are merely individuals who have harnessed political sentiments of one of the two competing sides. In other words, the roots of today’s division are much deeper.
According to the poll, 85% of Republican voters agree with the perspective that anyone can get ahead in America if they are willing to put in the hard work. On the Democrat side of the aisle, that number shrinks considerably to 53%.
This isn’t shocking seeing as today’s Democrats have a more favorable view of socialism, a system in which government rather than the individual is seen as the primary source of social upward mobility. Republicans, on the other hand, believe individual initiative, hard work, and an entrepreneurial spirit freed from the entanglements of overly burdensome government regulations are the primary means of success and upward mobility.
These two fundamentally different — indeed, diametrically opposed — views of the means of attaining the American Dream result in significantly differing perspectives on the state of the nation today.
Another interesting question addressed in the poll deals with the future of the country. Just 34% of Republicans believe the next generation will do better than the current one, whereas 55% of Democrats believe the future is brighter. This would seem to indicate that with Democrats currently in power implementing an increasingly socialistic agenda, Republicans are a bit pessimistic. Furthermore, Republicans more than Democrats (61% to 40%, respectively) view themselves as being looked down upon by the elites.
Finally, when it comes to views of America’s greatness, Republicans embrace this view by a whopping 91-6 margin. By contrast, just 61% of Democrats view America as great, and 34% disagree. This too has much to do with the Left incessantly preaching negative and increasingly ahistorical views of America and her history. When complaining, envy, and tearing down others is the Democrat Party’s political MO, it’s little wonder its voters have such a low view of the country.
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” —Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Political Futures
“[Stacey] Abrams has been widely celebrated in the years since her first run for Georgia governor in 2018 which she, of course, lost. … The narrative about her has been that she’s fighting a righteous battle against the voter suppression that denied her rightful victory, and — as a charismatic figure of unbounded talent — she’s heading for bigger and better things than narrow defeats in statewide elections. As it happens, she may be headed for an even less narrow defeat in exactly the same statewide election. She’s trailing in almost all the polls in her rematch with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Although it’s not out of the question that she mounts a comeback, she’s a decided underdog. Come November, she may look more like Beto O’Rourke than Barack Obama.” —Rich Lowry
For the Record
“You don’t have to be anti-immigration to believe in national borders. Countries need borders. It’s a fundamental aspect of national sovereignty. It’s crazy to have to write down something so obvious. Every normal person knows this. But our border policies are not being run by normal people. They are being run by left-wing ideologues with views completely outside mainstream political thought. The result has been catastrophic for America. … The transport of migrants to elite northern towns has broken the bubble. Suddenly, Washington, D.C., New York and even Martha’s Vineyard have a problem. Now, not surprisingly, everyone’s interested. … By America 2022 standards, that’s progress.” —Neil Patel
“What exactly is the sane half of America that actually wants a secure border supposed to do? Beseeching the administration to stanch the bleeding has simply not worked, so hard-headed action is needed. Such a state-level urge to secure itself against unwanted intruders is entirely justified, both morally and constitutionally.” —Josh Hammer
“[Fentanyl] starts in China and comes across our border. Do you realize it’s killing 300 Americans every day? It’s like an airliner crashing each day. If that happened three days in this country, we’d say it’s a crisis and we’d change it. But the White House tells us, ‘It’s secure.’” —House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
Huh?
“It’s all his fault that we’re spending $6 billion in taxpayer money this month to help AIDS, fight HIV AIDS.” —President Joe Biden, with his arm around Elton John
“We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30.” —Joe Biden making a “pedophile joke” after recognizing a woman at a teachers’ conference
Letting the Cat Out of the Bag
“When I talk about MAGA Republicans, I’m not just talking about Trump. I’m talking about those folks who have a different view of how the institutions should function.” —Joe Biden
Spin Doctors
“Remember seeing all those food lines? People in nice looking automobiles waiting for an hour, hour and a half, just to have a box of food put in their trunk?” —Joe Biden
“It’s easy to forget that when Joe Biden came to office, we’d turn on the TV at night, people were in line in football stadiums, looking for a box of food. The unemployment rate was nearly 10%. We had 20 million people out of work and businesses closed and schools closed. So we needed an economic response that addressed that.” —White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain
Swamp Doctor
“[Closing schools] was a right decision at the time.” —Anthony Fauci
Non Sequitur Awards
“That’s what’s so interesting to me that there are so many Latinos that vote Republican, because they vote against their own self-interest. If you really are interested in these types of issues, then you’re a Democrat.” —”The View” co-host Sunny Hostin
“Solidarity with the courageous women and allies in Iran protesting for their freedom. Mahsa Amini was senselessly murdered by the same patriarchal and autocratic forces repressing women the world over. The right to choose belongs to us all, from hijabs to reproductive care.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
And Last…
“A single female protester in Iran is braver than all of the women who attended the Women’s March in America combined.” —Tim Young
“The stock market has dropped below 30,000 for the first time since 2020 & is now down substantially since Joe Biden took office, inflation is at a forty year high, & mortgage rates are now over 6%. Biden is a disaster. 46 days until the midterms. It’s the economy, stupid.” —Clay Travis
Canada has lifted all COVID-related border requirements, including proof of vaccination, undergoing quarantine or isolation, and airline and train mask mandate for all travelers entering Canada starting October 1, 2022.
The Canadian Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, made the announcement on Monday.
“We are announcing that the government of Canada will not renew the order in council that expires on September 30th and will therefore remove all Covid 19 border requirements for all travelers entering Canada. This includes the removal of all federal testing, quarantine and isolation requirements, as well as the mandatory submission of health information in ArriveCAN,” said Duclos during the press conference.
Watch the video below:
NOW – Canada lifts all COVID border requirements for travelers and suspends mask mandate for planes and trains. pic.twitter.com/7hYO2suCol
Effective October 1, 2022, all travelers, regardless of citizenship, will no longer have to:
submit public health information through the ArriveCAN app or website;
provide proof of vaccination;
undergo pre- or on-arrival testing;
carry out COVID-19-related quarantine or isolation;
monitor and report if they develop signs or symptoms of COVID-19 upon arriving in Canada.
Transport Canada is also removing existing travel requirements. As of October 1, 2022, travelers will no longer be required to:
undergo health checks for travel on air and rail; or
wear masks on planes and trains.
“Cruise measures are also being lifted, and travelers will no longer be required to have pre-board tests, be vaccinated, or use ArriveCAN. A set of guidelines will remain to protect passengers and crew, which will align with the approach used in the United States,” according to the news release.
Jean-Yves Duclos said in a tweet that the removal of border measures was due to Canada’s high vaccination rate and other factors.
Thanks in large part to Canadians who rolled up their sleeves to get vaccinated, and our dedicated public health and frontline workers, we have reached the point where we can safely remove the measures put in place to manage COVID-19 and its variants at our borders. pic.twitter.com/PWPx82bPO2
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that a recent report prepared for the Liberal Party of Canada in June concluded that the Covid-19 vaccines are not 100% effective in preventing infection and hospitalization even with booster shots. They are opposed to the continuation of mass vaccination campaigns, mandates, passport requirements, and travel restrictions for people of all ages.
Do the COVID-19 vaccines prevent infection and hospitalization?
Full vaccination does not prevent infection and hospitalization. Even full vaccination with a booster does not prevent infection or hospitalization.
What are the trends in vaccinated and unvaccinated cases in the hospitals?
ITALY — With the election of right-wing candidate Giorgia Meloni as Italy’s first female Prime Minister, the Left has announced they no longer support strong, independent women.
“This is an absolute disaster. Maybe women do belong in the kitchen,” said Italian Leftist Atlantic contributor Gianna Mozzarella. “If we had spent less time empowering women, maybe we could have stopped this far, far-right, right-wing fascist, far-extremist far, far, Nazi right-extremist right-winger from getting elected.”
Experts in the EU, the World Economic Forum, and famed supervillain organization Spectre are warning that Meloni is extremely dangerous. “We can’t overstate just how far, far, far-right extremist and fascist this extremist fascist far-right woman really is,” said WEF Founder Klaus Schwab. “She is a danger to our glorious dream of a New World Order because she believes in things like family and the infinite worth of the individual — which, I must remind you — are things only fascists believe in.”
At publishing time, Stacey Abrams stepped forward to announce that the Prime Minister position in Italy had been stolen from her.
Can this liberal California couple handle their new life in Texas?
Vladimir Putin has granted a Russian passport to the NSA whistleblower who fled the USA after leaking top-secret documents
President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Russia’s TASS news agency confirmed on Monday. The American’s name was included without fanfare on a list of 72 foreigners who became citizens.
Snowden, who applied for citizenship in 2020 upon receiving permanent residency rights, has not commented on the decision as of Monday evening Moscow time. His wife will also apply for citizenship, according to Snowden’s lawyer.
The former Booz-Allen contractor is not eligible for mobilization to the Ukrainian front as he did not serve in the Russian army, the attorney said in a statement to media, pouring cold water on feverish social media speculation that Snowden might be drafted now that he was officially a Russian citizen of military age.
While the fact that Snowden has lived in Russia since fleeing the US in 2013 has been held up as “proof” he was undermining the US government on behalf of Moscow, he was marooned in Sheremetyevo Airport upon arriving from Hong Kong to catch a connecting flight to Cuba after the US canceled his passport mid-flight. He was reportedly en route to Ecuador, where he had lodged an asylum request with what was then a government friendly toward American dissidents.
The US still wants Snowden returned home to face espionage charges related to his 2013 leak of a mammoth cache of files revealing the NSA’s sprawling surveillance operations, which targeted American civilians to a far greater degree than previously known to the public. Rather than release the documents himself, however, the whistleblower reached out to a small group of journalists and filmmakers including Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, instructing them to curate and publish them as needed.
After the publication of a handful of disturbing revelations alongside their source documents in the Washington Post, The Guardian, and other establishment outlets led to Washington calling for Snowden’s head, billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar quickly purchased the entire archive, using it as the foundation for his company First Look Media, which launched The Intercept with the Snowden docs as its headliner. However, the site never released more than 10% of the leaked files during the 15 years it hosted them. Despite Omidyar’s billions, The Intercept cried poverty when it shut down access to that small fraction of the archive in 2019.
That decision that was made without consulting Snowden, who had rendered himself a de facto stateless individual for the sake of making their contents public. Since then, the surveillance program he exposed was declared unlawful by a US appeals court.
Within months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some in the US media began to question, “Where is Edward Snowden? Whistleblower Silent Since Russia Invaded Ukraine” – as one April Newsweek headline read. The Ukraine offensive had clearly put the NSA whistleblower in a deeply awkward position, and thus he went relatively silent on Twitter. The Russian government had provided him asylum since he fled there from Hong Kong in June of 2013 – as he was a “wanted” man for exposing illegal mass domestic spying by the NSA and US intelligence.
On Monday, Russian state media is out with an explosive headline and new development regarding Snowden’s fate: “Putin signs decree granting Snowden Russian citizenship,” according to state-run RIA Novosti. TASS too is reporting that Putin has given Edward Snowden Russian citizenship.
Per the official Russian presidential decree…
“In accordance with paragraph ‘a’ of Article 89 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, I decide: to accept the following persons in the citizenship of the Russian Federation: Edward Joseph Snowden, born June 21, 1983, in the United States of America.”
Bear in mind, Snowden did apply for Russian citizenship two years ago to avoid the risk of being separated from his Russian-born son during the pandemic. But the timing of Putin's decree is, of course, inauspicioushttps://t.co/uIT3SNPQxi
The federal government is arresting the president’s critics, persecuting his rivals, raiding the private homes of harmless, unarmed citizens who oppose the president’s policies, and trying to imprison anyone who challenges his dubious election. This after our Leader went on television and called anyone who doesn’t support him a “semi-fascist” who “threatens democracy” in America.
You’ve heard about Peter Navarro slapped in leg irons, Steve Bannon being perp-walked, Mike Lindell getting ambushed … even as Democrats who run down Republican teenagers get sent home on bail. You know about the FBI targeting dissident parents who go to school board meetings.
Pro-Lifers Get the Randy Weaver Treatment
Here’s the latest step in America morphing into a tinpot dictatorship: A vocal pro-life American and Catholic father of seven, Mark Houck, getting his home attacked by an army of heavily armed FBI agents in body armor. Lifesitenews (a crucial, heavily cancelled news source you should be following) reports:
[T]he SWAT team of 25 to 30 FBI agents swarmed their property with around 15 vehicles at 7:05 a.m. this morning. Having quickly surrounded the house with rifles in firing position, “they started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it.”
Before opening the door, [Mrs. Houck] explained, her husband tried to calm them, saying, “‘Please, I’m going to open the door, but, please, my children are in the home. I have seven babies in the house.’ But they just kept pounding and screaming,” she said.
When he opened the door, “they had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house,” Ryan-Marie described.
When they came in, they ordered the kids to stay upstairs. “Our staircase is open, so [the kids] were all at the top of the stairs which faces the front door, and I was on the stairs as well, coming down.”
“The kids were all just screaming. It was all just very scary and traumatic,” she explained.
After asking them why they were at the house, the agents said they were there to arrest Mark. When Ryan-Marie asked for their warrant, “they said that they were going to take him whether they had a warrant or not.”
A Sin Against Moloch
What had Mark Houck done to merit the Randy Weaver treatment? Had he tried to assassinate a Supreme Court Justice? Had he intentionally mowed down dozens of citizens of another race at a holiday parade? Or firebombed a police car or federal courthouse? No, those are peccadillos in modern-day America, the kind of thing that people concerned about social justice sometimes get carried away and do … but the government won’t prosecute it (nor our Stasi media report on it) with the gravity and relentlessness of genuinely serious crimes. Crimes like the one Mr. Houck is accused of committing. Again, from Lifesitenews:
The warrant charged Mark with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, due to a claimed “ATTACK OF A PATIENT ESCORT.”
Ryan-Marie stated this charge comes from an incident that had already been thrown out of the District Court in Philadelphia but was somehow picked up by Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice.
On several occasions when Mark went to sidewalk counsel last year, he took his eldest son, who was only 12 at the time, she explained. For “weeks and weeks,” a “pro-abortion protester” would speak to the boy saying “crude … inappropriate and disgusting things,” such as “you’re dad’s a f**,” and other statements that were too vulgar for her to convey.
Repeatedly, Mark would tell this pro-abortion man that he did not have permission to speak to his son and please refrain from doing so. And “he kept doing it and kind of came into [the son’s] personal space” obscenely ridiculing his father. At this point, “Mark shoved him away from his child, and the guy fell back.”
“He didn’t have any injuries or anything, but he tried to sue Mark,” and the case was thrown out of court in the early summer.
Since the Biden administration has taken power in January 2021, Garland’s Department of Justice and the FBI have committed dozens of SWAT team raids that have been characterized as a political “weaponization” of the federal agencies against pro-lifers, Trump supporters, conservative Christians, and medical freedom advocates.
…
After the FBI’s unprecedented August 8 raid on President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called it “another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents.”
Soon after Joe Biden’s September 1 speech where he declared war on conservative Christians, dozens of Trump allies had their homes raided by the FBI, which Steve Bannon referred to as “a Gestapo tactic,” and said it was “all about intimidation.”
What Is Truth?
The federal government endangering the lives of an entire Christian family to avenge a shoving complaint made by an abortion enthusiast … that’s what I mean by “fascist in the negative sense.”
Words are important. How important? “In the beginning was the Word,” and “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” The Bible uses “word” to indicate order, meaning, and truth.
Our use of words makes reasoning itself possible, so you might say that real, meaningful words are what mark us off from the animals. Not empty, meaningless sounds that just sound like words, such as when your parrot (as trained by your tweens) says “Let’s Go, Brandon!”
Or when Brandon himself, wheeled out in front of a lectern, pronounces the syllables (are they just spelled out for him phonetically, do you think?): “Owr bor-dur iz suc-yur.” Or he goes off script and promises Americans “badakathcare,” or “trunalimanumapurzure.”
So I will always endeavor, as I have here in my title, to use words very carefully — to avoid misleading people, or giving needless offense.
Our God Is a Well-Above Average God
“Fascist” is a word of some importance. It points to a powerful historical movement that launched multiple vicious wars and historic genocides. There is no other word that captures specific political and economic arrangements that really existed for millions of people, and the social movements that brought such governments to power. So we really do need the word, and need for it retain that particular meaning, which points to staggering evil.
However, the word has been cheapened, hollowed out, twisted, debased like a Weimar Reichsmark. It’s used to speak of everything and nothing, employed like a dog whistle to evoke automatic reactions, deployed like Pavlov’s bell to induce some obedient mammal to obey its conditioning.
This happens with other words. There was a time when you could say, with Nehemiah, that Our God is “an awesome God,” and not sound like we’re channeling Moon Unit Zappa’s “Valley Girl” impression. No more, alas, no more. “Awesome” no longer means “worthy of awe,” even bordering on “awful.” Now it means, at best, “well above average.” Our God is a well-above average God doesn’t convey what we really mean.
How to Get Cancelled
Likewise, I think it’s needful here to point out that when I say “fascist” I don’t mean it in any of the positive senses which the word has sadly begun to acquire, because you might get called a “fascist,” or a “hater,” or worst of all a “Christian Nationalist” for doing any one of the following worthy things:
Telling a sullen teenager to finally change his underwear. Informing a public school teacher he can’t wear enormous rubber fetish breasts to work. Opposing Marxist Critical Race Theory, or degenerate Queer Theory, being taught to vulnerable children. Trying to stop profit-hungry transgender clinics from performing ghoulish operations that castrate and mutilate children. Raising evidence-based questions about dubious, politicized voting practices imposed in the name of COVID and financed by leftist billionaires. Questioning the ethics and science behind a rushed DNA therapy developed using organs from aborted babies, then forced onto billions of people without their informed consent, in violation of the post-Mengele “Nuremburg principles.” Offering alternatives to women who feel pressured into abortions.
You might be labeled as a fascist, or banned permanently from Twitter (as I was last Friday) for “hateful conduct” for any of that.
Or most especially for violating what seems to be the central taboo of our Priests of Baal and their new religion: Raising a hand or your voice against letting perverts groom little kids. That is the sin against the Spirit of the Age, whose name is Legion.
In the face of incessant media badgering to rush out and take the latest version of experimental coronavirus “vaccine” shot — the “bivalent” booster, the vast majority of Americans are saying “nope” and continuing on with their lives. Three weeks into the all-out push to have every American over 12 years old take the new shot (giving these new booster shots to younger children is up next), it appears that less than two percent of eligible Americans have done so.
The growing resistance to the coronavirus shots pushers’ propaganda gives one hope for America. With each new experimental coronavirus shot Americans are being urged to take, the percentage who acquiesce declines. The line that the shots are needed, safe, and effective has proven a farce on all counts. And the latest shot rushed into distribution has taken the previous shots’ mockery of the process for ensuring safety and efficacy to the next level. The truth is out there; increasingly Americans are seeing past the media hype and finding it.
A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN FLORIDA. PEOPLE ARE LOCKING DOWN AND BOARDING UP FOR HURRICANE IAN. THE STORM IS EXPECTED TO HIT THE SUNSHINE STATE BY THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK WITH HEAVY RAINS, HIGH WINDS AND FLOODINGS. TYPHOON NORU CAUSED MAJOR FLOODING AND POWER OUTAGES IN THE NORTHERN PHILIPPINES. CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS HAVE RELEASED THEIR PLAN FOR A 2023 AGENDA AHEAD OF NOVEMBER’S MIDTERM ELECTIONS. IT’S CALLED THE “COMMITMENT TO AMERICA” THE F-B-I RAIDED A HOME OF A PRO-LIFE CHRISTIAN. THIS HAPPENED EARLY FRIDAY MORNING AT THE RESIDENCE OF MARK HOUCK. A MASS GRAVE HOLDING HUNDREDS OF UKRAINIAN CIVILIANS AND MILITARY WAS FOUND IN THE FOREST NEAR A TOWN IN EASTERN UKRAINE.THIS COLLECTIVE GRAVE IS ONE OF DOZENS DISCOVERED IN AREAS ONCE HELD BY RUSSIAN TROOPS. THIS SCHOOL YEAR, FEWER LESSON PLANS WILL INCLUDE CRITICAL RACE THEORY. FIVE STATES HAVE PASSED LAWS BANNING C-R-T WITH A DOZEN MORE IN THE WORKS. ONE WELL-KNOWN PASTOR HAS TAKEN THE CONTROVERSIAL THEORY TO THE PULPIT. PASTOR TONY EVANS SHARED HIS ANALYSIS OF C-R-T. BISHOP T-D JAKES IS COMING TO ANOTHER SMALL SCREEN NEAR YOU. THE TEXAS PREACHER REACHED A DEAL TO STREAM HIS MINISTRY CONTENT TO AMAZON FREE-VUE.
“I’m going to tell you something folks, I didn’t stop sinning until I finally got it through my thick head I wasn’t a sinner anymore. And the religious world thinks that’s heresy and they want to hang you for it. But the Bible says that I’m righteous and I can’t be righteous and be a sinner at the same time … All I was ever taught to say was, ‘I’m a poor, miserable sinner.’ I am not poor, I am not miserable and I am not a sinner. That is a lie from the pit of hell. That is what I was and if I still am then Jesus died in vain. Amen?” Joyce Meyer “What Happened from the Cross to The Throne?
Worship Superstar Chris Tomlin put on a concert during the 40th anniversary of the Love Life Women’s Conference, put on by Joyce Meyer, and serving as a fundraiser for Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN.)
Founded by false teacher Paul Crouch, TBN is the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and is known for platforming the worse of the worst, including TD Jakes, Joel Osteen, Steve Furtick (who took over from Kenneth Copeland two years ago), Joseph Prince, John Hagee, Andrew Womack, and Jonathan Cahn.
Having recently gotten into hot water over the ‘VIP Ticket Packages’ Amid Backlash and currently touring with Hillsong, Tomlin performed all his big hits with TBN raising funds online.
The conference also featured Joel Osteen and Christine Caine, the latter spending the better part of her week “liking” and “loving” posts by Trinity-denier T.D Jakes.
The 79-year-old Meyers is long thought to be one of the ‘Big three’ heretics, along with Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Popular with women and effeminate men, the famed multi-millionaire televangelist whose ministry brings in over $100 million yearly and is known for her word-faith teachings, among the beliefs that put her outside the bounds of orthodoxy.
According to CARM, who has cataloged her wayward ways, she has a bizarre view of the atonement where Jesus paid for our sins in hell, believes that Jesus stopped being the Son of God for a time, that Jesus had to be born-again, that Jesus went to hell in our place and was tormented, that If you don’t believe Jesus went to hell, you cannot be saved, and that the scripture teaches that we are little gods. This is all while claiming that she routinely receives revelation from God and the angels.
Given the lack of discernment that Tomlin continues to show, it’s no wonder this sort of event is right up his alley.
By Kevin DeYoung – Posted at WORLD:I don’t often agree with David Gushee, the liberal Christian ethicist whose “battles,” by his own description, have included “issues like climate change, torture, LGBTQ inclusion, and white supremacism.” But he spoke the uncomfortable truth when he observed years ago that when it comes to LGBTQ issues, there is no middle ground: “Neutrality is not an option. Neither is polite half-acceptance. Nor is avoiding the subject. Hide as you might, the issue will come and find you.”
I thought of those words, written way back in 2016, in recent weeks as I read of Michael Gerson’s tacit approval of gay marriage and of Dr. Bradley Nassif’s claims that he was expunged from North Park University because he upholds traditional views of sex, sexuality, and marriage. These aren’t the first cases of a self-described evangelical or evangelical institution moving into the revisionist camp, nor will it be the last. I hope I’m wrong, but I have my mental list of writers, thinkers, schools, and organizations that eventually will make the same move.
I almost wrote “jump” in the last sentence instead of “move,” but “jump” is not really the right word. Rarely do evangelical leaders and institutions leap all at once from the open celebration and defense of orthodoxy to the open celebration and defense of (what they once believed was) heterodoxy. In fact, when evangelical capitulation on LGBTQ issues makes the news it is rarely a surprise. There are almost always a series of familiar steps.
What does it mean to die to sin and be made alive in Christ? If God has “seated us with him in the heavenly places,” why are we still here? Hear the answers as Alistair Begg unpacks Ephesians 2. That’s our focus on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. Listen…
Today, John launches a brand-new study that is going to help you make sense of . . . well . . . the confusion and the chaos and the unrighteousness that seems to have reached new heights these days. We’re calling this series . . . The World vs. the Kingdom of God.
What does it mean to die to sin and be made alive in Christ? If God has “seated us with him in the heavenly places,” why are we still here? Hear the answers as Alistair Begg unpacks Ephesians 2. That’s our focus on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
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