inexpressible thoughts
the dominant note is "power" (dunamis), and the Apostle prays that the
Ephesian Christians may know what this means. Power is a characteristic
word of St. Paul as expressive of Christianity. The Gospel is "the power
of God unto salvation" (Rom. i. 16). By the Resurrection Christ was
designated "the Son of God with power" (Rom. i. 4). He is "the power of
God" (1 Cor. i. 18). Man needs power, not merely a philosophy or an ethic,
but a dynamic, and it is the peculiar privilege of His Gospel to bring
this to us. But let us try to analyse this power. There are no less than
four comparisons stated or illustrations given. (1) It is exactly the same
power that God wrought in Christ at the Resurrection. Nothing less than
this is the standard of the Divine working. We are to possess and
experience the spiritual and moral dynamic exercised by God on Christ when
He raised Him from the dead. This is described as "the exceeding greatness
of His power." The same adjective is used of grace (ch. ii. 7), and of
love (ch. iii. 19), and it is intended to express the superabundance of
that power which was put forth in the Resurrection and is now exercised
on our behalf. Then the four words used for power are particularly
noteworthy: "power," "energy," "strength," "might." Each conveys an aspect
of this great spiritual force. "Might" is power in _possession_;
"strength" is power as the result of _grasping_, or of coming into contact
with the source of that power; and "energy" is a power in _expression_.
(2) Not only so, but the power exercised by God in the Ascension is also
intended to be bestowed on and experienced by us. When we are told that
Christ was set at God's right hand far above all powers, we can understand
something of the Divine might exercised. (3) Still more, it is the same
power by means of which God put all things under the feet of Christ. This,
too, is the Divine force and energy for believers. (4) Not least of all,
it was Divine power that gave Christ to be "the Head over all things to
the Church," and it is exactly this power that is exercised on our behalf.
When we contemplate all this as intended by God for us, we can see
something of the vigorous and victorious life He can and will enable us
to live.

As we review this wonderful prayer it is impossible to avoid noticing that
the first petition refers mainly to the past ("His calling"); the second
mainly to the future ("His inheritance"); and the