And that led Paul to his second recorded prayer in the epistle to the Ephesians. Here Paul was praying for the believers to be strengthened with power through the Spirit in the inner being. He prayed that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith and that they would be established and rooted in love. He asked that they may have power to grasp the love of Christ in all its fullness and to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. The benediction ended with to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever.
In all likelihood, what Paul prayed for the believers were the very areas he prayed for himself and experienced for himself in his ministry – power through the Spirit, faith in Christ in the depths of the heart and love for Christ in not only grasping it but experiencing it and rooted in it. He was constantly seeking the glory of God in the church and in the Lord Jesus. These were what kept him going, persevering in the race and mission entrusted to him.
Jesus when He was on earth obeyed the law of God perfectly and did so in the power of the Holy Spirit in a fully human way. The Spirit of God led Him into a full, perfect and ‘natural’ humanity. The ministry of the Spirit in the life of our Lord will serve as the paradigm for the ministry of the Spirit in the life of the believer.
Paul probably understood this. So he prayed for a similar power of the Spirit in the lives of the believers, albeit not in the perfection experienced in the Lord Jesus as the perfect man. The key to salvation and assurance lies in the extent to which the Son of God has come near to us in His incarnation, actually entering into our situation, tasting our experience from the inside, and exchanging His strength and confidence for our fears and frailties. Christ is not a spectator of the human condition, but a participant in it. “He took our place and thus became a sinner and subject to the curse, not in Himself indeed, but in us; yet in such a manner, that it became necessary for Him to occupy our place” (John Calvin, Commentaries on…Galations, 3:13).
Weak faith will still carry a man to heaven, says John Owen, “yet it will never carry him comfortably nor pleasantly thither…The least faith will do its work safely though not so sweetly(Sermon V: The Strength of Faith).” When we consider the faith of Apostle Paul, how he “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation”, “to be content whatever the circumstances”, we will have an insight into the depth of his faith in Christ. It is no wonder that he also prayed for such a faith for the Ephesians. Faith, according to John Calvin, is a personal relationship to God and to Christ; a sure knowledge of the love and mercy of God in Christ, not a bare assent to truths which are either not understood at all or only half understood. Rather, it is a firm confidence which is opposed to doubt.
Love, according to Paul, is the bond of perfection, and this is so especially in the fellowship of the church. Christians come in different shapes and sizes, spiritually as well as physically, psychologically and socially, but they can be bound together in love, particularly the love of Jesus. Hence Paul prayed for the love of Jesus in the lives of His people which will in turn help them to love one another in His love. The end of all these is the glory of God in His church and in Christ Jesus.