Interceding Like Paul, Pt. 2
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Eph. 3:14-21)
Prayer is never aimless, it always has an aim and goal. Seemingly, Paul’s prayer has an aim and goal. It is this very goal that makes Paul’s prayer unique. The goal of his prayer is to bring us into the life of the Trinity, so that we may experience the fullness of God. Paul opens the Ephesian letter by giving us a behind-the-scenes look at how our redemption was administered, accomplished, and applied. It was a work of the triune God.
God chose us before the foundations of the world for adoption as sons through Christ. The Son redeems us and forgives our sins past, present, and future. The Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance, the one who gives us the assurance of our salvation. Paul is unabashedly Trinitarian from the beginning of his letter and remains so throughout. He prays in the company of the Trinity, as Eugene Peterson so wonderfully put it.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not easy to grasp, for how can God eternally exist as three persons, each person be fully God, and yet be one God? This is a necessary question to wrestle with, but Paul is not interested in explaining the Trinity here. Instead, his desire is for us to experience the Trinity. Why? Because that is the purpose of all prayer, as Foster notes, “The primary purpose of prayer us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son.”
I love that. What Foster’s contention reveals is that God is personal–"three-personed personal." Aside from the Trinity’s presence in Paul’s prayer, how exactly is the prayer Trinitarian in nature? Let us begin where Paul begins. He directs his prayer to the Father. “When Paul prays for his readers, he prays to the Lord who is above all orders of beings.” Paul desires for his readers to be strengthened with power in their inner beings. The inner being refers to the center of a person’s life, the seat of personal consciousness, as it were, and this correlates well with the proceeding statement of Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith, as the heart is the seat and center of the person.
“Clearly the Spirit is the agent who will actualize Paul’s prayer for a mighty inner strengthening.” This is a necessary corrective for Christians of all ranks. We tend to fall prey to the–do-it-yourself (DIY) Christianity. In this frame of mind what counts is our own strength and efforts, as if we could produce strength apart from the Spirit. When it is all about us, it is all up to us. Calvin rightly notes that this “strengthening…is the work of the Spirit; so that it does not proceed from man’s own ability.” Not only does Paul desire that Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, but also that we know the love of Christ. He “wants to convey a feeling of the vastness of Christ’s love and the impossibility of comprehending its extent.”
The Trinitarian nature of Paul’s prayer is what makes it unique. He brings us into the life of the Trinity by showing us how the Trinity relates to us–God is creator and the one from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, the Spirit is the agent of strength, and Christ is the one who grounds us in love. The Trinitarian nature of the prayer provides a framework for understanding.
But a big question remains. What is Paul exactly praying for?
We will explore that question in Part 3.
Prayer is never aimless, it always has an aim and goal. Seemingly, Paul’s prayer has an aim and goal. It is this very goal that makes Paul’s prayer unique. The goal of his prayer is to bring us into the life of the Trinity, so that we may experience the fullness of God. Paul opens the Ephesian letter by giving us a behind-the-scenes look at how our redemption was administered, accomplished, and applied. It was a work of the triune God.
God chose us before the foundations of the world for adoption as sons through Christ. The Son redeems us and forgives our sins past, present, and future. The Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance, the one who gives us the assurance of our salvation. Paul is unabashedly Trinitarian from the beginning of his letter and remains so throughout. He prays in the company of the Trinity, as Eugene Peterson so wonderfully put it.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not easy to grasp, for how can God eternally exist as three persons, each person be fully God, and yet be one God? This is a necessary question to wrestle with, but Paul is not interested in explaining the Trinity here. Instead, his desire is for us to experience the Trinity. Why? Because that is the purpose of all prayer, as Foster notes, “The primary purpose of prayer us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son.”
I love that. What Foster’s contention reveals is that God is personal–"three-personed personal." Aside from the Trinity’s presence in Paul’s prayer, how exactly is the prayer Trinitarian in nature? Let us begin where Paul begins. He directs his prayer to the Father. “When Paul prays for his readers, he prays to the Lord who is above all orders of beings.” Paul desires for his readers to be strengthened with power in their inner beings. The inner being refers to the center of a person’s life, the seat of personal consciousness, as it were, and this correlates well with the proceeding statement of Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith, as the heart is the seat and center of the person.
“Clearly the Spirit is the agent who will actualize Paul’s prayer for a mighty inner strengthening.” This is a necessary corrective for Christians of all ranks. We tend to fall prey to the–do-it-yourself (DIY) Christianity. In this frame of mind what counts is our own strength and efforts, as if we could produce strength apart from the Spirit. When it is all about us, it is all up to us. Calvin rightly notes that this “strengthening…is the work of the Spirit; so that it does not proceed from man’s own ability.” Not only does Paul desire that Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, but also that we know the love of Christ. He “wants to convey a feeling of the vastness of Christ’s love and the impossibility of comprehending its extent.”
The Trinitarian nature of Paul’s prayer is what makes it unique. He brings us into the life of the Trinity by showing us how the Trinity relates to us–God is creator and the one from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, the Spirit is the agent of strength, and Christ is the one who grounds us in love. The Trinitarian nature of the prayer provides a framework for understanding.
But a big question remains. What is Paul exactly praying for?
We will explore that question in Part 3.
Rev. Mike Hernandez serves as the senior pastor of Crossroads Presbyterian Church. He is a graduate of Trinity International University (B.A.), Knox Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) at Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando.
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