In Ephesians 1:19-23 we see that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the means of the divine power. This divine power is God Himself. When God is our enjoyment, He is grace. Grace refers to an aspect of God as our enjoyment. Yet there is another aspect concerning God’s being: He is the divine power for His move within us. God is not only grace, the enjoyment within us; He is the divine power, a motivating factor within us. Through regeneration God came into us, and from that time He has always motivated us from within. We the believers are active and aggressive because we have God as the divine power motivating us and strengthening us. Before we were saved, we were, spiritually speaking, dead, but when we believed in the Lord Jesus, God as the divine power came into us through Christ, just as electricity comes to a building by means of an electrical wire. Our God is the divine power, the heavenly electricity, who came into us, and Christ is the means of the divine power, that is, the means through which God as the divine power is conveyed to us.
In Ephesians 1:19 Paul speaks of “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength.” The power that is toward us is the Triune God. This power is not only the creating power but the power that has passed through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. After all these steps, the Triune God comes to us as such a power. Within this power, therefore, there is the power of creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Hence, it is an all-inclusive power. The power toward us who believe is the Triune God, the Creator of the universe, who was incarnated, passed through crucifixion, entered into resurrection and ascension, and has come down to us. This power has been installed in us, just as electricity is installed in a building. The surpassing greatness of God’s power toward us is very subjective and experiential to us today. God’s power toward us is surpassingly great. We need to know it and experience it.
The surpassingly great power of God toward us is according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ. God’s power toward us is the same as the power that He caused to operate in Christ. Christ is the Head, and we are the Body. The Body participates in the power that operates in the Head.
In verse 20 Paul tells us that God caused the divine power to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead. To raise a dead person from Hades and the grave requires much power. The divine power has overcome death, the grave, and Hades, where the dead are held. Death and Hades could not hold Christ (Acts 2:24) because of God’s resurrection power.
Apart from Christ, no one has overcome death and come out from the dead. For Christ to be raised up out of death indicates that nothing can hold Him down. When death comes to visit us, we cannot refuse it, for death has power to hold us, but it did not have the power to hold Christ. Although death did everything to hold Him, after visiting the realm of the dead for three days, Christ came forth in resurrection. Just as nothing can hold Christ down, so nothing negative can hold us down, because we have Christ in us.
In order to experience God’s resurrection power, we must not tolerate death within us and must have a strong desire to reject death. If we are indifferent toward death, we can never realize the power of resurrection. Conversely, if we hate death and are desperate to be delivered from death, the resurrection power within us will be manifested.
According to Ephesians 1:20-21, God’s power not only raised Christ from the depths of Hades and the grave but also seated Him at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. God’s right hand, where Christ was seated by the surpassingly great power of God, is the most honorable place, the place with supreme authority. The heavenlies refers not only to the third heaven, the highest place in the universe, where God dwells, but also to the state and atmosphere of the heavens, in which Christ was seated by God’s power.
In verse 21 Paul says that Christ has been seated above all rule, authority, power, and lordship and above every name that is named. Rule refers to the highest office, authority to every kind of official power (Matt. 8:9), power to the mere might of authority, and lordship to the preeminence that power establishes. Subsequently, we see that what is listed here includes not only the angelic, heavenly authorities, whether good or evil, but also the human, earthly ones. The ascended Christ was seated by the great power of God far above all rule, authority, power, and lordship in the universe. Every name that is named refers not only to titles of honor but also to every name. Christ was seated far above every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
We all need to see the vision that Christ has ascended and is now in the third heaven and that Christ as our Head has lifted us off the earth; hence, we are in the heavens in Him. All the negative things on the earth create a poor environment, but we are sitting in the third heaven looking down at them all. We need a vision to see that since we are attached to the exalted Christ as the ascended Head, we are not on the earth but in the third heaven and are thereby far above all the negative things. This heavenly position is our triumphant victory.
Moreover, we must realize that all our problems are opportunities for us to experience God’s transcending power. In a very real sense, we need all the troublesome situations, including our mistakes and sufferings, for God’s transcending power to be manifested. In the midst of all our problems, we should declare that deep within us is the transcending power that seated Christ at the right hand of God, far above all. As a result, although others may oppose us or bother us, we will sit together with Christ in the heavenlies and thereby be transcendent in Him (Eph. 2:6). If we experience God’s transcending power in all our circumstances, the proper church life as the Body of Christ will be manifested.