In Jesus Christ, the wall of separation between Jew and gentile has been torn down, so that we now have peace with God and peace with one another (Eph. 2:11–22). If that greatest separation in humanity has ended, then every other separation can’t amount to much. We are one new man, Paul says, all of us together in the church of Christ. He has brought us near together.

The Apostle Paul had a special relationship with the Ephesian church during his three missionary journeys. We’re told in Acts 20:31 that he spent three years there, and the work that he did in this church—and the work the Holy Spirit accomplished in drawing people to Christ—became a model for all the churches. I think that one could make the argument that Paul’s letter to the Ephesians might have been his favorite to write. We should come to this letter with a sense of the profound connection that Paul felt with this congregation, writing it five or so years after he had been there. He writes out of his concern and love for the Ephesians because they had heard that he was in prison.

The Immeasurable Greatness of His Power

In Ephesians 3:1, Paul tells the Ephesians that he is a prisoner for Christ and is experiencing suffering, but he makes it clear as the chapter continues that he does not want them to become disturbed or distressed by this fact. Instead, he says that he is suffering for their glory (Eph. 3:13). It is amazing that Paul is not particularly distressed regarding his suffering and imprisonment. Rather, he views it as an opportunity to preach in a new place and to different people. We know from other parts of the New Testament that people are converted through Paul’s preaching from prison. But he knows that the Ephesians, like all of us, are inclined to view suffering as a bad thing. So, he writes that he doesn’t want them to be discouraged by what is happening to him.

Paul was miraculously converted and specially used by the Lord to carry the gospel to various places. He was one of the founders of the church, an Apostle. Wouldn’t that mean that the Lord would particularly take care of him, preserve him, and keep him from the suffering of this world? That’s a very sensible—but ultimately worldly—way of reasoning, and Paul wants to redirect the thinking of the Ephesians according to the truth. He wants them to know the reality of what God is doing so that they will not be discouraged. That’s his great point in this letter.

It’s very possible for us to feel things that aren’t necessarily true, and Paul seeks to address this reality in his letter. He says to the Ephesians that though they may feel that his suffering is a bad thing, the reality is that in his suffering, God is accomplishing His purpose and therefore glorifying Himself. Paul wants to teach the Ephesians—and us by extension—how to understand what is going on in this world, and he does so by stressing the power of God at work in Jesus Christ. We see that particularly in Ephesians 1:19, where Paul writes about “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.”

There’s hardly another verse in all Scripture that so piles up statements about the power of God, the immeasurable greatness of God’s power in Christ, and the great might of His working. Do we allow that truth to seize and direct us? Our God is above all the powers of this world, and He has realized that power in what He has done in Christ. That’s what Paul wants us to focus on: what God’s power is doing in Christ and what Christ is doing for us. God’s power in Christ has made Christ the ruler of all things in this present world. He will not one day be King of kings and Lord of lords; He is today King of kings and Lord of lords. He’s the ruler of all things because God has made Him alive.

One of the great New Testament teachings is that Christ is alive now because death was powerless to hold Him (see Acts 2:24). The power of God was so great that it overcame death and raised Jesus from the dead. But that power of resurrection was not limited only to Christ’s rising from the dead. Paul says in Ephesians 2:5–6 that we are raised from the dead in Him. What an amazing thing: Our regeneration took as much power from God as Christ’s resurrection. We were as dead in spirit as Christ was in body, and it was the greatness of God’s power that raised Him and renewed us. The same divine power that brought Jesus back to life from the grave has also granted us new spiritual life, which will be consummated in our own resurrection at the last day. Paul wants us to celebrate that. He wants us to know that this living Christ has been taken up into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father over every power and that we have been raised with Him.

Christ is in heaven, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the age to come. That’s the character of our Christ. We are besieged by claims to power in this world: power in Moscow; power in Washington; various people asserting their political, financial, and intellectual power. But Paul wants the Ephesians—who lived in a financially, economically, politically, and religiously important city—to know that none of those worldly powers even begin to compare with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

His power is above every power, and that’s what it means for Him to be seated at the right hand of God. It’s a seating not to rest but to reign.

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