The Greatness Of God’s Power

Ephesians 1:19 “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,”

The first chapter of Ephesians is a sovereign grace believer’s dream chapter because it is so detailed about God’s plan of salvation. Not to the Jewish nation but rather to the entire elect of God. That is to all of them who will ever be saved regardless of nationality, race, or gender. The religious world (as I call them) would like for salvation to be by mans choice and power but they simply could not be more sadly mistaken. God has promised that man would rather serve evil than good, not because we fail to choose good but rather because we cannot choose good in this flesh. Romans 7:18 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…” no good at all, in the third chapter of Romans Paul describes the fleshly nature of man and declares that if man could make a choice it would not be to follow God. Romans 3:11 “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” Therefore without a doubt man cannot choose his own salvation, and if it was up to man to choose he would choose evil rather than God.

Paul says here in our text “…what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward…” To show us-ward according to verse 18 “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened…” To show us-ward His great power by changing our will to follow Him instead of following Satan. It is Satan that has our eye and mind blinded that we in this flesh on our own will never choose Christ as our Saviour. How is it that some believes in our choice for Christ when salvation comes from the heart (or the spirit) rather than the mind, how can one ever control a dead spirit and force it to believe. But what Paul said is it is God who is showing us His great power by first quickening our dead spirit and then changing our will to trust Christ as our Saviour. It is not just power, lifting a 100 pounds would take a lot of power from us, but making a dead spirit alive and then causing one to change his will to cry our for salvation takes exceeding great power, like creating a man from the dust of the ground or like creating a world out of nothing. But as some would have you to believe that man can do this on his own, that is as silly as believing the bible tells us to choose Christ, it doesn’t exist. Not one single time does God tell the lost to choose Christ for salvation, not one single time does the scripture tell man to pray a prayer to be saved, and if this was true how could God show us His “…exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward…” in salvation.

“…to us-ward who believe… that is to them that have experienced His exceeding great power and are saved. This excludes those who are not saved, how can they see something that they have refused. They refuse because they do not have the power within themselves to believe. This is why it takes the power of God and once that power has come then they have seen how God saves sinners. If you have not experienced this exceeding great power then you are not saved, regardless of how you may believe that you are saved. If you simply made a choice for Christ or if you simply prayed a prayer than regardless of what some preacher or pastor may have told you, you are not saved from eternal damnation. When one is truly saved that means that they “…were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,” Hebrews 6:4 and when that happens then you know something wonderful has just happened and that is called the work of God and His exceeding great power. Have you had that experience?