[20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
[21] Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
[21] Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Of this passage, Bible teacher Keith Blades, author of
Satan and His Plan of Evil, explains, “As Paul makes clear, God’s power
today ‘worketh in us.’ This is done through the effectual
working of His word and the Spirit of God in us. Hence, all the issues in this prayer are inner man issues. This, once
again, is the sphere of the operation of God’s power in this dispensation.
“This stands in marked contrast to
Israel’s program in which God covenanted to do marvels among them so that they
would ‘see the work of the Lord’ in their midst as He worked in the outward
circumstances of their lives.
“In addition to this, however, Paul
also makes it clear in this prayer that the power of God’s word at work within
us today is the most excellent display of God’s power. The exceeding great
power that belongs to God’s word is able to be put on display today in an unprecedented and
impressive manner.
“This is because not only is God’s
word working within us able to do ‘exceeding abundantly above all that we ask
or think’ regarding the condition of our inner man, it is also able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that Satan thinks he can do, as he works to show
the capacity he still has to influence us in our inner man.
“That Satan desires to show that he
is still able to affect our inner man, is something Paul makes clear throughout
our epistles.”
*****
Paul
writes in Romans 13:1, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For
there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
“God
established that His universe would be run by some controlling authorities; there’s
no power--no authority to control things, run things, operate things--but of
God,” explains Preacher Richard Jordan. “He’s the one who set that up. God
established government, rule, authority, order. It’s the methodology by which
His business is going to be carried out in the universe.
“When
it says, ‘the powers that be,’ that’s the subdivisions of the power structure.
The thrones, the dominions, the principalities, the powers, the mights, the
magistrates--all those things that He established at creation.
“It
says, ‘The powers that be are ordained of God.’ That’s why Jesus told Pilate,
‘You’d have no power if it wasn’t given you of God.’
******
In
Genesis 2, God puts Adam “into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”
He gives Adam “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth.” Adam was only told not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Jordan
explains, “What God in essence told Adam is, ‘Here’s creation. I want you to go
out there and explore it, I want you to learn from it, I want you to see the
wisdom and knowledge and understanding that I put in it and use it to enhance
it; be an entrepreneur in my creation. But the choice of deciding what’s good
and not good; that’s mine. You don’t do that.’ ”
*****
“In
John 5:19, Jesus Christ says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he
doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
“Be
careful about that to understand that as God the Son, if Jesus Christ had
chosen to do something independent of His Father’s instruction, He would have
never contradicted or disappointed His Father. He couldn’t do that. You know
the verse: ‘God cannot lie.’ There’d be no way as God that He could do
something that would disappoint God because of who they are.
“When
He says, ‘The Son can do nothing of himself,’ in verse 30 He says, ‘I can of
mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because
I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.’
“He
chose to demonstrate the superiority and excellence He placed in the Father’s
will by putting it in front of His.
“You
see, the faith of Christ is that He made a choice to personally depend on what
His Father’s will and word was. What He’s doing in this is not like saying,
‘Well, I could have done something that would have disobeyed Him,’ because He
couldn’t have disobeyed Him; it wasn’t His nature.
*****
“Everything
He does—the words He preaches, the works He accomplishes—is what the Father
planned to do, so it’s a great statement that He’s demonstrating how completely
and thoroughly . . . it’s that oneness with the Father that demonstrates,
actually, His deity.
“The
verse in Amos says, ‘Can two walk together, except they be agreed?’ God says,
‘I’m not going to do anything that I don’t show it to my servants the
prophets.’ So Christ says, ‘The Father has completely shared with me His
heart,’ and there’s an intimacy there and that oneness is part of the thing the
(persecuting Jews in John 5) were so angry about.
“Verse
5:21 says, ‘For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so
the Son quickeneth whom he will.’
“You
see the ‘as’ and the ‘so’? That comparison, using ‘like’ or ‘as,’ ‘as’ and
‘so,’ is one of the great tools in Bible study.
“Whatever
the Father can do, the Son can do and then He adds, ‘The Son quickeneth whom he
will.’ In other words, He’s got this capacity to give life. Only God can do
that. He’s got this equality with the Father, of divine rights and privileges.
He’s not any less than the Father.
“Verse
22 says, ‘For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto
the Son.’
“Not
only can Christ raise people from the dead, He can quicken them (giving them
life) and that, by the way, is going to talk about what He told Nicodemus about
being born again and regenerated.
“Verse
21 is really talking about spiritual resurrection, in addition to the physical
resurrection that will come in a minute.
“As
the Father does, the Son has equal authority, equal rights, equal privileges as
the Father. For the Father judgeth no man. Now, if anybody has a right to
judge, it’d be God the Father.
“You
know that verse in the Old Testament: ‘Shall not the judge of the whole earth
do right?’ He is the judge of the whole earth.
*****
“David
said it in Psalm 51 after he confessed his sins with Bathsheba, and the murder
of her husband and the betrayal of his nation, he has that great prayer of
repentance: ‘Against thee and thee only have I sinned.’
“When
you realize that the sin, in the final analysis, isn’t really against Uriah or
Bathsheba, or the little baby that died, or even the nation that he led; he
sinned against all of them grievously, but the real sin was against God.
“That’s
why he says it’s like ‘the breaking of the bones.’ That’s what he described
guilt as. ‘Blood guiltiness.’
“When
you get to the place where you see God--the holiness and the righteousness of
God and His justice; His right to avenge His offended righteousness—and you see
that your sin is against Him, that’s where you really have a problem.
“Compared
to God, Uriah was just a flash in the pan. What David did with
the nation . . . it was against God, and if you sinned against God, God’s justice
has a right to judge.
“So
the Father has the right to judge, but the verse says the Father doesn’t
exercise that right, instead committing all judgment to the Son. The Father
gave the Son the responsibility to do the judgment; it’s His right but He gave
the privilege to the Son.
“The
reason is, as verse 23 says, ‘That all men should honour the Son, even as they
honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which
hath sent him.’
“God
the Father has set the situation up so that the Son receives the same honor the
Father has a right to. If you’re going to honor the Father, you’ve got to honor
the Son. And if you honor the Son, you’re honoring the Father. Because there’s
equality when it comes to the issue of honor, and esteem and approbation.
That’s the way the godhead works, by the way.
*****
“The
members of the godhead have no thought about glorifying or honoring themselves;
it’s always honoring the other one. When you think about that, it kind of
explains to you some of the things about the trinity.
“If
there were two people in the trinity you couldn’t do that. If there was only
one person there would be no one else for them to love and be loved by. If
there’s two, you can share it back and forth and you could take your love and
give it to the other and their’s back to you, but really to love and be loved
requires that third person because now ‘I love freely them and they love freely
each other and yet they love me too.’
“There
are three people in the godhead and that’s why the life of the godhead is each
living for the other in this unique and distinct way. There could be 50 people
in the godhead and it wouldn’t make any more difference than if there’s three.
*****
“Jesus
continues in the passage in John 5, [25] Verily, verily, I say unto you,
The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God: and they that hear shall live.
[26] For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
[26] For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
“Again,
He’s talking about spiritual life being imparted to those who believe. The
Father has appointed the Son to be the one who can give life inherently. He
holds it and He can apply it to others. He has it in Himself. God’s life isn’t
derived. Your life is. Prior to your conception, you didn’t exist. You derived
life. Where’d you get it from? Your parents.
“Ecclesiastes
calls it ‘the silver cord.’ It goes all the way back to Adam who begat sons and
daughters in his own image. And that silver cord of human life, the spirit of life
that’s passed down, we don’t have it inherently, but God does. He is life . . .
“And
not only does the Father have it, the Son has it, and He’s given it to the Son
to manifest the fact that He does have it by allowing the Son to be the one who
imparts it to others, because it’s His.”
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