Ephesians overview – 3:14-19, Pauls prayer (inner man: the human spirit), part 16.

Tuesday April 14, 2020

 

3:14-19

C) Inner man.

      

Both the Spirit and Christ are working within. What does God tell us of the inner man? (soul, spirit, heart, mind, and flesh)

 

Soul in the NT: natural life of the body, immaterial part of man, disembodied man, personality, sentient part, will, purpose, appetite, individuals, inward man. [Vine’s Dictionary]

 

Spirit: wind (primarily), breath. Figuratively as emotion, desire, mental, and moral qualities.

 

ISA 11:2

And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and strength,

The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

 

The Holy Spirit descended upon Christ and that power combined with Christ’s submission to the will of the Father, produced these qualities in Jesus’ spirit.

 

Some commentators emphasize these qualities referring to the Holy Spirit, while others emphasize these qualities in Christ, but to me that’s an unnecessary splitting of hairs. The Spirit shared His divine qualities with Jesus as He followed the plan of the Father to empty Himself of the expression of His deity and being a Man obedient to the point of death.

 

We see played out again the connection between obedience and the power of the Holy Spirit. Obedience is from the inner man.

 

PHI 2:12-13

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

 

We are to be just like our Lord in wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and fear of God. We can be because Christ has enabled us to be “in Him” through the baptism of the Spirit.

 

Baptism of the Holy Spirit - every believer is immersed in Christ and Christ is in them. This is an open door to know Him and be fully influenced by Him.

 

ROM 6:4-7

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

 

For good or bad, our entire nature is affected by our contact with the sphere of sin or the sphere of God.

 

We are infected one way or the other. That’s why it is of no use to learn the Bible and yet not want to walk with God. Walking with God is the whole purpose of the Bible. When Jesus condemned the religious leaders for not being able to see or hear, He also condemned their actions. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees” … you shut out the kingdom of heaven from men, you make others twice as much a son of hell as you are, you make false vows, you tithe herbs but neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness, you are full or robbery and self-indulgence, you are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness, you are murderers of the prophets. They had the Bible, and indeed studied it, but they had no desire to walk with God, rather their main desire was self-indulgence. Hence they hated Christ, and most intensively for the fact that He was pulling people away from their sphere of influence.