Ephesians 1:19

19. The apostle completes his threefold climax by unfolding the stupendous power exerted by God to produce this glory.

Us… who believe And this believe, that is, faith, is the condition performed by us. Note, Ephesians 1:8. We have already said that as Paul here is unfolding the riches of the glory of the divine side of our redemption, so he says little of our condition from the human side. But nevertheless the objects of the whole election of God are viewed as possessing certain objective qualities by which they, rather than others, are eligible to choice. Those who deny this are in a dilemma, falling sometimes upon one horn and sometimes on the other. Sometimes we are told by them that absolutely there is no reason in one, rather than another, for God’s preference; and that makes it an irrational volition. It is an act not only without a rational motive, but a volition without any motive at all; which most Calvinists pronounce to be an impossibility. At other times we are told that there is a reason, but the reason is not revealed to us.

But if there be a reason for preferring one object to another, why may not that reason just as reasonably be faith as any other? The reason must be some preferability in one above another. To say there is no reason, no preferability, in the object for an act so stupendous, and in which St. Paul recognizes so transcendent a glory, is to make Omniscience an idiot. And if any preferability in the object exists, beyond all question it is faith in the man underlying the divine choice resting upon him. And this is Paul’s declaration. Us… who believe are the objects of the efficient action of redemption. These are the us whom he hath chosen Ephesians 1:4: the us whom he has predestinated, Ephesians 1:5; the us whom he hath made accepted, Ephesians 1:6; and the us to whom he hath made known the mystery of his will, Ephesians 1:9. Hereby is harmonized the glorious supremacy of God with the free choice of the creature. God, in infinite and eternal power and goodness, provides the entire system of redemption into which man, by his empowered but not necessitated faith, is graciously and gloriously comprehended and embodied. See our notes on Romans 8:28-30; Romans 9:1-33.

The working of his mighty power An elaborate clause in the apostle’s Greek, την ενεργειαν του κρατους της ισχυος αυτου , the working of the force of his strength. Taking the last first, ισχυος is personal strength or vigour inhering in a person; κρατους is the force or momentum with which it can go forth; ενεργειαν is the objective working, or action of the personal strength in its full force or efficiency. We are not to concede to adverse criticism that this is a mere wordy accumulation of terms. In the grandeur of this movement the apostle’s eye presents every successive stage. From the working he travels through its momentum up to the might inherent in the divine PERSON. Calvin, quoted by Alford, ingeniously says: “The might is the root, the momentum is the tree, the working is the fruit.”