Glory to the Father of Glory!

I recently had the opportunity to preach to one of our guy’s dorms. My text was Ephesians 1:15-17, Paul’s first recorded prayer for the Ephesians. Of course, I knew that if we were to understand this prayer rightly, we had to discern its connection with Paul’s river of doxological doctrine running through verses 3-14. God used my meditation on 1:3-17 to provide rich food for my faith.

The central request in Paul’s prayer (vv. 15-23) is in verse 17. He prays that “the Father of glory may give them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.” The question that arrested my attention as I studied was why does Paul refer to the Father as “the Father of glory”. Why didn’t Paul just say, “the Father”? Why did he add the words “of glory”?

“Glory” is one of those words that is extremely difficult to define or explain. It is a word that we use very frequently in our Christian circles, but I often think our understanding of it is lacking in substantive content. So, what is meant by “glory”? Well, we could go to Psalm 19 to fill out our understanding. “The heavens are declaring the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). What David is saying is that what we see in the sky is the glory of God. In other words, the sun is the glory of God. The moon is the glory of God. The stars are the glory of God. Romans 1 tells us that the sun, moon, and stars make known the eternal power and deity of God (Romans 1:20).

Several years ago, I received an e-mail about a Hubble Telescope discovery. The e-mail reported that Hubble focused on a spot the size of a dime seventy-five feet away. That is a really small spot to focus on. What scientists discovered is that in that small spot they were able to identify 1,500 separate galaxies! I could not believe what I was reading, but it got better. The e-mail went on to say that no matter where on the horizon Hubbell focused on a spot that size, there would be approximately 1,500 galaxies! Let that sink in. That is way more than my dime size brain can get its comprehension around! Now that is some glory of God!

However, I don’t think that Paul has Psalm 19:1 glory in mind when he refers to God as “the Father of glory.” Verse 17 is not the first time Paul refers to glory in this great chapter. In verses 3-6, Paul says that God blessed, chose, and predestined us TO the praise of the glory of His grace. In other words, God did these great things to us so that we might display the glory of His grace. In verses 7-12, Paul says that we have the forgiveness of our trespasses and an inheritance so that we might be to the praise of His glory. Then in verses 13-14, Paul says that we have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Verses 3 to 17 are consumed with God’s glory, particularly His glory in bestowing unbelievable blessings upon sinners. It is His glory that He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, that He chose us before the foundation of the world, and that He predestined us for adoption. It is His glory that we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, that we have obtained an inheritance, and that we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. However, there is a huge question that should press in against our minds at this point, namely, ”How can God do that?” How can God bless sinners with all the unbelievable spiritual blessings in the heavenly places? How in the world can God predestine lawbreakers for adoption as sons? How is it even possible that God can forgive all the trespasses of those who have exchanged His glory for that of the creature? The question that should fill our small minds is, “How can God possibly bless sinners with these infinitely extravagant blessings?”

Consider what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he (that is, the Father) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” In other words, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). God could bless us with the blessings of Ephesians 1 because He cursed His Son with the curses that we justly deserved (notice how many times Paul uses the phrase “in him” in Ephesians 1:3-14). We are blessed because His perfect Son was cursed! That is THE glory of God! The sun, moon, and stars can only dream of declaring the weight of glory that we who are the works of God’s saving hands declare.

Therefore, when Paul prays that “the Father of glory might give [the Ephesians] a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,” he is praying to a God who is more FOR them than they can even begin to imagine! He is a God to be worshipped, treasured, adored, trusted, loved, hoped in, obeyed, and praised with all that we are and ever hope to be (understatement of understatements)! And get this, “the Father of glory” has “raised us up with [Christ] and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6-7). Glory to the Father of glory!