T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 5

Manifestations of God's Power

We are much stretched out to Him as we approach these times, to know what He would say at this particular time regarding His will and His mind for His people. In that enquiry which has been going on in our hearts, I have found that a certain strong emphasis had been growing in me up to this time, covering a considerable amount of ground. Then at a certain point, with all this arising, the question arose: is there any one fragment of Scripture which could express all this, which embodies it as a whole? And immediately on making the enquiry, the answer came back quite distinctly in a very familiar fragment in Ephesians 1:19: "the exceeding greatness of His power". That is, as you know, only part of a much longer statement or section of this wonderful prayer of the apostle, truly inspired of God, concerning the church. "The exceeding greatness of His power".

Everyone who has read these last letters of the apostle Paul knows that by them there is given to us a full, comprehensive, consummate, transcendent revelation of God's mind. In a very real way they answer the question as to what the Bible is all about. You take up the Bible, begin with its first words and the first acts of God, and move on right through and you ask: 'What is it all about, what does it all mean, what is behind it all?' The answer, in a very real way, is found in these last letters of the apostle Paul. That is why I say that they are comprehensive and consummate as to the mind of God.

You are also aware that these letters are crowded and crammed with superlatives. It is here that the apostle, a master of language, finds it difficult to find words by which to express what he has had revealed to him. He exhausts language. Human words are beggared to give expression to the things which he has seen, and here is just one of those superlative utterances: "the exceeding greatness of His power". That word, 'exceeding', carries with it a double idea, or two ideas, both of degree and of comparison. This power is great. It is very great. It is above all power in its degree. That is the meaning. But in that, it is exceeding, there is that which it exceeds. It is a word of comparison and that comparison relates to two realms, that is, it exceeds all its own previous and other expressions, and it exceeds a very great power that is set against it. This power of God itself has before been expressed at certain times and in various ways very definitely.

Three Great Manifestations of God's Power

The former manifestations of God's power peculiarly and particularly were shown firstly in creation. What power there was in creation, that by a word from Him things should be! We do not dwell upon it, but the creation is an expression of very great power. Then God's power is manifested in the deliverance or emancipation of the Jewish nation from Egypt. We shall dwell upon that, but we mention it here in passing - the very great power that God put forth and manifested in getting that nation out of Egypt. And then thirdly, in the securing, delivering and returning of a remnant from the captivity. What power had to operate in order that that should be accomplished! Here were three great demonstrations or manifestations of God's great power. It was power in itself, in degree.

Power in Relation to Opposing Forces

But then it was power in relation to opposing forces. In creation, chaos and darkness and all the conditions which obtained and indicated right at the beginning of the Bible; what a lot had to be overcome. It is no small thing to bring order out of chaos, chaos like that. To make such a change as took place, there was a lot to be overcome, a lot to be dealt with.

And this great power of God was not only the degree of His power, it was the comparison of His power with all the power that was set against it. In Egypt not only was God's power as such displayed, but look at that which it had to overcome. We shall see that presently. And going on to Babylon, there was something very mighty in existence opposing God and His power which had to be simply brought to nought, made as though it were not, in order to get even a remnant out. Yes, something very great to be overcome.

You see, these were not merely temporal conditions or systems. The chaos, the darkness, the state of things as we have them at the beginning of the Bible was not just something that obtained and existed in itself. Those conditions were the expression of a great spiritual background. There was something behind that. It was not just something in itself. There was something behind it and that something had to be overcome. That is perhaps the more obvious when you come to Egypt and the overthrowing of that power. There was something behind not only a temporal state and system, but a mighty spiritual force behind it all. And as for Babylon, again it was not just one of the world empires as a temporal thing that had to be dealt with. We know quite well that in that great conflict in Babylon, spiritual and heavenly intelligences were engaged. It was behind the scenes that the real overthrowing took place, in the realm of principalities.

Therefore this exceeding great power of God is not just His naked strength. It is seen in its excellence over against other powers. It is comparative.

The Greatest Manifestation of God's Power

But the fourth thing to which the apostle refers in this verse which we have cited, is greater than all the former expressions of that power. The word 'exceeding' here just means that. Here we come to something more than any former expression of Divine power. It exceeds here. There is something more here than in bringing the creation into being out of its former condition. If that required power, and if there were things to be overcome to bring that about, here is something more than that. Add to that all that took place in Egypt, and if that required an expression and manifestation of Divine power, and there were great forces to be overcome there, this is something more than that. This exceeds that. And if the overthrow of Babylon for the deliverance of that remnant required an expression of the power of God, this is something more, not only than each one of those three, but more than the whole three put together. This is the exceeding greatness of His power.

I do not know how much that impresses you, but it lays a very good foundation for what God has to say to His people today. I said that Paul found it difficult to express it. He exhausted all the languages and words at his command. Well might I wrestle and be saved from the charge of exaggeration. Oh, you cannot exaggerate the power of God required for the thing that the apostle here is talking about. Here it is beyond anything that has ever been before - "the exceeding greatness of His power". So that the fourth manifestation of His power is greater than every other one, and greater than all the others put together.

The Objects Related to the Expression of God's Power

Well, what are the objects related to this expression of His power? In the first instance, a world was the object, a world for God, for God's glory, God's pleasure, God's satisfaction, a world expression of the glory of God, a world to be a kingdom for His Son. That was related to the first expression of His power.

The second, because that world had become a prison instead of a glorious garden, a people are found to be locked up in it, a people for God, and the second expression of His power relates to an earthly people or nation being delivered from the world.

The third intensifies the second. It is the recovery of that remnant from Babylon, but a new principle is introduced and emphasised. It is the heavenliness of a people for God, that there should be here a people who are a heavenly people. And you know quite well that in Babylon the great governing phrase is 'the rule of the heavens', 'the heavens do rule.' What for? To secure a people who are the embodiment of that heavenly rule by their very existence, by their being back in Jerusalem they are a vessel of testimony that the heavens do rule in the kingdoms of men, a heavenly people.

But these all point on to something more that is here in the mind and the occupation of the apostle, to the fourth and supreme exercise of God's power; not something temporal and earthly, but something eternal, heavenly and ultimate, so that in this letter to the Ephesians leading up to the fragment which is engaging our attention, we have this: "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: in whom we have our redemption through His blood (you can make an allusion to the illustration or type of Israel's emancipation from Egypt, redeemed through blood, but this is of something more than Israel, more than an earthly people), the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence, making known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ" (Eph. 1:4-10).

That goes beyond anything temporal. The fourth and supreme manifestation of God's power relates to that eternal elect, the securing of that elect, the emancipating of that elect, the getting of that elect to the place and to the condition foreordained.

God's Exceeding Power in the Extrication of the Church

So that the thing that emerges from all this is that the extrication of the church, far from being an easy and simple thing, is a superlative matter with God. The extrication of the church is no easy matter. An extricated elect is the embodiment of nothing less than the exceeding greatness of His power in the way in which we have spoken of it. It is something more than creation. It is a new creation which in its nature and fulness far transcends the material creation. The church extricated is the embodiment of this far greater power of God than has ever been exercised before. You would not think that, would you, from modern methods and the way men proceed? You would think it a very simple thing to obtain this end. You have only got to get a certain kind of heated atmosphere, work up emotion and such things, and it is all done. It is not! Oh no, it is not. We are all off the line, we are all wrong, we are most grievously mistaken if we are not interpreting this Scripture aright, but what seems to me to be so clear and unmistakable as we have it in Ephesians 1, is this. There is an object called the church, the securing and placing of which calls for an expression of the power of God which is transcendent. Am I wrong? Is that not true? Then what about all sorts of other things which are so easygoing in connection with redemption and salvation? We could mention so much that makes it all so easy; it seems to take out of it anything like this "exceeding greatness of His power". It shall be helped to understand this, I am quite sure, if and when we proceed to those other examples which are, while true in themselves, yet pointers and figures of this so much greater: the getting of Israel out of Egypt, the getting of the remnant out of Babylon. If we understand aright all that that meant, we are on the way, but only on the way to understand that this matter of God's securing His church to its position and right condition is no child's play, no simple, easy sort of thing.

But let us pause for a moment before we go to the illustration. Look at the nature of this extrication, as the apostle is thinking and speaking of it, this fourth expression of Divine power. Here, as you see, the apostle speaks of a resurrection translation. "According to that working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named" (Eph. 1:19-21) a resurrection translation. And the apostle says that we are the elect, the church. I do not mean our local "fellowship", as people call it, but the church. The apostle is saying that this resurrection ascension or translation is not something literal, where the church is concerned at present, but something spiritual. He is not saying, 'This is going to be.' If he had said that, pointing on to some future event, then, of course, our minds would at once think of a literal happening when the church literally will be caught up, taken out of the world, and placed there far above all rule with Christ. But the apostle is not saying that at all. He is saying, 'This has taken place, He has seated us together', and therefore it cannot be literal, because we are not there literally; we are here. It must be something spiritual, and in order to be spiritual, it must be something inward, something that has already taken place inside, and that is the essence and entire meaning of this present new dispensation - everything is inward.