Ephesians 1:18-19

‘That you may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe.'

The first thing that he longs is that they may have full understanding about ‘the hope of His calling'. God has called them to a glorious future, to be fully revealed and experienced at the second coming of Christ in the glory of the resurrection and what follows in the new Heaven and the new earth, when He is gloriously revealed and they are to be presented perfect before Him and are to enjoy His continual presence (Ephesians 4:13; Ephesians 5:27; 1Co 15:51-52; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Philippians 3:21; Jude 1:24; Ephesians 1:4; Revelation 21:22; Revelation 22:3). In that day God is to be made all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28) and everything will be summed up in Christ (Ephesians 1:10). That is their ‘hope', the hope that results from the fact that He has called them.It is because of ‘His calling' that they have this hope that is laid up for them in the heavens (Colossians 1:5). And in the New Testament such hope is always a sure and certain hope.

The second thing that he longs for them is that they may know ‘the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints'. They, His ‘sanctified ones', the whole people of God, have been made a heritage to Him (Colossians 1:11). And they, although they may not see themselves in that way, are in God's eyes a ‘glorious' heritage. For God will make them glorious in holiness and righteousness, and it is Christ in them Who is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). He wants them to appreciate and understand that coming glory that is to be theirs (John 17:22; Romans 8:18; Rom 8:30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Hebrews 2:10) as they are prepared and fashioned by the Spirit so as to be presented to Him holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27).

And thirdly he longs that they may be made fully aware of the ‘exceeding greatness of His power (dunamis)', the stupendous power of God, the ‘dynamite' of God, which is being exercised on their behalf as ‘those who believe'. He Whose power put the Universe in place and maintains all by that power, is now active in that same power on behalf of those who believe, and especially as manifested in the power of the resurrection of Christ and in our being combined with Him in His resurrection power. It is ours because Christ is in us (Galatians 2:20) and we in Him.

And the full blessing of all three hopes is revealed in the verses that follow (Ephesians 1:19 to Ephesians 2:10) as he depicts what has been accomplished by Christ's powerful resurrection.