Ephesians 3:16

according to the riches of his glory I. e., as He can do Who is Lord of the resources of an Eternal Nature and Heavenly Kingdom. (See on Ephesians 1:18 for the phrase "riches of glory" in another reference.) The glory of God is, in brief, Himself, as the Infinite and Holy One, with all results, for Himself and His creatures, of His being such.

to be strengthened The Gr. verb is elsewhere used with ideas of spiritual firmness and vigour (Luke 1:80; Luke 2:40; 1 Corinthians 16:13). So it is here. The saints are to be so strengthened as not to fearthings of which nature is afraid; even the felt indwelling of the Holy One, and His absolute dominion in the inmost heart.

with might The power of God.

by his Spirit The Holy Ghost; everywhere present in the doctrine of this Epistle. He is so to deal with "the inner man" as that the presence of Christ shall be permanent in the heart. Cp. Romans 8:9-10, where observe the transition from, "the Spirit of God dwelleth in you", to, "Christ is in you." And see, too, the Lord's words, John 14:16; John 14:18; John 14:21; John 14:23; John 16:7; John 17:11. There we find that while He is "no more in the world," and it is "expedient that He go away," yet "the Spirit of Truth" shall not only come, but so come that the disciples shall not be "left orphans"; their Lord shall "come to them"; His Father and He will "make Their abode" with each faithful believer. We thus get fragments of a Divine comment on the glorious passage now before us; to the effect that this Presence, this permanent Indwelling, of the Saviour, is essentially a Presence in and by the Spirit, mediated by the Spirit; not physical, or quasi-physical, or under any mode other than, and different from, a Presence through the Spirit's agency upon the "inner man." Where the Spirit "permanently abides," there, and therefore, does the Saviour so abide; with just this difference, or condition, that we are to think, in the passage before us, of the indwelling Spirit as directing His agency expressly and speciallyin the direction of making the Saviour's Presence a permanent reality to the "heart."

Compare further the Seven Epistles of the Revelation, where the voice of the glorified Saviour is identified, in every instance, with that of the Spirit.

in the inner man Lit., "intothe inner man"; as if to say, "deep init"; "penetrating far intoit." "The inner man" :see for the same phrase, Rom 7:22; 2 Corinthians 4:16. Here it means, practically, the regenerate human spirit. In itself, the phrase may mean no more than the invisible as against the material in man; but the three N. T. passages thus before us indicate its actual reference, in St Paul's vocabulary, to the regenerate self.