Strength is a trait that is often sought after in our world full of gyms, sports arenas, and athletic contests. Accounts of men engaging in strength contests date back to the ancient Chinese practice of lifting heavy stones and cauldrons. Likewise, Ancient Greece and Rome embraced a culture of strength.

While the current culture of strength may be a bit obsessive, without it, nations fall, leaders fail, personal health diminishes, and Christians lose heart.

The strength, however, that is essential to a Christian is not physical, but spiritual, supplied by the Spirit of God.

Spiritual Strength in the Bible

In his second recorded prayer on behalf of the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul prays

“…that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;” (Ephesians 3:16).

The word “riches” points to something of great abundance and value like money or gold. God the Father has an infinite supply of something infinitely valuable called glory. What is the connection between the wealth of His glory and the strength that Paul prays for? God grants this strength in such a way that draws attention to the abundance of His grace by giving it away, not to the strong but needy people. While human strength gives glory to men by showing “how large,” “how big” and “how strong” men are, the Spirit glorifies the Father by the strength of Christ through weakness.

Therefore, regardless of the size of your biceps, bank account, church, intelligence or anything owned by you, this strength is not only necessary but available to you according to His greatness and not your own.  

Strength From the Holy Spirit

Furthermore, the strength that the Spirit gives and that Paul is praying for is “with might” in the inner man. What is this might or inner power to be used for and how do we know when we have it?

Paul begins his prayer for the Spirit’s strength in the church in verse 14 where he will identify the reason for praying as follows:

“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”

What is the reason for this prayer? Paul was made a minister by the gift of grace to preach to the Gentiles who are fellow-heirs of eternal life and of the same body (Ephesians 3:6 – 7). What is the significance of this statement? For starters, the original word for Gentiles is ethnos from which we get the word ethnic or ethnicity. Ethnicity refers to the identification of a group or people based on cultural distinctives such as nationality, culture, food, values, styles, literature, music, etc.  

The Lord is gathering together a new people group with a new identity out of the nations or various people groups. This is why Paul prays in Ephesians 3:15,

“Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” (Emphasis added is mine).

The power of the cross has not only destroyed the barrier of unforgiven sin that keeps us from God but also the walls of separation between people. In Christ, we lay down the stones that we so often use to build walls of separation, and we become the stones that are fitly joined and built as a habitation of God by the Spirit. What is the Spirit doing? Building a temple of praise for God (Ephesians 2:22). It is here, in His church, that we are called to live and love together to glorify His grace (Ephesians 3:10). Wherever you find people that have put on the new man, “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”

Think of the implications in our current culture of conflict, separation and animosity.  Do you have the power to love, forgive, disciple, help, exhort, welcome, and evangelize people that are not like you?  For this cause, we ask that God would strengthen us with His might by his Spirit in the inner man.

The Strength of Christ

According to the next part of Paul’s petition, this prayer for strength is so that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” When you are trusting in God through Christ, you are in possession of this strength. What does it look like? Paul gives us two ways that we experience the strength of Christ with what follows:

“that ye being rooted and grounded in love.”

A tree has roots that keep it from falling in strong winds and a building does not crumble during an earthquake because of the firm foundation. The imagery of stability or patient endurance comes into focus with these words. As an apostle who suffered many tribulations, Paul knew his own as well as our own need for this strength. Do you feel your need for this prayer?

God’s Strength in Difficult Times

When we are easily frustrated by traffic delays and construction, we demonstrate that patient endurance doesn’t come naturally. Failure to endure and love is common today as we can easily observe in relationships such as marriages and churches. These are two areas that God displays the strength of His love and wisdom to the world although Christians increasingly mirror more of what we see in the world instead.
In our disposable society, we use something up and then throw it out. The stick-to-it mentality and stability pictured in this prayer is a relic of another age. Why should we stay the course and endure in hard work and hardships when endless alternatives are beckoning us to leave?

God calls on us to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ! The strength to be rooted and grounded is Christ’s call to follow him, to run the race with patience, to finish strong for God’s glory by being small in your own eyes. When we are being strengthened by His Spirit, when Christ is dwelling in our hearts by faith, rather than draw back when hardships come, we can be rooted and grounded in love.

How God’s Love Gives Believers Strength

The strength of Christ indwelling is experienced by love. In the original language, the word order is literally “in love rooted and grounded.” This order is used to place emphasis on the word love. Why this emphasis? Likely because the fruit that remains on the rooted tree and the light that keeps shining through the windows of the grounded building is your love for one another.

“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Whose love are we first talking about in this context? Make no mistake, all the commands that follow in chapters 4 – 6 are empowered by this prayer for strength to love others. But faith must first receive strength before it can work (Colossians 2:6, Galatians 5:6). How does the love of Christ strengthen you so that you are tree-like and foundation-like in loving others? Only when you are enjoying his love.

Finding Joy and Strength in Christ

Consider the parallel prayer of Paul in Colossians 1:11 which asserts:

“Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;” (Emphasis added is mine).

Note the parallels of strength, might, glory and stability with the addition of joyfulness. Paul is praying for their love to grow in knowledge and strength by the Spirit that endures hardships (patience) and relationships (longsuffering) with joyfulness.

What kind of love will keep you going when the horizon looks dark, the clouds are thick and the warmth and brightness of the sun are gone?

What experience of love will keep you on the pathway of obedience in the church when endless roadblocks, temptations and supposed escapes arise?

When his love is your delight! When the joy of the Lord is your strength! There is no higher calling, no bigger privilege, no greater joy. For this cause may we bow our knee to the Father and pray for this strength.

Mike was born and raised in central Mississippi. After graduating from Mississippi State in 1986, God changed his course of direction with a deep conviction of sin and desire to follow Christ. He then met his wife, Peggy, while attending church in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1998, he was ordained to the ministry in BelAir, Maryland, and ultimately moved to Huntsville, Alabama, to begin his first pastorate. In 2005, Heritage was formed and called him to be her founding pastor.

In the wake of the latest wave of the so-called sexual revolution, the new morality of identity politics is taking no prisoners and demanding complete acceptance of its claims as it blankets the globe. Meanwhile, churches face a choice: either capitulate to the culture’s demands to legimitize same-sex relationships and gender re-identitification or suffer the consequences.

How Should Christians Respond to Today’s Culture?

There is no middle ground and no compromise found in God’s word, and neither do we offer any. However, in our struggle to maintain God’s standard of morality in a culture of darkness we must never forget that we do have something to offer. Though often rejected, we are to offer, or declare, the gospel of God’s redeeming grace to the very darkness that opposes us!

You may be thinking, “Aren’t we called to be like ‘salt’ that preserves and ‘light’ that exposes?” Yes (Matthew 5:13; Ephesians 5:11); but let’s not forget that salt also adds flavor (Luke 14:33-34) and light also illuminates beauty (Matthew 5:16). As Peter makes clear, having tasted the grace of God’s redemption (1 Peter 2:3), we are empowered to illuminate the Father’s glory by our love (1 Peter 2:12) which attracts attention to the glory of His grace (1 Peter 2:9)!

The grace of God’s redeeming love is to be displayed to the very culture that is speaking evil of and persecuting His people (1 Peter 2:12, 3:14, 4:4; and 3:17, 4:19). If this idea of shining light into the darkness seems as difficult as trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, remember: God’s redeeming grace can come to them the same way it came to us when we were in the darkness.

What Romans Teaches About Sin and Salvation

Perhaps the clearest display of God’s redeeming grace is revealed in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and prophets. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:21 – 23).

Note the phrase in verse 23:

“for there is no difference: for all have sinned.”

On one level, there is a big difference between the sin of murder and the sin of lying, especially if such a death involves someone you know personally. But on the level of redemption, there is no distinction. The apostle lays the groundwork for this reality in the first three chapters precisely because the religious Jews saw a big difference between themselves and the pagans.

According to Paul, the Gentiles were participating in and approving their own “new morality”:

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet” (Romans 1:26).

There are no shortages of teachers in our day that would try to redefine Paul’s words. But, clearly, “women with women” and “men with men” is against God’s word and is therefore sin against God. They want to worship and serve images of themselves, and so they exchange the image of the incorruptible God for the image of corruptible man — of the truth of God for a lie. Perhaps the reason Paul says more about homosexuality than other sins in this chapter is because it is the most distorted expression of depravity. And God gives them over to their sin.

Let’s assume you have given a hearty “Amen” so far. That’s fine — but the Jews of Paul’s day would have done the same. Paul’s point, though, in exposing the base sins of the Gentiles was to destroy the man-made distinctions we so often draw between ourselves and such sinners. In chapter 2, Paul adds this:

“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.”

The “same” things? We might wonder how can the sins of the Jews be on the same level as the sexual sins of the Gentiles. But the more pertinent question for us is, how can our sins in some real sense be on the same level as those of people in same-sex relationships?
The answer to that question comes in chapter 3 as Paul continues to prosecute his argument:

“What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin….”

The line he draws from Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:9 is that the Jews with their more sanitized sins are just as much under sin as the Gentiles engaging in homosexual sins. There is no distinction. “All under sin” means that all are under its condemnation, all under its penalty, all under its control, and all in need of redemption.

Why Are We All Under the Same Penalty of Sin?

The question Paul wants you to ask at this point is why we are all under the same penalty of sin when we haven’t all reached the same depth of debauchery. Paul begins addressing this question in Romans 3:10-11:

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”

Don’t miss Paul’s definition of “none righteous” here: that “no one” is righteous means that no one understands; and that no one understands means that no one seeks God. To be clear, natural men understand God’s eternal power and godhead as creator, for He has revealed it to them so that they are without excuse. What Paul means is that we don’t understand, know or value his glory, and therefore we don’t love and seek God for the treasure that He is. In other words, no one seeks God because everyone is in love with themselves. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” Paul writes in Romans 3:23.

If we have all come up “short,” then the degree doesn’t matter: If you are drowning in 50 feet of water or 10 feet of water, the problem is the same: you are drowning and you need to be rescued. And so it is with our lack of righteousness regardless of the depth of our debauchery. The reason there is no difference is because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God! What we must understand is that from the sin of homosexuality to the sin of religious hypocrisy all sinners need the same redeeming grace of God. But what is redemption?

The Meaning of Redemption Through Jesus Christ

This brings us to the glorious climax of Romans 3:24-26, a climax Paul has had in mind since the first chapter:

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

To be “justified freely” is to be declared righteous before God apart from anything you do. “By his grace” means you don’t deserve it and you can’t earn it or pay for it. The grace of redemption is free regardless of how low you have reached, how far you have gone, how despicable you have been, how much guilt you have carried. The grace of God’s redemption reaches even you, friend. Even if you have participated in homosexual relationships. Even if you have been part of gender reassignment. Yes, grace is just that free and just that wonderful and just that powerful!

The reason grace is free is because God set forth Christ to be a “propitiation,” a word that conveys expiating or placating force. Both of these ideas — free grace and propitiation — meet beautifully in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has initiated redemption, and his grace has the force or the power to remove (or expiate) the guilt of sin by satisfying (or placating) the wrath of God. The force of redemption is the blood of Jesus Christ:

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7, emphasis mine).

How rich is God’s grace? Rich enough to redeem and powerful enough to forgive your sins — all of them! The blood of Christ has so completely satisfied the wrath of God that there is not a drop of wrath left for all those that trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ absorbed it all on behalf of sinners. Hallelujah, what a savior! What a God! What a love!
Can God Redeem Anyone?

If you doubt God’s grace for you in your struggle with sinful desires, listen to Paul’s word to the church at Corinth:

“And such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:11a).

Some of the members of the church at Corinth had been fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners. There were those sitting on the pew at Corinth that were at one time abusers of themselves with mankind (i.e. practicing homosexuality). What happened? Paul explains in the rest of the verse:

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Justified by his grace, justified by his blood, so that we can be justified by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Living as Salt and Light in a Dark World

As you seek God’s wisdom in living as salt and light in a culture trying to scatter the salt and blow out the light, don’t forget to share the grace of God’s redemption. Because there is no difference: we are all sinners, and Christ Jesus is the only savior of sinners.