BOLDNESS AND ACCESS WITH CONFIDENCE

As Paul opens a new paragraph in his letter, in typically Pauline fashion he builds on the glorious statements of what he has just brought to our attention. Reaching the word ‘Gentiles’ sends hi off on another tangent, enabling him to wax eloquent concerning his ministry on behalf of the Gentiles, and God’s revelation of the church as the body of Christ, uniting within its compass Jew and Gentile. This mystery was hidden from the world but known always to our great God.

This subject excites Paul as it should us, and so again we see him rising to greater heights as he revels in what God wanted to make men see ‘which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God’. The church, asserts Paul, is the greatest masterpiece conceived by God, revealing to ‘principalities and powers in heavenly places . . . the manifold wisdom of God’. Thus, WUEST says, ‘The church becomes the university for angels and each saint a professor’.¹ God has so much to reveal, and every revelation enhances the glory of God. Yet, He has unveiled each revelation in His own set - time and for His own set purpose.

God’s restraint in this timetable is remarkable in view of the fact that each revelation unfolds more of the eternal purpose of God. Left to us, we would have revealed all simultaneously. With God, however, it is as if He wanted to unwrap these presents of revelation in His own, ordered time.

Inevitably these revelations are through Christ, who gives not only access, but also boldness to enjoy and utilize this access. There is no reason why we should be reluctant and timorous entering God’s presence. ‘Boldness’ implies the right of every citizen in a national setting. We have this through ‘the faith of him’. If this is true, then how much more should we enter and how much more boldly should we enter. Avail yourself of this again and again. Prayer was never meant to be a single exercise. It provides us with unlimited access to God’s presence and we need never think we will wear Him down with constant approach. The door is always open, and He wants us to enter as often as possible.

¹

K. S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, Vol. 1 - Ephesians and Colossians, W. B. Eerdmans, 2002, Vol. 1 - Ephesians and Colossians, pg. 85.