Exceeding Abundantly Above
These three adverbs are only vaguely familiar to those who have not read the King James Bible recently. They describe something that is not only above, but abundantly above. It is not only abundantly above, but it even exceeds that! Our imaginations find it hard to go anywhere to that degree of description, but it is one of God’s promises to us. It is found in Ephesians 3:20. “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” It is the perfect description of how the Lord answers our prayers. A striking illustration of this is found in the prophecy of Zechariah in Luke 1:67-79. His words were a request, a prayer that God would fulfill the oath He swore to Abraham. One of his requests is found in verses 74 and 75. “That he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.”
Zechariah’s prayer included a past, (freedom from enemies), a present (serving Him without fear), and a future (in holiness and righteousness before him, all days of our life). He had only a dim concept of that for which he was asking. It is probable that Zechariah was thinking only of the Romans who occupied Israel at that time. He, no doubt, regarded fear as being produced by the extreme circumstances in which he lived and hoped to be free from that oppression. The holiness and righteousness of which he spoke were likely due only to the daily cleansing of the temple rituals. God’s answer to his prayer was exceedingly abundantly above all that he asked and was able to think.
The Lord’s answer to the prayer that Zechariah would be free from his enemies did not involve Rome. The Lord knew what Zechariah did not know, that his true enemies were the world, the flesh and the devil. The Lord’s answer included freedom from all three. Galatians 6:14 states that freedom from the world and the flesh is obtained by the cross. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.” By the cross, we have been given these freedoms. We are enabled, then, by His power, to deny self (Luke 9:23), and love not the world. (I John 2:15-16) I John 3:8 tells us further that the Lord came to destroy the devil’s work.
The fear that Zechariah wanted to be delivered from was not only of temporal origin. Their system of worship, derived from the old covenant, was one which produced a fear, as Moses described in Hebrews 12:21. “The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear.’” In contrast to the fear produced by the old covenant, the new covenant contains this promise in I John 4:18. (Living Bible) “We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us, and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us.”
Zechariah’s longing to experience holiness and righteousness all the days of his life was dependent solely upon the duties of the priest. Hebrews 10:11 relates that “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” Hebrews 10:1b has this comment about the law. “For this reason it can never by the same sacrifice repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.” It was impossible for him to conceive that the provision of the Lord was so exceeding abundantly above his concept of holiness and righteousness that it would involve oneness with Christ Himself! “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (I Corinthians 1:30)
Zechariah’s prayer was based upon his limited temporal understanding of God’s plans for Israel. God’s answer was based upon His eternal plans for mankind before the foundation of the world. Zechariah’s prayer was based upon his own knowledge of what was needed. God’s answer was based upon His perfect knowledge, complete authority, and infinite love. In our prayers to God, we sometimes struggle with the correct terminology to describe what we are asking Him to do. We cannot see the future. We don’t even know, at times, what is best for ourselves and others. Our prayers cannot begin to address the immense needs in the countries and cultures of the world whose problems are beyond our understanding. We can be encouraged, however, by the prayer of Zechariah. He was faithful to pray and to ask to the degree of which he was able. His faithfulness was answered in ways that he was not able to comprehend. It is the same with our prayers. We need only to bring our requests to Him. We see through a glass darkly but He does not. He answers according to His wisdom, not ours. His answer embraces the eternal, not just the temporal. We are able to pray Ephesians 3:20 with confidence, knowing that His answers are, indeed, exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think.
In Christ, Richard Spann