Ephesians Lesson 38 of 39 part 7

Romans 8:38-39

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, (creation) shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

In other words, these principalities, and powers that Paul speaks of are in Satan’s domain. And are the powers of darkness that Paul warns us about in Ephesians, and again he does not tell us to attack them, but rather we are to resist them, we are to have a defense against them, and be ready with the Scriptures to resist. For both James and Peter advise those to whom they are writing to resist the devil or the evil of the evil day. We always have to understand that it is not flesh and blood that we defend against. Except in the fact that it is in our very flesh that we are waging this war for spiritual supremacy and Not against anyone else. We have to have the speck in out own eye removed, first. But we are not even equipped to do this in our own strength or sufficiency. Paul knew that better than anyone else. As he writes this letter to the Ephesians believers, where is he? Well he is in prison in Rome, and whether it was this exact moment, or a year or two later, who became the most awful emperor that the Roman empire had ever experienced? Nero. It was under Nero of course that Paul and Peter were finally put to death.

I have to feel as we study and ponder some of these things, that some of the freedom that Paul experienced in his earthly prison experience was because there was another emperor – as Nero came in a little later. There was a man, a Roman general, under Nero, who was the epitome of Satan himself for he had his legion destroy both the Jewish Temple and the city of Jerusalem. But we do know that Nero was the emperor when Paul was put to death. Nero was wicked, and like Ahab in the Old Testament, and he also had a wife that was worse than he was. She was a proselyte of Judaism, and she of course would listen to the Judaizers who detested the Apostle Paul, and wanted his life to end. So she egged Nero on in a lot of his wicked things. 

So Paul writes from a position of full understanding what it is to be up against the powers and principalities and the wickedness, and darkness of this world. He knew what it was, as he was talking from first hand experience. He knew the evil of the Judaizers and those like them, namely their own higher echelon of leadership because these men did not act on their own. But on the other hand, Paul never gave up, Paul never despaired, because his makeup was constantly up beat as we will see when we get into the book of Philippians where his comments were rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, over and over, in spite of his horrible circumstances, and so it is an encouragement to us. 

We have no idea what this apostle had to go through, but we do get a little picture of the wickedness, and the things that are taking place in the realm of the principalities and powers, because all we have to do is pick up our daily papers or tune to the news. What is causing the murders and the random violence that is sweeping not only America, but the whole world? Well it is the Satanic powers, of principalities and the things that are constantly producing such lawlessness and wickedness. In verse 13, and Paul begins with the word "Wherefore," since we are dealing with something beyond the physical, this is something that is in the area of the invisible. And that of course is where Satan’s domain is.

Ephesians 6:13

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

Another point I would like to make is, if Paul is in prison in Rome, who is constantly in his presence? Roman soldiers, as one or possibly two of them were usually chained to him. So he had a first hand view of the operations, from the mouth of a Roman solder. This is unique to Paul, that he uses the things that were around him in the everyday world to make his point even though it was Holy Spirit inspired, just as Jesus did. For example, when he tells us to run the race, what is he making the analogy with? The Olympic style games. He gives us the same background that the Olympic runners had to prepare to run their race, and so do we have to prepare to run our race for the Lord. We are to train and be trained by the Holy Spirit in all things spiritual to what end? To fulfill our calling and election as a laborer, a steward who God approves. This does not happen over night or at the wink of the eye but rather over time as Peter points out in first Peter.

 

Of course he is using the Roman solder to make a point. These soldiers were known for their ability in battle. As he comes down through these verses he is going to literally look at that Roman soldier, or possibly a Roman gladiator, prepared for altercation of one sort or another. He may not have had all his battlefield armor on, or at least what was required for close combat. But yet Paul was aware of all the things that Roman soldier needed before he went into battle. He was seeing it around him all the time. Paul was such a tremendous witness of this Gospel, that even these pagan Romans soldiers, as they took their place as his personal guard, by the time they rotated out to another place of service, what where they? They were believers!