Eph. 1:18

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His (God) calling, what are the riches of the glory of His (God) inheritance in the saints, 

I gave this verse and the promise another look this morning, and I just love this statement. 
There is a hope attached to His calling. Let's think of it this way, God “calls” people, this “call” promises or produces hope in them, and this emotion of hope is directed toward something or someone (Bratcher & Nida, 1993).

It is the next bold statement that is even more confusing. Even Bratcher & Nida are uncertain of which exact understanding of the phrase is most accurate. They offer three possible understandings. 

The compound genitive phrase “the wealth of the glory of his inheritance” may be (a) the glorious wealth of his inheritance, or (b) the wealth of his glorious inheritance, or (c) his rich and glorious inheritance (1993). 
In any case there clearly is a strong rhetorical effect with the entire phrase. 

This is not the only time this phrase appears. We see in   Eph. 3:16, "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man..."

And Col. 1:27, " to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

It may be better in some languages to use a term such as “wonderful” and employ an attributive so as to emphasize the importance of grandeur of the secret, “how truly wonderful is the message which has not previously been known" (Bratcher & Nida, 1993).

Going back to our promises:
-God offers riches of glory in His inheritance
-God has surpassing greatness in His power, this power He sends towards us

God has wonderful things for us (the saints) in our inheritance. We do not even know all of the glorious and wonderful things that are to come that God has been preparing for us! That is really exciting news.




Bratcher, R. G., &; Nida, E. A. (1993). A handbook on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. UBS Handbook Series (p. 32). New York: United Bible Societies.