Tuesday
Tuesday
The Symbol of Power
That you may know … his incomparably great power … which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead.
Ephesians 1:18–20
The resurrection of Jesus Christ also assures us of God’s power. For we need God’s power in the present as well as his forgiveness of the past. Is God really able to change human nature, to make cruel people kind and sour people sweet? Is he able to take people who are dead to spiritual reality and make them alive in Christ? Yes, he really is! He is able to give life to the spiritually dead and transform us into the likeness of Christ.
But how can these claims be substantiated? Only because of the resurrection. Paul prays that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened, so that we may know “his incomparably great power for us who believe” (v. 19). How may we know this? In addition to the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, God has given us an outward, public, objective demonstration of it in the resurrection. For the power available for us today is the very same power “which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (v. 20). The resurrection is thus portrayed as the supreme evidence in history of the creative power of God.
We are always in danger of trivializing the gospel, of minimizing what God is able to do for us and in us. We speak of becoming a Christian as if it were no more than turning over a new leaf and making a few superficial adjustments to an otherwise secular life. But no, becoming and being a Christian, according to the New Testament, is an event so radical that no language can do it justice except death and resurrection—death to the old life of self-centeredness and resurrection to a new life of love. In brief, the same God of supernatural power who raised Jesus from physical death can raise us from spiritual death. We know he can raise us because we know that he raised him. Now our prayer is that in every aspect of our lives we may “know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Phil. 3:10).
For further reading: Ephesians 1:15–23