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Christ's Power, Our Power

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality.
– 1 Corinthians 15:54

We've come a long way together, you and me. This is the second last instalment of this study series. This study builds on ideas from the last one, seeking to open our eyes to the incredible extent of Christ's power, and inviting you to claim this power as your own.

The New Creation

Some of you may be aware that the main purpose of biblical miracles was to confirm the spoken word of the prophets, the apostles, and of Christ (Hebrews 2:3-4). However, on an equally practical level, it must also be recognised that miracles show God's power and character. It was a messianic prophesy that Jesus would heal the sick (Isaiah 53:4), not only so that people would take notice of His words, but also so that people would see that God is a God of healing, who feels our pain, and longs to carry our burdens.

But there's more to it than that. The truth is that God is always healing wounds. Our bodies heal, and that is an act of God. Some years ago I had a small operation in which the doctor had to use a scalpel. At the end of the operation, he stitched me up and sent me home and I thought "Well, isn't that incredible! He's just put string to hold my skin together, and that's it." All he could do was hope that, ultimately, my body would heal itself – and, based on past experience, he could be quite certain that it would. Doctors can't heal any more than surfers can create waves. Healing is from God; and He's always healing us – that's what Jesus reminded us of in His ministry.

John's Gospel most closely follows this thinking. Jesus turns water into wine (John 2:1-11), to the amazement of the wedding guests. But God is always turning water into wine! Every season, God sends rain, which waters crops which are then picked, crushed and fermented into wine. All this is from God (Job 36:26-29). Jesus simply did what God had been doing every season for thousands of years – except He did it in an instant, showing that God is sovereign over agriculture. God is the provider of food for our sustenance, and wine for our pleasure. Each of the signs in John's gospel shows a different aspect of God's sovereignty (see Merrill Tenney's "New Testament Survey" for a full account).

But do all miracles follow this pattern? Do all miracles reflect the way God is working in the here and now? The answer is no. There are two miracles in the Gospels which actually reverse the way that God works in this world. Firstly, there is walking on water (John 6:16-21). This defies the laws of science; there is no parallel to it in this world. The second is raising people from the dead – which Jesus did three times, and then, ultimately to Himself, as we've explored earlier. These miracles go beyond this world – what is God trying to show us about Himself through these miracles?

The answer suggested by C.S. Lewis is that most miracles are miracles of the "Old Creation" (that is, the current world), while others are miracles of the "New Creation" (that is, the world to come). When Jesus walked on water, He gave us a glimpse of the fact that, in heaven, we will triumph over the material – a fact that we already know.

Jesus was showing us the way it will be in the world to come.

So, explaining resurrection is very straightforward indeed. Jesus raised people from the dead in order to compellingly demonstrate to us that on the Final Day, all the righteous will raise from their graves, from death to life – and this reversal of natural processes is what will characterize heaven. It's a clich้ that "nothing lasts forever", but in heaven, everything will last forever – the natural order will be turned on its head. Resurrection is a glimpse of the world to come; it gives us a foreshadowing of what awaits our eternity.

Resurrection Power

Now that we have a deeper understanding of the cosmic resurrection, we turn to the topic of this study, and ask what power God makes available to us. But let's start by pondering what power we have in our natural state. To begin with, we are "sold as a slave to sin" (Romans 7:14), "nothing good lives in [us]," and we can barely even choose to do what is right (Romans 7:18). We are captives to sin, without strength and without hope.

The world beckons us to spend our lives scrambling for power – social power, physical strength, economic power, political power and, one of the most popular, "mind power" (which is, of course, pure humanism). Such thinking is futility (Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17), and, in the end, it will all come to nothing. How do we profit if we gain the entire world, but lose our very soul? When we are alive to God, we recognise that the power sources that the world offers have little merit; it is spiritual sustenance that we crave.

As risen sons and daughters of God, we have a very different kind of power available to us. Ephesians 1:19-21 says "[I pray that you may know] what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God has put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come." (NRSV) So, the power which God gives us is resurrection power:

The power to be transformed from death into life.

God would not have it any way. When we were baptized, it was Christ's resurrection that we connected with (Romans 6:3-4), because we were brought from spiritual deadness to eternal life. But what we urgently need to remember is that this is still the power which is available to us, day by day. Paul prayed that the church in Ephesus would know this resurrection power, and remember that is it "for us who believe."

At every moment, with every passing breath, God has one power source available to us: the cosmic power source of the resurrection; a power source which leaves nuclear power in the dust. Nuclear power may well be able to blow this world to smithereens – in fact, I have no doubt that it could! But it will never have the power to transform death into life. This power belongs to God alone, and the amazing fact is that He makes it available to all of His sons and daughters, and that is something to rejoice about.

The Light Switch

Hopefully we are starting to be convinced about just how incredible the power is which God makes available to us. The challenge for us, then, is to tap into this incredible reserve. Rising to this call is the very same challenge as the call to wield our spiritual authority which we learned about in the previous study. If we feel incapable of rising above our sin, if we feel trapped in a cycle of ungodly behaviour, then one thing is sure: We are living our lives on our strength, rather than the resurrection power of God. I am the first to plead "guilty as charged". In fact, of all the points made in this series, this is the one I'm most excited about. It's time for another story from Ravi's book:

Years ago, there was a light-hearted story making the rounds. It was the story of a breakdown in a power plant that sent the city into confusion. For a long time, no engineer could be found who was able to fix the problem. Finally a man came along who, by the push of a button, restarted the system. He billed the city for a million and one dollars. Surprised by the number, somebody asked him why it was a million and one, and not just a million. His answer was that one dollar was for pushing the button. The one million was for knowing where to push.
– Zacharias, page 107.

You are aware that you are seated with Christ, and that the power which raised Him from death is the same power available to you – right now. With Jesus in death, with you in life. But where is the light switch? Which button do you need to push in order to surge the system with the power that's been waiting there the whole time, but which, for some reason, has been blocked off?

As with every mystery of Scripture, that answer was there all along. What do notice that is common about Ephesians 1:18-20, Ephesians 3:19, and many other passages that we have been turning to? They are prayers. The light switch is not high above our reach, as we may imagine: "I need to be so much more spiritual before I can reach these blessings – I'll need to prove myself before God blesses me." What futile thinking. After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? (Galatians 3:3)

In fact, the light switch is in such a location that we can only reach it when we're on our knees. We need to be so convinced of our lostness and powerlessness outside of Christ that we forsake our confidence in ourselves and fall before God in dependence on Him. We ought to throw ourselves into prayer – not because we're "so spiritual", but because we're so unspiritual! Only then will we attain to the full measure of God's power and renewal in our life.

Christ’s body was made new through his triumph over death;
Our spirits will also be made new as God’s strength empowers us to triumph over sin.

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