Raised With Power

God Raised Jesus in Victory and with Authority (Ephesians 1:20-23)

This statement about Jesus is here so that we can know the power of God that is directed toward those of us who believe. But to understand the power of God at work towards believers, we must understand what God has done in Jesus.

This is the way it always works: God works through Jesus for us. What we have, we have because of Jesus, in Jesus and for the sake of Jesus—and all of this is for our greatest good.

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead conquered death in victory (Ephesians 1:20):

1 Timothy 1:10 —Life and immortality have been brought to life in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The resurrected Jesus is the beginning of God’s glorious New Creation that has overcome sin, corruption and death.

When Jesus was raised from the dead the life He was raised unto was different than the life possessed before His death.

The life He took to Himself when He came from heaven to earth and was born of the virgin Mary was “in the likeness of sinful flesh and [was] for [the sake] of [our] sin” (Romans 8:3).

The life that Jesus was raised unto was a new glorious humanity (Philippians 3:21).

Jesus’ ascension to the right hand establishes His rightful rule over all things as the Head of the Church (Ephesians 1:20-23).

Jesus now sits at “the right hand in the heavenly places”

Psalm 110:1—To sit at the right hand in the heavenly places is to sit at the right hand of God Almighty and is to possess divine power and authority.

Jesus is seated far above all other competing powers and forces.

Jesus is seated far above all other competing claims to authority (above every name that is named).

Jesus is seated far above all other things both now and forever (in this age and the age to come).

Jesus’ power and authority are true no matter what anyone believes (Ephesians 1:22).

He [God] put all things under His [Jesus’] feet!

Every person you have ever met is subject to Jesus—they may not believe that, they may not know that, but they are subject to Him nonetheless.

When judgement day comes, it will a person’s response—or lack there of—to what God has done in and through Jesus that will determine their eternal destiny.

As the late theologian, and former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Abraham Kuyper stated, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

This is a statement of fact. This is what God has done, regardless of what anyone may think or believe.

Jesus’ power and authority are understood, obeyed and testified to by His Body, the Church (Ephesians 1:22).

Jesus has been given as “head over all things to the Church”

This does not meant that Jesus is only head over the things of the Church, but that Jesus’ divine power and supreme lordship over all creation is understood, obeyed and testified to in the life of the Church.

It is the Church, and the Church alone, that lives in accordance with reality.

God Raised Believers From Death to Life in Jesus (Ephesians 2:1-10)

You were dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-3).

Physical life doesn’t mean true life (Ephesians 2:1-2).

A life that is lived in slavery to sin is a life lived in the realm of spiritual death.

To walk in ‘trespasses and sins’ is live your life going down the path of sin and unrighteousness.

It is to live your life in opposition to what God has revealed to be the path of life.

Paul calls this a life that follows ‘the course of this world’—a world under the grip and influence of sin; a world inclined and turned away from God, who is the only source of goodness and true life.

A life lived outside of faith in Jesus is a life lived inclined away from God, dead in trespasses and sin and following after the brokenness of this world. It is a life that is lived following the ways of Satan rather than God.

We have been tricked into thinking that a Satanic life is one that will be marked by the most grotesque forms of sin and debauchery.

But a life that follows the prince of the power of the air (Satan) is any life not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus.

It is the life of the moralist who serves His community believing that his good works will earn him a place in heaven—and thereby defaming and trampling upon the grace of God.

It is the life of your neighbor or co-worker who thinks that God is an outdated idea no longer needed in the modern world which is to be understood scientifically.

It is the life of the religiously tolerant who believe all faiths are of equal value—and thereby lead people away from the one true and living God and the one Savior of mankind—Jesus Christ.

To live a life outside of Christ is to live in opposition to God’s will and to demonstrate that your life is under the influence of the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Everyone was dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:3).

This is true of every person who has ever lived. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve gone to church, what family you were born into, or how well you know your bible. Among whom we all once lived …

If you’ve been a Christian for 50, 60, 70 years, you still were among this group. You still need rescuing, you still needed grace.

Because sin has entered our world and because every person is affected by sin from conception, every person is by nature a child of wrath.

If you are a follower of Jesus, God has made you alive together with Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Death does not have the final say. Because God is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, [He] made us alive together with Jesus.

God is rich in mercy—He has an over abundance of mercy.

Psalm 103:8-10

If not for the mercy of God, everyone of us would be justly condemned by God because of our trespasses and sin.

By grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:5b, 8-10)

Salvation is by grace!

You must not assume you have done, or could do anything the earn this gift. You must come with empty hands to God, knowing that on your best day and in the midst of your best effort, you would fall short of earning salvation and receiving His blessings.

Salvation is through faith!

Salvation cannot be earned or coerced. It must be recieved by faith as a completely undeserved gift.

If it is of grace it must be recieved by faith:

Faith is believing that Jesus has done what you should have done but, because of sin, could not and would not do.

Faith is believing that Jesus has died for your sin and for the brokenness of this world.

Faith is the emptied handed reception of God’s grace in and through Jesus Christ and leaves no room for boasting.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

If you are a follower of Jesus, then you have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)

To be seated with Jesus in the heavenly places means that as those united to Jesus in faith, every believer has been granted a status which makes us fit for God’s presence and has the power of God directed towards them to overcome sin and death.

To be seated with Jesus in the heavenly places means, also, that we will spend all eternity marveling at the immeasurable value of God’s grace—in the form of His kindness to us—that is ours in and though Jesus (Ephesians 2:7).

If you are a follower of Jesus, then you are a new creation artistically created by God for good works (Ephesians 2:10).

Note: Contrary to what the world might say about Christian morality (old fashioned, prudish, no fun, oppressive, etc.)—the good works of the Christian life are here described as an outflow of God’s artistic re-creating of His people.

His Workmanship = ποίημα = to do, or to make. It is also the Greek word that our English word Poem comes from and in this case refers to God’s carful, handcrafted re-creation of His people in order to carry out those things which are declared good—those things that are, therefore, both true and beautiful.

The good, the true and the beautiful—from a biblical understanding—cannot be separated. That which is good must be both true and beautiful. That which is true must be good and beautiful. And, that which is beautiful must be good and true.

To walk in the ways of Jesus is to walk in goodness, truth and beauty. It is to walk as a creature of God’s grace, it is to walk as one who receives grace; it is to walk as one who has been made alive and seated with Christ in the heavenly places.