Ephesians 1:19–23
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Paul says God’s power is working in a believer’s life. How great is that power? It is “incomparably great”; there is no power like it. Paul tries to describe this power by heaping up words. It is “exceeding great”—the dunamis, the dynamite raw power. It is not static; it is a “working” energeia, an inward propulsion of power. It is a “mighty power” that has the ability to conquer all things: to conquer sin, to oppose spiritual enemies, to persevere through trials, and to live joyfully and fruitfully.
Maybe you are sitting here thinking, “What power are you talking about, Pastor? Which world are you in? Forget about power; we don’t even have the strength to live. We are so weak and are struggling to deal with daily life.” Often we struggle and are defeated by a besetting sin. We have no power to overcome ordinary things like mobile and TV addictions. We struggle in marriages and families with uncontrollable anger, wounding one another with bitter words. We are not doing anything for the kingdom or progressing even in this life, wasting our time and lives on frivolous activities. We feed our minds with godless videos and movies, having no power even to regularly read and study God’s Word. Surrounding us, we see nothing happening for God’s kingdom. We ask, “Where is God’s mighty power working in our lives?” At least Pentecostals scream about “power,” claiming to do miracles and speaking in tongues, but there is no power of holiness in their lives; they suddenly get caught in money and sex scandals, and the world mocks the gospel. That is a different story, but where is the power in our lives?
I know we do not feel that power; it sounds very theoretical. It does not correspond to experience, so some of you assume this sermon is going to be fiction. I know that, and even the Apostle Paul knew that when he wrote this. He tells us the reason why we don’t feel this great, exceeding power. The most basic reason, he says, is because the eyes of our minds are very dim to spiritual realities: the reality of the horror of sin and depravity, the reality of demonic power, the reality of what God has done to us in salvation, and, most importantly, the glory of Christ—our identity in Christ, and Christ’s present glory and ministry. Oh, if we could only see what has become of Christ since the resurrection!
That is why Paul earnestly prays that a spirit of revelation and wisdom should enlighten the eyes of our minds. How will the Holy Spirit enlighten us? Not just through a wishful prayer that we then forget. No, the Holy Spirit always works through means. We need to pray earnestly on one side and then use our minds to grasp the deep, wise words he inspired Paul to write. That is why Paul didn’t stop with praying; inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote these words. He is praying and telling us to meditate on these words because the Holy Spirit uses both to open our eyes.
But we have two great problems: we cannot do both. One, we pray very little, and even those prayers are not fervent—they are lukewarm. Secondly, the greatest reason for such a prayer life is mental laziness. We hate to think deeply until our brains sweat. Someone once said, “Pastor, I do thousands of things, but I hate to read or think. Meditation is impossible.” That is the main reason why we don’t progress in life or in our spiritual life. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” See, the quality of our life is directly connected to the depth and quality of our thoughts. If our thoughts are shallow, narrow, low, and selfish, our life will reflect that.
I will suggest one lifestyle change exercise. When we wake up in the morning, instead of thinking about food or worrying about your family, work, health, and future—thinking of all the wrong things and getting fully discouraged—you will have no confidence or power in life. Daily, when you wake up, take some time and think of our “Ephesians magic formula”: EPRAIS, and then be HIP. You need to be “hip”; it is slang for being updated, knowledgeable, or informed. Pray daily that the Holy Spirit should keep you “HIP”—up to date. Help yourself to see “HIP.”
Start the day meditating on those thoughts. Instead of waking up at 11 am and sitting in one place for hours on your mobile, keep your body and mind active. Start walking in the park for 2 to 5 kilometers and use that time to keep thinking about these things. You will see within one month that the quality of your life will keep going up and up. Otherwise, you will hear and go, and nothing will change. Until you realize that mental laziness is the cause of most of your problems, you will not progress; nothing will dawn on your life. You will continue a “low life.” One great person said the primary reason for all spiritual instability is mental laziness.
So, at least today on this Lord’s Day morning, can we try to give some work to our minds and think higher thoughts with Paul? Paul prays we need to be “HIP.” Don’t be outdated; be fresh, don’t rot. Daily and freshly know the hope of our calling inside us—the object of that hope filled with glory and the riches of the glory of the inheritance. Thirdly, there is the power. Talking about the power, Paul catches fire from verse 19 to the end of the chapter, writing a “Mount Everest” passage.
We have climbed the first stage in verse 19: the Importance of the Power of God. The reason we get so discouraged is that we see this great hope and inheritance on one side, but on the other side, we see our own weakness, waywardness, and sin. We tremble and often despair that we will never be able to achieve such a blessing. To overcome all this discouragement, we need to know the power of God. It alone can fill us with joyful assurance that all the glorious things God has planned in grace, He will infallibly effect by His power.
Second are the Characteristics of this power. There are two things: its excellency (“what is the exceeding greatness of His power”)—it is surpassingly immense—and its working efficacy. Notice the end of verse 19: “According to the working of the strength of His might.” It is not a dormant, inactive, or sleeping power, but it is an efficient, working, active, and accomplishing power.
Thirdly, there are the Recipients of this power: “to us who believe.” The tense here describes those who continually believe. It is not for everyone who had some kind of false belief twenty years ago, but for those who have true saving faith which continues—those who live now in a state of faith.
Now, today, let us continue our trekking of Mount Everest. Let us try to climb verse 20: “which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” After talking about the characteristics and objects of this power, Paul tells us two things about it.
- The one in whom the power was exercised and manifested: “which He worked in Christ.”
- He lists four specific acts in which the power was exercised and manifested:
- He raised Him from the dead.
- He set Him at the right hand in the heavenly places.
- He put all things under Him.
- He gave Him to be Head to the Church.
Paul, you are talking about this exceeding great power operating in us; can you help us with a revelation of this power so we can grasp this? “Yes, I will show you a Person, and in His four acts, this exceeding great power was exercised and manifested.” Christ and His acts of Resurrection, Session, Exaltation above all, and Headship of the church are the focus. The Holy Spirit again brings us back to the central gospel message of the Scriptures: Christ in His Person and His work. This is the center of divine revelation and the structural backbone of the whole Christian faith.
So we will see two things today: The Person, and His first act of power.
First: The Person in whom the power of God was exercised and manifested.
Notice that Paul doesn’t use the full title “Lord Jesus Christ.” This power was manifested not generally in the Lord Jesus Christ, but particularly in “Christ’s” ministry. The word “Christ,” we know, means “Anointed”—the Old Testament word for Messiah. The whole identity of the Messiah, or Christ, is that He is anointed from head to toe to save His people. How will He save? He will save His people as the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. The Messiah’s whole role is to save His people through His prophetic, priestly, and kingly ministry.
Paul says if you want to experience the exceeding greatness of His power—that which will accomplish all God planned by His grace and is operating to secure your glorious inheritance—you have to experientially know this Person first. He is the Christ, who is the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King.
The preparation and appointment of the Person Himself is a great demonstration of God’s power. This Person, Christ, is a great mystery. I don’t even know where to start with this mystery. Think with me: Who was this Person before He became Christ? This is the great question our Lord asked the scribes and Pharisees, and none of them could answer: “Who is Christ?” He was not an ordinary man or just a son of David lifted to this role. He is the Son of God, equal to the Father. He possesses all the attributes of the Godhead as the eternal Word. Equal to the Father regarding His Godhead, He can create, destroy, and is self-sufficient and sovereign. He didn’t need any glory; He was already full of glory. He didn’t need any exaltation; He was already exalted to the highest. He didn’t need authority; He already possessed all authority.
It is such a Person whom God prepared and anointed to be the Christ. Preparing this Person as Christ is a great revelation of power in three steps.
First, this Person is equal to God. How can such a Person become Christ? He had to be infinitely emptied and humbled. He had to leave all His glory voluntarily and cheerfully, treating His equality with God and all its prerogatives as something not to be grasped. Is that easy? We don’t leave a single right; we hold on with a death grip. We lose a little respect or have a small financial problem and we turn the world upside down. See the power in Christ. When we think of power, our idea itself is twisted; we think of power bursting in anger and shaking everything. But God, whom the universe cannot contain, could burst everything and turn it to ashes in a second. Can you imagine what power was needed for Him to empty Himself of everything and become a small, helpless, invisible cell in a woman’s womb? He had to lose all His inherent power, inherent authority, and all the prerogatives of God to become so helpless. He took not only the form of a man but even the form of a bondslave. Born under the law, He kept the law perfectly and became so helpless that, in the office of Christ, He had to be 100% dependent on the Father, even for every meal. Even if He fasted for forty days, unless the Father gave Him food, He would rather die than make stones into bread. Wonder of wonders, the one equal to God says in John 5:30, “I can of myself do nothing,” and even of His speaking He says, “I do not speak on my own, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” Wonder of wonders, He prays as a man fully dependent on the Father. He says, “My Father is greater than I.” Then, wonder of wonders, He humbles Himself to the most painful, shameful, cursed death, and He hangs on the cross crying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” When we see Him so dependent upon the Father, what are we seeing? We are seeing the wonder of the Person of Christ. Although He is almighty, all-powerful, and equal to God, as Christ He is so meek and so helpless. Yet, this same Christ, when people worship Him—like Thomas saying, “My Lord and my God”—accepts that worship as God, saying “I am” again and again.
If you have any idea what it is to be equal to God and then come down to such an empty level, you will realize what power was needed to prepare such a Person. Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh. If you grasp that, you will not be like the mentally lazy Jehovah’s Witnesses who say, “See, Christ says the Father is greater.” Instead, we will wonder in amazement that the One who is equal to God had to become Christ to redeem us. He humbled Himself to that extent, and we will fall at His feet and worship Him as our Lord and our God.
Secondly, if you grasp this, the word “Christ” will be the most precious word to you. Why should the Son of God, who already had all glory, be humbled to become Christ and then again be glorified? May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see the preciousness of the word “Christ.” As the Messiah, as the Christ, the Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, He was inseparably, eternally, and organically united to His people—to you and me. That is why I titled this: In Christ, He is me, and I am He. See, this Christ is not some different entity or person in a mysterious union; He is me, and I am He. We are one, just as my head is one with my body.
This great Person, equal to God, brought Himself to such a helpless, humble slave form, and He inseparably and organically united His people to Himself. You see, this Christ never acts or does anything as a private person. He didn’t have to humble Himself, achieve anything, or be glorified for His own sake. All that He did in His capacity as the Christ—Prophet, Priest, and King—was for me as my representative. You can trace every act of His entire life on this earth to the climax upon the cross, where He was forsaken by the Father for our sins, and then every act of His present heavenly ministry. Why did He do all that, and why is He doing what He is doing now? He did it all as my Christ, meaning He is me, and I am He; we are one and inseparable. Oh, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to help us come out of our narrow, self-centered view and see this glorious eternal union between me and Christ. That is why the New Testament says hundreds of times, “Understand: in Christ, in Christ.”
Notice that Paul, talking about the revelation of this power in verse 20, says, “which He worked in Christ.” God took you and me and united us to this Person eternally and inseparably, forming a mysterious person called Christ. He is my portion; He is me, I am He, we are one. Behold the exceeding greatness of God’s power in uniting us eternally and inseparably to such a Person as Christ. May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see that every action He did as Christ on earth and does as Christ in heaven—nothing is done for Him as a private person, but as the covenantly bonded Head of His people, who are inseparably bound to Him eternally in the living bonds of a spiritual union. When the Holy Spirit opens your eyes, you see that Christ and all He did is as effectual as if I myself did it. I learn to see my identity. It is this revolutionary and head-spinning concept that opens our eyes to see the preciousness of Christ, and that is when you start feeling the “electricity” of this power.
We were chosen and bonded in Him before the foundation of the world, so that when the Lord Jesus came, died, was buried, rose, and ascended, all my Christ did, I did. If the Holy Spirit enlightens our eyes, we see on one side what total depravity means—what the fall and sin have done to us and the deadening power of sin—and on the other side, we see how highly exalted Christ is. He didn’t just make us His servants (though that itself is great), or His friends, or His relatives. He didn’t just take us onto His lap or pour out objective blessings outside of Himself. No, He united us to Himself in such a way that, wonder of wonders, Scripture says He is incomplete (not “full”) without us—we make Him full. United to Christ, not only is all He does what I do, but all the glory He receives is mine; He cannot get one inch of glory without sharing that with me. Oh, the wonder of this mystery! Do you see that only when we know our connection with this Person, Christ, and exercise our faith, will we experience the exceeding greatness of His power in the coming days?
Oh, may God help us to see the glory of Christ: His life is my life, His death is my death, His resurrection is my resurrection, and His glorification is my glorification. In that union, we experience the exceeding greatness of God’s power. If you think of this deeply, what else do I need in life? Aa aananthamae paramaananthamae ithu maaperum paakkiyamae. (Oh, joy, supreme joy, this is a great blessing!)
So brethren, Paul says first this exceeding greatness of power was manifested in this Person, Christ, and next He lists four specific acts in which the power was exercised and manifested. Let us see the first one.
First Act: He raised Him from the dead.
Oh yes, we know about the resurrection. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see it as the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe. Paul says that not only did God unite us and prepare this Person for us as Christ, but see what He also did to us through our representative, Christ: He raised Him from the dead. Scripture measures power in the Old Testament by creation—the power to create belongs to God alone—and secondly, it is measured by the power of resurrection. God alone has the power to raise the dead. The mightiest power ever unleashed on this earth was not the power of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, or the power of an earthquake or a volcano. The mightiest power ever unleashed on this earth was when God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
When someone who is sick, whom we thought might not live, comes back, we admire their will and determination to fight. When a physician heals someone who is about to die, we admire his skill and his wisdom. When a mother nurses a feverish child back to life with sleepless nights, we admire her love. But listen: when someone who has been dead rises from the dead, we don’t admire their will; we wonder at the power. Resurrection is a manifestation of power. Death is a powerful thing since the fall; all of humanity stands helpless. We see that something bigger than death has come and broken its grip. And whenever there was a resurrection recorded in the Scriptures, the people were amazed at the power of God exerted in that mighty work.
The resurrection of any ordinary person is itself a great power, like Lazarus being raised from the dead, because humanity since the fall stands helpless before death. No big doctor, no medical advancement, no great scientist, no rich man, no powerful government, politician, or hospital can do anything. During COVID, we saw how great leaders and governments were humbled before death. No one has defeated death; kings, presidents, heroes, and spiritual leaders all die, and none have experienced this resurrection. This power of resurrection is only in God; it is His prerogative.
If an ordinary resurrection is great power, think with me about the “exceeding greatness” of the power of Christ’s resurrection in two ways.
First: It broke the power of His extraordinary death. His resurrection is not an ordinary resurrection because His death was not an ordinary death. Remember, He died as the Christ, as the atoning sacrifice for all the sins of the innumerable elect. When He hung upon that cross, He was being made sin for us. The mountains and oceans of the iniquities of all the people of God in all ages were, as it were, lifted up from the earth, held above the head of Christ, and then dropped upon Him until He was crushed beneath the weight. To that, He cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” That burden crushed Him down and down and down, until His heart burst and He died beneath the weight of it.
He died as the payment for all our mountains and oceans of sins. The wages of sin is death. It was the wages of billions of sins that dragged and kept Him in the tomb. His death was not an ordinary death; it was the death of Christ. It was the death of all His people as the wages of their sins; they all died in Christ.
Can you picture what it must have been like in the reality of the invisible spirit world? The Lord Jesus, in His lifeless body, is in the tomb. Not only did billions of mountains and oceans of sin keep Him in the tomb as payment, but just as the Jewish and Roman worlds—the religious and political worlds—did everything to ensure Christ didn’t come out of His tomb, think also of the demonic world. Think of the principalities, powers, and the dominion of darkness—all the powers of hell. Satan, the god of the world of sinners, would have gathered all the armies of his dark worlds, all his legions and realms. The highest princes, gods, echelons, and forces of hell were all gathered, and the whole vast host army exercised all their power together in one attempt to keep Jesus dead. They knew that if He rose from the dead, all His people’s sins would be atoned for and they would all rise like Him. Every purpose of God would be fulfilled, and Satan’s head would be crushed. Satan and his army would be cast into eternal hell. Can you imagine what effort they put in to stop the resurrection? Imagine those days when workers pushed big loads and sang a chorus; so, with a chorus, all the vast host of Satan screamed at the top of their voices, “The wages of sin is death! The wages of sin is death!” Oh, can you imagine the power of Jesus’ death, held not only by all the sins of His people but by all the hosts of hell?
Can you imagine when the Father wanted to raise His Son from the dead? How Satan and all the host of hell, with utmost power and full battle force, resisted Christ’s resurrection? But praise God for the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe! God raised Christ from that extraordinary power of His death. All the hosts of hell were shattered by that power. This was the greatest display of power in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What power! All the powers of darkness and hosts of hell would shriek with horror when they saw the power of the resurrection. They had never seen it and never will see such a revelation of power again. Raising Jesus from the dead was the mightiest display of power ever known.
So, the exceeding greatness of the resurrection power, firstly, broke the power of His extraordinary death. Secondly, it was an extraordinary resurrection. All other resurrections recorded in the Bible, like Lazarus and others, were instances where they rose but later died. But Christ rose never to die again, with a deathless, glorified body. He rose with a powerful life that had all that was necessary to bear Him to all eternity in His mighty work on behalf of His people. Not only that—remember, He is the Christ. His death or resurrection is not a private event. He rose with a resurrection that will grant spiritual and physical resurrection and eternal life to all His people.
Revelation 1:17–18 beautifully says that when John saw the resurrected and glorified Christ, he fell at His feet like a dead man. But Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” His resurrection is extraordinary because He rose in such a way that He took the keys from the hands of the destroyer of men’s souls. Now, His resurrection is the infallibly assured resurrection of all His people. When Jesus burst forth from the power of death, His resurrection was the resurrection of all His people from every nation, tribe, and language. What power! And that is the power that is operative toward us. Yes, it is His resurrection that gives us spiritual resurrection and makes us born again, and yes, it will raise our bodies from the tomb with a glorified body like His. All of that is true, but it goes beyond that. Words are so meaningless—I cannot fully explain what I felt when I learned this.
When He came out with exceeding power, He did not come as a private person. He came out in His true identity. Remember: I am He and He is me. I may have been born in 1976 and saved later, living my life here, but my salvation and sanctification in time are just a delayed manifestation of this exceeding great power. I died and I rose from the dead when He rose. How? Because in Christ, He is me and I am He. When I was born in Adam, dead in sins, He raised me from my spiritual death by that same power.
This is not my imagination. See the next chapter, Ephesians 2:5: “Even when we were dead through our trespasses, He made us alive.” Take the next words together: “together with Christ.” Notice it does not say we rose merely on the basis of Christ’s resurrection, but that we were “raised up together” with Him. And not only that, verse 6 says He “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Again, in Christ Jesus, He raised us up with Him and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places.
If you understand from verse 1 onwards, we were “dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
If you grasp any level of your state in sin and depravity—a picture like a demon-possessed man with a legion—you will wonder how you ever got saved. It was this power that opened your eyes and broke your bondage to sin. It was this power that gave life to your dead bones and humbled you at the foot of the cross. It is that power which is currently keeping us, preserving us from falling, and enabling us to persevere. Praise God that we can live with the full assurance that this power will preserve us in faith and grace until we die. Even if the whole world were filled with devils threatening to undo us, and when we are buried and the worms eat the flesh from our faces and bodies, Jesus Christ will step in. That power will reconstitute every atom of our body into a body capable of eternal dwelling—unwearying and untiring—to take us to the new heavens and the new earth and bring us to the riches of the glory of our inheritance.
Application
What do these words mean and how do they apply to us? How can we legitimately experience the reality of God’s power in our personal lives?
The great revelation is that this exceeding power is not given individually to us, but it “works toward us who believe.” This power works when we exercise continuous belief in our union with Christ and His resurrection. This was the great dawning that happened to men like Luther and Wesley through faith and belief.
1. Realization and Examination
Realize that your great problem is spiritual dimness, which is the cause of unbelief, and pray for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Pray that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes to see the glory and relevance of Christ for our every need, making Christ very precious to us. Remember: in Christ, He is me and I am His.
2. The Manifestation of Power
We have seen that the first step of His power was manifested through His resurrection. Paul is not praying that you receive this mighty power, but rather that we may know the power already working in our lives. This “exceeding greatness” of power is already at work. That is why we experienced a spiritual resurrection and a new birth. It is this power that removed the blindness from our eyes and opened our hearts and minds toward Christ; it conquered our rebellious wills and created a new heart that loves God and people. Now we are alive to God. The Word of God and prayer, which were once dead to us, are now very much alive. We are alive to righteousness and good works.
This is God’s power at work in us—we have experienced a spiritual resurrection. We will also experience a physical resurrection when Christ returns; through God’s power, we will be resurrected from the dead. It is this power working in us that removes the fear of death and makes us sing like Paul, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” This power has worked in the past by giving us new birth and will raise us from the dead in the future.
However, Paul’s main concern here is that we know this resurrection power now—to live and die for the glory of Christ. He knows these believers may not feel the power of God in their lives at this moment. This power will guard us from the dominion of our indwelling sin, overcome obstacles, and bring us to the end in persevering faith. To live our lives now for God’s glory, we need to know the present power available to live the Christian life, conquer our enemies and sin, and live fruitfully. We studied in Philippians 3:10-12 Paul’s great ambition; he presses on with every straining nerve that he “may know Him and the power of His resurrection.” He sought this power all his life, and that is why his life was so powerful and fruitful. We need to seek it like Paul, and not just once. Paul wrote those words about twenty-five years into his Christian experience. This is a lifelong process. For every stage of life, we need to know that there is enough power working in us. Therefore, the process of coming to know Christ’s resurrection power is one in which we should be growing until we meet the Lord.
May the Holy Spirit help us enter the veil with Paul until we are lost in wonder, love, and praise. Let us continue to pray that God will open up to us the richness of this portion of His truth in the weeks ahead, and that Christ Himself shall become more precious to our hearts than He has ever been.
Examination
Paul says all of this power is “toward us who believe.” I ask you this morning: do you qualify as a recipient of that power? Is your faith true? Someone once said that because of rampant false gospels, today’s churches are filled 80% with people possessing false faith. A false faith is equal to unbelief.
That is scary. What about our church? How many are unbelievers? How can I know if I am born again? The reason I love expository preaching is that it not only exposes God’s Word to us, but it exposes our true spiritual condition. True believers will enjoy every piece of expository preaching; though if they are in a backslidden state, some parts may not be as interesting. However, nominal believers and unbelievers will be bored to death. That is why some come once and don’t come again. Examine yourself based on what I have presented from the Bible for the last hour. Did you enjoy it, or are you sitting here wondering what power this is, thinking it all seems like imagination and theory? Are you gritting your teeth, wondering when the sermon will be over?
How can you know you are born again? Is Christ precious to you? Do you have any experience of His resurrection power? Just having historical knowledge of that information is not enough; even the devil knows He rose from the dead. Has it done anything to you? There is a magnificent display of God’s power in Christ’s resurrection. Do you know why you might not feel anything about this? Because this power works only on those who believe.
Believe in the person and work of Jesus. Believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, equal to God, but that He humbled Himself to become the Christ to save us as our Prophet, Priest, and King. He died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins and rose again. When you believe in Him, faith creates a connection to the power that worked in Him, and this power flows to you. By His perfect life, you are justified; by His death, you are forgiven. His resurrection is the only hope for you. He says, “Come, repent, and believe in Me.” Exercise your faith in this Person and His work. Believe He rose from the dead. You will be saved, and power will flow to you through that belief.
If you continue in unbelief, He also warns you: your unbelief will bring terrible consequences in this life and for all eternity. He who does not believe will be damned. God has determined to glorify His power. Every one of us shall either know the power of God unto salvation through the gospel, or the power of God unto damnation through the law. There is no third alternative. You are chosen to glorify God’s power either by grace or by condemnation. Which direction is your life going? The Bible says in Acts 17:30-31 that God “now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
The resurrection of Christ is infallible proof to you that the same resurrected Christ will take His place as the Judge of the world and summon you into His presence. He will judge you for all your sins one day if you do not repent and believe in Him. Do not play with this exceeding great power. Repent and flee to Christ before that power crushes you with an everlasting crushing.
Do you see how wrong the Jehovah’s Witnesses are? They come to your houses and point out verses where Jesus says, “I can do nothing without the Father” or “the Father is greater than I.” But when we point out that “the Word was God” and “became flesh,” they try to change the original text. What about when Thomas said, “My Lord and my God”? Some critics try to claim Thomas was just shocked and used a “curse word” or took the Lord’s name in vain. But if that were true, would Christ have responded by saying, “Blessed are you, Thomas, because you believe by seeing”? No. Christ accepted that worship because He is God.