That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead …
Summary: Paul’s words take us to a place where we can consider what it means to think of God’s strength and power. It is a place beyond the realm of physics and human imagination.
How much power does it take to raise the dead? More importantly, what kind of power is needed to raise the dead?
Dead usually means dead. People who die are said to have “passed on” to another place. Their body is like a house that is no longer used or needed. It quickly falls into decay and returns to the stuff that all things are made of.
Jesus’ body had been especially abused. Before he “passed on,” his body was brutalized by the High Priest’s guards. Pilate, while curious about Jesus and apprehensive about the situation, allowed the Roman soldiers under his command to beat, mock, flog, and crucify Jesus. Jesus would have been mostly dead when they hung him on the cross. After death, there wasn’t enough left of his body to return to.
When God raised Jesus from the dead, he didn’t just put Jesus’ spirit back in a beat-up old body. When Jesus appeared to his disciples and followers after the resurrection, he was made new. Except for the wounds on his hands, feet and side, he was new.
What kind of power does that take? In a word, it is the power to create.
Scientists typically look at the physical universe through a worldly lens. That is to say, they start with the assumption that what you see is what you get. If they can’t measure it, then it doesn’t exist.
But what if you pick a different lens to look through? What if you look at all that exists through a biblical lens?
The Bible tells us that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The “heavens,” in this case, means all the universe that we see in the night sky. The “earth” includes the planet we live on and all of us who live on it.
Imagine being able to do that.
God is not a physical being. God is spirit (John 4:24). Yet, he became a physical being, Jesus, so we can know him. Then he let us kill him so that he could save us. Then he re-created Jesus to show us his power.
God has the power to raise you and me from the dead, too. He can give us new bodies, just like he did for Jesus. The new body Jesus has is at home in the spiritual realm. That is where we all end up. Yet, Jesus was able to show himself physically before he ascended. God has the power to do that, too.
Application: Trust in the Lord and trust in his strength.
Food for Thought: How is God’s power measured?
How is God’s power measured?
The same way you measure His love.
Tim,
Pithy and accurate! Well said! 🙂
⭐
God’s power is infinite; so does one “measure” infinity?
Mathematicians try to measure infinity through numbers. They have found that there are infinite infinities. And within the infinite infinities, are infinities.
But that wasn’t your question: How is God’s power measured?
Man tends to “measure” God’s power according to what they want or need. But then too, men don’t really know what they want or need, so their measuring is short-sighted.
I agree with Tim, the full measure of God’s power is in His love.
1 John 4:7-21 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Chris,
I like your take on this:
“Man tends to ‘measure’ God’s power according to what they want or need. ”
That is profound!
03-16-2023, How is God’s power measured?
How can clay measure the Potter? How can the created comprehend the Creator?
Psalm 147:5, Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.
Romans 11:33-34, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?
Ecclesiastes 3:11, He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Isaiah 55:9, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Nicely said, Ron!!
The clay and the Potter is a very apt analogy!
Thanks for the additional passages!
I struggle with how much I simply accept, and don’t pretend to comprehend, the Creator’s power.
Adam,
Thanks for joining us!!
You speak for all of us in some measure.
Great thoughts here.
I think his power is immeasurable from a human standpoint. We can look at creation, the incarnation, the resurrection , the depths of His love and holiness – all those demonstrate His great power, but do not fully explain it either. It is beyond me. My thoughts are similar to Paul’s in Romans 11: 33 – 36.
Rich,
What a beautiful – and appropriate! – passage. Thank you!
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!“
My favorite answer is T’s
What is the immeasurable heighth, width, depth, and breadth of His love?
Hmmmm…
You might be slightly biased.
🙂