Pastor's Power Points

The Power of His Resurrection

The apostle Paul states his life’s ambition to be …that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil.3:10).  One might ask:  “Why does he mention the resurrection of Christ before the suffering of Christ?”  Could it be that he presented this order because he understood that Christianity begins where all other religions end – at the grave?  He is the one who so resolutely affirmed that without the resurrection of Christ our faith would be vain.  In deed, the theological implications of Christ’s death would be meaningless without His resurrection from the grave. Jesus said himself:  Because I live, you shall live also.

What the apostle presents here is a path to the discovery of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, and that path is presented here in descending order.  The Son of God defined eternal life as: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. The means to knowing God is knowing the power of his resurrection; the means to knowing the power of his resurrection is knowing the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul outlines this same path in Romans 6:4-5 in ascending order:

    Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,
    so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
    so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with
    Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness
    of His resurrection.

This doctrine gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of God’s grace – what He accomplishes in the life of the one who surrenders to Him in faith.  The kaleidoscope of grace clearly demonstrates that salvation is a work that only God can accomplish.  What God does is revealed in the word baptism. Wuest amplifies the meaning of the word baptizō as “the introduction or placing of a person or thing into a new environment or into union with something else so as to alter its condition or its relationship to its previous environment or condition.”  The fellowship of his sufferings and knowing the power of his resurrection is the act of God placing the believing sinner into (baptizō) vital union with Christ – His death, burial and resurrection – so that the power of the sinful nature is broken and a new nature (divine nature, II Pet. 1:4) is rooted.  This new environment is divulged through the words power, fellowship, and conformed (v.10).  The believer is given the desire and power to do God’s will, and John affirms: the one who does the will of God lives forever.