The Power of the Resurrection
THAT is the all-important thing. That was the one thing which the apostle longed for above all others—"that I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection;" but the power of His resurrection was the power of living a righteous life. He was absolutely righteous, and therefore the grave could not hold Him. And therefore God "loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." Acts 2:24. That power of the resurrection is the power that He has placed in His Gospel. "For it [the Gospel] is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;" and that power comes in answer to faith, for "the just shall live by faith." The power of God in the Gospel is therefore the power which enables the child of faith to live the righteousness of God. It was that power which was in Christ, by which He was manifested to be the Son of God, by resurrection from the dead. Rom. 1:4. And by that power in the life are His followers demonstrated to be the sons of God before the world. It is this power that the Spirit prays, through the apostle, that we may possess,—"that ye may know . . . what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."