And 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 heavenly places. Ephesians 1:19,20
What miracle performed by the Lord Jesus was the greatest display of His almighty power? Was it His walking on the water or the calming of the mighty storm on Galilee? Or was it perhaps the feeding of the thousands of people who had come to hear Him preach? What about the hundreds, or perhaps thousands, who were healed of their diseases by His touch? Or maybe it was one – or all three – of those he raised from the dead, the little maid who had just died, the young man of Nain who was being carried to his burial, or Lazarus who had lain four days in his tomb? Surely these were great miracles and showed power that went far beyond anything of mortal man or even of satanic power. And yet, there was one display of power associated with the Lord Jesus that goes far beyond all of those other great events. And our text declares that this great demonstration of power continues to be displayed in and through all of those who have trusted Christ as Saviour.
We must not minimize in any way the power manifest in the resurrection of Christ. No one had ever done that before, nor could anyone ever have done it before. The sinless One could not be held by the sentence that has been passed on to all sinners. The grave could not contain Him, and the Roman seal could not prevent His bursting forth in the power of an endless life. It was that same power that reached and saved you and me. We were dead in trespasses and sins, as dead spiritually as any rotting corpse is physically, and as helpless and hopeless as any corpse to remedy our situation. Just as Lazarus would have remained in his tomb had not the Lord Jesus commanded, ‘Lazarus, come forth’, we would have remained dead in our sins had not the power of the resurrection of Christ not been directed toward us. As we appreciate the power that brought us to salvation, let us also appreciate that this same power is available to us to work out our salvation as children of God.
Our text is part of a prayer that the apostle Paul was making for the Christians in Ephesus. He was praying that they might know of the exceeding greatness of this power. They were already aware, to a certain extent, of the power that had saved them from their sins. But Paul wanted them to also know how that power would allow them to live victoriously in the world. We have probably all encountered folks who tell us that they might be interested in being saved except that they know that they would be unable to live a Christian life. And they are right, none of us have that power in ourselves. The power comes from God, and we need to realize that this power is the very same as the power of the resurrection that brought Jesus Christ forth from the grave and placed Him on His heavenly throne.
We have no excuse for failing to live for our Lord, since He has given us His greatest power to do so. -Jim MacIntosh