Let us read from Romans 6:5-7, “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, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” These verses talks about partaking in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are called to be dead to sin and alive in Jesus. But we many notice that many times we have cycles of defeats. Are we focused on our defeats and forgetting that we are called to a victorious overcoming life? We have been given the power for a victorious life through Jesus’ resurrection. God doesn’t want us to be condemned, rather to come back to Him when we fall.
To live as Christ lived, we need to understand His death and resurrection. In our daily life, there may be times when we fall in sin; but God doesn’t want us to stay in that sin. We have to experience the power of His resurrection in our lives. In Galatians 5:1 we read that we don’t have to be under the yoke of slavery. We should get up from where we have fallen and run back to God. Christ has rejected, despised and evil was spoken against Him; but He never tried to explain Himself or try to escape from those sufferings. We don’t want to be slaves to sin and for this we have to allow our old self to be crucified. Satan always tries to get us to focus on our failures. We see many Christians, when they want to testify about an incident in their life, the focus is on their failures. They spend more time emphasizing about their sin rather than how God helped the in overcoming that situation by giving glory to God. If we are like this, we cannot be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters. If our testimony gives more focus on our sin rather than on how God gave us victory and helped us to put our self to death; then it is Satan who is glorified and not God. Even after we are born again we still have to battle against our flesh. It is only our old self that is put to death. Our flesh shouldn’t allow Satan to have a place in our life. God has called us to a life of continuous victory.
In Philippians 3:8-11 Paul says, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Paul was a well-educated and able man. He was zealous and persecuted the Christians; but God did a great transformation in Paul’s life. Paul counted all that he had as rubbish in view of the value of knowing Jesus. Paul valued in knowing the power of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus didn’t just instruct us to put our self to death and live as He lived; Jesus has also invited us to experience the power of His resurrection. In the last part of Mathew 28 we read of what Jesus said before He went back to the Father. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” There is a power of Jesus’ resurrection that Paul also experienced. After Paul became a christian, he had many sufferings but he experienced that the grace of God was sufficient for him.
Paul encouraged us to follow him as he followed Christ. Satan may discourage us saying this life is not meant for us and that it is meant for Paul and other such people. We shouldn’t listen to the lies of Satan but believe in the power of Jesus’ resurrection. The same power that Paul experienced can be ours too. Paul says in Philippians 3 that he wanted to know Jesus and His power of the resurrection. For our individual trials, God will give us the specific power for it. We need to personally experience the power of the resurrection. In Mathew 28 Jesus said that all authority has been given to us. If we believe, it is ours. There is a victory that came through Jesus death and resurrection. In Ephesians 1:13, 14 we read, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” The Holy Spirit is there to help us. We are not expected to get victory on our own. Christ came to fulfill that which was lacking in the law. We only need to call upon God to help us. In verse 17 Paul prays that the Ephesian Christians may have a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Our eyes need to be enlightened to know Jesus. In verse 19 he prays that the Ephesians may understand the greatness of God’s power toward those who believe.
The God whom we worship has the power and all authority. We must never forget this. Paul was eager to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection more deeply each day and this was his prayer for the Ephesians also. He had zeal and prioritized knowing Jesus more. If this is our desire; we too can lead a victorious life. In Philippians 2:5-8 we read, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” We have been called to follow Jesus life. We read in the following verses how God has given Jesus a name that is above every other name and all power. We are called to live our lives bringing glory to Jesus’ name. Whatever be the cross in my life, if we see the power of Jesus; we will be able to lead an overcoming life. As we read in the Psalms – I will run to follow your commandments. Whatever be the cross God wants us to take, we can’t run away from it but focus on the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
Let us focus more on glorifying God through our words, our testimonies and our lives. Even if we may fall, we can get up and run towards to Jesus and thus give no room to Satan. We know how a loving wife, even if her husband is at work, will contact him and get to know when he will be home. She will know what are his likes and dislikes. And similarly for a husband. Each day they get to know each other better. As we have fellowship with Jesus, we will get to know Him more and more and know about the power of His resurrection. We have hope to be victorious because the power of God is with us. May God bless all of us!
