Devotional: The power of Jesus
There are many sources of energy in our world – oil, natural gas, solar, nuclear, to name but a few. Science provides us with some understanding of these types of energy. But there are other forms of energy about which science can tell us nothing.
For example, what kind of energy is necessary to raise someone from the dead? If someone’s heart stops, we can sometimes shock it back into beating and save a life. But when one’s body is dead and lifeless for hours or even days, what kind of power can restore that human life? We don’t know. This kind of power is well beyond our comprehension.
Jesus Christ exhibited this power without peer. He raised a man from death by touching the casket as it passed by (Luke 7:11-14). He raised a young girl from the dead when she had probably been dead for hours (Luke 8:40-56). He raised another man to life who had been dead and in a tomb for four days (John 11:1-44). What kind of power is necessary to accomplish this?
Yet Jesus exhibited power beyond that. He did what no other has ever done in all of history. He raised himself bodily from the dead! (John 10:17-18). What kind of power does this take? It is interesting to ponder.
While we cannot understand this sort of power we can know it – by knowing Jesus Christ. This Easter, may we join with the Apostle Paul in saying, “I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:10-14.
Press on!