Vast Power
Dearly beloved of God, there has never been a man with the vast power that the Lord Jesus Christ has.
He has the power to save people. He has the power, and authority to judge every person, and he has the power to resurrect every human being from death and the grave. He has the power to gather us up to meet him in the air, and to transform our bodies to be like his glorious body.
Jesus paid the price to save us by freely giving his life for ours. He was the Lamb of God that died for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, is the Savior of the world; there is salvation in no other.
Consider his credentials. God conceived Jesus by divine conception. God supplied the promised seed; He created the soul life in Mary’s womb, and she carried him for nine months until she gave birth.
We can trace Jesus’ genealogy back to Adam, Abraham, and to King David. He was the promised seed.
When he was baptized by John when he was about thirty years of age, the spirit descended upon him from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and John heard a voice from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” God told John that he would baptize people with the holy spirit.
What was the proof that Jesus was the Son of God? The gospel of God reveals that God declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead. God raised him out from among the dead, validating that he was the Son of God. He is the only one to be resurrected so far, that is what distinguishes him from all others.
He ascended into heaven 40 days after his resurrection from the dead, and God seated him at His right side. God made the same Jesus who died for us both Lord and Christ.
After God made Jesus both Lord and Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ sent the promise of the Father, which was the gift of holy spirit.
Jesus said that to enter, and to see the kingdom of God one must be born again. He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.”
The Lord Jesus Christ sent the promised new birth spirit, the spirit of sonship, on the Feast of Pentecost following his ascension and seating at God’s right hand in the heavenlies.
After hearing the word of the truth, the gospel of salvation, and having believed in him, we were sealed with the holy spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the acquisition, unto the praise of His glory.
God made Jesus Christ the Lord, and He raised him from the dead. His resurrection is the foundation for salvation.
By grace we have been saved by believing in Jesus as the Lord, and that God raised him from the dead. This salvation is not from ourselves; it is the gift of God.
God set the conditions for salvation; not man. He said, “That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and will believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.”
What must we do to be saved? We must confess Jesus as Lord, and believe that God raised him from the dead. It is the good pleasure of His will to save us in Christ.
Everyone that believes in Jesus as Lord and that God raised him from the dead has been justified, and will never again come unto condemnation. This is part of our salvation. There is no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
We were judged in Christ as righteous. We now stand before God as holy and without blame. In Christ we are justified in God’s sight.
Another aspect of our salvation is that we have been delivered from the coming wrath of God. God did not appoint us to wrath but to the acquisition of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are watching or sleeping, we shall be made alive together with him. Such grace!
So the Christ, having also been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but for salvation. That is vast power indeed, dearly beloved!
I Thessalonians 4:15-18 WT
15 Moreover, we say this to you by the Word of the Lord that we who remain alive unto the coming of the lord shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep,
16 because the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a summoning shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 After that, we who remain alive will be snatched up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air, and so shall we always be with the lord.
18 Wherefore encourage one another with these words.
Dearly beloved, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns for us we will be glorified together with him.
Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we patiently wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform our humiliated bodies so that they have the same form as his glorious body according to the energizing by which he is able to subdue all things to himself.
Thank God our Father for the great grace and mercy He has shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord. The new birth is the beginning of our salvation. The gathering together will be the next element of salvation, and then there are the ages to come!
Ephesians 2:7
That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The Lord Jesus Christ has the power to save, to judge, to deliver from death, and to transform. He will fulfill all things, and subdue every enemy. The last enemy to be destroyed will be death. I would call that vast power indeed, wouldn’t you?
Rejoice forevermore! He is coming!