The Power Of His Resurrection

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”
Philippians 3:10 NIV

The most powerful nuclear bomb ever made was a Russian bomb called Ivan. Not many people know it, but this bomb was actually used as a demonstration of Russia’s power in the height of the cold war. It was dropped on a Russian nuclear test range in Mityushikha Bay on October 30th 1961.

Ivan was over three times more powerful than the biggest bomb before it and had 3,800 times more explosive energy than that used on Hiroshima. The mushroom cloud from Ivan stretched 60 kilometres into the sky and the shockwave travelled around the earth three times before it dissipated.

Nothing as powerful has been exploded before or since.

Powerful though Ivan was, however, its power is dwarfed by our own Sun, itself a giant nuclear reactor. If we could harness the power of the sun, it could satisfy the energy demands of 31,000 billion planet Earths.

But even the power of the sun pales into insignificance when compared with the power of God, who created the Sun, the stars, and everything that exists.

It is that supreme power that Paul refers to in Philippians 3 – the power behind Christ’s resurrection.

Pope Benedict XV described it like this:  “The Resurrection was like an explosion of light, an explosion of love ushering in a new dimension of being.”

Jamieson, Faussett and Brown’s commentary says that Christ was resurrected, “by such a forth-putting of the Father’s power as was the effulgence of His whole glory.”

Quaint language, perhaps, but the meaning comes across clearly.

The power of the resurrection was and is such an incredible power that it changed and changes literally everything.

It gives us freedom from the captivity of sin.  It gives us the power of Christ living in us, providing us the strength we need to get through trials.  And as well as being a present power, it is also a future power.  The power that raised Christ from the dead will one day raise us to eternal life.

Thanks to his resurrection, Christ has “burst the bands of death” and the grave now no longer has the power to hold us in its embrace.  Ultimately, the power of the resurrection is a resounding victory.  The victory of life over death for each and every one of us.

Prayer
Almighty Father, thank you for your glorious power which raised Christ from the dead, leaving our sins forever behind in that empty tomb in the rock. Thank you for the power of his resurrection, which gives us the strength to face all trials, even death itself.
Amen

Study by Peter Mill