godly life

Power to Purify.

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For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. – Hebrews 9:13-14 ESV

Jesus was the perfect, sinless sacrifice. He became a man so that He might live the life God expects of all men – yet without sin. For Him to offer Himself to God as the substitute for the sins of all men, He had to be sinless, perfectly righteous and a worthy sacrifice, acceptable to God and capable of atoning for the sins of man with His own blood. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Hebrews 8:3 ESV). Prior to the death of Jesus, all men stood condemned by sin – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). And the penalty for man’s sin was death. But Jesus condemned sin. Man’s flesh – his sin nature – condemned him. But Jesus took on human flesh, became a man, and lived a sinless life, turning the tables on sin. He condemned sin, using the very tool sin had used to condemn man – the flesh. “Because God’s children are human beings – made of flesh and blood – the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14 NLT).

But how did He do it? How was Jesus able to accomplish what no other man had ever done before? The quick and easy answer would be to say that He was divine. He was God. He had help. And that would be true, but the help Jesus had was not His divine nature, it was indwelling Holy Spirit. Yes, Jesus, the Son of God, was indwelt with the very same Spirit that God has made available to you and me. After the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus at His baptism by John, Luke tells us, “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1-2 ESV). Jesus, the Son of God, yielded His life to the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God. In His humanity, He submitted to the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit, in order to provide us with an example to follow. When Jesus told His disciples that God would send them “another Helper”, He spoke from experience. He knew what it was like to have the Spirit of God provide help, guidance, and comfort. Luke tells us that when Jesus returned from His time of fasting and temptation in the wilderness, He did so with power. “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee…” (Luke 4:14 ESV). His entire ministry would be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. His miracles would be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the author of Hebrews tells us that was “through the eternal Spirit” that Jesus able to offer Himself without blemish, as sinless, to God. That very significant fact seems to escape most of us as believers. We somehow think that our pursuit of righteousness is up to us. We have bought into the lie that, while our salvation was the gift of God, an act of grace, our sanctification is somehow up to us. We have to pursue holiness on our own. But we have the very same Spirit within us that Jesus had. We have the same power available to us that He availed Himself of all throughout His earthly ministry. Jesus clearly told His disciples that they would have access to a power source that would make possible their commission as His apostles. “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7 ESV). Again, Jesus told them, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven” (Luke 24:49 NLT).

And it is that power from heaven that purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. He renews our mind. He produces His fruit in our lives. He provides us with the capacity to say no to the works of the flesh or our old sin nature. He frees us from slavery to sin and allows us to live in obedience to the will of God – through His power, not our own. Our holiness is not left up to us. Our transformation into the likeness of Christ is not something for which we are responsible. We certainly take part in the process, but we do so by yielding to the Spirit of God. We are to walk according to the Spirit, not our flesh. We are to sow to the Spirit, not our flesh. We are to depend upon the Spirit, not our flesh. Jesus offered Himself without blemish to God, through the eternal Spirit. How much more so must we depend upon that same Spirit to help us live holy lives and fend off the constant desires of our old sinful nature? Peter reminds us, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3 NLT). That divine power is the very Spirit who lives within us. The eternal Spirit of God. God has made possible our holiness, through the death of the Son of God and the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God. We have all we need.
 

Power To Spare.

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May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,  giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. – Colossians 1:11-12 ESV

Colossians 1:9-14

As Paul continues his prayer, he uses two Greek words, dynamoō and dynamis, which both have to do with power. You can see the similarity they have with our English word, dynamite. He asks God to fill those he is praying for with power, but not just any kind of power – Paul is specifically referring to God’s power. He uses a different Greek word when speaking of God’s power – kratos – and it means “power, might: mighty with great power.” Knowing God’s will requires that we choose to obey it rather than our own. In the same way, having God’s power available to us requires that we depend on it rather than our own. God’s power is glorious. It stands alone and is unequaled and non-replicatable. We can’t manufacture the kind of power God provides. It is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It is the same power that created the universes and all it contains. Our petty power pales in comparison. Why would we ever choose to live in our own strength when we have the power of God at our disposal? Sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it? Yet we do it all the time. As children of God, we have his power at our disposal, but we continually attempt to live this life in our own strength, relying on our own limited resources.

It is interesting to note that Paul first prays for a filling of God’s will. Then he asks for power from on high. Why? Because knowing God’s will and obeying it will require God’s power. His power will give us the strength we need to patiently endure as we do His will. His will for us may not be easy. It was God’s will that Jesus die on the cross. And Jesus faithfully fulfilled the will of His Father, in spite of the pain, suffering, humility and shame. Unlike the Law, which required human effort to keep God’s holy requirements, God’s will for believers is made possible by God’s power. He has placed His Holy Spirit within us to give us the strength we need to do all that He has called us to do. But we must avail ourselves of that strength. We must recognize our own weakness and turn to Him for “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Paul reminds us that it was God who “has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” It was His power that redeemed us. It was His power that justified us. His power raised Jesus from the dead and proved that His sacrifice was acceptable as the payment for our sins. When Paul said that God has “qualified” us, he used the Greek word, hikanoō, and it literally means, “to equip one with adequate power to perform duties of one.” Even now, while we live on this earth, we share in the inheritance of the saints. We are saints. And we have the power to perform the duties of one. It is at our disposal, but we must avail ourselves of it. We must learn to rely on it. We must also learn to thank Him for it. He has made it fully possible for us to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10 ESV). That is something for which we should be truly grateful. God didn’t just save us and then leave us on our own. He saved us, then empowered us. “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3 NLT). Living this life is not easy. Living a godly life in the midst of ungodliness is difficult. But we have power available to us that is unmatched and immeasurable. The problem is that we need to learn to rely on it rather than turning to our own limited strength. God will bring us to points of weakness in order to show us our insufficiency and encourage us to tap into His all-powerful, all-glorious power. When we do, we will learn to say with Paul, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 ESV).