March 16, 2016

PPIL - Powerful Passage Impacts Life
Philippians 3:10 NKJV - "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death."

Commentary:

One more reason why the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is so important is the joy believers have in experiencing the power of that resurrection in their own lives!  God raised Christ "from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit" Romans 1:4 NLT.  It took the power of Almighty God to bring Christ up from the grave!  And it is this power that God works through His children, enabling them to live righteous lives and have victory over sin. 

Paul stresses in this verse that this power comes through the "fellowship of His sufferings..."  Power from God is not given to those who wish an easy life!  This power is also not available to those who want to use it for their own purposes and plans.  This power comes when a believer recognizes that Christ endured pain and persecution to have victory over sin and death.  And the believer who wishes this power in his/her life must be willing to join with Christ in suffering for His name to be glorified if God should so lead.

Note also, this power comes when the believer is willing to be conformed to Christ death.  In part, this means a believer must be willing to die to his own ambitions and surrender his life to serve the Lord even to the point of their own death.  For you see, Jesus wasn't raised in power until He suffered in death! 

As glorious the thought is to have the power of His resurrection in our lives so the route to that power must come with a willingness to travel the same road Christ traveled - the "way of the cross."  If you are emboldened to surrender your life and your will to the Lord and give up your own desires to "serve yourself" you will find God more than willing to pour out into your life His power for you to live a life triumphant for Christ!

Power to live a godly life comes from death to a worldly existence.