Resurrection Power

Probably the greatest thing I have learned from my study on the resurrection thus far is: by the Holy Spirit, the resurrection is at work in the Christian’s life through our union with Christ. I remember reading Richard Gaffin’s Resurrection and Redemption: A Study in Paul’s Soteriology, by far the best book I have read on the resurrection, and as I was struggling to understand his exegesis of Romans 6 and the very mysterious and difficult-to-wrap-your-brain-around truth of union of Christ, all of a sudden it hit me that union with Christ was not for Paul merely an analogy of Christian conversion – like an alcoholic who has given up alcohol might say, “its dead to me,” or like a runner who has new energy might say, “I have new life.” Union with Christ is an objective reality, as historically real as Christ’s own death and resurrection, fixed and determined outside of us. The existential reverberations of union with Christ – the continual awakening and vivifying of new life, new love, new spiritual impulses within us – are based on this concrete, objective reality.

At the bottom of page I wrote: the “deeper magic from the before the dawn of time” is at work in the life of every Christian. The same power which was exercised on Easter, which (as Aslan implies) stemmed from the principles of eternity past in the goodness and trinitarian love of God, which reversed history and decisively defeated evil – that same power is in us. That historical event has a personal expression in the heart of every Christian. Easter is like what the Holy Spirit is doing inside us. I find this a massive encouragement in the face of the depths of indwelling sin. I sum it up like this: because my salvation is based on a reality outside me, I know that the weakness within me can be overcome.

Ephesians 1:19-20: “… his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead ….”