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Raised in Power |
Dear Brethren,
When Jesus Christ poured out His life’s
blood, and died, how was He
raised to life. We need to understand what actually took place when Jesus was
dead in the tomb. Peter comments on this, but those in the world's religions
read something wrong into this Scripture. "Christ also hath once suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." (1Peter 3:18)
What is meant by this verse where it says that Jesus was quickened by the
Spirit? This Scripture is misunderstood by the great majority of those who read
it, because they begin with a wrong premise. They correctly understand that
Jesus was brought back to life, but they misinterpret "what or who" quickens
Him. First of all, they are doubly confused because of their beliefs in a
trinity and in an immortal soul concept. When they see the word, "Spirit" in
this verse, they go off track in one of two ways: They think, either of a third
entity of a trinity giving Jesus life, or they think of Jesus as having a living
spirit soul.
It is not uncommon to hear those in the world's religions speak of, "Jesus
raising Himself." That is because this confused world believes that everyone is
made up of two parts - body and an immortal soul that will never die. Here is
what happens: They surmise that when Jesus died, His immortal soul went
"somewhere else." They believe that Jesus’ body was dead, but His immortal soul
was alive, and that it was Jesus’ spirit, His immortal soul that returned and
entered back into His dead body making it alive once more. The immortal soul is
a Pagan belief – held by many religions. The world believes that when our body
dies – even when we are dead - we go on living as a soul. The Bible says, "The
soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4).
Brethren, here is the truth: Human beings have a natural mind composed of a
physical brain working in conjunction with a non-physical component God formed
in us - the Bible calls it the spirit in man (Zechariah 12:1, 1Corinthians
2:11). The world’s religions believe that the non-physical part is an immortal
soul. There is no such thing. The human brain has modes: When we are wide awake
and focused, we are conscious. When we are sleeping, the mind is still actively
working, but not conscious. When a person is dead, the brain waves stop. The
brain is still there, but the thoughts end, and the spirit in man ceases. That
is why the Scriptures interchange "sleep" and "death" so easily, because both
are unconscious states of man (1Corinthians 11:30, 1Thessalonians 4:13).
We do not have an immortal soul. After death, the thing that remains of the
conscious spirit in man, our non-physical component, is only what God remembers
of our thoughts and our frame. For converted people, who have been baptized into
God's Spirit, God especially remembers the Godly character that we have
exhibited. When men die, "they" exist only in the mind of God.
Some people will say of Revelation 6:9, "Don't the souls of men go under the
altar of God in heaven?" Again, this verse is not referring to immortal souls,
but uselessly spent and wasted lives. What God sees under the altar is not the "pnuema,"
spiritual lives of men, but the "psuche," physical lives that were slain, and
are in need of Godly retribution (Revelation 6:10).
Brethren, let’s not be so easily confused like those who believe that Jesus’
dead body lay in the tomb for a day and a half - Friday evening till Easter
Sunday morning - and then Jesus’ living spirit soul went back into his dead body
enabling Jesus to raise Himself. That is what the world believes, and that is
not true! If that were the case, then Jesus was not really dead at all! And if
Jesus didn't really die for us, we are still in our sins. If Jesus' body was
dead while His eternal soul was alive, then He was not completely dead - was He?
Paul testified that it was God the Father who raised Jesus from death:
"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you
that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of
the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our
preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yes, and we are found false
witnesses of God; because we have testified of God [the Father] that He
raised
up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the
dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your
faith is vain; you are yet in your sins." (1Corinthians 15:12-17)
This explains what Peter meant when he wrote that Jesus was quickened by the
Spirit - it was the Spirit of God the Father who restored Jesus' life and
consciousness. This truth is confirmed literally dozens of times in the
Scriptures. "If the Spirit of Him [God the Father] that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Romans 8:11)
"The God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory... and what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead."
(Ephesians 1:17-19)
When Jesus died, His thoughts perished. He was not a being with consciousness -
off in His Spirit somewhere. "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;
in that very day his thoughts perish." (Psa 146:4) How do we explain what
happened to the Spirit of Jesus Christ while He was dead in the grave?
In the beginning (John 1:1) and after the creation, Jesus, as the Word, was
fully conscious of who and what He was, knowing all things and preserving all
things by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). After the Word was made flesh -
Jesus became man - what became of His eternal Spirit (Philippians 2:7)? The
answer is that Jesus, just like all mankind, had the spirit in man. And, like
converted men, He had the Spirit of God - only Jesus had Spirit without measure
(John 3:34).
While in the flesh, Jesus was not supremely conscious of all His wondrous deeds
of an eternity past. He was, however, cognizant of the fact that he once
possessed that limitless consciousness. The night before He died, Jesus prayed
to His Father, and asked that He be returned to His former Glorious state. "And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had
with thee before the world was." (John 17:5)
Jesus' body laid in the tomb for three days and three nights - thoughtless and
unconscious. But, because Jesus and the Father were always "one" in all that
Jesus did, the Father knew Jesus perfectly, completely and totally. Jesus made
this profound statement, "I and my Father are one." (John 10:30) Jesus said, "I
am in the Father, and the Father in me." (John 14:11) God the Father was able by
His exceeding great power to raise Christ from the dead and fully restore Jesus'
glorious state of being to Him (Ephesians 1:17-19)
Brethren, the Glorious promise is to us, as well. We are in the mind - the
Spirit - of Jesus and the Father, if we continue to walk as Jesus walked. God
will also change our vile bodies like unto His glorious body (Philippians
3:20-21). The beloved apostle, John put it so eloquently: "If that which ye have
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the
Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even
eternal life." (1John 2:24-25)
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Sermon: "Raised in Power"
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