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"