Picking up at Romans chapter 1 verse 1:
Romans 1:1-4
"Paul a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the (this) gospel of God, (Which (Gospel) he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (of Judah). And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by (what event?) the resurrection from the dead."
Had He not been resurrected there would have been no power. Had He not been resurrected we would yet be in our sins. Satan would yet be in total control, and death would still be an absolute. But on the flip side, since He did resurrect, since He was raised from the dead, now we know Satan is defeated, we know death is defeated, and we know that we have an Eternity where He and we are alive together forever more. And it is because of the power that was manifested in His resurrection. Now then, what does Paul also teach? That as Christ was resurrected from His earthly tomb, we have been resurrected from our deadness (spiritual separation of God because of) in transgressions and sins. We'll be coming to that real soon in Ephesians chapter 2. And what has happened? Well let's just take a quick look see right here in verse 1.
Ephesians 2:1
"And you hath he quickened, (made alive, given Life or union a new with God) who were (past tense) dead in trespasses and sins:"
Well what kind of power did it take to make us alive from being dead? Resurrection power. In the Spirit of Holiness. The same power that raised Christ from the dead. Look at Romans 8 for moment to compare. Now this is Bible study. We're not here to preach but rather to proclaim to you, and rather just show what the Bible says. These verses all fit so beautifully together.
Romans 8:10-11
"And if Christ be in you, (by the person of the Holy Spirit) the body is dead because of sin; (we were born in sin, because we're sons of Adam) but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (or make alive) your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
Is it all ringing true? Oh we hope so. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the mark, of ownership of God. He's also that power that raises us out of our lost condition (the first estates entry point), and gave us life (the continuing of progressive revelation, spiritual illumination and revelation within us). It's that same power that's literally going to propel us on up (through our entering the second blessing, His working of our salvation within us through Faith (in a darkness of none sense realm awareness) in receptivity of His Love which works in and through Grace) until we meet the Lord in the air. And it's that power of the Holy Spirit that guides us and directs us every moment of our existence. That's why we don't have to have, "Thou shalt not, and Thou shalt." We have never ran across a true believer who says, "Oh I can go ahead and steal from my neighbor, it doesn't bother me a bit." Can you imagine a believer saying something like that? No. If that happened, then we'd have to say, 'Well we don't think you're a believer, because the Holy Spirit would never give you that kind of freedom'. The Holy Spirit absolutely forbids those kinds of activities, and when we're under His control, He's going to effect us. Now back to Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians 1:20a
"Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead,..."
In order for God to raise Christ from the dead, what powers did God have to over come? Satanic, didn't He? He had to defeat Satan on his own ground, and all the powers of Satan, and hell itself had to be overcome in order for Christ and all of humanity with Him to be raised from the dead. Remember that's the last thing that Satan wanted to happen. If Satan could have kept Christ in the grave, then he would have finally gotten what he wanted, and that is to be God. But Satan couldn't hold a candle to God, because all the power of heaven was released for us when God raised Him and us from the dead. Now we can see this within John's Revelation visions, metaphors, parables, and analogies, when we "have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying". Let's look at the second part of that verse.
Ephesians 1:20b
"...and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places."
For us Christ is not the King sitting on the throne of David on Mount Zion in Israel or Palestine or what ever. He will be for Israel yet someday, if what most believe the Bible is about in the physical and material realm only. But for us He with us (spiritually) ascended back to glory, sat down figuratively speaking, at the right hand of strength and great power and authority of the Father to become now the Head of the Body, which is us, the One Church here on earth. We have union within Him that Israel knew nothing of, we have a union that no one in antiquity knew nothing of, but only saw as a shadow in the distance as being far off, it's only unique to this Church Age believer. That as we live and move on this earth we are connected or conjoined to our Head who is in heaven, our High Priest-King.
We just trust the Lord will bless us as we open the Word for these lessons, and trust that you will get your Bible and study right along with us, and we would remind all again that the Book of Ephesians is a deeper doctrinal Book than Romans, Galatians, and the Corinthians. It is constantly teaching us of our exalted position "In-Christ" as members of the One Body of Christ, of which He is the Head. Which God's timetable in Psalms 2 tells us that we're His inheritance in verse 8. Now let's start with verse 20.
Ephesians 1:20-21a
"Which he wrought in Christ, (that is the power of resurrection) when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. (here's His position now during this Age of Grace and here's the kicker we're right there in spirit) Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,..."
In other words, there is no power on earth, or heaven or in hell that He is not far above. That's His power, that's His Sovereignty. Now we constantly run into people who never understood until we share with them this, that Jesus Christ was the Creator of Genesis 1:1. When people hear this it just blows them away, and yet Paul makes it so plain, as well as John's gospel, that it was God the Son, the One who became flesh, who spoke the Word of creation, Who is the Light that first came into the darkness. This was a secret which was hidden within Scriptures in plain sight but not seen until after the Lord's ascension, because it was written and witnessed by John through the Spirit. It is also in this darkness that God now works in the hearts of those who have surrendered their will, intellect, emotions, desires, fantasies, opinions, thoughts, dreams and ambitions to Him (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Romans 12:1-4 in accord with 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 then Galatians 2:20 by way of Matthew 11:29) So we have to recognize that He has the power of creation, He has the power over everything He ever created naturally, and so there is nothing to compare with the power of Jesus Christ. That's why we can trust Him, we can place our faith in Him, because He will fulfill that which He has promised. All that He revealed to and through the Hebrews is and was for our understanding and learning of Him. Even Enoch and Jasher understood this and maybe why our forefathers removed or would not allow them in our Bible sometime before 1811, which bear these titles.
Maybe we should stop for a couple of minutes and show that He was the Creator. When we teach someone who's been in Church for say 50 years, and he maybe a very educated man, and they are just blown away by these verses that show Jesus was the Creator, so maybe we need to show that more. They also have told us that when they took that into their Sunday School class, they just about threw them out. We said, "Well who in the world do they think did the creation?" "Oh they think God did." To this we asked him, "Well who do they think Jesus is?" People just don't tie these things together in the fashion that the Holy Spirit reveals them. So our question is, “What spirit are they of?”
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