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| PentecostalTheology.com
“He is alive!” Jesus died on the cross to redeem us from sin, that we might be forgiven. But, it didn’t end there. He took the keys of sin and death from the enemy, then rose again to give us eternal, victorious life. This is the first truth of our Christian faith. We sing about it, “He lives,” “He is alive.” We sang that this morning at church as we worshiped with Kari Jobe’s “Forever – The Lamb Has Overcome.”
As we sang, the Lord reminded me of the other unique truth of Christianity. Not only is He alive, but He is ALIVE IN US. That truth is spoken of in the Bible as the “mystery of the ages,” which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” That truth was hidden from all generations of the past, even the prophets of old, but revealed to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News.
“I have been made a servant of it [the Gospel] according to the commission of God, which has been given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but now is revealed to His saints. To them God would make known what is the glorious riches of this mystery among the nations. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:25-27).
It is Good News that Jesus Christ rose and lives. And, it is amazing news that He lives within His people by the Holy Spirit. What a game-changer that revelation is. He has (already has) given us to draw on “ALL that we need for life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).
He is not some God way out there that we must plead to for His favor and blessing. Yes, Jesus returned to His Father and is seated at His right hand (Eph. 1:20); but, He returned to each of us through the Holy Spirit, to abide with us and be available to teach us, comfort us, empower us and to meet our needs.
And, we abide in Him as well, and the Father sees us as sitting with Him in heavenly places. That’s our position from which we rule and reign with Jesus, with Him as our head, at the right hand of the Father. He “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).
Jesus overcame, and we overcome in Him. “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony …” (Rev. 12:11). That refers to the final victory when “the accuser of the brethren” (the devil, our accuser) is “cast down” once and for all. But, it is also true for us now. Jesus won the victory and took the keys of power back. The devil now has no more than his lies to trick us with.
And, from our position of delegated authority, we too can cast him down, from our minds and imaginations, giving his lies and accusations no place, standing firm in the truth of the great mystery that has been revealed to us. But, to stand, we must be established in the great truth of our faith, knowing full well and believing who we are in Him, in spite of how it may look to our natural senses.
Jesus is alive – in you and I. You are in right standing with the Father, in the position of kingly authority, seated at His right hand with Jesus. Let us not hold back, but boldly think, speak and act as we were made to be.
