Far More Abundantly Beyond

Ephesians 3 reminds us that God can do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.  I want to revisit that this week.  Over and over again I want to come back to that singular thought and remind myself that God can do.  He is able.  When something does not happen that is good, or when bad stuff happens it is NEVER a deficiency in the ability of God. 

Sometimes I think we weaken God out of a desire to make sure that He is understood by the masses.  Bad stuff happens in our lives and in the lives of people and in our haste to make sure people know it is not God's fault we diminish the power of God.  Paul has no place for this.  His God can do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.  This means that the problem is not in the power of God.  For most of us the problem lies in where we understand the primary purpose of our lives to be. 

When we make ourselves, or even humanity in general the main point of creation and think that God is for us in the sense that we are here to tell God what to do.  When we believe that God is obligated in some way to bring about only things that we like, we have misunderstood what God has said to a horrible degree.  This world is not about me and it is not even about us.  This is a story about God and what God is doing for the glory of God.  In this story He promises my good in the long view and has already secured it.  I have good coming to me and there is nothing that anyone or anything can do to separate me from this good that God has promised.  But that does not mean that everything that I face or everything my friends face will be good.  In fact God promises trouble and trials and pain.  And when we face these we cry to God and ask why and we do this because we deep down know He had the power to prevent it.  But He is not in this for our glory, He is in this for His glory and we are in this for His glory. 

So yes, God could have prevented the tragedy.  God is bigger than sin and bigger than death and bigger than pain and sorrow.  But in the great Plan of God He uses our pain and our sorrow and our death and our life and all of who we are for a far bigger purpose -His glory.  And knowing that He will accomplish His glory even through my pain makes this life ok.  Even when it hurts. 

Death

Death is an interesting concept.  It is one of those words that we measure not by itself, but by the absence of something.  Like darkness is the absence of light and cold is the absence of warmth, death is the absence of life.  Biblically this makes sense.  We were created with life.  We were made for life, and death only enters into the picture because of sin. 

One thing that I am grateful for is that Jesus came to conquer death.  Jesus did not just come to die to pay the penalty for sin, but He through His perfect life, and his Resurrection conquered death.  In other words, death, for those who believe in Jesus, is no longer a reality in the most crucial sense.  It is sadly true enough that until Christ returns our physical bodies will still perish.  And in this there is still sorrow and hurt and pain.  But in deepest reality those who die in Christ do not really die.  They really live.  Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies."  (John 11:25-26)

So that if I am in Christ death has been conquered.  So to live is Christ and to die is gain.  It is the reason I do not have to fear.  It is the reason for my hope in the face of tremendous loss and pain.  I will not ever, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, cease to live.  I have eternal life.  We often think we are waiting for eternal life - we place it in what comes next, but I have eternal life now!  Earlier in John, in chapter 10 Jesus says, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10)  We have eternal life now and forever.  And may we remember that all those who have gone on before us are very much alive in the presence of Christ.  We WILL be reunited with them because we have the same eternal life in Christ.  We will all be bound to Christ and His life for eternity!

So death has already lost.  It has no power.  It has lost its sting.  Praise be to Jesus who gives us the victory!

For the record, I write this through tears as this past weekend I lost a friend and our church has been grieving the loss of a young husband and father and friend, a son, a brother.  This message is for me too and I must grieve, but we grieve with the hope of knowing the truth about death.  And so we say again and again, over and over until the return of Christ. . .

So death has already lost.  It has no power.  It has lost its sting.  Praise be to Jesus who gives us the victory!