Lesson 25: Warring Against the Flesh with Resurrection Power
Questions 1 and 2
By now, we know that we must war against our flesh, and this battle is life-long. While the sin nature that we were born with was crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6), and we now have a new nature, a new self created in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24), that new self lives in a body of flesh. The flesh is "unredeemed" (Romans 8:23), will always be with us, and we must always war against it.
But the good news is that we, believers in Jesus, don’t need to fight spiritual battles in the strength of our flesh. To win, God has given us resurrection power and Holy Spirit power!
The same power, which raised Jesus from the dead, works in all believers:
“and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength (20) he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:19-20 NIV).
Question 1. According to Ephesians 1:19-20 NIV, for whom is God’s incomparably great power?
Yes, God has incomparably great power for us who believe. We access God’s power by faith, believing the gospel.
You must believe that your sin was crucified and buried, you are forgiven and accepted, and that at the cross, Jesus removed your sin “as far as the East is from the West” (Psalm 103:12); you will never see your sins again. You need to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead and that God does not look at your performance; instead, God looks to Jesus’ righteous life and credits Jesus' perfection to your account! You need to believe that Jesus truly lives in you.
Faith connects us to God’s power and brings the experience of Jesus’ resurrection to our hearts and lives. Faith raises us up, counteracting, and overcoming the downward pull of sin.