If Christ is living in us, where's the power?

Portion of a famous hymn...

In the apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesian church, Paul prays a remarkable prayer in chapter 3. He prays in Eph 3:16  I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, Eph 3:17  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, 

What has really struck me is that if Christ Jesus, the Resurrected Son of God, upon whom everything in Scripture points to, the very God of God, the eternally begotten Son of God, the embodiment and radiance of God personified, lives in me, than, indeed, 'all things are possible!'

No wonder then that there were many, even in Paul's time, who having understood this amazing revelation, were 'peddling' the word, making themselves rich, and finally bowing to the 'god of their bellies'.

The amazing revelation of Paul, the mystery of the ages now revealed is that God is in us, through His Son, by His Spirit. All this happened at the point of regeneration, or the 'new birth' (John 3:3ff). This is the 'washing of regeneration' which Paul also refers to in Titus 3:5, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

 In other words, Christ is united with us, and we become 'one with Him'. He is ours as Paul puts it. In that moment of regeneration, in that mysterious moment when the wind of the Spirit quickened through His power in His word, we were united with Christ, delivered from the kingdom of darkness, had our sins forgiven by Christ's shed blood, received the justification through Him, and in that very same 'package', the rewards of His righteous life was accrued to us! No wonder Paul bursts out again and again, in the midst of writing or dictating his epistles, in praise, worship and adoration for His Savior!

We truly walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). When we take in the glorious truth spoken of above, we realize that surely, because of this gracious act of God, there is nothing we can do, except bow our wills to God's sovereign salvific work in granting us repentance, and making us worthy, through the finished work of His beloved Son upon the cross, and by His resurrection, justifying the completed work of salvation to us as a gift. Simply amazing!

So how are we to live? Exactly as Peter would have us to in 1 Pet 2:9, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Our lives become one mighty celebration of His glorious salvation published through our lives. And we are only living by the 'faith of God', which is given to us as a sheer gift in the whole 'package' of salvation.

No wonder the early church conquered the mightiest empire of its time through the message of Christ's gospel! And we can too, if only we bow our wills to the Lordship of Christ, again and again, and allow His glorious Spirit, the same Spirit which raised Him up from the death, to live the live of the immortal Christ, the glorious One, in and through us, for His glory!