1 Thessalonians 1:5
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" Romans 1:16
Power: 'The ability to do something. The capacity to direct or influence.'
The gospel is power in its pure essence. The gospel doesn't come unnoticed or quietly. It doesn't compromise. Rather, it comes in power. It's impossible to come into any real contact or knowledge of the gospel and not be completely transformed. It is explosive. It takes everything. It completely consumes. If power is defined as the ability to do something, or the capacity to direct or influence, I offer that the gospel is power in its pure essence. Nothing transforms like the gospel. Religion can make a person behave a certain way for a while. Trying hard can cause someone to be pretty moral. But only the gospel takes people who are literally dead and makes them alive. Only the gospel can take a blind person and give them sight. Only the gospel can melt the heart of stone. Only the gospel , which is the power of God, can resurrect and give new life. That's why you can tell when someone is a Christian. They've been hit with the power of the gospel. I want this power more and more. The beautiful part is that IN CHRIST, we have full access.
I am thankful that God was graciously pleased to reveal this gospel to my blind eyes. God has taken this self-loving God hater, and given me new life. Through the gospel, my debt is removed, I'm forgiven, and I've been given a new heart. Through the power of the gospel, I can truly say, 'I have been crucified with Christ. It is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' (Galatians 2:20)
This is power.
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