As a kid you always thought your dad was strong enough to do anything. You placed a lot of trust in him that’d he’d be able to shoulder the load, or protect you from danger. Relatively speaking, we dads are much stronger than our kids for a season. But in my case, it seemed that even late in life my dad was a brute when called on to pry something loose or finish off a tree limb with a hand saw. Still, even he had his limits.
Now when our Heavenly Father works the strength of his might, things get done. Nothing is too heavy a lift for him. See what I mean below.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. Ephesians 1:18-21
Paul recruits four words to portray God’s surpassing greatness—power (dunamis from which we get dynamite), working (enérgeia from which we get energy), strength, and might—all of which can be seen in the raising of Jesus from the dead.
Now if the resurrection is a fairy tale to you, you might want to consider God’s power on display in hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes, tsunamis, wildfires, blizzards, and earthquakes for starters, to know that the Almighty packs a punch that can’t be blocked.
And we haven’t seen nothing yet!
There’s one more thought here that I don’t want to overlook. A strong man may possess a knockout punch, but his power and energy is dissipated once he strikes his opponent. God’s power is sustained, similar to the description of winds in a hurricane. He is unrelenting, which keeps us saved! In other words, there’s nothing we can do to peel his grip from our souls. (John 10:29)
Thanks be to him!
The Road to Perdition—Romans 1:18-32
There’s a saying that all roads lead to Rome, meaning that regardless the pathway, the same destination awaits. This should be true about God if you open your eyes to your surroundings, or take a moment to contemplate your existence. Here Paul states that man should know that a greater being must have been and is to this day at work. This power is witnessed in the glory of his handiwork, the lightning dancing across the sky, the brilliant sunrises and sunsets, and the miracle of birth, for starters.
All have the intelligence to see this irrefutable evidence of God all around them, and “are without excuse.” (1:20) They should also follow the logic that a being who could create such wonder can certainly hold sway over what he has created.
But man, in the face of all this, suppresses what he knows in unbelief. But this can’t really be unbelief if effort must be constantly exerted to keep the truth at bay. It does get easier when God, seeing this foolishness, allows the exchange of incorruptibility for the corrupt. (1:23)
In time, man degrades and devolves into to everything at odds with the righteousness of God. Taking this course, that is, by choosing to deny the truth of God, man must explain his every act with his own congitations, and satisfy every God-given drive with what seems right in his own eyes, or feels good, no matter how depraved.
All this makes God very angry, as you might expect. He put out all the road signs that would lead man right to him, but they were willfully ignored. Consequently, God’s wrath awaits at the end of this futile detour.
But he’s left behind a lifeline in Jesus Christ, for man is only saved from this road to perdition by accepting directions from him.