Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Lecture

Lesson: 3 of 19

Track: #03

Year:

Dictation Name: 03 The Power of His Resurrection

[Rushdoony] Thy Son Jesus Christ from the dead, and has given us the promise of the Resurrection so that we live now as citizens of the new creation. Glory be to Thee oh Christ who for us hast overcome death, broken the power of sin, and opened unto us the gates of everlasting life. Glory be to Thee oh God the Spirit who doeth lead us into all truth in the risen Christ. We praise Thee Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and we pray that now and always we may live in the joy and the resurrection and the certainty of our victory in Jesus Christ our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.

Our scripture is in Philippians the third chapter verses eight through eleven. Philippians 3:8-11.

8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Our subject this morning is the phrase in verse ten, the power of His resurrection. There are several Greek words in the New Testament which are translated as power. The word used very frequently is dunamis, which we have in the word dynamite. It is found 118 times in the New Testament. Other words used unite the concepts of power and authority, and the New Testament associates both power and authority with Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact when we look at the words that are used in the New Testament, applied to Jesus Christ, they bring together power and authority, dominion, Lordship, freedom of action, strength, and rule. And all these terms are associated with what the resurrection does for us. 

The scriptures tell us that God declares that “he that sinneth against Me wrongs his own soul.” “All they that hate me love death.” The plain implication is that if we are not in Christ we are born losers. If we are in Christ we are re-born victors. Now Paul uses this word “dynamis” or “dunamis” which we have as dynamite, when he speaks with regard to the resurrection in our text. When he says the power of the resurrection he is talking about the explosive world changing power which the resurrection of Jesus Christ wrought. Moreover the word that is in the Greek and is translated as power here means the power to live and act independently of physical or spiritual strength. It refers to an inherent, not a derived power. That Christ has an inherent power that breaks all boundaries, all powers, destroys all restrictions, and it is this power, the power of the resurrection which is ours in Jesus Christ.

The stoics took that word and equated it with God quite logically. Because they concluded that that word could not be associated with anything other than a supreme being. Paul says this power is the cause of our salvation. This power is the power in all faithful preaching, this power is something the world does not know. The natural man, the fallen man does not have this power, cannot please God and cannot keep God’s law. This power which the resurrection unleashed into the world, the Holy Spirit brings into our lives and makes us in Christ a new creation, a continuing power so that we represent a force, and an authority, and a dominion in this world which is not of this world. To be without this power of God and salvation is, in terms of the words used in the New Testament, to be powerless; but more literally, impotent. Impotent, the person who is not in Christ is an impotent person. Whatever the plans they make for themselves in their future, there is a frustration that overtakes all their thinking, their planning, their hoping, and their dreaming because they bear within themselves the seeds of destruction, sin and death. 

But the great manifestation of God’s power, the resurrection, is an authoritative expression of power because it destroys the power of sin and death, and it reveals the true power in all creation is the Creator who is now also our redeemer; the power of His resurrection. This power is a contradiction of all humanism because humanism believes in naturalistic powers, in the power of man, of man’s logic, of man’s planning, man’s thinking. And the whole point of Paul’s gospel is that it is the power of His resurrection which has been unleashed upon the world, and that power alone is efficacious. And so his goal is that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. And this is his ministry Paul says, and it is the heart of His preaching, and it has to be the ministry of the church. This is why a Christian reconstruction is an inescapable concept. Can you believe in such a power being unleashed on the world without changing men and nations, institutions, everything? Can such an explosive power, a word which we’ve taken over into the English almost letter for letter “dynamite” be unleashed upon the world, come into our lives, without making us motivated with a tremendous force, to go out and bring all things into captivity to Christ? To go out and undo all injustice and to establish God’s justice, God’s righteousness here upon earth? The power of His resurrection is a contradiction to all humanism. 

The justification of Christianity is not in its social utility, its social usefulness. It can be argued that our faith is good for people, it makes life better. That it’s good for society, it makes people more law abiding and happier, it is good for the family- it promotes family life and unity, it is good for the society, for the state – it provides better citizens. That it makes for better living in every realm, but we cannot do that because the justification is not because it does something for men. The power of His resurrection is that it serves God’s purpose, establishes His kingdom, and the welfare of man and of society is a byproduct of that. Humanism’s basic test is social utility, and that’s why humanism can justify anything; homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion in terms of social utility. But we say God’s will must be done and the power of His resurrection must be unleashed in history because that transforming power, that social dynamite, must accomplish God’s purpose. In this process of accomplishing it the fallout is better life for us, our families, and society at large. But the primary purpose is the kingdom of God. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things that the Gentiles seek will then be added unto you; the power of His resurrection. No religion outside of our faith knows that power. 

The word religion come from a Latin word meaning “to bind” and the purpose of religions, basically, have been to provide social cement, to bring people together because without religion they fall apart. Within the state, within the society, within the family, within marriages, they fall apart. But no religion succeeds at that, except without coercion. But the power of His resurrection brings new life into people so that this binding takes place. It takes place supernaturally.

Paul in this text, in these verses which we read earlier, Philippians 3:8-11 weighs two concerns, the one against the other. On the humanistic side, the humanistic assets include a righteousness, or a justice, of his own. And people all over the world have their own idea of what constitutes justice. And every civil government tries to enforce its idea of justice. But mans justice is injustice in the sight of God. Out of these humanistic ideas of justice or righteousness comes self-righteousness, self-salvation, an attempt also to use the law to be saved. But all this Paul says is dung. 

Now the word that is translated as “dung” has two meanings. One is not a very pleasant one and scholars are divided over which usage Paul gave to it. One usage is for human excrement which was fed to dogs, the other was for table garbage fed to dogs also. Paul stresses the repulsiveness of the dung, and he says “this on the one side is the world of humanism, the world of man trying to get happiness or gain wealth or gain prosperity, or gain justice on his own.” The whole realm of humanistic values Paul rejects, and against all this he sets forth God’s righteousness or justice, which is holy and which is known only by faith which is the gift of God unto salvation. At the apex of God’s power, of Christ’s power, is the resurrection. Linked to this by Paul is our resurrection again and again Paul makes that point. Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead we are now the people of the resurrection. We have been resurrected out of the death of sin into the life of righteousness or justice, and we have the promise that at the end the power of death and the grave will be mocked by the power that is in us and that we shall know a life without the limitations of this, and a freedom in our service of God, and a glorious life eternally because of the power of His resurrection. 

Because of that we are now, Paul says in II Corinthians 5:17 , a new creation, a new creature but more literally a new creation. We are raised with Christ and the living power which is ours from