Ephesians 1:20

Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places] (Ephesians 1:20 AMP).

The Apostle Paul has been building to this crescendo – the Resurrection Power of Christ.  Now it begins to make sense why he was so focused on our revelation being in one direction.  He did not want us to be asking God for anything less than the fullness of this blessing that is ours in Christ because it is the power over death.  What good is it for me to die to self if I am just then dead?  No, the point of dying to self is to allow the resurrection power of God to raise me back up from death to life, but not the old life.  It will be the new life in Christ.

This puts a very interesting twist on the process of our sanctification in which we are to put the old man to death.  It makes Paul’s statement to the Galatians even more poignant:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives (Galatians 5:24-25 NKJV).

We tend to think about the act of dying to self as a solo thing, when in fact it is just the first step in the process.  The truth is that when we die to self, we are allowing God to raise us back up by the same power He raised Jesus up.  So, on a more personal note, when I put to death my anger, my tendencies to worry, my critical and judgmental opinions; when I take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, I am allowing God to release His resurrection power in my life.  That sure does take the sting out of the first part of the process and give me a strong motivation to nail it (pun intended).

Today I will look for opportunities to die to self so that I can experience the resurrection power of God in my life.

Check out Gennarino's devotion on this verse:  Ephesians 1:20.