Jesus, a Most Unexpected Gift

While my office is filled with the sound of Christmas songs, there is another song on my heart today:

"Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

Refrain:
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide;
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow;
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood."

There’s just something about those old hymns that sticks with me year after year and as the refrain especially loops through my heart and mind, I am reminded of another unexpected gift Jesus brings to us:

The gift of power.

• Power over the burden of sin.
• Power over evil.
• Power over our own passion and pride (the flesh).
• Power to live purer lives.
• Power to serve Jesus, our King.
• Power to sing His praises every day.

What makes this gift unexpected?

The way in which it came to us.

To gift us with this power, Jesus, completely equal with God, left His home in Heaven, took on the frailty of a human body, a baby at that, and lived as a humble servant to His Father and to the people of His time, serving them in ways that they often thought themselves too good to serve each other, washing feet, healing lepers, dining with those others would not even address in public (Philippians 2:7-11).

To gift us with power, Jesus was obedient even to the point of death, the horrible death of the cross.

To the human mind, giving up the glory of Heaven and choosing a human body, a servant’s life, death on the cross, demonstrates weakness, not power.

But God’s Word is clear that through the blood of Christ, those who believe on Him receive power (2 Timothy 1:7).

Paul speaks of this power as he prays for the early believers at Ephesus. He wrote to them:

For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21 CSB (Emphasis mine)

The apostle Paul knew this power well, sharing that “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Friend, in Christ, we have the gift of power, power that overcame the grave, so we too can live eternally with Christ, power that works within us to give us strength to overcome temptation, to turn away from sin, to love and serve, to praise God daily, even on rough days. It’s not a power we can earn. We can’t conjure it up on our own.

It is a gift.

Freely given.

Bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, and poured into all those who believe on Him.

Thank You Jesus, for humbling Yourself that we might receive power!

Thank You Lord, for the wonder working power of Your blood!

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