Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  John 11:25,26

Last time, we talked about the Passover, and how through Jesus’ blood covering our guilt and shame, we each are made right with God. But what brings us into the fullness of what Jesus accomplished for us in His shed blood and His resurrection? Only one force—the resurrection power of life—zoe in the Greek. It’s the same word as Spirit.

God’s reveals His purpose for Jesus’ shedding His blood: “For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, that He would destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8).

This is the purpose Jesus demonstrated throughout His ministry. He overcame the works of the devil throughout His ministry. He did all that He did (teaching, miracles, conversations, …everything)—all by the power of the Spirit (zoe, life). However, it was His shedding His blood on the cross that actually destroyed those works.

Jesus covered the guilt and shame of humanity when by the power of the Spirit, zoe, life, He reached into the enemy’s realm and overcame death in death’s power. At that moment, our sin and shame were not only covered, like the blood of the Lamb covered the doorposts back in the time of Moses, but by the Spirit, zoe, life, the penalty of our sin (death) was taken on Himself and was and carried out on Him in our behalf.

Jesus conquered death and hell for each of us. God’s purpose in sending Jesus had been accomplished. “…he shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who were held in slavery by death.” (Heb 2:14,15). This resurrection power comes directly out of the heart of God—His love for each of us (Jn 3:16).

At the moment of our new birth (our resurrection with Jesus), the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead was born in each of us. We have been raised out of death’s power and raised into a new resurrected life filled with Holy Spirit (zoe, life) power.

Because we have been filled with resurrection zoe life, we are now free to from the law which only leads to death because we are incapable of keeping it. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2).

Jesus said His words were Spirit and life (zoe) (Jn 6:63). When our lives are filled with His resurrection power, the zoe life contained in His resurrection goes to work for us, in us, and through us (all 3: for, in, through). We are resurrected by Him and filled with His zoe life, so we start to experience that same power that worked in Jesus when He walked on this earth as it begins to work in each of us. Our effectiveness then increases to the degree that we focus on the zoe, life of God within us, riveting our attention on Jesus whose shed blood and resurrection power made it all possible.

In fact, in the resurrection power and zoe life, we have received more than enough to stand victorious over any enemy or attack that could ever come against us. And that is a promise worth considering as we contemplate the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus this week.