“Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.” – Colossians 2:12
In this verse in Colossians 2, the Apostle Paul speaks about the reality that in the work that God did in Christ Jesus, there was an operation of God. And for those of us who have come to know that Christ was resurrected and alive, if we are going to walk in new creation power and authority, then we’re going to have to exercise our faith in that operation — not just in the fact that Jesus was resurrected, but faith in the operation that raised Him.
This means we have to know something more than just the fact that He is alive. We have to know something more than just on the third day, He was raised. We have to know God’s operation before we can believe it because we can’t have faith in something if we don’t know it. Paul tells us in Colossians 2:12 that God in this operation was up to something that was completely hidden from the devil, the demons and powers, and even from the natural eyesight of men who thought they were in control of something. Paul says they had no idea of what God was actually doing. For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Revelatory Understanding of the Gospel
If this last year has evidenced anything at all, it is that our Christianity, if it is to be found credible, must become more than merely a celebration of what Jesus did in dying and being resurrected from the dead, for though it is uniquely and eternally significant, that is not the totality of the Gospel.
If our Christianity is going to be powerful to do what God the Father and Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit has declared that it is to do, our Christianity rather must become a revelation, a demonstration, and a manifestation in the world through us of what Christ’s finished work accomplished for us.
For this to happen, we, as the new creation believers, must gain revelatory understanding beyond that of the nominal professing church. Everything now that is called church is not believing the Word and is not hearing the voice and moving with the Holy Ghost. The true remnant prophetic community are people hearing the voice of the Spirit, believing the revelation of the unfathomable and irrevocable Word of God, and declaring it — not just preaching it but living it out in power and in demonstration.
The Complete Gospel: Seen After the Resurrection
Around the globe, people are celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is significant that we address the fact that the centrality of the resurrection must be in our message and not just preaching Jesus did this or Jesus did that.
The resurrection is central to everything we preach. (2 Timothy 2:8) It is the foundational truth and the keynote to the Gospel. It is the resurrection that causes every other truth of the Gospel to receive its force and to receive its power. That resurrection, however, is not just the resurrection of Jesus, but it is the resurrection of all who have believed in Him according to the operation of God.
The resurrection of Jesus, significant as it is, is important but it’s not just that Jesus was raised, but that it was an operation of God that needs to be understood and comprehended. The expansion of our definition of the Gospel is required. It’s not just that Jesus died, was buried, and was raised. The complete and actually Gospel is that after He was raised, He was seen after His resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
God was working out something in the passion, in the scourging, in the cross, in the death and burial, in the resurrection, and in the seeing of Jesus Christ after resurrection. Everything was all part of God’s operation. And this is the actual Gospel of Jesus Christ that we need to be preaching to people from this day forward. If we are going to move into the dimensions of the manifestations of the power of God that the scripture promises us and what the Holy Spirit has declared, this Gospel must be a reality before Jesus comes again.
Now is the time for us new creation believers to expand our definition of what the Gospel of Jesus actually is. If the resurrection is going to do what it is purposed to do for the new creation believer, there’s gonna have to be an unveiling of Jesus after the resurrection. We have to see Him after the resurrection and we have to have faith in God’s operation.