The Authority Given to Christ
BY FERRELL GRISWOLD
John 17:2 IN JOHN 17, the Lord Jesus began His High-Priestly prayers saying: "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him."
That's a two-fold request. First, He asks His Father to restore unto Him the glory that was His before His incarnation. And secondly, that, with the power given Him, He might glorify the Father by saving all those whom He came to redeem.
Being very God of very God, of course, Christ will receive an unqualified "yes" to His request. In fact, our Lord has already entered into a manifestation of that divine glory which is rightfully His. It is the second part of that request that I would like to talk to you about in this message.
Delegated Authority
Verse 2 begins: "As thou hast given him power over all flesh" The particular Greek word used for "power" here means "authority". The Lord is saying that the Father has given Him an authority to be exercised by way of kingly rule over all flesh. He has been invested with, imbued with, a total authority over all things.To understand this, we must first recognize that Christ is the second person of the Triune Godhead. Through Him all things were made which are made, and apart from Him nothing could be made. He always exercises an authority over the totality of His creation; He has a right of power over that which He has made.
Therefore, as God, Christ could never be delegated any new authority, nor invested with any new power over anything. This power is already His because He is God.
God Incarnate. The language of our Lord, then, must have reference to something else. And the reference is to His mediatorial office as the God-man. It is in this subordination to the Father, in taking a human nature into union with His divine person, that He is invested with total authority. It is as God Incarnate that He has been granted a universal kingship in reward to His humiliation.
You see, because the Lord Jesus Christ agreed to save us by laying aside the outward manifestation of His divine glory to become man and dying a criminal's death on the cross of Calvary, the Father promised to raise Him up and exalt Him and give Him a reward. That reward is this special glory and authority.
This truth is revealed in that very familiar but extremely important scripture in Philippians 2. Citing the humility of Christ as our example, the apostle Paul writes in verse 6, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."
Humility. "Being in the form of God" means that He outwardly expressed as His very nature the divine essence of God. In other words, His form was that of God because He was God.
The second half of that versethought it not robbery to be equal with Godcan be translated two ways. According to one translation, it means that for Christ to be co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit would not rob them of any of their essence, for the essence of deity belongs equally to all three persons of the Godhead.
Another translation is that Christ did not consider this form of God something to be held onto at any cost; He was willing to bail it in His humanity to redeem us.
Paul continues in verse 7, "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men."
The Lord emptied Himself, not of His deity but of the outward expression of it, and became man.
Verse 8: "And being found in fashion as a man (true man), he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Exaltation. Now watch the change. "Wherefore (having gone down, down, down) God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
So, you see, the Father has rewarded the Son for His humility and obedience by lifting Him up, exalting Him with a name which is above all names. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
The momentous occasion on which the Lord Jesus was granted this regal power is recorded in Daniel 7.
Beginning with verse 13, we read:
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.Clouds of glory. Note that He comes in clouds of glory to the Ancient of days, the Father in heaven. And they (that is, the watchers in the heavenly host) ushered Himas the God-maninto the presence of God the Father.Now, verse 14: "And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
When does all this take place? Let's go to the Book of Acts. In verse 8 of the first chapter, the Lord tells the apostles that they shall be witnesses unto Him in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. Then, we read in verse 9, "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight."
Now, we leave earth and step into the presence of the angels at the Father's throne, and we see Christ coming in clouds of glory. The Ancient of days then gives Him the total authority of kingship over His everlasting kingdom.
Enemies under foot. The psalmist David gives us yet a little more detail about this grand occasion. He reveals in Psalm 110:1, "The Lord (Jehovah) said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."
This is what we see taking place here. Our Lord is ushered in and was placed at the right side of the Father, the right hand of authority and power. Given that authority, He will rule until His kingdom is universal, until every enemy is put under foot. When He has done that, He will leave with total dominion, crushing His enemies by the brightness of His second coming and then bringing in new heavens and a new earth.
The momentous occasion on which the Lord Jesus was granted this regal power is recorded in In Psalm 2:8, we are told further that as the Lord is brought up into the heavens, the Father says to Him, "Ask of me (it's your covenant right, it's part of the new will and testament), and I shall give the nations to you for your inheritance."
Christ is given an everlasting kingdom as an inheritance in order that all people, all nations, all languages, should serve Him.
Remember, the authority given Christ is over all flesh. That means rebellious flesh as well as obedient flesh, lost flesh as well as saved flesh. He has a judiciary power not only to save whom He will, but also to judge all those who remain unsaved.
The Judge. This truth is stated clearly in John 5:26,27: "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man."
Yes, Christ has been given the judiciary authority to execute judgment on the unsaved because He is the Son of man. He has the power both to justify and to condemn because He humbled Himself and died on the cross. This power is over all the nations. And He has indeed been ruling and judging the nations by their rise and fall.
Actually, this reaffirms that the Lord Jesus is both truly God and truly man. For such power would be safe only in the hands of One who is God. On the other hand, if He were God alone, such a donation is not needed. But because He is the Son of God and also the Son of man, He alone has the wisdom to wield such unlimited power.
In Romans 14, we see something else of the extension of His power. We read in verse 9, "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living."
Again, you see, the lordship of Christ is not limited to the living. Nor is it confined to spiritual martyrs. He died, rose again and lives in order to be Lord both of the dead and the living. That is, both the unsaved and the saved. Even as our Lord is the Creator of all, the Preserver of all and the Judge of all, so He is the Lord of all.
Specific Purpose
Now, I want us to note that this universal grant of power is for a particular purpose. The second half of our text, John 17:2, reads, "that he should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him." That purpose is to save all those whom the Father had given Him.A reference to both this power and its purpose can be found in Ephesians 1. There, the apostle Paul prays that the eyes of believers would be opened so that they may know the hope of their calling, the riches of their glory, and the greatness of His power.
With regard to the latter, we read in verse 19: "(that ye may know) what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power."
For this verse, the New American Standard translation has made a punctuation correction, which I believe is more accurate to the meaning than that which we have in the King James. It puts the comma after the word "us-ward", instead of the word "believe".
Keep in mind that the original Greek manuscripts were all capital letters with no punctuation marks and no word divisions. In other words, the punctuation marks put in by the translators weren't inspired.
Thus, verse 19 should read, "what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward, who believe according to the working of his mighty power." The last phrase there tells us how we believe, you see.
Resurrection power. Of the power that enabled us to believe, Paul writes in verse 20, "Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places..."
It took the same kind of divine power that raised Christ from the dead to give us saving faith. That's how dead we were in sins. Salvation is entirely of the Lord, you see, not by the decision of the sinner.
In verses 21-23, Paul goes on to describe the extent and the purpose of the power that Christ received:
Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.Put another way, that power, or authority, covers all beings, including angelic orders, and extends beyond this present age. And Christ exercises it all for the benefit of His church. He works everything toward one objective: the glory of God in the accomplished salvation of the elect.Comforting Truths
Now, I take comfort in the fact that universal power is in the hands of Christ. That means whether we like our next President or not, he is the man God had ordained before the foundation of the world. We don't know if Christ put him there to bless or to judge the country. But whatever God's purpose is, we know it is perfect.We can take comfort also in the fact that the Lord Jesus knows all those who are His, calling them by their names, and that they all follow Him. And everything that Christ has done is for our salvation, and through it God will be glorified.
That power, or authority, covers all beings, including angelic orders, and extends beyond Now, I can grant you, sometimes I quake and tremble and wish that things were not the way they are. I don't like to see millions of people dying of starvation, to see relentless killings continuing in many parts of the world, and to see AIDS and other horrible diseases spreading in many lands.
But the Bible tells us these things must come. We will have periods of famine and war and pestilence. Christ is exercising His authority to judge the nations as well as to give eternal life to His people. So, we can take comfort in knowing that Christ has power over all things. Good or bad, the world is going exactly the way He wants it to go.
"Father," Jesus prayed, "you have given me authority over all flesh that I might save all those whom you did give me before the foundation of the world." Christ will accomplish His purpose. And Brother, that's where my hope is. o
Rev. Ferrell Griswold is the late pastor of Clairmont Reformed Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL. His messages are now distributed by the Berean Tape Ministry, 4105 Court G, Fairfield, AL 35064.