WHEN DID JESUS GET “ALL AUTHORITY”?

It must be understood that Jesus had been given authority at least over all the earth, but probably over all of heaven, too (see Luke 10:17-20), as soon as he conquered Satan in temptation (Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13; cf. 1 John 2:12-17, 4:4-6, 5:1-5, John 16:33), for immediately thereafter, he started heralding the Kingdom of the Heavens (Matt. 4:17)/of God (Mark 1:14-15), having returned “in the power of the Spirit“ (Luke 4:14) into Galilee, declaring that Isaiah 61:1-2a had been “fulfilled” (Luke 4:21) and then curing everyone in sight (Matt. 4:23-25)!

So when Jesus declared to his disciples before his ascension, “Given to me was all authority in heaven and on earth“ (Matthew 28:18), this was not (or not entirely) a fruit of his later resurrection, but of his victory in temptation, which commenced his ministry with power from on high as the consequence.  This is why he was authorized to give authority to his disciples, as well (Matt. 10:1, Luke 9:1, Mark 6:7) even before the Resurrection and Pentecost.  But granted, the power was more abundant after his resurrection, for after all, he had become victorious again in his last and much more severe temptation at Gethsemane and the Cross, where he was in such a struggle that he sweat blood, and a messenger from heaven came and strengthened him (Luke 22:43-44, cf., Matt. 16:18), as after his first trial (Matt. 4:11).

This two-phase granting of authority and the power of the Spirit for signs and miracles and cures and healing, etc., may explain why Jesus breathed on his disciples ‘early,’ before his ascension, to get Wholesome Spirit (John 20:22) and be authorized to forgive as well as to hold (i.e., not forgive) anyone’s sins—in effect the “keys of the Kingdom” (Matt. 16:13-20).  [3/21/05]

OVERCOMPENSATION and JOY

God’s justice demands an overcompensation for injury.  In other words, the injurer must pay back the victim of the injury and add a surplus (sometimes several fold) beyond what the theft or injury cost the victim.  The reason?  TO RESTORE JOY to the victim.  This is an essential element of God’s Kingdom (Rom. 14:17).  The one who stole joy is obliged to ‘repay’ it.

And, naturally, as we would expect, this fundamental truth of the universe is best illustrated by the Cross/Resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah.  In this case, however, the abusers of Jesus could never have repaid him for their unjust injuries against him.  Rather, God Himself intervened, out of uncreated love, and reacted in graciousness to overcompensate His Son and give him his due! So whereas under the Old Covenant murder was too heinous a crime to be overcompensated by any amount of money or property—an ‘in kind’ payment of the living soul of the murderer was required instead—the New Covenant was inaugurated when God the Father Himself acted miraculously from His celestial throne to overcompensate His grievously abused though completely innocent Son with resurrection from the dead, exaltation to sovereignty over the entire created order, and the indescribable Gift of superabundant favor—the promised Spirit of wholesomeness—to give away gratuitously to all who trust this Proclamation!

It is this divine graciousness (χαρις) that restored fulness of Kingdom joy (χαρα) to the mortal human race, thus inviting their endless, boundless thanksgiving (ευχαριστια) to God!  [6/23/05]

NOT BY INSURRECTION BUT BY RESURRECTION

It is clear from both the teaching and practice of Jesus that he came to liberate humans from the respective bondages of medical, financial, political, military, and religious AUTHORITY by DISPLACEMENT, not REVOLUTION—in other words, not by INSURRECTION but by RESURRECTION!  Thereby he inaugurated a New Creation…a New Humanity that responds to Messiah’s headship and his Spirit’s leadership.  [1/21/06]

If the complete RESURRECTION of the body is ‘in the Atonement,’ then surely the current HEALING of the body must be!  [2/9/06]

JESUS BORE SINS BY REFUSING TO RETALIATE AND INSTEAD TRUSTING GOD TO DO JUSTICE …TO HIM!

Christians should be able, on occasion, to joke about death.  Now life, that’s another matter entirely!  “Life is sacred.”  But in light of our solid expectation of being raised from the dead, the joke’s on Satan.  So give a hoot!  [5/12/02]

For Jesus to “carry up our sins in his body on the pole” (1 Peter 2:24)–did this mean to not retaliate, especially in view of the fact that as Messiah, and as innocent, he had the right to avenge these injustices and call more than twelve legions of messengers to destroy these vicious enemies?  It would appear so.  Peter says, “he does no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.”  Yet he says that Messiah “being reviled [i.e., sinned against], reviled not again“ and ” suffering abuse [i.e., sinned against], threatened not,“ but “surrendered to the One judging justly” (1 Peter 2:22-23).

In this way, instead of striking back, he bore with those sins, receiving them on his body, in his flesh, and then offering this marred, injured, bleeding object of victimization up to God for His judicial inspection and appropriate judgment in response.  Messiah voluntarily absorbed the wrongful assaults, carving out a last-ditch, one-generation window of opportunity for Jerusalem’s repentance, while breathing out only forgiveness toward the Romans nailing him down and casting lots for his cloak.  What choice did God have?  He must honor His dear Son’s merciful requests:  reprieve the presumptuous city for a while and pardon his clueless executioners outright.  That left only one option for fulfilling justice to the Victim:  Raise the Innocent from the grave!  [5/26/02; 9/20/12]

Getting the Holy Spirit is like catching a disease, only in reverse!  If you ‘catch’ the Spirit, it gives you health and life.  It’s the downpayment of God’s Kingdom, and we’re free to spread the contagion further in any appropriate God-crediting way we choose.  It endows us with powers of the coming age that accredit the Truth about God’s Kingdom that Jesus taught us.  [6/7/02]

If the Messiah had not been the one in, through, and for whom the universe itself had been created by God, his suffering and death would not have been a sacrifice weighty and worthy enough to justify God in overcompensating him for it with a salvation sweeping enough to embrace the whole world, capacious enough to swallow Death whole, powerful enough to regenerate the universe into a New Creation—heaven, earth, and all!  None less than the Mediator of creation could possibly have mediated a salvation of this magnitude.  May praise and credit agelong be rendered to the Father and the Son for their wisdom and love, now even spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit!  [6/9/02]

Even as Adam ate the flesh of the fruit hanging on the Tree (ξυλον—Genesis 2:2; 3:3,6,11-12,17 LXX) of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and thus inherited death, so must we eat the flesh of the Last Adam, hanging on the pole (ξυλον—Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29, Gal. 3:13, 1Peter 2:24, Rev. 2:7, 22:2,14), who thereby became a curse for our sakes in order that we could inherit life agelong.  Eating the fruit of the last tree far overcompensated, indeed atoned, for eating the fruit of the first tree.  [6/9/02; 9/20/12]

God, by giving His divine Son a body of mortal human flesh, prepared the window of opportunity whereby Satan, by wrongfully depriving the Son of that body through his unjust crucifixion, justified God in overcompensating His Messiah with a new body of human flesh–the assembly of which Messiah is the Head—through his resurrection from the dead!  Thus was the Deceiver deceived into opening the window for our salvation as Death disgorged its Prey alive and whole!  God conferred on His Son the right, by a just verdict, to inherit a new and vastly larger body into which any human being can be immersed/implanted by trusting him, believing his Proclamation of peace through the blood of his cross.  [6/9/02]

The blood guilt for murdering Jesus the Messiah is on Satan.  That’s how Satan was convicted and will be conquered by the blood of the Lamb of God.  [7/11/02]

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #17)

17.     Didn’t Jesus suffer so that we don’t have to?

Quite the opposite.  We are privileged to suffer abusiveness from a hateful culture for the sake of his name and character so that we might also share everlasting life together with him in his future Kingdom on a renewed earth.  He never promised us a rose garden, only thorns and thistles in this age.  We’ll win garlands for enduring this!  Our willingness, even determination, to suffer whatever abuses must necessarily come when we remain staunch in our obedience of faith, even to the extent of not loving our present existence to the point of death, is the essence of our conquest over Satan and his hordes and can help bring protection as well as salvation to others, too.