Authority

This past weekend, I talked about the reason Jesus came to earth. In 1 John 3 it says that "the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." Later, in the same letter, John (or one of John's followers) writes, "In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."

I have been a "Christian" basically my whole life. I always went to church and sometime during my sophomore year of High School, I made my confession of faith at my church. For years, my central belief as a Christian was that Jesus died so that my sins would be forgiven so that I could go to heaven. Now, I should do the right thing and tell others that Jesus forgave their sins too, so they should believe so that they can go to heaven too. I based a lot of this on John 3:16 which many people know, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." So here it was; believe in Jesus and your sins will be forgiven and you'll go to heaven. The thing is, nowhere in that section of John does the word forgiveness or sins even come up (he does mention people whose "deeds were evil", but that is in reference to something we'll talk about in a minute).

In the passage, Jesus is talking with a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus about something called being "born again" or "born from above" depending on your translation. This confuses Nicodemus. But Jesus claims that no one can see or enter the kingdom of heaven without being born again. This is the thrust of their conversation. Now, this phrase, kingdom of heaven, has been thrown around a lot lately, but often it is difficult to really grasp since we don't live in kingdoms anymore. Not only that, but if you've been a Christian for even a short time, you will probably have heard that God is ruler over everything, so what other kingdom might there be?

In the beginning of Luke chapter 4, Jesus is led into the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil. During one of the temptations, "the devil led Jesus up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to.'" Jesus doesn't argue with this statement. He doesn't quote scripture about God being omnipotent. He simply says, in light of this declaration, "worship the Lord your God and serve him only."

Numerous other passages in scripture talk about the kingdom of Beelzebub, the powers of this world, powers of darkness, etc. but rarely do we think of them. Is the whole world really under the power of the evil one? (1 John 5) Is our struggle really not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms? (Ephesians 6)

The led to a new take on an old, old passage for me. In Matthew 28, many Christians know what is called the "Great Commission" where Jesus says, "Therefore go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you, for behold, I am with you even to the end of the age." But what about what comes before that? Or an ever good question to ask, "What's the 'therefore' there for?" Just before Jesus says these words he says, "All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me." This should make lights go off all over the place in your head. In Luke 4, the devil says that the authority over all of the kingdoms of this earth have been given to him. Now Jesus, following his death and resurrection claims that all authority on heaven and on earth are his. It has been given to him. There is a fundamental shift in the way the world works. Do you believe this? What does this have to do with being born again?