And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (Matthew 28:18 KJV)
Here, some people think what Jesus is saying is that, "yes! Now we got it! Peter, I have forcefully collected that thing o. john, can you believe we now have it. It wasn't easy.". They think Jesus during his departure from the earth to hell, went there to fight to collect all the powers there. Had to battle with the witches, wizards, "babalawos", deputy Satan, Assistant Satan and then their big boss – Satan, and said "give me that power now!" and then went to the heavens and collected the powers there and came back to say "yes! All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth". Far from it!
"power" here isn't power to heal the sick: He already had that. It isn't power to turn water into wine. It isn't "dunamis" – ability to get things done. It is "exousia" - "authority". All authority in heaven and in earth is given unto me. All government in heaven and in earth is given unto me. It's a fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6
"and the government shall be upon his shoulder"
It's a fulfillment of David's prophecy
The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: RULE thou in the midst of thine enemies. (Psalms 110:2)
All government/rule in heaven and in earth is given unto me.
2. Whatever "power" referred to here, must be something He never possessed before. Supernatural powers, Jesus had before His death. We all know this.
What about authority? Do we want to say Jesus had no authority before his death?
Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. (Luke 9:1 KJV)
So, he had.
So, why the saying "is given unto me"? you don't get given to you what you already have. Jesus should have said "I always have all power in heaven and earth", and not "is given unto me". "is given unto me" means, it's just been given. So what could Jesus be saying?
It's simple. Jesus had power and authority. Authority he had, was because He was the only holy one who is not under Satan's rule: not being under sin.
God gave man authority over everything He created (heavens and the earth) when He said "subdue" in Genesis. But by sin, man gave out this power to Satan, and Satan became the ruler of all under sin. the wages of sin is death, so Satan got the power/authority of death (Heb 2:14)
That's why Satan could lay claim to all the "kingdoms of the world" when he was tempting Jesus (see Matthew 4:8-9).
But Jesus, by death, freeing man from the wages of sin, and giving him the "gift of God"- eternal life, made Satan lose this authority; and man again, got the possession of ALL POWER in heaven and on earth! Alleluia!
Some have thought Jesus was speaking here as God. Oh no! God cannot be saying "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth". God cannot be GIVEN power: God is POWER. God cannot be GIVEN authority: it takes authority to be God. Jesus was speaking for man in the light of what He has just done.
Conclusively, "all power belongs to God" – Correct. "All power belongs to Jesus" – correct, but you'll understand this verse more, if you put it this way: "all authority is now given back to man in Christ Jesus". Jesus is not a sole possessor of authority: the authority belongs to man! Jesus is not a monopoly of power today. It is not Jesus and his children. It is Jesus and his brothers in government.
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13/05/2015
All Power in heaven and earth
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