Tuesday 28 June 2011

The power of the cross – authority restored

Thirdly, Jesus reclaimed the authority that had been lost.
When God created man, he gave him authority over the natural world. God had given the world to man as a gift, to look after, to steward, to enjoy. The enemy deceived man into giving him that authority. Man allowed himself to be deceived and in that transaction, through that turning away from God which leads to death, by listening to the enemy and doing as he said, he empowered the enemy against man. The enemy took man’s authority for himself and became Prince of this World. He rules as usurper, knowing that man has the right to dethrone him again. So he rules through fear – keeping man under his control through fear and through deception. Not for nothing is he described as the Father of Lies.
When Jesus rose again, he took back the authority that had been lost, that the enemy had taken. Jesus had every right to do so. It was a man who had relinquished the God-given authority to the enemy. Only a man had the right to dethrone the dictator and take back the authority that rightfully belongs to man. As a representative of the human race, Jesus was in a position to take back the authority which had been conceded. And take it back he did!
“Having disarmed the powers and authorities in the spiritual realm,” Paul writes to the believers in Colosse, “he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them because of the cross.” (Col 2:15)
After he came back to life, talking to those who had been following him, Jesus affirms: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  
The glorious truth is, the enemy has been defeated! The enemy no longer has the ‘legal’ right to rule over this world! Jesus, taking back the authority that was lost, is now the rightful prince of the world and Scripture describes him as the Prince of Peace. There will come a time when he will take his rightful throne as King.
That is fantastic news!

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