God is the supreme authority, and He has all authority; Christ as the Son of Man was given all authority in heaven and on earth after His resurrection and ascension, and now a Man is the Ruler over all things in the universe and the Lord of all. Hallelujah!
This week in our morning revival we come to a new vital factor in the recovery of the church life, The Factor of Authority in the Body of Christ and in the Local Churches.
As we are prayerfully considering these vital factors, we realize that these are elements that are crucial, having a significant effect for the recovery of the church life.
We will eventually get to a point where we will realize that it is possible to do everything correctly in the recovered church and, ultimately, everything is meaningless in the eyes of God if we cannot finally fulfil the desire of His heart and see His will done on earth, see the Body built up, and see the one new man manifested and functioning to express and represent God to deal with His enemy.
When we speak of the matter of authority, we will not mainly deal with the fact that there’s so much rebellion and rebelliousness on the earth; rather, we will look at the responsibility of the elders, co-workers, leading ones, and the saints bearing the responsibility to properly represent the authority of God.
We need to allow the Lord to deal with us, touch us, and bring us fully under His authority; we need to come to Him like little children, being emptied and unloaded so that He can speak to us in a fresh way what is on His heart regarding this matter.
We will first see that there are a number of crucial and important basic matters related to authority – God is the supreme authority, Christ as the Son of Man was given all authority in heaven and on earth, and He as a Man is the Lord over the universe.
No man or woman has authority in and of himself; all authority has its source in God, for God is the source of all authority.
And the Lord Jesus as a Man has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and He carries out His authority in and through the Body of Christ.
This means that Christ as the Lord of the universe carries out His authority through the local churches as the expressions of the Body of Christ.
We need to see a pure and proper revelation and application of this, and the local churches need to become a pure and proper representation of this.
Finally, we will see that all the authority that is in the Body and in the church is the throne of God and of the Lamb, and out of this throne, there’s a river of water of life flowing.
The way our God brings authority into the Body and into the throne is by means of the flowing river of water of life. In God’s view, the throne of God and of the Lamb is not only the centre of the New Jerusalem but also the centre of the church life and the centre of our Christian life.
Seeing that God is the Supreme Authority – He has all Authority – by an Inward Revelation
In the whole universe, God is the supreme authority; He has all authority – He is the Potter, we are merely the clay, and He has all authority and is sovereign over and in all things (Rom. 9:21-22).
God’s authority is not something apart from God, something that God has; rather, God’s authority is God Himself, for authority issues out from His own being (Rev. 22:1).
The Greek word for authority is exhousia, ex meaning out of, and housia, one’s own being; authority is something that issues from God’s own being.
Authority flows out from Him, from His own being. God is the unique authority, the supreme authority, and all authority derives from God.
Whether it is spiritual authority, positional authority or governmental authority, all authority derives from God, for He is the supreme authority and He has all authority (2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10; John 19:10-11; Gen. 9:6).
God has ordained many deputy authorities, many persons who represent His authority among us; in the family life, in the church life, at work, in society, or on the street, God has appointed certain ones to be an authority, those representing His authority.
All the deputy authority in society, in government, at home, etc derives from God.
For us to know authority is not an outward teaching but an inward revelation; we do not know authority by being taught concerning authority but rather, we need an inward revelation and consciousness of authority.
There are some countries and cultures where obedience to authority and respecting authority is in their DNA; there are other countries, however, where people doubt everything that the authorities say and do not want to submit.
Some are raised up in a culture that teaches them to submit to authority while others do not want to submit to any authority; we know authority not by teaching but by inward revelation.
When the Lord Jesus came, He was a man under authority; He was God, yet He humbled Himself, He did the Father’s will, and He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (see Matt. 8:9; John 4:34; 6:38; Phil. 2:7-8).
He didn’t consider being one with God and being the same as God to be something to be grasped but rather, He humbled Himself to the uttermost and submitted Himself to God’s authority and to God’s deputy authority in His time.
A Roman centurion once asked Him to heal his servant and, when Jesus said that He will go to his home, he said, I am not worthy for You to come into my house; speak a word, for I am also a man under authority.
When people saw Jesus, they realized that He was under God’s authority, so He had authority.
He obeyed the Father to the end, even to the point of giving up His own human life; as such a One, He is in us to cause us to see what authority is and to let Him live again in us a life of obedience to God and submission to His authority and to the deputy authority appointed by Him.
He submitted Himself to God and to those around Him whom God has ordained as deputy authority; even before starting His ministry on earth, He submitted Himself to John the Baptist’s ministry, for he was one who went before Him and had the ministry of the age before Him.
May we realize that God is the supreme authority, see that He has all authority, and may we have an inward revelation of what authority is so that we may submit to God’s authority and to His deputy authority on earth.
Lord, enlighten the eyes of our heart to see that God is the supreme authority, for He has all authority. May we realize that God’s authority is God Himself, for authority issues out from God’s own being. Amen, Lord, we open to Your enlightening and shining; may we go beyond any outward teaching regarding authority and have an inward revelation of what authority is. Grant us to have an inward revelation of God as the supreme authority in the universe so that we may submit to God’s authority and obey Him. Save us from being rebellious against God’s authority. Save us from being disobedient to the deputy authority that God has set over us. Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You and allow You to live in us the life of obedience to the Father in us.
Christ as the Son of Man was made Lord of All, the Ruler over All, the Head over the Universe, and the Head of the Body
In His economy, God wants that not only He would be on the throne ruling but also man would rule with Him; He created man in His image and according to His likeness so that man would express Him in His image and represent Him with His authority (Gen. 1:26).
But man fell by being deceived by Satan, the enemy of God; now man is rebellious toward God and disobedient to Him, and man cannot share God’s authority.
So God Himself became a man, and Jesus Christ as a Man learn obedience to God by the things He has suffered.
He was obedient to God’s will, respected God and His authority, and honored the deputy authority God has ordained over Him (such as parents, rulers, kings, and governors).
He was obedient to God even unto death, and that the death of the cross; then, after three days of resting in the tomb, He was raised by God and was given to be Lord of all, King of Kings, Ruler over all, and Head over the whole universe!
In the Old Testament, Christ was not yet incarnated, so He did not have the headship over all things; we may think that being God is adequate for Christ to be the Head over the universe, but according to His economy, God wants man to rule with Him, so Christ had to become a man.
There is now a Man in the glory, and Christ as a Man will judge the world in righteousness; God declared this and set proof that Christ is this One by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31).
God would never lower His status as God and Creator to deal with Satan, a creature; He wants man, another creature, to deal with Satan.
Therefore, Christ came as a man – He was God incarnated to be a man; as the only begotten Son of God, He had only the divine element, but now as the Son of Man He has the human element.
In order for Christ to be Head over all things in God’s government, He needed to have divinity and humanity and accomplish God’s purpose and defeat God’s enemy.
Through His life on earth, work on the cross, resurrection, and ascension, Christ accomplished God’s purpose and defeated God’s enemy.
When He died on the cross, Christ accomplished God’s purpose and also defeated Satan, destroying the power of death on the cross (Heb. 2:14).
He has accomplished everything, and He did this not merely as God but as a God-man, the Son of Man.
In His ascension, God inaugurated Him into the full headship of the entire universe, bringing Him to the third heaven to give Him to be Head over all things to the church and the head of every man (1 Cor. 11:3).
In His divinity, as the only begotten Son of God, the Lord had authority over all, but in His humanity, as the Son of Man and the King of the heavenly kingdom, all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him after His resurrection (Matt. 28:18).
Although He represented God’s authority on earth, it was only when His whole being was brought into resurrection and ascension that He was made Lord of all, Ruler of the kings of the earth, and Head over all things to the church.
This establishes the principle that, for us to rule and reign with God and for God, we need to go through death and be in resurrection and ascension, experiencing Christ in His resurrection and ascension.
The Lord is working in our life today to make us His co-kings, if not in the millennial age, in the new heaven and in the new earth.
He Himself is resurrection and ascension, and He is guiding us as the Spirit of reality into all the reality of what He is and has accomplished.
Now as the Ruler of the kings of the earth, the God-exalted Jesus is the Ruler over all the ones who are in power; Christ is the chief Ruler in the divine government for the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan (Acts 2:23; 36; 5:31; Rev. 1:5).
Jesus Christ, a Man, is the ruler of everyone in the government and in power; whether they are kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, or any position of power, Christ is over all.
We need to have an inward revelation of this fact and, even though we may be concerned about a certain situation, we are not disobedient or rebellious toward authority but rather, we appeal to the highest authority in the universe, calling on Him to do what is righteous according to God!
In Christ’s ascension, God made Him the unique Head of the Body, the church, and God inaugurated Him into the headship of the universe (Col. 1:18; Acts 2:36; Eph. 1:22-23).
Now the Head of the whole universe is Jesus Christ, a man! Praise the Lord! He is the Son of Man on the throne in the third heaven, and He is the Head over the whole universe, even the Head over all things to the church, which is His Body!
Lord Jesus, we praise You for being resurrected and ascended to the third heaven to be the Lord of all, having all authority in heaven and on earth! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ as a Man is the Ruler of the kings of the earth and chief Ruler in the divine government for the fulfilment of God’s eternal plan! Wow, a Man is on the throne to be the Head over the whole universe and the Head over all things to the church. Amen, Lord, You were inaugurated by God into the headship of the universe in Your ascension, and now as a Man You rule and reign over all things! We praise You, Lord, and we place ourselves under Your authority! You are the Head over the whole earth, over our continent, over our country, over our city, over the church, over our family, and over our whole being. We call on You, the highest authority on earth, that righteousness according to God would be done by the men You set in power in our country. Amen, Lord, we enthrone You and we praise You, the Son of Man, the Lord of all!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Crucial Principles for the Christian Life and the Church Life, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Vital Factors for the Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life (2021 ITERO), week 4, The Factor of Authority in the Body of Christ and in the Local Churches.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Lo! in heaven Jesus sitting, / Christ the Lord is there enthroned; / As the man by God exalted, / With God’s glory He is crowned. (Hymns #132)
– Far above all is our Savior enthroned; / Crown’d is the Lamb who by sinners is owned, / Living forever to list to our call, / God hath exalted Him far above all. / Far above all! Far above all! / Jesus the crucified far above all! / High as His members upon Him we call, / God hath exalted Him far above all! (Hymns #128)
– Lord Jesus, Thou art Lord of all, / With glory ever crowned; / In power and in majesty / Thou art to all renowned. / As God in man, on earth Thou wast, / A slave-form Thou didst own; / As man in God, in heav’n Thou art, / As Lord of all art known. (Hymns #133)
About aGodMan
