11.1 Authority
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The title of this chapter is “Be the Church.” Inside of that thought, consider this statement of Jesus – “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).
Every word of truth towards us in the gospel operates at two levels both at the same time. Every word operates at the personal level, inside of you. And every word operates at the level of that gathering together, the local Church with whom you participate. This is true of everything you have learned in this short text. You are filled with all the fulness of God, personally, yes, but even more, your togetherness with the brothers and sisters with whom you worship is also filled with all of God.
Every Word Complete. No word from God can be true in one of those places only; every word must be complete in you personally and every word must be complete in your gathering together with other believers in Jesus. It’s not 50-50; it’s all and all.
You will find, then, that the truths regarding your knowing Jesus as He IS, found in these final two chapters, are applied to their larger expression, your local Church. Nonetheless, these things are fully true of you as well, on a personal basis and all through your being, from the moment you asked Jesus to live inside your heart.
To BE the Church together, to be sent as Jesus was sent, begins with knowing the authority of Christ dwelling in your heart.
Man over All. As part of creating Adam in His likeness and as His image, the revelation of God to creation, God gave to Adam and to all mankind authority over all of creation, both heaven and earth. “You have… set him [mankind] over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under [man] (Hebrews 2:7-8).
The writer of Hebrews then goes on to say that our authority over all is not visible to us, and therefore we see Jesus alone as our source and our life. To understand this authority, we must first understand something about God before looking at how Adam used his authority in the garden.
Which River Flows. The most terrible statement in the Bible is Paul’s claim that Adam was NOT deceived. But here is another statement of Paul’s that comes a close second. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).
Genesis 2 speaks of a river that went out from Eden to water the whole earth. Whatever the geographical meanings of that statement might have been, God also placed that statement as a metaphor for us to understand Adam’s place. Just as there are two trees, a tree of death and a tree of life, so there are two rivers, a river of death and a river of life. And humans possess the authority over which river flows out from themselves.
Two Rivers. Here is the river, or shall we say, flood of death hitting creation through the authority of God given to Adam. – Through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12).
In the next chapter, we will talk about the river of life that God has placed inside of you, that river flowing out from the tree of life, that is, Jesus alive in your heart, and always going forth from you, bringing healing and life to all. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will overflow out of his belly [his womb, his innermost being] (John 7:38). But first we must establish the authority given to you as a believer in Jesus and to your local assembly as the Body of Christ.
A Creation of Death. Look at the world in which you live, the entire human world and everything in it as well as the entire natural world. What you “SEE” is a creation of death, coming out from so-called “morality,” that is, knowing right and wrong. You have never known a creation of life, coming out from the tree of life, out from that river flowing from you.
Nothing of creation was in its completed state when God placed Adam and Eve into the garden. It was God’s full intention to work together with and through mankind in order to shape all creation by goodness and life. Nothing is good in itself. Everything created must be seen good and called to goodness (Genesis 1), that is, into the knowledge of God.
Transferring Authority. Adam preferred a fake “god,” a “god” who “knows good and evil” as defined by the serpent. For that reason, no created being in heaven or earth knows anything about a world of life, but only a world shaped, through Adam, by death. And God CANNOT do anything about it, because God does not know sin. The thought of removing the place, the calling, the authority, which He had already given to Adam never enters God’s mind.
BUT – because of Jesus’ willingness, as a human, to bear our sins upon the cross, in raising Jesus out from the dead, God transferred the authority given to Adam over to the human Jesus. God could replace Adam, but He cannot replace man.
Authority Given to Me. Here, then, is what Jesus said after His resurrection. – All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Having gone through {into the Holiest} therefore, disciple all the peoples, immersing them into [God] (Matthew 28:18-19).
That authority given to Jesus was transferred from Adam, and thus the gifts and calling of God to mankind remain. That same Jesus fills your heart with His glory and lives, now, as you. More than that, that same Jesus inhabits His Body as His visible form, and specifically, your local assembly. How, then, do you express that authority? – ‘Not by might [outward abilities] nor by power [inward fortitude], but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6).
The Verse of Authority. Let’s look, now, at the ruling verse that establishes this same authority inside of you as a believer as well as with you together as the local Church. – Now have come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, the one accusing them before our God day and night. And they have overcome him through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their testimony; and they have not loved their souls [their self-stories] unto death {unto the one death of Christ} (Revelation 12:10-11).
Every time the accuser accuses you of falseness or tempts you to see sin and not Christ, you have the backing of God to cast that voice out of your thinking.
How You Overcome. You overcome the accuser. You cast all accusation down. And how do you do that? The angel speaking to John gave him, not three things, but one thing carried by two.
That one thing is you, carried in one hand by the Blood, always cleansing you – no consciousness of sins, and carried in the other hand by the Cross, the complete trade of Jesus’ story for yours and yours for His. And you, carried by the Lamb, speak the word of witness, Christ made personal in you, as you, and through you.
Speak Christ your only life. Speak Christ as all that you are. Speak Christ personal as you against all the wailing cries of accusation until you hear them no more.
A Place of Safety. But even more than that, speak Christ together with the brothers and sisters with whom you fellowship.
You see, this verse of authority given to you is a word that creates the Church as a place of utter safety. Any temptation to “see sin” in your brother or sister, and not Jesus, is cast down. Any words of belittling or put down are cast down. All accusation is shown the door. As you speak Christ together, Christ made personal as each one of you as well as Christ Himself revealed through your gathering together, so you silence the voice of accusation that torments all mankind.
We will speak more of this authority through the Church, but let’s finish here with this authority inside of you.
Speak Christ. The authority of God inside of you is Christ as the Mercy Seat of your heart.
You have the authority of God to love your brothers and sisters. You have the authority of God to lay down your life for them, knowing that it is God Himself acting as you. You have the authority of God to see Jesus alone. You have the authority of God to speak kindness and blessing and life.
The river of death is a flood of accusation; we have certainly known such a voice.
The river of life flowing out from you is a river of life and goodness and blessing. Speak Christ; speak Christ your only life; speak Christ as all that you are.