Matthew 28:18 “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
In this section we want to discuss firstly, what level of authority has been given to Jesus after His death on the cross, and secondly, how He is using that authority today? In answer to our first question, the Lord Jesus in the above quoted passage of scripture declares that He has been given all authority; both in heaven and on earth. In other words all of God’s creation is now subject to the Lordship of Jesus. There are two further points that are clearly implied in this passage. Firstly, God Himself is the one who has given all authority to the Lord Jesus. And secondly, it is clear that Jesus received that authority only after His death, burial and resurrection. In other words He did not have that level of authority before He went to the cross.
Philippians 2:8-11 “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (9) Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, (10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, (11) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul confirms to us that as a result of the finished work of the cross, that God has given Jesus the name which is above every name. In other words, other than God the Father, there is no one in all of God’s creation that is not subject to the Lordship of Jesus, for this passage declares that God has decreed that every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. It is important to note that Paul includes all three realms of God’s creation in this passage, i.e. heaven, earth and the realms under the earth. Prior to the Lord Jesus going to the cross, the realms under the earth fell under Satan’s domain; but that has since changed and Jesus is now Lord of all three realms, i.e. heaven, earth and the realms under the earth.
Ephesians 4:8-10 “Therefore He says: "when He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men." (9) (Now this, "He ascended"--what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? (10) He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)”
We have seen earlier that before Jesus went to the cross, Satan held the keys of Hades and of Death, because of which all of mankind were held captive by him in death. And so in order to set mankind free, Jesus gave His life as a ransom for us all (1 Timothy 2:6); for the purpose of a ransom being paid is to release those who are being held captive. The passage of scripture quoted above teaches us that when Jesus ascended into heaven that He led captivity captive. So what does that statement mean? As we have already seen, even though the Old Testament saints were kept separate from the unbelievers in death, nevertheless they were still held captive by Satan who had the keys of Death. And so the apostle Peter teaches us that after Jesus was raised from the dead that He went into Abraham’s bosom to preach the gospel to the Old Testament saints; so that they could believe and thus be born again (1 Peter 3:19). It is those saints that Jesus then led with Him into heaven; and the reason Jesus could do that was because He now held the keys of Hades and of Death. And so we see that one of the first acts of Jesus using His newly acquired authority was to release the Old Testament saints from their captivity of death.
Hebrews 2:8 “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 him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.”
The question is asked, if all authority has been given to the Lord Jesus, then why hasn’t He done away with Satan and his angels and set up His reign in the earth? The answer to that question is twofold. Firstly, the end of the age has not yet come, because of which, Jesus cannot yet remove Satan and his angels from the earth (Matthew 8:29). Secondly, even though Jesus has been given authority over all of God’s creation, nevertheless for the present moment He has deliberately limited the exercising of His authority in the earth. In confirmation of that concept, the above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that even though God the Father has made all of creation subject to His Son, we do not yet see all things put under Him. So the question is asked, who is not yet subject to the Lordship of Jesus? The answer to that question is all of mankind living on the earth, both believer and unbeliever alike. The reason for that is because both believers and unbelievers have a free will, and in this life God will not allow the free will of mankind to be overridden. With regards to believers in the earth, they are required to willingly submit themselves to the Lordship of Jesus. Nevertheless even believers can choose to walk in the flesh in certain areas of their lives, and therefore not walk in full submission to the Lordship of Jesus. When believers leave this life however, their flesh is done away with and with their spirits they gladly submit themselves fully to His Lordship. With regards to unbelievers in the earth, they are required to willingly submit themselves to the Lordship of Jesus by confessing Him as Lord so that they can be saved. Nevertheless unbelievers choose rather to walk according to their own sinful lusts and therefore reject the Lordship of Jesus. When unbelievers leave this life however, they are forced to submit to the Lordship of Jesus as, against their wills, they are cast into hell. The status quo of the free will of men on the earth will remain in place until the end of the age, at which point we will see Satan and his angles removed from the earth and all of mankind will then become subject to the Lordship of Jesus. And so in answer to our second question which we asked at the beginning of this section i.e. how is Jesus using His authority today; we see that Jesus has begun to enforce His authority in the realms under the earth i.e. He has emptied Abraham’s bosom. Nevertheless Jesus has not yet begun to enforce His authority over mankind living on the earth.
Michael E.B. Maher
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