Blessed Authority

    There is One who has authority over the lives of men.  Authority refers to the power to give commands, require obedience or make judgments.  God has revealed Himself to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and granted absolute authority to His Son.  However, American thinking is often characterized by challenging authority.  It is not difficult to see why many Christians struggle with Christ’s claims of control.  But Christ’s authority is unparalleled.  No other has bought our rights of ownership at the cross.  No other has conquered our dread enemy Satan.  No other supplies unlimited resources for living life.  Through these acts of power and love Jesus Christ claims sovereignty.  God has given Christ everything needed to meet man’s need for salvation, justice, and direction for living life.
    Jesus speaks to us of salvation in John 6:40.  “For it is my Father’s will that everyone who sees his Son and believes on him should have eternal life- that I should raise him at the Last Day.”  True justice is revealed through the wisdom and foreknowledge of God.  In John 5:30 Christ declares, “I pass no judgment without consulting the Father.  I judge as I am told.  And my judgment is according to the will of God who sent me and is not merely my own.”
    Whoever believes in Christ experiences a brand new life lived through the power of God.  “I live by the power of the living Father who sent me, and in the same way those who partake of me shall live because of me.”  John 6:57 “For the scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me.”  John 7:38
    God has given Christ all authority to offer to each person life unending and overflowing with His amazing grace.  Only Jesus Christ possesses the key to open men’s hearts to receive salvation, true justice and new life.  “Master, to who shall we go?  You alone have the words that give eternal life, and we believe them and know you are the holy Son of God.”  Friends, may we respond fully to the claims of ownership on our lives, the blessed authority of Christ.