Christianity Unpeeled

John 5: ²²Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him…  ^{. 26}For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. ²⁷And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

This is quite a fascinating passage for me. It speaks of judging and judgement. I have always thought of Father being the judge, not Jesus. My picture of the judgement day is that of Father judging those who rejected his son.

But here Jesus is saying that Father has granted the responsibility of judgement to Jesus. There are two words used here, one is entrusted and the other is authority. Father has entrusted all judgement to his son Jesus. Jesus died for our sins and as such has been entrusted with judgement. There can be no greater call to be made than judgement. Father has handed that awesome responsibility to my Lord Jesus.

He has also given him the authority. That means his weight is fully behind him. Whatever he says goes. It is as simple as that. This is the kind of relationship we need to have with our God. Firstly, he entrusts us to be fishers of men and to build his church.  Jesus has commanded us to go and make disciples. He cannot do that from heaven.

Secondly he has given us authority to do so and to command blessings and curses. We have the full authority of Jesus. If we take the time to find out what that means, we can truly live a victorious life on earth. Authority given does not mean authority used! You can be in a police uniform but unless you get out into the streets, what is the point? Jesus gave us authority to be used. Authority must be used and must be deployed otherwise it diminishes.

We have authority over death and life and over demons and demonic powers. Praise be to God. I pray for the belief to go and use it and the faith to enact on it.

Tags: authority, judgement