John records in his gospel the prayer of Jesus shortly before he was taken and delivered up to death by crucifixion.
Jesus declares for all to hear that the father has given him power over all flesh for a certain purpose. It is useful to ask some questions of these statements. What, for example, is meant by the phrase: power over all flesh? The word power is translated from the word:
exousia {ex-oo-see'-ah} Strong's {1849} Definitions: from (1832) (in the sense of ability); privilege, i.e. (subject) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (object) mastery (concrete magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence: - authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength.
Interestingly it is the same word used shortly after as recorded in John 19:10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Whatever else we may believe of this word in John 17:2 it is quite plain that Pilate was assuring Jesus that he held absolute power over his life and death. It is also the same word that Jesus just as confidently assured Pilate that: Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: (John 19:11)
We have here in fact, tri-partite claims to power. God, who- by definition is all-powerful- has given Jesus, according to his own testimony, power over all flesh. So the power of Jesus (in respect of the situation above) is power over all flesh for a particular purpose. It is power conferred on Jesus to enable him to fulful a God given mandate. Jesus has been given power from the Almighty to accomplish a task with regard to those whom God had given him. To the contrary, Pilate, being the representative Roman potentate, claims his absolute sovereignty over his domain and it appeared that -holding Jesus captive- his was the upper hand. The word power in all of these instances, from the context is plainly power over others.
To what purpose did God give Jesus this power over mankind? …that he should give eternal life…We get from this that the mission of Jesus was to give eternal life, this was the reason God endowed him with power over mankind, or at the least to as many as those whom thou hast given him. Clearly, in the ordinary use of language we do not use the phrase "as many as" with reference to the whole group, the whole class to which we are referring. If we had been present at the sinking of the Titanic it would have been all too clear what was meant if we had been instructed to save "as many as" we could fit on the lifeboats.
If we ask the question: What power did Pilate claim over Jesus? It is quite obvious that Pilate believed that he could quite arbitrarily kill him or let him live. That he held in his hands life or death for Jesus. It hardly needs saying that Pilate trusted he had this capacity irrespective of whether the Christ was actually willing to die or not. This understanding is intrinsic to the statement "power over".
Now a curious thing arises when we ask this same question of Jesus’ power. What do I mean?
Well suppose we ask this question of Jesus’ power over all flesh: What power does Jesus claim over you? According to the verses above, Jesus claims that he has the power to give you eternal life. So far so good. But then what if we were to ask: does he have the power to give you eternal life irrespective of whether you were willing to have it or not? We quite readily accord Pilate the advantage of power over life and death irrespective of willingness in the subject; but will you accord the same for Jesus? Have you not even more reason to do so? After all Pilate’s power was merely mandated to him by the Emperor of Rome whereas the Christ has a heavenly mandate. Pilate had invested in his office all the power of the Roman Empire true enough, but is that anything in comparison to the power invested in Christ by the Creator of the Universe? (In Pilate’s own mind he was empowered by Rome, not God.)
Your reaction to the above is determined by your understanding of the human will, if you are of the opinion that you are naturally able to refuse eternal life you seem to be running contrary to the tenor of scripture. If Jesus cannot give you eternal life (whether you are willing or not) then it must of necessity follow and be true that he does not have power over all flesh! Now many will be asking what is the point of all this discussion of power. No one is forced to be a Christian against their will are they?
The point is to make plain where our confidence lies- in the infallible, immutable all powerful will of God, or in the fickle, human will. God does not anywhere say he gave Christ power to offer eternal life. No, not at all, on the contrary Christ said he had been given power over all flesh in order to give eternal life to as many as the father had given him. Now when C.S. Lewis was finally converted he did say that he was the most reluctant convert in all of England- dragged, as it were, kicking and screaming into the kingdom but this is far from what normal experience teaches. This teaching in scripture exemplifies what has become known as "irresistable grace". What then, shall we say of the role of human will in the salvation event? Our willingness (to follow Christ) is in fact part of Christ's "power over all flesh".
"All things have been delivered to Me by my father, and no one knows who the son is except the father, and who the father is except the son, and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him." Luke 10:22
" For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified." Romans 8
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Philippians 2:13
I would suggest that if you do not accord Jesus with- at the very least- the same magnitude of power that you were willing to extend to Pilate, then you are guilty of the same presupposition that Pilate held: The ultimate sovereignty of the human will as opposed to the sovereign free will of God alone. We should not make Pilates mistake our own. He trusted in the absolute sovereignty of man in the form of Roman rule but did not reckon with power from on high.
When Jesus responded to Pilate’s claim to absolute power over him, it was a magnificently staggering rebuttal: Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: (John 19:11)
Even the power of evil intent, whether it is to refuse to give life to the Son of God, or whether it is to refuse eternal life from the Son of God, is in an ultimate sense, under the sovereign power of God alone.
For further discussion regarding irresistible grace go here:
For further discussion regarding irresistible grace go here:
No comments:
Post a Comment