Sign of Authority

He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business." His disciples remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME." The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:16-19)

For most of my life I have puzzled over the answer that Jesus gave here to the challenge of the Jews in this story. Of course I have heard many dissertations about this passage but usually the only thing they focused on was the obvious fact that the Jews misunderstood what He was really talking about. But now I am becoming aware that it really may be most of us who still misunderstand what He was really talking about because of our lack of awareness of the real issues going on in this situation and in the life of Jesus.

We have only been viewing this event in the context of a bunch of prejudiced Jews getting bent out of shape because some guy came along and busted up their nice party and ruined their efficient methods of exploiting the common people with their financial scams. We also generally see Jesus as losing patience with people who are not respecting God's house, who are acting irreverently in places where our traditions would not tolerate such goings-ons and so we feel sympathy with what we suppose is an angry God lashing out at people who have offended Him.

This fits quite nicely with my old picture of God, the one that is commonly accepted and embraced by nearly all of the world. But the more I have been coming to know the real truth about God's disposition toward us the less this model fits in this story. As a result I have found myself puzzling even more as to the real reason that Jesus acted and spoke the way that He did on this occasion.

Because human zeal or passion is almost always to some degree contaminated with selfishness to some extent, I take a very suspicious view of most people's motives whenever they quote these verses to justify their attacks against anyone who makes them feel uncomfortable in church. This has been a favorite reference for those who want to make church a place totally controlled by conservatives who want silence and “reverence” in the sanctuary. Of course that reverence is usually external in nature and has little to do with the condition of the heart. In fact, what I have observed over the years is that human's definitions of reverence generally lead more toward apathy or even producing resentment on the part of those oppressed by these artificial demands than they do encouraging people toward loving God more passionately. But since externals are the only things important to counterfeit religion that should not be too surprising.

I am not suggesting in the slightest that Jesus was not upset about the terrible things going on in the house of God and decided to do something about it. What I do believe however, is that His motives and His perspective were very different than those who claim to be acting in His name many times today. It is the spirit and atmosphere around a person produced by their perspective of God and what they truly value as important that defines the results of how their actions in the name of reverence are going to affect those around them. I really don't believe that Jesus was so much upset about the decibel level in the temple causing Him to chase out the Jews desecrating this house just to replace them with singing, dancing children as is what happened in the second cleansing of the temple a few years later. I highly suspect that if this were to occur today that most religious people would feel just as scandalized by the shouts of children after Jesus cleansed temple as the Jews felt for being thrown out in the first place.

As I meditated on the words in this passage and pondered what clues might be found to unpack this strange statement of Jesus in answer to the question of the Jews, it suddenly occurred to me that there was something much bigger going on here than simply a confrontation between Jesus and some very bigoted Jews who didn't like their nice little scams disrupted. What I began to realize is that the question about authority demanded by the Jews was not even necessarily their idea to start with. This statement has the familiar ring of a screaming protest from the one who had been infecting their hearts and was orchestrating all of this deception and exploitation to begin with. It was a protest of Satan himself demanding an explanation for why Jesus thought He could get away with doing things without Satan's permission.

Now I know that at first this sounds very bizarre. But don't too quick to pass judgment until you more carefully consider the much bigger picture of the real struggle going on here. As I began to remember much of what I have been learning over the past few years about authority and the significance of the things going on in the universe outside of the notice of most human beings, it all began to make much more sense to me. And the answer that Jesus returned for the demand voiced by these human Jews suddenly fit quite perfectly when viewed from the higher viewpoint of the real war going on behind the scenes.

It is very important to understand the context of other issues and the real battle over authority of this earth in order to understand better what I am talking about here. This issue is not just a protest of Jews trying to protect their turf and keep their suppressive money-making schemes in tact. This was a desperate struggle between Christ and Satan for control of the recognized position of authority over this whole planet. And this little conversation is an insight into that struggle coming out more into the open.

It is important to note that back soon after creation one of the main events that took place was a transfer of power and authority over control of this earth. Notice who originally possessed the authority designated by the Creator of this earth.

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26-28 NRSV)

But something quite tragic took place soon after this designation of authority to Adam. The legitimate earthly representatives for this planet were induced into relinquishing their authority to an another being, an angelic being bent on setting up an alternative government in the universe. He deceived Eve into mistrusting the goodness and truthfulness of God and after capturing her allegiance he in turn helped her to seduce Adam into relinquishing his rightful position of sovereign ruler over this earth. As a result Satan immediately took control of the position as representative of this world and maintained that role for another 4000 years.

There is strong evidence of this situation in the book of Job where it is revealed that Satan attended the meetings convened in the universe's House of Representatives held in heaven where he likely presented his “papers” as the authorized representative of this world. (see Job 1:6,7) I am sure that God was certainly very unhappy with this arrangement, but since God is a God of respect of the free choices of all His created beings He allowed this situation to exist until His secret plan for changing this situation would be fully revealed later on.

But another interesting thought occurred to me as I pondered the likely arrangement that God has set up in this representative body that meets in heaven. I would think that it is very likely that the representatives who meet there to do whatever it is they do in those meetings are very likely the first and most important beings from their respective planets that are of the same order of beings as those they represent. This only makes sense as it wouldn't seem right to have a different kind of being represent others who are not even of the same order. That sort of defeats the whole concept of representation.

But in this situation from earth, it may have been asserted by Satan that heaven's rules had to be suspended on this point since Adam and Eve had legitimately handed over their authority to Satan. He probably insisted that because of this relinquishment of power and dominion to another being that heaven had to accept his credentials and allow him to speak on behalf of those back on earth, even though he himself was not human. Besides, after a thousand years had passed Adam was not even around any longer to represent earth even if he had been able to travel to heaven, so it only made sense that Satan would have to be the one to represent earth from here on out.

But the fact of the matter is that God had conceived a plan before creation had even occurred that the rest of the universe was unaware of. This plan begins to emerge in the first words of God to Adam and Eve after they had sinned. Satan did not know for sure what the details of this plan were or how it was going to effect his security as ruler of this planet, but he was keen to carefully analyze every emerging clue as it became more evident over the years in his attempt to decipher how God was going to try to undermine his victory in the garden and his control over the world.

By the time of Jesus' birth Satan was starting to likely get much more nervous about the security of his position. And one of the greatest threats that he perceived coming from God to unlock Satan's grasp over this earth was the fact that Jesus was born as a human being. This was a most important detail in God's counterattack against Satan's coup in the garden. This was setting the stage to replace Satan with another Representative from this planet who would have even better credentials that could be recognized as more legitimate and in line with the requirements met by all the other worlds represented in the councils of heaven. He was going to be a real human.

This issue of the struggle over the authority of this world becomes much more obvious during the life of Jesus on this earth. Several times Jesus referred to this issue and it helps me begin to piece together more clearly the real reasons that Jesus came to this earth to live and die as a human being to redeem us. Redemption itself is simply another description of this plan by God to rescue us from under the tyranny of Satan's domination over this earth that he took away from Adam. This is also seen in the explanation by Paul in Romans 5 that exposes more of the details of this supernatural struggle going on and how God found a way to take back the authority that had been surrendered by Adam.

So how does this encounter between Jesus and the Jews relate to all of this? I now realize that it is right in the middle of this battle over authority. The Jews were simply parroting the words of their master spirit who was demanding why Jesus thought He could get away with disrupting the arrangements he had set up with his human agents to pervert the worship of God. Since Satan was still the authorized representative of this world at that point in time, he was demanding, as the legitimate ruler, why Jesus could take actions that refused to recognize Satan's authority over all humans. But this also implies that the Jews were actually operating under full cooperation with the authority of Satan. Jesus even explicitly told them at one time that their father was the devil.

During the life of Christ here on earth, He was repeatedly doing and saying things that were out of line with the authority of Satan. Jesus was acting and speaking in ways that asserted that He was taking over the authority of this earth as was refusing to recognize in the slightest any jurisdiction of Satan over Him. The only reason that He could do this and remain outside of Satan's authority and control was to remain completely free of all sin. Satan had jurisdiction over everyone who were under the sin of Adam which includes everyone born on this planet except for Jesus.

But here is a most important point about this issue of authority. Jesus was not born of a human MAN. This gives a very strong clue that sinfulness is passed down through the male side of the human genealogy and also explains why it was so important that Jesus be born only of a human woman. There are Scriptures that give strong indication of this fact as well. Do a word search through the Bible on the iniquity of the fathers and you will find some very fascinating insights along this line.

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

So, evidently part of God's secret plan to replace the one in authority over this world was to bypass the inherent iniquity problem that is inevitably passed down through the father's from generation to generation. Jesus did this by becoming a human only carrying the human genes from a human woman but not a human man. Because God was the real father of Jesus and not Joseph or any other human, Jesus was able to take upon His nature the likeness of human flesh without becoming contaminated with the propensities of sin that cause all of the rest of us to be infected with the virus of sin from our birth.

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

Did this give Jesus an advantage over the rest of humanity? Absolutely. But ironically, that very advantage became the greatest liability that He had to contend with throughout His lifetime of temptations and attacks from Satan while here on earth. But that is a whole other topic that I don't have time for in this article.

The fact is, in doing it this way Jesus was able to fulfill far better the qualifications as representative of this earth because He was fully a human being even though He did not have an earthly father. He took on sinful human flesh in the fact that His physical body and abilities that He received from Mary were degenerated by 4000 years of the effects of sin. He had all the weaknesses and frailties of human nature but without the bent to sin, the inherent propensities that the rest of us receive from our fathers. It was not necessary for Him to be a sinner like us in order to recapture the position of authority back from Satan. In fact, it is this very point that qualified Him to even be able to claim legitimate authority back from Satan. For if He had ever taken on the infection of sin into His heart by trusting in His own power instead of totally depending on the power of God from outside of Himself even for one moment, He would have disqualified Himself just as the first Adam had done and would have come under the dominion of Satan and then would have lost all right to take away Satan's authority.

But just how did Jesus actually accomplish ousting Satan from his seat of power and take away the authority from him? What was the legal maneuver that was required to claim the position as authorized representative for this earth?

The answer to that is found right here in the verses I started out with. When Satan and the Jews demanded to know what sign He could produce to legitimize His claim of authority on earth, Jesus immediately answered by pointing to His coming death and resurrection as the event that would finalize His assertion of authority over this planet. And when that event would take place He fully intended to assert that authority RETROACTIVELY all the way back to the time of Adam in order to be able to save every human who had ever lived on this planet. That is not to say that all of them will end up being saved in heaven. But the plan that God put in place gave Jesus authority over the lives of everyone who had ever descended from Adam because according to Revelation, Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8)

Included in the plan was provision for salvation for every human being who would choose to believe that it was true. Jesus accomplished everything necessary for us to not only be alive right now but to keep our life for all eternity if we trust in the plan already worked out on our behalf. We do not have to do anything to change God's attitude toward us in this regard. The whole focus of heaven is to change our minds about how God feels about us.

Notice how the words of Jesus touch on this issue again during an event shortly before His death.

"Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. (John 12:31-33)

This makes it even more clear how Jesus intended to upset Satan's kingdom and retake the planet for the kingdom of heaven. It was going to be accomplished through the enormous power of attraction that would be put into place when He would be sacrificed by humans in their rage against the revelation of God's character in the person of Jesus. In giving His life willingly He would prove once and for all that there is nothing anyone can do, there is no evils so extreme, there is no way that anyone can hurt God bad enough to cause Him to stop loving us unconditionally and completely, freely forgive us.

All throughout His life Jesus kept talking about the kingdom of heaven that was taking over. We can't properly understand the significance of these statements unless we place them in the context of the much bigger struggle going on over the issue of who has supreme authority over this earth. When that becomes the context for viewing everything else, suddenly new light begins to shine on all other subjects and we can more clearly discern truth in many things that have long been buried in shadows of confusion and endless theological arguments.

Also note the words of Jesus just in His last discourse with His disciples.

"And He, (the Holy Spirit) when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (John 16:8-12)

Very soon after Jesus accomplished this event, He declared very plainly the real purpose for His death and resurrection.

Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." (Matthew 28:18) I take that at least as partly referring to the fact that from this point on Jesus was the authorized representative in the assemblies of heaven for this planet and that Satan's credentials had effectively been revoked. After this major turning point in the great battle over control of this world, Satan no longer as any authority whatsoever. He has lost all of his power and is now fully subject to the authority of Christ and those who are willing to live under His authority.

But even as I was researching the texts about this while writing it, I came across some verses that reminded me of the ultimate goal of God throughout all of this struggle and the maneuvering of events in the supernatural world. It challenges most of our paradigms about how God desires to relate to His children and shatters our common assumptions about God's desire for control and power, but it gives us a glimpse into the real heart of the Father.

For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:21-28)

This makes me seriously consider the idea that very possibly this whole issue of authority and power and dominion has been artificially instituted because of the disruptive presence of sin and the problems it has caused throughout the entire universe. This may also possibly include the existence of the heavenly “House of Representatives”. According to these verses it appears to me that God is looking forward to a time when the whole system built up around authority and rules and power itself is going to disappear altogether. I am fascinated by this insight as I realize that God's real heart is for everyone to live as a family and not under the concept of kingdoms or kingship at all.

God has needed to communicate to us using kingdom or hierarchal terminology because that is all that we will comprehend in our current mindset. But ultimately His “kingdom” is not really a kingdom at all because that is not the kind of relationship that He really desires to have with us. This arrangement is only a transition phase that Jesus plans to bring to an end. The Godhead is not interested in controlling the universe through laws and decrees as we have always thought. For in reality, God's laws are not arbitrary rules demanding obedience like men's laws are. God's laws are simply expressions of the principles of reality and of cause and effect.

So when everyone in the universe has been restored into harmony with the principles of reality and are fully in sync with the love that emanates from the life-giving, selfless heart of the Father, there will be no longer any need whatsoever for a system of control through authority. Love will be the single synchronizing presence that will cause every heart to thrive, to grow and to live in perfect reflection of how God designed all of creation to function in the first place. And when that perfect synchronization is accomplished through the full revelation of the truth about God's love, then there were be no longer any need for authority. It will have become obsolete and will be surrendered to the superior model of perfect, selfless love and joyful service in the great family of all heaven.