The generosity of God

John 17:1-2 (NASB) 1Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.

Notice how often the word "give" is used by Jesus. All through the New Testament this word is important. If we are to know the full measure of what God has given to us, we must realize the full extent of God's generosity to us. Jesus shows us in this verse how completely He emptied Himself to take on our identity. He so identified Himself with us in this realm that He thanked the Father for giving Him the authority over all flesh. He also, because He was not a partaker of the Adamic nature, understood His relationship to the Father and what that authority meant to this realm.

I'm going to dwell on this for a moment. What does "all flesh", or as some translations say, "all people", mean to you? To me, every person who has ever, or will ever, live on this earth is included. The work of Satan is to belittle what God says to us. He sowed doubt of God's intention to Eve and incited curiosity in both Adam and Eve to try out for themselves and see if God meant what He said. Once he had them act in rebellion to God's Word to them, there was no going back for them. Jesus is the only Way we have of "going back" to that relationship of Light. But the seeds Satan has planted in the thinking of people, leads to division in our thinking and reacting to "all people". Differences of race, of position of importance and financial standing, differences of religious acclimation and even of geographical origin, cause us to view people in categories and allows us the freedom to accept or reject, like or despise. Suspicion and indifference eat away at the command of Jesus to go into ALL the world and make disciples of ALL nations. We may even see our own neighborhoods with this division of acceptance of this challenge. The Father has given to Jesus the authority over ALL flesh and His command to us overrides any attitude we may have toward anyone. Let the Holy Spirit minister to you the love of God for "the world" that caused Him to give us Jesus.

Jesus had complete identity with us as humans with adamic nature and He had complete identity with the Father. He knew the authority the Father had given Him was the means to His giving eternal Life to all those the Father had given Him. There was no point in all He would have to go through that that authority would wain or change. This is vital for us to understand. In moments of weakness and stress, Satan tempts us to give up or doubt our standing in Him. The authority in Jesus' Name never changes. The victory Jesus won for us will never weaken. You can stand secure in His unchanging grace. When Jesus said all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him, He was expressing a most important aspect of our salvation.

What Jesus expressed in His prayer was a positioning of Himself as a man on this earth in the full authority the Father had given Him. This was the authority of heaven that He would move in to secure our salvation and would be the authority to come out of the grave in resurrection Life. The authority of this earth was the complete submission to the Father to go all the way and take from Lucifer the authority he had usurped from Adam. Jesus has the keys of all that would hinder you from God's purpose for you to live in His Presence eternally. In His Name, you have this authority. What Jesus earned in His victory, He earned for you. He gives it to us.

The work of the enemy is to cause you to doubt God's Word to you. Doubt your salvation, doubt your authority, doubt your ability to stay the course. Our answer to this is simple. "It is written..." What does God's Word say? Don't look into your own self for the proof against Satan's attack, look into His Word. The strength to stand is not in yourself but in the victory of Jesus and in His finished work. He HAS overcome and we overcome by His Blood and by the word of our testimony (speaking our agreement with God's Word). The authority God gave to us through Jesus is ours eternally.