Person of Christ Series
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
When we study the life of Christ as revealed in the Gospels, we are impressed with His life of power and authority. These are two terms we popularly use almost interchangeably.
However, while the terms are closely related, we might think of power as the ability to perform what is extraordinary or beyond what normally happens. We might think of authority as the right to exercise that power or ability.
‘All authority’
Jesus appeared on the scene demonstrating power to perform unusual feats, while claiming rightful authority for doing so. Even so, we are often hard-pressed to separate these concepts in Christ’s life. Toward the end of His earthly ministry and after His atoning death and authenticating resurrection, He made the audacious claim that “all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18).
He was and is a powerful person with divine authority to exercise that power. How then do we account for His genuine humanity and His more than human power? In short, we might ponder what made Christ a powerful person.
We might at first glance hold that it could not be otherwise with One who was the Son of God. Then at second glance we recall that when He came in the form of human flesh, He in some sense emptied Himself of His divine prerogatives as the Son of God. Whatever the nature and extent of that emptying, the record tells us that the power and authority of His life in word and deed was because of the presence of the Holy Spirit infusing His humanity.
Anointed
Thus we read that at the time of His baptism, the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. We read in Luke 4:1 that following His baptism, “Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” John, who baptized Jesus, bore this witness about Him: “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure” (John 3:34).
In short, Christ’s life was one of unmeasured or limitless fullness of the Holy Spirit. So endowed, the incarnate Christ embarked on a powerful ministry of teaching people, preaching the good news of the Kingdom, healing infirmities and casting out demons.
Later the apostle Peter, who was an eyewitness of Christ’s public ministry, bore this witness about Him, “After the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:37–38). From where did this power come? The short explanation is that He was anointed with the Holy Spirit.
Available to His followers
What are we to glean for ourselves from Christ’s example of a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit? What we learn is that we also must be persons endured with the power of the Spirit (Luke 24:49). The idea of enduement is one of “being clothed upon.” Not only clothed upon by the Spirit, we are to be persons filled with the Spirit.
God made this a direct command in Ephesians 5:18: “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” As with Christ, so with us, the Holy Spirit is the source of our power and authority for Christian living and serving.
Share with others: