Secular humanism screams against authority. The culture in which we live rejects the existence of any authority at all. Everything coming from nothing, with no source or purpose for anything, leaves the entire system without direction, without foundation, without right or wrong, without justice, without authority.
Authority, like life itself, however, cannot spring from nothing. Authority must be delegated from a higher source. The individual or entity that stands on its own and claims to have authority has no basis. The police officer who pulls you over for speeding gets his authority to do from the civil authority that enacted the law governing speed limits. The law makers that passed the speeding law gained their authority to do so from the documents that constitute the state that they govern. Those documents gain their authority from the Constitutional law under which our nation is established. The Constitution gains its authority from the Founder who established all law. Ultimately, all authority comes down from God himself. The is no authority, except that which comes from him.
Even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had authority only because it was given to him. He said, “And [the Father] has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” John 5:27
A Roman centurion understood Jesus’ authority by saying, “For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it” Luke 7:8. Because the centurion had such understanding of authority, Jesus “marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” It’s amazing to consider that of all actions or statements that Jesus observed as he walked on earth, the one that receives his highest commendation is a man who understands authority.
All authority and power originate in the person of our God.
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?” Daniel 4:34, 35
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.… Acts 17:24, 25
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:36
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. Colossians 1:16
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