The Authority of God the Father I. Introduction A. One thing people associate with God, or any concept of divinity, is power 1. Our search for transcendence is an implicit admission that there are forces out there beyond our control and greater than we are 2. Humanity has been grasping at coming to terms with this greater power and authority 3. Romans 1:18-25: yes, indeed, the power of the Creator is manifest in His creation B. Romans 13:1: God has all authority, according to Paul 1. We could say that is it: God has power, all who have power have it from God, and that is the lesson 2. Yet there is much more to the authority of God the Father than its mere naked declaration, and we do well to consider it 3. On what ground and basis does God the Father have all authority? 4. How does sovereignty enter into the discussion? 5. How does God exercise His authority? II. God the Father, Our Creator A. We must be careful about our understanding of Paul’s naked declaration of God as having all authority in Romans 13:1 1. Yes, God has all authority 2. Yet God is not an authoritarian, and His authority is not a matter of a series of abstract principles B. Paul is speaking out of the traditions of Israel, which continually insisted on the authority of YHWH as God as Creator 1. Throughout the Psalms two premises are repeated over and over and over again, getting drilled into the psyche of every Israelite: YHWH is our Creator; YHWH displays hesed, covenant loyalty (e.g. Psalm 33) 2. Paul absorbed this message well: he cogently argues how all should have known about the existence of God because He has displayed His divine image and everlasting power in the creation (Romans 1:18-20) C. If YHWH is our Creator, then we are under His control as His creation 1. This is precisely the point of Jeremiah 18:1-12: YHWH is as the Potter, and Israel His people are to be as the clay 2. Paul will pick up and use this same illustration in Romans 9:19-21, and as a way to address questioning God and finding fault with His will 3. Isaiah chastised those who presumed to have none who saw their plans and designs as turning everything upside down, as if the clay were to deny the Potter’s molding of it, and acting as if the Potter had no understanding (Isaiah 29:15-16) 4. He continues to sustain us and all we have and are is from Him; we are wholly dependent on Him (Ephesians 1:3, Hebrews 1:3) D. Thus, in making known His will and purposes, God very deliberately anchors His authority in His standing as the Creator of heaven and earth 1. We are continually struck by our smallness, the comparative grandeur of the creation, and thus to recognize our comparatively lowly status (e.g. Psalm 8:3-5) 2. We can see the hand of the Creator in His creation (Romans 1:18-20); we may know He cares for it 3. God understands the workings of the creation, and we have but a glimpse of a part of it; when we get out of our place, it is our inability to create or run the creation ourselves that serves to humble us, as it did Job in Job 38:1-42:6 4. It also fully explains God’s sovereignty over us: He has made us; He has the right to have the clay molded and fashioned according to His desire (Jeremiah 18:1-12, Romans 9:19-21)! E. In our modern/post-modern, post-Enlightenment, post-“death of God” world, it is easy to forget all of this; and yet we must continue to insist on it, because such is the basis upon which all else flows (Isaiah 29:15-16) 1. If God is not the Creator of heaven and earth, He is not really God! 2. If God is the Creator of heaven and earth, all we see and are represents His creation, and we are thus subject to Him and His sovereignty however He wills to exercise it 3. Who are we to answer back to Him, or presume Him to be without understanding? III. God’s Sovereignty A. We have now introduced the concept of God as Sovereign, a point insisted on by many in “Christendom” B. Sovereignty involves absolute supremacy in rule; as God is Creator of heaven and earth, and exists from everlasting to everlasting, God is indeed our Sovereign! C. But what does that sovereignty look like? 1. For generations many in “Christendom” have pontificated on what has been presumed to be the necessary conditions for God’s sovereignty based on various philosophical positions and logical constructs 2. The most famous (or infamous) such speculation comes from the Reformed camp, which itself stems from Augustine and his Neoplatonic commitment to God as the Absolute a. It is thus presumed that God’s sovereignty demands that all things be not only completely subject to Him, but acting entirely within the domain of His will; at its extreme, to suggest that if even a molecule were out of place, God’s sovereignty is questioned b. One from such a perspective will take a passage like Romans 9:1-21, and suggest it shows that God’s sovereignty demands that all things He decrees independent of any influence from anyone or anything else c. On a logical/philosophical level this view of God’s sovereignty is enticing, clean, and efficient 3. Yet, in an ironic way, attempting to establish how God’s sovereignty works through philosophical premises and logical deductions is itself a violation of God’s sovereignty! a. God is entirely sovereign: thus, He dictates how His sovereignty will work b. If a molecule is out of place, who am I to tell God His sovereignty has been challenged? c. The Augustinian-Calvinist synthesis has always been at pains to explain itself in terms of how God has actually interacted with mankind, especially among His people Israel 4. We do better to submit to God and understand how His sovereignty works in terms of what He has made known about Himself and how He has interacted with His people D. God is the Creator of heaven and earth and all their hosts; He made man in His image, in His likeness; God is love (Genesis 1:1-2:3, 1 John 4:8) 1. Thus God has made man “just a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5) 2. Love, by its definition which God gives in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, does not insist on its own way: it does not force or coerce 3. Love, as manifested in God in Christ, is to be a freewill offering, empowered by the ability to not love (1 John 4:7-21) 4. And so God has made man with his own will; man has been made with the ability to choose the good or refuse it, to follow the ways of God or to turn away from them (Romans 6:16-23) 5. God did this knowing that mankind would choose sin, and would require redemption at a bitter cost (cf. Ephesians 1:4, 3:11) 6. We must have faith in God’s goodness, that He made the best possible creation, and thus the terrible cost is still more worthwhile than an alternative creation in which choice was circumscribed E. God’s covenant relationship with Israel testifies to how God has chosen to exercise His sovereignty 1. As established previously, the Psalms continually remind the hearer how YHWH is the Creator God of Israel, and abounds in covenant loyalty (e.g. Psalm 136) 2. If a simple violation of His standard would break His sovereignty, then Israel broke it almost immediately with the golden calf in Exodus 32 3. YHWH would judge all unfaithful Israelites and they would suffer the due penalty for their transgression; nevertheless, He persisted in covenant loyalty, pleading with Israel to uphold the Law and remain faithful to Him (e.g. Hosea 1-3) 4. Consider again Jeremiah 18:1-12: YHWH wishes Israel would be like the clay, to be molded as He would, but they are rebellious 5. YHWH allowed Israel to go its own way; judgment would take place, but YHWH did not compel, coerce, or force Israel into submission F. Not for nothing is the primary image of God in the New Testament is as a Father 1. Jesus continually spoke of God as His Father, and encouraged His followers to do the same (e.g. Matthew 6:9-15) 2. The Apostles continually return to the imagery of Christians as participants in the household of God (Ephesians 2:18-22, 1 Timothy 3:15, 1 Peter 2:9) 3. Few portrayals of a father are as scandalous as the Father of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32: caring little for appearance, providing extravagant forgiveness and welcome, running to His returning child 4. This is the portrayal of God in the New Testament: not an embittered old man looking to condemn, but a loving Father wanting nothing but the best for His children, giving His best for His children, heartbroken over their unwillingness to follow in His ways and embrace what is good and right 5. In the father / child relationship, the child’s questioning, or even rebelliousness, may prove an affront to the father’s sovereignty, but does not mean the father’s sovereignty is broken: a father need not be an authoritarian, and in fact Paul advises against an authoritarian posture in fatherhood in Ephesians 6:4, to not provoke children to wrath F. Yes, God is sovereign; therefore, He has the right to define how His sovereignty works, and He has displayed this in His relationship with Israel and with the people of God in Jesus 1. God provides the model for all healthy exercise of authority: displays of love, seeking the best for those under His care, patient in longsuffering, but willing to exercise judgment when there is no remedy 2. God is no authoritarian; as one in relational unity, God seeks to welcome people into relational unity with Him, and to this end would have them become more like Him to effectively share in relationship (John 17:20-23, Romans 8:29) 3. This does not make God squishy or a slave of humanity; it means He loves humanity, has suffered for humanity in His Son, but will have the glory He deserves in the end (Philippians 2:5-11) IV. God’s Use of Authority A. Having seen how God has made man, and how God has exercised His sovereignty among His people, we do well to see how God has used His authority in various ways B. Romans 13:1 remains primary: God has all authority, and empowers those who are placed in authority, and will demand accountability (cf. Hebrews 13:17) C. From Psalm 82, Ephesians 6:12, etc., we understand that God established spiritual powers and principalities who are to rule; perhaps some do so as God intended, but many have rebelled against His purposes to some degree or another 1. Such would explain how Satan has power over the kingdoms of the world and to deceive people (Matthew 4:8-9, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4) 2. It also explains why people give over their power and influence to negative forces, and are enslaved to them (Romans 1:18-32, 6:14-23) D. Romans 13:2-7 will explain the importance of submitting to government authorities, as established by God to maintain justice 1. It has been an age old dispute: does God install specific rulers? 2. The Scriptures demonstrate that God has plans for specific rulers (e.g. Isaiah 45:1), and that God accomplishes His purposes through the nations 3. At times God is giving people over to their desires: it is not likely that Tiglath-pileser III, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus gave much thought to how they were vessels of YHWH to display His wrath or mercy, but were doing what they were going to do 4. This is perfectly encapsulated in Acts 2:23: God knew that Judas would betray Jesus, that Herod would mock Him, and Pilate would have Him executed; these people were in position, and exercised their free will to accomplish what was God’s predetermined purpose 5. And yet Jeremiah 18:1-12: if a nation repents, God will relent regarding disaster, so the decree is not fixed, for God’s ultimate purpose is to save not condemn, to not have to bring disaster and calamity 6. God is amazing, and is able to accomplish His purposes through the actions and behaviors of men (and even Satan!) through the exercise of their freewill decisions without having been cajoled, coerced, or forced into it 7. And yet, as the prophets attest, God will bring all such rulers under judgment: they will be held responsible for how they have ruled, and if they have given their power over to the powers and principalities of this world, the day will come for them to be swept away by other powers and principalities: so it went with Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedon, and Rome 8. It is one thing to affirm that God has established authority and given authority to whom He wills; it is sheer folly to declare that one has insight as to the purposes behind God doing so in a specific situation and context without any specific revelation from Him! E. Likewise, wherever there is authority, God has granted it: the church, the home, a community organization, the family, the individual (Romans 13:1) 1. God’s very first command to humanity involved empowerment: subdue and have dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28) 2. The Word of God has authority because God has placed His authority in it to empower Christians to follow Jesus according to the commands and examples manifest in Scripture (2 Timothy 3:14-17, Hebrews 4:12) 3. Jesus has all authority from the Father; the Father’s ability to give that authority demonstrates a level of supremacy (Matthew 28:18, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28) 4. Yet authority is stewardship, a trust: we will be held accountable for how that authority has been exercised (Romans 14:10-12) 5. And so we again go back to the demonstration of proper use of authority manifest in God in Christ and in His relationship to Israel: to love, to care, to serve, to suffer, and to maintain covenant loyalty F. In the end, all power and authority will return to God the Father who will destroy all powers and principalities, and God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:24-28) G. May that day come quickly! Maranatha! V. Conclusion A. We have explored the authority of God B. God has all authority as the Creator, the Architect of creation, and its Operator C. God maintains His sovereignty in covenant loyalty D. All authority which exists comes from God and is to be used to further His purposes of relational unity between God and His people and among His people E. All who hold authority will be held accountable for it F. If God is sovereign, and has given all authority to Jesus, we must therefore serve Him and not our own ways; may we trust in God in Christ and obtain the resurrection of life! G. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse (Romans 1:20). The Bible makes it clear that God the Father is the source of all authority and power. The Psalms repeatedly insist on YHWH as the Creator God of Israel. Beyond the revelation in Scripture, the creation itself attests to the power of its Creator. We do well to learn of God our Father and submit to His purposes! 2: Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, “Why didst thou make me thus”? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? (Romans 9:20-21) God, as the Creator of heaven and earth, understands its workings and functions. We do not. God has all sovereignty; it is not for us to declare that we know how things ought to go. We are called to trust that God has made the best possible creation; we do well to be molded into the image of His Son, and not insist on our own way. May we trust in God in Christ and obtain the resurrection! 3: And he arose, and came to his father. But while he was yet afar off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him (Luke 15:20). God the Father is fully sovereign; therefore, He determines how He will exercise His sovereignty. God is no sharp authoritarian; He loves humanity as a Father loves a child, and does all He can to bless the child and point him or her in the right way. Judgment will come for those who refuse and rebel; God’s sovereignty is not thus challenged. May we trust in God as our Father and receive mercy and grace! 4: Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God (Romans 13:1). God has all power, and delegates that power in trust and stewardship. Powers and principalities will be judged for how they exercised the authority given to them. God has empowered us to manifest authority in various ways and positions; we will stand before Him and held to account for how we exercised our authority. May we do all things to God’s glory and obtain the resurrection of life!