The Already-Not Yet of John 5:19-30 and How Christ Applies His Given Authority to the World

 If you've ever heard the Kuyperian claim that "there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” then you'll be familiar with what I'm talking about in this post. I actually can't stand when people quote this because, of course, every Christian agrees with this statement given qualifications concerning what they mean by it. The question is how much of what Christ claims of that every square inch as His and not the devils occurs before His second coming. In other words, the issue surrounds when Christ takes hold of what is given to Him as the reward of His work, not whether He does or not.

As argued in the last post, He clearly doesn't claim that of the bodies of believers until the resurrection. I don't know about you but my body is more than a square inch. In fact, the increase of potlucks lately has made quite a few more square inches than it previously was, and Christ has not yet applied the transforming redemption to it and laid hold of it yet. It remains an unwilling participant in my worship of Christ. Because the Spirit of God is within me, it, again, unwillingly, has become the temple of God, but it would as soon as get rid of the Spirit in order to have its way as look at ya. 

So I may not even need to write this post. I probably already proved that Christ has, in fact, not laid hold of everything in the previous post. In fact, the Bible is really clear that He must reign until He puts all of His enemies under His feet, the last one being death. Hence, there are many square inches, according to Scripture, that are not under His feet, i.e., under His authority, in subjection to Him.

So what does Matthew 28:18 mean? All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth? I think the problem is that people are thinking in terms of American politics and not ancient authority. You may be given all authority as a king in the ancient world, but you now have to take hold of it. It doesn't mean you reign over anything yet. What it means is that a province, nation, etc. has been given to you. You now have to go and subdue it or it does not belong to you.

In other words, the giving of authority is a right to rule over that area and its people, not the actual ruling over the area and its people. 

God gives the authority to Adam to rule over the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, etc., but He tells Him to then subdue it by a continual activity of being fruitful and multiplying so that the earth is filled, man subdues creation, and then, and only then, does he get to rule over it as its sole king.

Christ is the second Adam. He's been given the mandate. He now must subdue what has been given to Him. 

But here is where everything goes awry in some people's theology. Does Christ subject the world to Himself by just subjecting the spiritual individuals who will belong to His kingdom first and then, only when they are completed in number, subject the physical world to Himself, or does He subject both the spiritual and physical world to Himself simultaneously? 

As argued in the preceding post, the latter is clearly not true, and John 5:19-30 is yet another scriptural example of that.

In this text Christ proclaims:

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Jesus is here arguing that He only does what the Father is doing and that as His Father judges men and gives life to people, the Son now can do the same. This is the authority that is given to Him. He now decides to whom He will give life and to whom He will give a decree of condemnation. 

Hence, Christ says in v. 25 that He will call out to those who are spiritually dead and they will come to life. The reason He is able to do this is given in vv. 26-27: The Father has life in Himself and has granted to the Son to also have life in Himself and that the Father has granted to the Son the authority to execute judgment in this regard. In other words, the authority granted to the Son is to become the judge of the world, save some in regeneration, and then in v. 28-29 to resurrect all men to either eternal life or eternal condemnation. But these very verses tell us how Jesus applies this authority to judge the world. He applies the spiritual authority to raise from spiritual life now. He applies the authority to the physical world at the judgment when some are raised to eternal life and others to damnation. In other words, the application of Christ's authority is to claim every spiritual square inch of his people now, and claim every physical square inch of creation in the eschaton, i.e., at the resurrection from the dead.

That is why the immediate result of Christ declaring that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and earth in Matthew 28:18-21 is commanding the disciples to go get all of His spiritual kingdom, to go lay hold of it through the means of making disciples via baptism/conversion and teaching all that Christ commanded. That is why Christ proclaims to Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world. It is not of this world. It is the physical new world to come, but His kingdom now is a spiritual one that is not of this world. It's why we are strangers and aliens here. Why we are told we are citizens of heaven and we ought to seek the things above rather than the things below because are lives are not here but instead have been hidden in Christ, why we are told that we are waiting for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, and not merely looking to lay hold of a world that the Bible says is passing away. 

To be sure, the new world is not a completely different world anymore than our new bodies will be completely different bodies. Same bodies but glorified. Same creation but cleansed and transformed. But this all at the coming of the Lord according to the Scriptures.