The believer’s authority was an idea I was introduced to years ago in a book written by Kenntha Hagin. While I never saw Hagin teach in person, a sweet couple within our church gave my wife and me a copy of his book. I would wager it was not just the message of prosperity or on-demand healing that was attractive, but the message of power.
As Robert Bowman writes in his book The Word of Faith Controversy, “Word of Faith teachers universally agree that when Adam fell, he forfeited God’s nature with which he had been endowed in his “spirit being” and took within himself instead the nature of his new god, Satan.” The Word of Faith movement holds that man is not simply created in the image and likeness of God but has the very nature of God, divine!
As shocking as this statement may seem, it helps us understand why a segment of professing Christians believe they can control the weather, dispatch angels, and manifest money out of thin air. See, it is a misunderstanding of the core anthropology of man and the uniqueness of God. Biblical orthodoxy teaches, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female” (Genesis 1:26-27 CSB).
Image and likeness are two synonymous terms. First, we see an intentional plan for the creation of man. Imago Dei, Latin for the image of God, gives every human being immense value, worth, and esteem. We were not just some afterthought but created by God. We are different than animals or plants and elevated above all other created things on earth, and we are image-bearers. So, we are not like God in that we have divinity; hence Jesus was the only one who was the exact likeness of God in the flesh. Adam, before the fall, was an image-bearer just like each of us, yet the difference was Adam lived in a world that did not know sin. Adam was a human being and was meant to remain in that sinless state before the fall.
The London Baptist Confession states, “God created humanity upright and perfect. He gave them a righteous law that would have led to life if they had kept it but threatened death if they broke it.” Then what was the result of sin, “By this sin, our first parents fell from their original righteousness and communion with God. We fell in them, and through this, death came upon all.” Jesus willingly went to the cross to become the sufficient sacrifice for our sin. He was crushed yet rose victorious over sin, death, and the grave on the third day. Those who place their faith and trust in Him will have everlasting life. Jesus is the Second Adam, different from the first Adam; he was both God and man, tempted and tried, yet never sinned. He was faithful and obedient to the Father until his last breath. His finished work on the cross restores our relationship with God.
Yet, the Word of Faith teachers would say, Adam was the god of this world, he forfeited this authority to Satan, Jesus got the power back, and now we as believers walk in that “human-divine authority.” We can look at the Scripture and see man was created in the image and likeness of God, not as some “god class being.” Jesus clearly said, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18 CSB).
Some will argue, well, didn’t Jesus say signs will follow those who believe? Yet, in context, by whose power did Peter, Paul or John heal? If we were to go a little deeper, we never see Paul dispatch angels or speak to storms. Even when bitten by a snake, we see Paul, a man sent from God, have to trust the Lord at that moment with his life.
One last dagger in the proverbial coffin is this text directly from Acts 14. When Barnabas and Paul were in Lystra, and the people were in awe of the working of miracles, they mistook them for gods. In this pagan culture, who held to a pantheon of gods tried to elevate these humble men to a place of diety and worship. Yet look at their response, “People! Why are you doing these things? We are people also, just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them” (Acts 14:15).
Christian, we are but finite human beings under the infinite hand of the Sovereign God of the Universe. Jesus Christ has the authority and power, not Satan nor us. We have been made alive in Christ and saved by grace. As a result, according to Ephesians, “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). The implications of the resurrection have us raised with and seated with Christ, which shows the realized unity with Christ.
Jesus didn’t gain authority back from Satan as god of this world. Neither was that authority given over to us. Jesus has always been God and will always be God.
“to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen” (Jude 25 CSB).
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