Jesus made one of the most astonishing claims in all of history when He said, “All authority on heaven and earth has been given to Me.” Below John Piper explains exactly what He meant when He spoke those words in Matthew 28.
Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” …if you gathered all the authority of all the governments and armies of the world and put them in the scales with the authority of the risen Christ, they would go up in the balance like air. All authority on earth has been given to the risen Christ. All of it!
The risen Christ has the right to tell every man, woman, and child on this planet today what they should do and think and feel. He has absolute and total authority over your life and over cities and states and nations. The risen Christ is great—greater than you have ever imagined.
Here is our witness to the world: The risen Christ is your king and has absolute, unlimited authority over your life. If you do not bow and worship him and trust him and obey him, you commit high treason against Christ the King, who is God over all. The resurrection is God’s open declaration that he lays claim on every person and tribe and tongue and nation… “All authority on earth is mine.” Your sex life is his to rule; your business is his to rule; your career is his to rule; your home is his; your children are his, your vacation is his, your body is his; He is God!
So if you resist his claim, feel no admiration for his infinite power and authority, and turn finally to seek satisfaction from thrills that allow you to be your own master, then you will be executed for treason in the last day. And it will appear so reasonable and so right that you should be executed for your disloyalty to your Maker and Redeemer that there will be no appeals and no objections. Your life of indifference to the risen Christ and of half-hearted attention now and then to a few of his commandments will appear on that day as supremely blameworthy and infinitely foolish, and you will…weep that you did not change.”