John 10:18 / Jesus' Unique Authority

John 10:18 / Jesus' Unique Authority

"No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it
down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Why should we trust Jesus? I mean, what authority does He have regarding what He says about
eternal life? This is an honest question. You--or someone you know--may have asked this before
and I think a discerning person should.

Jesus says, "… I lay [my life] down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I
have authority to take it up again" in verse 18.

The authority to lay His life down is nothing unique at all. You and I have that authority. Soldiers
in the military volunteer to lay their lives down for their countries, and often times they do.
Having the authority to lay your life down is common to all humans, but what Jesus says next is
not.

He says, "and I have authority to take it up again." We as humans don't have that authority. We
can lay our lives down, but we cannot take them up again.

Jesus was claiming unique authority when He said that. As a human He could lay His life down,
but could He corroborate this claim to unique authority by taking it up again?

Romans 1:4 says:

"and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his
resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord."

The resurrection affirmed Jesus' claim to have unique authority as the Son of God. He claimed
He could take His life up again and then He did. Humans can lay their lives down, but only God
can raise them up.

So, the next time someone asks you, "why do you trust what Jesus said about getting to heaven?
I mean, other people have made claims about getting to heaven, so why trust Jesus' way?"

Tell them, "many people throughout history have claimed to know the way to heaven, but we can
never really be sure they actually made it there because they all died and never came back. So,
how can we know for sure their way to heaven is true? But Jesus claimed to know the way to
heaven and can be trusted because He's alive. He proved to be the Son of God by His
resurrection, which shows His unique authority on the Way to heaven."

In Christ,

Pastor Kevin