Does Christ Really Have ALL AUTHORITY?

I have found myself wrestling with the words of Jesus from Matthew 28:18 lately where He says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."  I have never given much thought to these words, in fact I knew they were there but always made the verses following the focus of my attention.  But the entire commission that Christ gave unto His Apostles was based on the authority that He claimed (note: He uses the word "therefore" in v. 19 to create a link back to what He said in v. 18 about His authority).  

Ultimately it is clear that the reason the Apostles were commissioned to go and "make disciples" even of "all nations" was because of the authority of Christ.  And at every angle of the proclamation of Christ to these nations, the Apostles were ultimately calling people to conformity to the authority of Christ over their lives through repentance and faith.  The fact is there are countless lives living in disagreement because of disbelief in/to the authority of Christ.  And so they were called to proclaim such a message. And anyone who has ever claimed to be a disciple of Christ is ultimately saying Christ has all authority over his/her life.  No longer do they will to claim autonomy, but they recognize their need for Christ and so they surrender to His authority.  This is what Christians are to proclaim.

So when did the proclamation of Christ's authority become such a burden of dread?  As Christians in the 21st century we agree that we are to continue on with this Great Commission.  It is as much ours as it was theirs in the first century.  But it is a laborious thing in which we engage if indeed we are engaging in it.  We are troubled by the lack of receptivity to it.  We are troubled by the scope of it ("all nations").  We are burdened by the duration of it.  We are overwhelmed by the task of actually doing it wherein we are required to teach everything that Christ commanded.  We are fatigued at the thought of the process of disciple-making that spans not just a few moments, but the extent of our lifetime.  

But in all this we are denying something wonderful.  We are denying the authority of Christ in/over/through all of who we are and what we are attempting.  Christ has all authority, sufficient to change hearts and cause people to receive this message.  Christ has all authority and His authority is such that our message is the same to every person, of every nation.  Christ has all authority so as He first gave this commission He had it, He does now, and in 10 billion years He will still have authority.  Christ has all authority even to empower the inadequacy of our knowledge and words as we endeavor to teach about Him.  Christ has all authority and will, in and through and over every part of the lives of His disciples, be faithful to the disciple-making process for all the days of His own. 

So we have great reason to rejoice.  Christ is not just authoritative over the rotation of planets and He holds them suspended in space.  Christ is not just authoritative over blades of grass, and drops of rain that He causes.  Christ authority extends over all.  His victory over sin, death, and Satan himself expresses His authority.  Nobody else has done that.  In what remains in this window called time, Christ has established a season wherein people might come to agreement with His authority and learn to delight in it.  The hope that is theirs involves peace with God, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life.  But one day Christ will come to end our concept of the day and time and then He will violently express, for those who don't believe, the authority He possesses.