Authority-of-the-believer
Short answer: The authority of the believer is the commission and backing Jesus gives His followers because of His own total authority. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth,” and then He sends His disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching. Their authority is derived, not independent. Luke 10:19 records a delegation of authority over the power of the enemy. Mark 16:17-18 and John 14:12 tie works done in Jesus' name to faith in Him. Acts 3:6 shows the pattern: Peter heals not by personal power but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. So the authority is real and operative, but it belongs to Jesus and is exercised in dependence on Him, under His word, for His mission. It is not a blank check for personal control, health, or wealth.
Jesus holds the authority before He delegates any
The order in Matthew 28 is the whole point. Before Jesus gives a single command, He states a fact about Himself. Matthew 28:18 says, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” Every believer's authority is drawn from that reservoir, not from the believer's own strength, sincerity, or technique. If the reservoir were ours, the commission would collapse the moment we felt weak. Because it is His, the commission rests on something stable.
Notice also that this authority is given to Him. The Son, in His incarnate mission, receives authority from the Father. That keeps the whole structure relational rather than mechanical. Authority in the Bible is never a substance you possess; it is a position granted by someone greater. This is why Jesus can say in John 14:12 that the works He does, believers will do also, because He is going to the Father. His departure is not His absence from the mission; it is the condition for its expansion.
So when Christians talk about the authority of the believer, the first move is always to look up, not inward. We do not manufacture authority by confidence. We receive a commission from the One who already has all of it. Any teaching that makes authority a personal possession to be claimed apart from submission to Jesus has skipped the verse that introduces the command.
The commission itself is the authority
In Matthew 28:19-20, the command is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded. The phrasing matters: authority is exercised by going, baptizing, and teaching. It is not exercised by declaring things into existence or by claiming territory. The disciples were sent with a message and a mission, and the authority they carried was the authority of that message and mission.
This is why the New Testament so often connects power with proclamation. Acts 3:6 records Peter saying, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” The man is healed, but the healing is tied to the name of Jesus, not to Peter's personal capacity. Peter had just said he had nothing of his own to give. What he had was a commission and a name.
If we detach authority from the commission, we turn it into a self-help tool. The biblical pattern is the reverse: because we are sent, we have authority. The sending is the channel. A believer who is not on mission with Jesus has no biblical basis for claiming authority over anything.
Authority over the enemy is real but bounded
Luke 10:19 says, “Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you.” That is a strong sentence, and it should be read as strongly as it is written. Jesus does grant His messengers real authority over the enemy's power. The seventy return rejoicing that even demons submit in His name. Jesus does not correct their report; He confirms it and warns them not to let that joy eclipse their greater joy that their names are written in heaven.
That last detail is the boundary. Authority over the enemy is not the center of the Christian life; salvation is. The Bible never promises that a believer who exercises authority will be exempt from suffering, prison, or death. The same Luke who records Luke 10:19 records Stephen being stoned. Authority over the enemy means the enemy cannot ultimately thwart God's mission through His people, not that the enemy can never touch their circumstances.
This is where a lot of popular teaching goes wrong. It treats spiritual authority as a guarantee of safety, health, or success in this life. Scripture gives no such guarantee. It gives a guarantee that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church Jesus builds, and that the name of Jesus has power the enemy cannot overturn. Those are different promises, and confusing them produces either presumption or disillusionment.
Faith connects the believer to the authority of Christ
Mark 16:17-18 says, “These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages.” The operative phrase is in my name. The signs do not follow people who are impressive; they follow people who believe. Faith is not a force that generates authority. It is trust that connects a weak person to a strong Lord. The power is in the name, not in the intensity of the trust.
John 14:12 pushes further: “Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father.” The greater works are tied to Jesus' going to the Father, which means the scope of the mission expands after His ascension, not that individual believers outperform Jesus in raw power. The works are greater in reach, not necessarily in kind.
Faith, then, is the posture of dependence that makes a believer usable. It is not a lever. When Jesus tells the disciples they will do greater works, He is not flattering them; He is explaining the shape of the mission after Pentecost. The authority is His, the power is the Spirit's, and the believer's part is trust and obedience.
Ephesians describes power toward us, not power we wield
Ephesians 1:19-23 speaks of the exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe, the same working that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand, far above all rule and authority. The direction of that power in this passage is toward us. It is the power by which God saves, keeps, and secures His people. It is not described here as a power we deploy at will.
This is a crucial corrective. Much teaching on the authority of the believer quotes Ephesians 1 as if it were a description of the believer's own throne. But the passage is about Christ's throne and Christ's headship over the church. We are the body, and He is the head. The body does not command the head; the head directs the body. The power toward us is the guarantee that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
That does not make believers passive. It makes them properly located. We act, speak, and pray from a position of being joined to a risen, reigning Christ. The confidence is not in our rank but in His. Ephesians gives the believer security, not sovereignty.
How authority is exercised in ordinary Christian life
In practice, the authority of the believer looks like faithful, dependent obedience. It looks like praying in Jesus' name, which means praying in line with His will and character, not using His name as a formula. It looks like speaking the truth of the gospel to a neighbor, resisting temptation, and standing firm when the enemy accuses. It looks like serving the weak and the sick, sometimes seeing God intervene and sometimes waiting on Him.
It also looks like ordinary means of grace: Scripture, prayer, the church, the sacraments or ordinances. The New Testament nowhere gives a technique for authority apart from abiding in Christ. John 15 is clear that fruit comes from abiding, not from self-generated effort. A believer who abides will bear fruit, and that fruit is the evidence that Christ's authority is at work in and through them.
Finally, authority is exercised in community, not in isolation. Jesus gave the commission to a group of disciples, and the New Testament patterns show churches making decisions, sending workers, and exercising discipline together. The lone ranger with personal authority is not a biblical picture. The body of Christ, joined to the head, moving in obedience, is.
What authority does not mean in Scripture
It does not mean believers have the right to command God or to name and claim whatever they want. It does not mean sickness, poverty, or opposition are always the result of weak faith. It does not mean a believer can never be harmed. It does not mean authority is a personal property that can be built up like a muscle.
It does not mean every Christian is an apostle or prophet. The New Testament distinguishes gifts and offices. It does not mean we should be reckless or presumptuous, treating God like a power source and people like projects. It does not mean we replace dependence on God with confidence in ourselves. And it does not mean we ignore the role of the local church and its leaders.
Faithful believers differ on how often and in what manner to expect miraculous interventions today. Some expect them regularly; others expect them more rarely. Both groups can trust the same Christ and submit to the same commission. The disagreement should be handled with charity, not used as a test of who has more authority. The command to make disciples applies to all of us, whatever our expectations about signs.
Biblical fidelity check
What Matthew 28:18-20 establishes is that Jesus possesses all authority and that He sends His disciples to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything He commanded. It establishes that the mission is authorized and that Christ's presence accompanies His people. It does not establish a technique for personal empowerment, a promise of health, or a guarantee that believers will never suffer. The passage is a commissioning, not a manual for claiming results.
A common misreading is to treat the authority of the believer as an independent personal possession that can be used to control spiritual forces, circumstances, or other people. That reading is wrong because it reverses the passage's structure: authority belongs to Jesus first, and the disciples receive a mission, not a franchise. It is also wrong because it turns faith into a mechanism and prayer into a formula, which the rest of Scripture consistently resists. The biblical picture is dependent, commissioned, and Christ-centered.
Other passages that speak to Matthew 28:18-20
The themes of authority, confession, and remaining in Christ run through 1 John as well. For a closer look at how Scripture frames these matters, see What Does 1 John 1:1 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application, What Does 1 John 1:8 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application, 1 John 1:9 Meaning: Confession, Forgiveness, and Cleansing, and What Does 1 John 2:15 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application. Each of these passages helps clarify how the authority of Christ shapes the daily walk of the believer.
Frequently asked questions
Is the authority of the believer a personal power?
No. It is a delegated commission from Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth. In Matthew 28:18-20, the authority is His first, and the disciples are sent under it. Believers do not possess authority as a personal resource; they act in the name of Jesus, in dependence on Him. This means the power is not in the believer's confidence or technique, but in Christ's position and promise. Any teaching that makes authority a personal possession to be claimed independently of Him has departed from the biblical pattern.
Does Luke 10:19 mean nothing bad can ever happen to a believer?
It means the enemy's power cannot ultimately stop God's mission through His people. Jesus does give real authority over the power of the enemy, and the seventy report that demons submit in His name. But the same New Testament records faithful believers suffering, being imprisoned, and dying. Authority over the enemy is not a promise of exemption from harm in this life. It is a promise that the enemy cannot defeat the purposes of God or finally separate His people from His love in Christ.
How should I exercise authority in Jesus' name today?
Exercise it in dependent obedience, not as a formula. Pray in Jesus' name, meaning in line with His will and character. Speak the gospel faithfully. Resist temptation. Serve the sick and the weak, asking God to work and trusting Him whether or not you see immediate results. Stay rooted in Scripture, prayer, and the local church. Authority is exercised within the body of Christ and under His word, not as a private technique. The goal is faithfulness to the commission, not control over outcomes.
