All Power in the Heavens and on Earth given to the Lord

The Lord Himself says, “All power is given unto Me, in heaven and on earth” (Matt. xxviii. 18)…. In respect to all power being given to the Son of Man, both in the heavens and on earth, it should be known that the Lord had power over all things in the heavens and on earth before He came into the world; for He was God from eternity, and Jehovah,—as He Himself plainly says in John: “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (xvii. 5); and again: “Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was I am” (viii. 58). For He was Jehovah and God to the Most Ancient church which was before the flood, and appeared to the men of that church; He was also Jehovah and God to the Ancient church which was after the flood; and He it was whom all the rites of the Jewish church represented, and whom the members of that church worshipped. And the reason why He says that all power was given unto Him in Heaven and on earth, as if it were then first given, is, that by the Son of Man His Human essence is meant, which when united to the Divine was also Jehovah, and at the same time power was given unto Him; which could not be done before He was glorified, that is, before His Human essence by unition with the Divine had life also in itself, and had thus in like manner become Divine, and Jehovah; as He Himself says in John: “As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself” (v. 26). (AC n. 1607)