God's purpose has always been for man to rule alongside of Him. In other words, Adam's authority was directly connected to the closeness of his divine relationship with God. Authority is not something that we earn but something that has been given to us by God Himself. Authority is based upon intimacy with God which makes us His delegated representatives over His creation (Gen. 1:26-30, 2:15-23, 3:8). We see Satan's attempt to rob from Jesus what rightfully was His from all of eternity. The devil understood and discerned the anointing and authority that Jesus carried. The devil sought to bring doubt to Jesus' closeness of intimacy that He had with the Father. His temptation against Jesus in the wilderness was not to simply get Jesus to do something to prove His power, but it was to get Jesus to believe that He had to work and earn God's love rather than just believing the Father's word.

“Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread... and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written ‘He shall give His angels charge over you and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.”   Matthew 4:3, 6, 9-10

“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”   Matthew 3:16-17

Just purchased this tonight:
 
The New England Pulpit: When American Pastors Preached Politics, Resisted Tyranny and Founded a Nation on the Bible

"The diminishing light of civil liberty in this land is linked directly to the lack of preaching on it in today’s pulpits. Dr. Alice Baldwin’s wonderful book is a welcome antidote to this problem, should we be willing to take it." - Dr. Baldwin

Dr. Baldwin illustrates how the preachers of the early American era thought and practiced just the opposite as today. Mountains of research in colonial sermons, tracts, pamphlets, and other publications, reveals how the pulpits of colonial America rang constantly on all aspects of the public square: good rulers, good laws, good forms of government, and the blessings of liberty. We especially hear of those choice values of biblical order that became the battle cries of American independence.

Commenting on the classic paraphrase of “life, liberty, and property,” Baldwin proclaims, “No one can fully understand the American Revolution and the American constitutional system without a realization of the long history and religious associations which lie behind these words; without realizing that for a hundred years before the Revolution men were taught that these rights were protected by divine, inviolable law.”

Covering the entire revolutionary era, she concludes that the central force behind it all was the pulpit’s application of the Word of God to politics and government. She says, “It must not be forgotten, in the multiplicity of authors mentioned, that the source of greatest authority and the one most commonly used was the Bible.” And she proves that “from the law of God they derived their political theories.”

It is long past time to recover the great and powerful preaching of our founding era—a time when pastors did not fear to preach politics, resist tyranny, and found their governments on the Bible. Dr. Baldwin’s nearly-forgotten book is a powerful resource toward that end. We recommend it to every pastor and every Christian in hope that they follow the example of its subject matter even more.