“For I am a man under authority . . .” (Matt. 8:9.)
A policeman’s authority to do his job is completely dependent upon his being under authority.
When the humble traffic cop is doing his job correctly, he is functioning under full, multi-layered authority: the authority of the town government, which is under the authority of the county government, which is under the authority of the state government, which is under the authority of the federal government, which is under the authority of God. Thus, the cop’s every hand-signal is actually at one with the highest authority in the land, and one with the authority of almighty God Himself.
Jesus recognized this relationship — this unison — so clearly that he said, “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30.) Similarly, in the days of Jesus, a Roman centurion’s authority was at one with the highest authority on earth: Caesar. To all intents and purposes, any directive uttered by the centurion was Caesar’s directive.
So the “scientific centurion” knew — absolutely — that every command of Jesus was not Jesus’ alone, but God’s.
A correctly functioning traffic cop does not wake up every morning wondering whether or not he is qualified to do his job. He does not say, “Are all the different layers of government backing me up today, the same as they were yesterday? Do I need to call the county courthouse to confirm the legality of my hand signals today?”
A correctly functioning traffic cop does not go off-duty every few minutes to see if his badge has an expiration date. His exercising power — under the authority of the authorities over him — has nothing to do with him accepting his authority by faith. He simply knows. This is why Mrs. Eddy expresses it so bluntly in her first edition (p. 87.): “There are no believers.”
As Mrs. Eddy says so often, Divine Authority, or Omnipotence, is not a person. I am not to pray to Authority as a person, but I am to be in the correct state of mind to exercise it. None of the seven synonyms for God is a person. So it follows that that, since God is not person, neither is God’s image and likeness, born of mortal birth, with variable, changeable mortal mind. Authority to work the works of God means acting not as variable, changeable person, but as invariable, unchangeable image and likeness of the invariable and changeless God.
Elisha — ever in his right mind — always knew his place not as fickle, changeable person, but as God’s eternal, impersonal expression. Elisha’s spiritual authority was in direct proportion to his death to personal self. Even in the face of his greatest challenges, all the authority of the hosts of heaven, rank upon rank, all the way up Jacob’s ladder, was with him continually. (2 Kings 6:15-16.)