POWER (חַ֫יִל, H2657, strength, efficiency, wealth, army; כֹּחַ֒, H3946, strength, ability, power; עַז, H6434, strong, mighty, fierce; גְּבוּרָה, H1476, strength, might, valor; δύναμις, G1539, power, might, ability; ἐξουσία, G2026, freedom of choice, right, ability, authority; κράτος, G3197, power, mighty deed, rule).
“To possess power or to be powerful,” wrote Stanley I. Benn in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “is to have a generalized potentiality for getting one’s own way or for bringing about changes (at least some of which are intended) in other people’s actions or conditions.” This useful analysis of human relationships, however, does not take into account the many additional catalysts which, according to Scripture, may alter our lives.
1. Power of God. In contrast to the nature gods of the Gr. and Hel. worlds, the God of the Bible is a Person transcendent to immanent processes. As Lord of history, He has both the ability and the right to carry out His will in the world in the way He chooses. God is the ultimate source of all power, as the doxologies say.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from thee, and thou rulest over all. In thy hand are power and might; and in thy hand it is to make great and to give strength to all (1 Chron 29:11, 12).
God made the earth by His power (Jer 51:15). He gave Moses power to perform certain miracles (Exod 4:21) and “with great power and with a mighty hand” brought Israel out of Egypt (32:11). When the three Hebrews were put into the fiery furnace, the fire had no “power over their bodies” (Dan 3:27). God “saved Daniel from the power of the lions” (Dan 6:27). He can alter conditions leading to death (Pss 49:15; 79:11; 89:48). He will change our lowly bodies at the resurrection “by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil 3:21).
2. Power of angels and Satan. Since angels are “greater in might and power” than men (2 Pet 2:11), angels are called “powers” or “authorities.” They were created by Christ (Col 1:16), whether good or evil, they are under the power of the risen Christ (Eph 1:21; Col 2:10, 15; 1 Pet 3:22). The power of Satan himself is limited by God. In the case of Job, God said to Satan, “All that he [Job] has is in your power” (Job 1:12), and he is “in your power; only spare his life” (Job 2:6). Within limits, however, Satan has great power. When betrayed, Jesus told the priests, “this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). Satan is called, “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2). He has the power of death (Heb 2:14). The world is “in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). The Christian’s battle is not so much against flesh and blood as against “the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).
3. Power of sin. Fallen men have an evident ability to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. Both Jews and Greeks are “under the power of sin” (Rom 3:9). Paul supports the universality of this judgment (Rom 1:18-3:20). His thought may be similar to that of Christ who said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34).
4. Power of government. In a fallen world, God permits the armies of one nation to bring judgment on another nation. The prophets pronounced judgment upon one corrupt government after another. Should the Israelite nation turn from the Lord, He would “break the pride of [their] power” (Lev 26:19). Israel defected, and so Ezekiel delivered the Word of the Lord: “Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the desire of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword” (Ezek 24:21). With respect to nations as well as persons, “God has power to help or to cast down” (2 Chron 25:8). With that confidence in his background, Paul wrote, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” In a fallen world, governmental powers are “ministers of God” to implement justice upon wrongdoers (Rom 13:1-7).
5. Power of prophets. The spokesmen for God authenticated their claims by signs and wonders (Deut 13:1, 2; 18:21, 22). But none equalled Moses “for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel” (Deut 34:11, 12). Furthermore, the prophets with authority and power denounced sin in high places. The seers would be disgraced, said Micah, “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin” (Mic 3:8).
6. Power of Christ. Jesus drew constantly upon the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:14). People exclaimed, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out” (Luke 4:36). The power of the Lord was with Him to heal (5:17). That power “came forth” from Him when people were healed (6:19; 8:46). He gave the disciples power to cast out demons and heal (9:1). Many “mighty works” attested the Messiah (10:13; Acts 2:22). No one could take Jesus’ life from Him. He said, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18). The ruler of this world was coming, but Jesus assured His disciples, “He has no power over me” (14:30). Neither did Pilate (19:10, 11). Jesus, on the other hand, had been given “power over all flesh” (17:2). He assured His disciples of the day when they would see Him coming on the clouds of heaven in power and great glory (Matt 24:30; 26:64). Triumphantly, the risen Lord charged His disciples to witness in all the world for He had been given “all authority in heaven and on earth” (28:18). In the future that power will be more adequately recognized (Rev 5:12; 12:10).
Karl Barth discerningly shows how the crucified Christ displayed omnipotence. “This is the perfection of His divine omnipotence, that (in distinction from all abstract omnipotence) it can assume the form of weakness and powerlessness, and triumph as omnipotence also and even especially in this form.”
7. Power of Christ’s disciples. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were to be “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49) and so have ability to witness (Acts 1:8). Soon after Pentecost “with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (4:33). Not only the apostles, but also Stephen was full of grace and power (6:8). So evident was Philip’s power that Simon wanted to buy it (8:19).
Believers live in the world, but the weapons of their warfare “are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Cor 10:4). That power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). Believers take their share of suffering in the power of God (2 Tim 1:8). God “did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7). Divine power at work within us “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20). We, like Paul, may know the power of Christ’s Resurrection (Phil 3:10; Eph 1:19). God “may fulfil every good resolve and work of faith by his power” (2 Thess 1:11). “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16).
8. Power of the Church. Believers are to use their God-given abilities for the edification of the whole body. “Power” is used for a gift (1 Cor 14:13). Collectively the Church is to “have power to comprehend with all the saints...the love of Christ” (Eph 3:18, 19). The church at Philadelphia, although it had not denied the Lord’s name, had “but little power” (Rev 3:8).
9. Power of the age to come. “The powers of the age to come” (Heb 6:5), M. S. Terry explained, “are best understood of all the supernatural gifts and spiritual forces which belong to the age or dispensation of the New Covenant, of which Jesus is the Mediator (cf. Heb 9:15).
Bibliography G. C. Berkouwer, The Triumph of Grace in the Theology of Karl Barth (1956); O. Cullmann, “Authorities,” ed. by J. J. Von Allmen, A Companion to the Bible (1958), 26-31; M. S. Terry, “Power,” HDB rev., 785; G. Kittel, TDNT, II (1964), 284-317, 560-575; S. I. Benn, “Power,” The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 6 (1967), 424-427.