What Is Power?

Pictures of power: CEO behind a desk, North Korean army "goose-stepping", Hurricane Katrina, Volcano, the Gospel.

I know it was popular a few years ago to talk about "dunamis" being the word behind the word "power" in the New Testament--"dunamis" being related to the word dynamite. The preachers would say, "God has dynamite power." Many times, this power was spoken of as being separate or distinctive, like it was one attribute of a sovereign God sort of like "the force" for Star Wars fans.

I've been mulling over the text from a week ago Wednesday which also was our memory verse this week: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power..." (Rom. 1.16). This power isn't isolated from who God is and more than that it is inherent within the Gospel. The Gospel is not simply, "Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life." It is the power of God, revealed and released. If God says this is power, perhaps we need to redefine our ideas and our pictures of what power is.

Leon Morris in his excellent commentary on the book of Romans: “The gospel is not advice to people, suggesting that they lift themselves. It is power. It lifts them up. Paul does not say that the gospel brings power, but that it is power, and God’s power at that.”