“UNDER”, “WITH” AND “OVER” – THE POSTURES OF POWER
“UNDER”, “WITH” AND “OVER” – THE POSTURES OF POWER
How we Christians discern the postures of power
photo by Jonathan Borba
“UNDER”, “WITH” AND “OVER” – THE POSTURES OF POWER
Right before Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, he commissions his disciples with the famous words “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me …” (Matt 28:18) It is a stunning all-encompassing statement of Jesus authority over the world (in heaven and on earth) as the mission of God commences into the world. The disciples are sent with the words “Go therefore and make disciples …” to live this call “under” this new-founded authority of Jesus. He promises “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And so Jesus sets the terms of the flourishing of this new mission. His disciples shall live “under” his authority in all they do in his name. And in so doing, he will be “with” them, his presence and power will be at work among them. It is all a description of how Godly power shall work “under” his power making possible the manifestation of his power “with” them.
This is the lesson on how Godly power works versus the power of the world. Worldly power requires we the human agent own it, control it and direct it “over” people and institutions. God’s power operates by we, as humans, coming “under” His authority, releasing control, and in that process cooperating “with” His power already at work.
DUNAMIS AND EXOUSIA
There are two words most often used to describe ‘power’ in the New Testament. One is the Greek word dunamis (used 117 times) translated most often as ‘power,’ and the other is exousia (used 113 times) most often translated ‘authority.’ These words, often confused, have a long history in sociology as well as New Testament studies.[1] There is much overlap between the two words but dunamis seems most often to accompany the supernatural, miracles, not controlled by human means, while exousia seems to represent the delegation of power, assigned, given, authorized for humans to act out of.[2]
Dunamis, for example, is released via Jesus and his ministry in “the power of the Lord was with (Jesus) to heal” (Luke 5:17). Dunamis goes out from him and heals all (Luke 6:19; Mark 5:50). His miracles throughout the gospels are designated dunameis, activities of power, demonstrations of power over death, evil, and demons (e.g. Matt 11:20-23). Mark 6:5-6 tells us “He could do no deed of power (dunamis) there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And He was amazed at their unbelief.” There is this sense that this power is set loose at the hand of God by the Spirit through Jesus, but it is a power that flows out from him, beyond his immediate purview, dependent upon people trusting Him, making space for Him.
And yet Jesus released this power repeatedly within a given authority (exousia). He is accused of usurping God’s exousia when he forgives sins and heals the paralytic (Luke 5:17-26). But Jesus makes clear this authority has been given him from God his Father. He is living in constant submission to the Father (Luke 22:42).[3] And so when Jesus himself receives all authority in heaven and earth (Matt 28:18), and He reigns in authority over the world until all enemies have been made subject (1 Cor 15:25), he, now seated at the right hand, becomes the source of all authority. He now delegates authority to his servants. In and under this authority, the dynamic power of God, as released in Jesus by the Spirit, operates on different terms to worldly power. It is a power that heals, convicts, reconciles, restores, transforms, and can only ever be set loose under one’s submission to Jesus’ exousia, the one who now reigns. It cannot be controlled, only authorized.[4]
This is seen throughout the rest of the New Testament. The gifts of the Spirit possess the authority of the Spirit as given, delegated, authorized by the Lord himself who gives the gifts from the seat of His rule (Eph 4:8,9), always for “the building up of the body” (vs 13), never for one’s own self-aggrandizement. As we have already seen, Paul gives up all as loss, that he might be found “in Him,” under His authority, that he “might know Christ and the power (dunamis) of his resurrection” (Phil 3:8-10). The dynamic power of God in Christ is released only in cruciformity, humility and weakness, as we come under the authority of the Lord at work among us.
THE WAY OF GOD’S POWER
The Apostle Paul prays for the church of Ephesus that they might “know the power”, what is “the immeasurable greatness of his power for those who believe” and trust Him, come under His rule (Eph 1:17-19). To know this power, I suggest, is to discern and distinguish between God’s power released in and thru Jesus, and worldly power.
There is worldly authority which humans control, and there’s Godlypower which only God controls. All who enter into God’s Kingdom, are called to live in submission to Christ, under His authority, resisting worldly power, becoming a conduit for His power. We submit to the reign and authority of Christ (exousia) and in so doing His healing transformative Godly power (dunamis) is released among us, never in our own control, only submitted to, and cooperated with. This is the way God’s power works in the new era of His kingdom begun in the reign of Jesus.
I believe this discernment and living into God’s power by the Holy Spirit versus worldly power of coercion and control distinguishes the church from the world, the Christian from those who have not yet come “under” His reign. It makes all the difference in how we lead, work, pastor in the church and in the world.
But I fear this distinction between the two powers has been lost. The result has been arrogance, coercion and shocking abuse in the church, and an accommodation to the worldly powers via Christian Nationalism. There’s much more to flesh out as to what this means for our lives, but I’m convinced how we discern the power of God and participating with God is how we navigate the current crisis of leadership and abuse in our churches and the world.
This is an excerpt from my upcoming book Reckoning With Power – available for pre-order now here. And if you have a social media platform of modest size, consider joining Baker Publishing’s Launch team. Email me here and put LAUNCH TEAM in the subject heading.
[1] The sociologist scholar of power Steven Lukes outlines the history of the two terms within the fields of sociology in ‘Power and Authority,’ in T. Bottomore and R Nisbet (eds), A History of Sociological Analysis (London: Heinemann, 1979) 638-639. Bengt Holmberg, pioneered the use of sociology in the study of New Testament. See his description of how ‘power’ versus ‘authority’ has been used in the history of sociology Paul and Power: The Structure of Authority in the Primitive Church as Reflected in the Pauline Epistles (Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press, 1980). 125-135.
[2] A full reading of the entries in Bauer’s lexicography gives nuance to this description. Bauer, Walter, William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and Frederick W. Danker. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979. 207-208 ;277-279. Likewise, Walter Wink exposits these two terms with all the nuances of the Jewish world prior to and concurrent with the New Testament. I am summarizing this research as it applies to the issues of worldly power versus Godly power. See Walter Wink, Naming the Powers (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984) 15-17, 157-163. Stephen Sykes gives a helpful etymology on how the two words have been translated into English versions of the Bible. Power and Christian Theology (London UK: Continuum Books, 2006) 3-4.
[3] This notion of power at work in the life of Jesus, and the differentiation between dunamis and exousia in the gospels, is drawn from Gerald Hawthorne The Presence and The Power (Dallas TX: Word Publishing, 1991) 154-160.
[4] These definitions of dunamis as God’s active power released via the exousia (authority) of God in Christ as used in the Gospels, is painstakingly charted by C.K. Barrett in The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition (London: S.P.C.K., 1947) ch. 5. Exousia is the authority antecedent to dunamis, the release of divine active power. p.79.