Power Corrupts

Power Corrupts

by Teri Ong

We have been on vacation this week at our favorite condo spot. We have the same week every year– the week right after graduation. It is the perfect finish to our school years, no matter how imperfect the rest of the year may or may not have been. As it turns out, we had a wonderful academic year seasoned with the sugar and spice of a daughter’s wedding and medicated with the castor oil of our K-12 school moving out under another church. Six days away from home wasn’t a life-saving necessity this year, but it was a restful change.

We have been coming to the same place for 18 springs now, since our baby who just graduated was 6 months old. Because of that, we don’t feel robbed if we don’t do anything touristy. I did what I don’t do 51 other weeks of the year – I watched daytime television. Mostly I watched FOX News and the Weather Channel (because of the tornado in Oklahoma). Normally I get my national news by listening to the radio when I am working in the kitchen. So I felt a little decadent sitting with my feet up while I got the low-down on all of the scandals in Washington D.C.

I was intrigued by how often the appellation “liberal” was replaced with “progressive,” even on a fairly conservative channel. The picture is one of “conservatives” resolutely standing their ground with tightly folded arms and grimly set brows, as opposed to cheerful, open-minded folks “progressing” with open arms, ready to move on to the next phase of societal evolution. But the question needs to be asked, as C. S. Lewis reminded in The Abolition of Man, “Progressing towards what?”

Going down a road doesn’t guarantee that what is at the end of the road is better than what we had when we started out. The Bible talks about two roads– a broad road and a narrow road. (Matt. 7:13-14) The broad road is easy and a lot of people find it attractive. One of the reasons it is easy is because it is downhill. It doesn’t take nearly as much effort to roll along down a hill as to climb a steep, narrow path. We know this from experience, having lived in a mountainous state for many years now. Read Proverbs 2:11-22 to get a more complete picture of the two roads.

One quality of the broad road that runs downhill is speed. People who are on that road like the thrill of going fast. I watched a FOX News special report that aired on May 23 and 24 on the “hook up” culture on American college campuses. It is all about casual sex with as many people as possible. There is no need to take the time to go through the cumbersome process of courtship, engagement, and marriage. The students who were interviewed saw no need to even take the time to get to know the other person involved. One young lady said, “It shows we are totally liberated sexually.” Freely running downhill to destruction as fast as possible.

On the political front, the news programs did all they could to fan the flames of controversy over illegal seizure of the records of AP and Fox News journalists, the politically motivated scrutiny of conservative groups by the IRS, and the lies and cover-ups surrounding the deaths of Americans at the embassy in Benghazi. How do these events relate to progressivism? They were all perpetrated by a “progressive” government headed by President Obama, which does not like any “traffic calming measures” slowing down the progress of his agenda. No speed bumps. No reduced speed zones. Clear them all out!

A growing number of people, if the polls are to be believed, are wishing they could put the brakes on when it comes to some of these societal changes. More and more are seeing our culture careening down a 7% grade and fear that the brakes have all failed and the runaway truck ramp around the next curve is already in use. They are frightened that the federal government may have the power to level anything that gets in its way. Lord Acton’s axiom comes to mind, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.”

We have seen first hand this week the eruption of power-fueled corruption that has boiled beneath the surface for months and even years. But is this the heady sign of absolute power corrupting absolutely?

No, it is only the sign of finite human power corrupting in the realm of finite humanity.

Why do some human beings do everything they can to exercise power over other human beings? Because there is something they get for themselves out of the deal. Perhaps it is money or prestige. Perhaps it is the thrill of significance or the potential of historical recognition and legacy, even if it is only “fifteen minutes of fame.” Probably it is a combination of several of these things. Even the most benign, loving dictator gets the satisfaction of adoration from those he has helped in some way.

I believe those who are corrupted by power are corrupted because they do not have absolute power, rather than because they are trying to attain it. What they all lack is power over their own depraved human natures. They become grasping, greedy, and over-reaching because the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life have overcome them.

There was only one being who lived on this earth as a man who had absolute power– Jesus Christ. He had all the power of infinite deity. He called creation into being by the words of His mouth and demonstrated that even in His humanity He had absolute control over that creation when He stilled the raging sea. (Mark 4:39) His pronouncement of His own identity caused Roman soldiers to fall to the ground when He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. (John 18:6)

Early in His ministry, Satan tempted Him to use His absolute power in a way that would have corrupted the entire universe irretrievably. (Matt 4:1-11) Instead, during that temptation in the wilderness, Jesus demonstrated His absolute power over the world, the flesh, and the devil; over the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. He demonstrated that “we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15)

The ultimate triumph of absolute power is seen in the crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus, as the King of kings, could have called ten thousand angels to whisk Him away from His trial and take Him back to heaven. (Matt. 26:53) But He knew that there was only one way for Him to accomplish the will of His Father.

Klass Schilder, in his classic work, Christ on Trial, wrote:

If He wants to, He can coerce Pilate by a glance of His eye, just as He once constrained Simon Peter. He can charm Pilate with His eyes, can mesmerize him, can cause him to retreat– who in this connection does not think of Gethsemane? By means of the potency of His thorough-going humanity He can do all these things if He wants to. Thus Christ, should He choose to, can be silent over against Pilate, can leave him to Satan; by sheer force, by puissance of His humanity, He can rid Himself of this judge. He who can force Lazarus out of the grave, can force Pilate back of the curtains– there to be advised by his wife: “Have thou nothing to do with this man.”

But Christ does not do this. He is obedient. He does not mesmerize; He does not constrain: He does not struggle with God for the conversion of Pilate, as though the hour had come to cast the bread of the children– alas, such children!– before the “dogs,” the heathen.

…For we understand that Christ, by making a good confession before Pilate, was being obedient. He did not compromise His claims nor conceal the universal, world-conquering character of His dominion. In His self-confession He rendered to God what was God’s and to Caesar what was Caesar’s… And when He had done so, He knew that for Him this meant death. (pp. 330, 333)

In the example of Jesus Christ, we come to understand that His absolute power was exercised over the sin nature and all its attendant ills, not His own sin nature, of course, but ours. He exercised absolute power over Satan, over the penalties of the Law, and over death itself, (Col. 2:12-15) because He used His power to set aside all that was His by right. (Phil 2:5-8)

Human, finite power corrupts because it is the power to indulge the sinful self. Divine absolute power redeems because it alone is powerful enough to defeat sin.

As a Christian, I will not put my trust in “the arm of flesh.” (II Chron. 32:8) All finite power can do at its very best is to throw up a few speed bumps on the broad road down to destruction. At worst, finite power will cause many to pitch headlong on that road as King Jeroboam did. (I Kings 14:16) But as we watch, from our vantage point on our narrow ascent, we can praise God that as power corrupts, Absolute Power redeems absolutely.

Reference:

Schilder, Klass (trans. Henry Zylstra). Christ on Trial. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Klock and Klock, 1978 reprint.

Come, every thankful heart

That loves the Savior’s name,

Your noblest powers exert

To celebrate His fame!

Tell all above and all below

The debt of love to Him you owe.

He left His starry crown,

He laid His robes aside,

On wings of love came down,

And wept, and bled, and died:

What He endured, O who can tell,

To save our souls from death and hell!

From the dark grave He rose,

The mansion of the dead;

And thence His mighty foes

In glorious triumph led:

Up through the sky the Conqueror rode,

And reigns on high the Savior God.

From thence He’ll quickly come,

His chariot will not stay,

And bear our spirits home

To realms of endless day;

Then shall we see His smiling face

And ever live in His embrace.

Samuel Stennett (1727-1795)

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