Power and Knowledge
My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge . . . Come, and let us return unto the Lord . . . Then we shall
know, if we follow on to know the Lord. Hosea 4:6; 6:1, 3.
It is commonly said that knowledge is power. That depends. If we take the
statement of the poet, that "the proper study of mankind is man,"
then certainly knowledge is anything but power. Man is nothing but weakness
and sin. All men know that they are sinners, that they do things that are
not right, but that knowledge gives them no power to change their course.
You may tell a man all his faults, and if you tell him nothing more, you
have weakened rather that strengthened him.
But
he who with the apostle Paul determines to know nothing "save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified," has knowledge that is power. "And this
is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). To know Christ is to know the
power of His endless life. It is for lack of this knowledge that men are
destroyed. But since Christ is the power of God, it is quite correct to say
that power is the one thing that men need; and the only real power, the
power of God, is revealed in the gospel.
All
the power of earth is frail and but for a moment, while the power of God is
eternal. The gospel is the power, and if men would but recognize it for what
it is, there would not be any who would be ashamed of it. Paul said,
"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ." Galatians 6:14. The reason for this was that the cross is the
power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18. The power of God, in whatever form
manifested, is glory, and not for shame.
Waggoner on Romans, pg. 22 |
