“And they sang in a mighty chorus: ‘Worthy is the lamb who was slaughtered—to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing’ ” (Revelation 5:12, NLT).
A while back, I heard a journalist say that “when politicians step on the red carpet, they get altitude sickness!» Power leads many of them to lose touch with reality and forget their electoral promises. However, politicians are not the only ones who have that problem: it’s a human tendency. In the famous words of British historian Lord Acton: «Power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.» Human beings have a complex relationship with power, which can easily become toxic.
The bible says that the Lamb is worthy to receive power (see Revelation 5:12). This beautiful praise has a theological significance we sometimes ignore. God doesn’t relate with power, riches or glory like we do. Jesus’s sacrifice proves that! God doesn’t use His power to serve Himself, like an arbitrary tyrant. Power does not corrupt Him or go to His head. As Christian psychiatrist, Timothy Jennings, says in The God-Shaped Brain. He preferred to allow His creatures to mistreat Him and kill Him, instead of using His power to stop them. What freedom, what deliverance we have in God! Truly worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. He is worthy to receive all the power because He has shown that He does not abuse it.
God’s love and power are infinite and they are manifested together. The Lamb is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals because He paid for the ransom with His blood (see Revelation 5:9). Commenting on His temptations in the desert, in A loving Life, Paul Miller describes how Jesus refused to separate power from love. Each temptation in the desert tried to get Jesus to use His power to serve Himself, but He refused to use His divine power to turn a stone into bread, to use His divinity to protect Himself from the consequences of His humanity. God does not abuse His power, instead He
sacrifices Himself out of love. All glory, honor and power belong to Him!
Dear Lord, You are worthy to receive my worship and my love. All blessing, honor, glory, and power belong to You. Forever and ever. Amen.