Berkhof, Hendrik | Christ and the Powers
Christ and the Powers
Hendrik Berkhof
Paperback (2nd Edition): Herald Press, 1977, 80pp.
Introduction
Christ and the Powers is an important book that offers an introductory explanation of what the biblical writers, and especially the apostle Paul, mean when they refer to the Powers (see, for instance, Romans 8:38-39, I Corinthians 15:24-26, Ephesians 3:10, etc.) Berkhof examines Colossians 2, as a key biblical passage that defines the nature of the Powers: “The Powers rule over human life outside Christ. They are manifested in human traditions (verse 8), in public opinion which threatens to entice the Christians in Colossae away from Christ. They are manifested in the cautious and timorous observance of requirements about abstinence from food and drink, or of feast days. … The “world powers” under which mankind languishes, to which the Colossians risk falling subject once again, are definite religious and ethical rules, the solid structures within which the pagan and the Jewish societies of the day lived and moved” (20-21). He goes on to make the crucial observation that, “by His cross Christ has unmasked and disarmed the quasi-divine authority of these structures” (21).
Although the work of Christ unmasks and disarms the Powers, they still play a crucial role in creation, namely giving it structure and “preserving it from disintegration” (33). Berkhof observes: “[In] the world alienated from God, the Powers have a very positive function. They keep men alive. We must hasten to say that such a “life” is not fully worthy of the name; it is life “improperly so-called,” a life under guardians, in slavery, within which man falls short of his destined end. Contrasted with the life of divine sonship it can scarcely bear the name “life.” Yet in contrast to the chaos, to which our enmity toward God has condemned us, life under the Powers is tolerable, even good” (34).
Participatory Worship
One essential function of the church, in which we all participate together, is the discerning of spirits. “In the church the distinction becomes clear,” Berkhof writes, “between movings of the spirits which are of and unto God and those which are of and unto the evil one. This involves especially the discerning of the Powers which hold the hearts and actions of men under their sway in specific times and places” (47). He goes on, “From this discernment there springs forth a basically different way of dealing with creaturely reality. The Holy Spirit ‘shrinks’ the Powers before the eye of faith. They may well have inflated themselves into omnipotent total value systems, but the believer sees them in their true proportions, as nothing more than one segment of creation, existing because of the Creator, and limited by other creatures” (48-49).
Radical Kinship
Hendrik Berkhof emphasized that one of the most powerful indicators of Christ’s work in unmasking and disarming the Powers was the way in which Jews and Gentiles (and many other divided segments of humanity) lived and worshiped together as one body. “The very existence of the church, in which Gentiles and Jews, who heretofore walked according to the stoicheia of the world, live together in Christ’s fellowship, is itself a proclamation, a sign, a token to the Powers that their unbroken dominion has come to an end” (51). Our first responsibility in addressing the many divisions and injustices of our day, Berkhof notes, is to live in the church in a manner such that, “justice and mercy prevail in our common life and social differences have lost their power to divide” (51).
“Christianizing” the Powers
Another key work of the church that Berkhof describes is that of “Christianizing” the Powers. Such Christianizing means that the Powers, “are made instrumental, made modest; one could even say ‘neutralized’” (58). This Christianizing, according to Berkhof, looks different for different Powers. “For the state it means ‘de-ideologizing,’ a reduction to its true dimensions. The state no longer serves its own interest and no longer enslaves men to the world view it propagates; it becomes simply a means of staving off chaos and ordering human relations in such a way that we can lead a quiet and stable life and follow God’s call” (59). Or, “[in] the economic and technical realms ‘Christianizing’ will mean the subjection of their resources to serve man as defined by the divine intention” (59).
By living in a manner such that the Powers no longer define the shape of our common life in the church (see the “Radical Kinship” section above), we are freed to have a more truthful and modest view of the role that the Powers play in God’s creation.