John 19:10-11 Then said Pilate to him, Speak you not to me? know you not that I have power to crucify you, and have power to release you?… Men are inclined to think that they have power for good or power for evil because of their wealth, station, or influence. They fail to consider that all their power is a simple trust from God; and that not only are they responsible for the use they make of it, but the power itself is liable to be taken away from them, or held in check at the command of God at any instant. Men are free agents in the use of all their faculties and all their possessions; but their free agency is a gift of God; and God has not surrendered His watch or His control of every free agent in His service or among His opponents. No man has power for good or for evil except as God consents to that man's temporary exercise of power. There is a warning in this thought to those who may have fancied that they could either serve or resist God of their own strength. There is comfort and cheer in this thought to those who are threatened, or who are imperiled, by the hostility of others. A man can, in a sense, help God's cause by generous giving, or by earnest doing — if God permits man to give help in that way. A man can, in a sense, harm God's cause by opposing the right, or by withholding the aid that he ought to render — if God permits the man to do harm in that way. But, in the truest sense, no man can render a service to the devil, or harm a hair of a believer's head, unless God consents to this exercise of the man's power. But in either case the man is responsible for what he would like to do. By God's permission he is a free agent there. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? |
    |