Which Way?

Just because one can does not necessarily mean that one should. Simply because one possesses the power to force a preferred outcome does not warrant that one use that power to do so.

Consider a very powerful district attorney who genuinely seeks justice, but decides to use power and authority to coerce others to plant evidence and intimidate witnesses to guarantee a guilty verdict against someone the attorney knows—beyond a shadow of a doubt—is guilty. In such a scenario justice is not served, but undermined. One cannot achieve justice by injustice.

The way of the Lamb—the way of unselfish love—is diametrically opposed to the Machiavellian claim that the ends justify the means. A judge might be able to secure an easy verdict by intimidation, but doing so would corrupt the very justice the judge claims to uphold.

Because God is perfectly loving and just, God does not exercise His power to coerce the wills of creatures and force universal obedience. The Bible unequivocally teaches that God is all-powerful (see, e.g., Jer. 32:17; Rev. 19:6), but God refuses to employ His power to override the wills of His creatures, because doing so would undermine love itself.

According to the story of redemption told throughout Scripture, the pinnacle of which is the Lamb’s victory through the cross, God’s triumph over evil hinges, not on the exercise of sheer power, but on unselfish love. In direct contrast to the dragon—who seeks to dominate by power and seeks to coerce the world to worship him—Christ overcomes evil as a Lamb who voluntarily suffers to defeat darkness and reconcile the world to Himself, rather than using His power to dominate creatures.

This is not incidental to God’s victory over darkness, but stands at the very heart of God’s triumph—the triumph of love.

The Temptation to “Win” the Wrong Way

Christ’s temptations in the wilderness (see Matt. 4; Luke 4) are often considered mere tests of individual morality. Yet they are far more than this; they tested how Jesus would fulfill His mission. Would He compromise goodness, truth, or love in order to accomplish good ends?

Each temptation highlights a legitimate end, but entices Christ to achieve it through illegitimate means.

Turning stones into bread would have assuaged Christ’s hunger, but using His own divine power to do so would have bypassed His trust and reliance on the Father (see Matt. 4:3, 4).

Even though it was framed in terms of faith in God’s promises, throwing Himself from the pinnacle of the temple would have amounted to presumption (see verses 5-7).

And by offering Christ all the kingdoms of the world, the devil craftily suggested Jesus could achieve His ultimate aim of saving the world without undergoing the suffering of the cross . . . simply by bowing the knee to Satan (see verses 8-10).

Of course, had Christ succumbed to such temptations, His mission to defeat evil and save the world would have failed. He could not redeem the world by abandoning the very principles of love that make redemption possible.

Christ overcomes evil as a Lamb who voluntarily suffers to defeat darkness and reconcile the world to Himself, rather than using His power to dominate creatures.

In each case the temptation offered a shortcut, a seemingly effective path to achieve good outcomes without the costly path of faithfulness. Each one offered a subtle invitation to exchange the way of the Lamb for the way of the dragon.

On one hand, the devil continually suggests that if the ends are good, the means can be justified. But according to the ethics of Scripture and according to the way of the Lamb—the way of unselfish love—the ends do not justify the means.⁠

Christ possesses the sheer power to rule by force at any time, but doing so would undermine love itself.⁠

Here and throughout His ministry Christ did not merely resist temptation—He revealed a vision of power fundamentally different from that of the world and that of the dragon and his minions (see, e.g., Rev. 12; 13).[*]

Gethsemane and the Sword

This contrast is also especially clear in Gethsemane as Christ’s crucifixion drew near. When the mob arrived with torches and weapons to take Christ by force, Peter drew his sword and struck out to defend Jesus (Matt. 26:47-56).⁠

At first glance Peter’s action might seem justified. He acted to defend the innocent—not just any innocent person, but the Messiah Himself. What more righteous cause could there be?

But Jesus immediately rebuked him: “Put your sword in its place” (Matt. 26:52).

Jesus did not need the power of His disciples to defend Him. As He Himself stated, He could have summoned legions of angels (Matt. 26:53). His refusal to use force to escape the mob and eventually avoid the cross stemmed not from any lack of power, but from His commitment to save the world in accordance with God’s perfect law of unselfish love.

Those who truly follow the Lamb do have a sword to wield, but not one of violence or coercion. Those who follow the Lamb are girded with the sword of the Word of God. The armor of faith (see Eph. 6:13-17) is designed, not for domination or worldly warfare, but for the spiritual battle over truth (an epistemic conflict). It is to be used against the devil’s relentless war of deception and unrelenting assault on both truth and love (cf. Rev. 12:9).

“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus later told Pilate. “If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight” (John 18:36).

Here and elsewhere, the manner in which Christ establishes His kingdom on earth reveals the nature of the kingdom itself.

Dragons dominate through fear and force. The Lamb suffers faithfully, absorbing violence so that truth and love may ultimately prevail. Christ chooses faithful, unselfish love over force, even though force would appear to secure immediate results in this world, for Christ’s kingdom cannot be established or sustained by methods that contradict God’s love.

Power Redefined at the Cross

The Romans wielded crucifixion not merely as a method of torture, but as a warning to all who would challenge her power. The cross was the ultimate symbol of defeat, shame, and powerlessness. Against this background, a crucified Messiah appeared to be foolish and scandalous (1 Cor. 1:18-25). Yet the apparent weakness of Christ manifested at the cross was in fact a display of power far greater than that of Rome, a display of the infinite power of divine love.

The methods one employs are inseparable from the message one proclaims.

“The weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor. 1:25, NIV). Through the cross, God the Son does not merely endure suffering; He demonstrates God’s very character of love and justice (see Rom. 3:25, 26; 5:8).

While the devil continually grasps for power and position, Christ does the opposite. Though He was “equal with God,” He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6, 7). “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (verse 8).

The Lamb conquers by giving Himself to be slain. He defeats death through death (see Heb. 2:14). He overcomes the devil’s cult of power through violence and coercive force by the power of His unselfish, uncoercive love.

While we tend to think of power as the ability to control outcomes, to eliminate opposition and impose one’s will, Scripture paints a very different picture of divine power. Godly power remains faithful to truth, goodness, and love, and refuses to bend the knee to worldly pomp and power, even when doing so is extremely costly.

Scripture consistently teaches that God is all-powerful: He is the “Lord God Omnipotent” (Rev. 19:6) and nothing is too difficult for Him (Jer. 32:27). Thus God possesses the sheer power to compel obedience at any moment. Yet by His own free choice God refuses to govern the universe by using His power to coerce the will, choosing instead to consistently grant creatures the kind of freedom of the will that is necessary for a genuine love relationship.

At the cross and otherwise, Jesus thus stands as the ultimate revelation of God’s character. The Lamb’s refusal to coerce the will of His creatures is not a temporary strategy, but eternally expresses who God is: God is love (1 John 4:8, 16).

The Lamb’s Way and the Christian Life and Witness

This understanding of God’s power holds crucial implications for Christian life and witness.

Throughout history, especially in times of fear and polarization, Christians have been tempted to baptize the use of coercive power in the name of good outcomes. When anxiety rises, it becomes attractive to attempt to justify un-Christlike means for supposedly Christlike ends and to go along with those who wield coercive power in the name of Christ. But Scripture offers a stark warning: The way of the Lamb and the way of the dragon are fundamentally incompatible. You cannot follow the Lamb and at the same time behave like the dragon or condone those who do. Those who use the dragon’s way in Christ’s name are not following Christ. They act as wolves (or dragons) in sheep’s clothing.

When those who claim to be Christians abandon the Lamb’s way in favor of seeking domination, they might achieve short-term gains, but they do so at exceedingly great cost, because they compromise trust, distort their witness, and profoundly misrepresent the character of Christ.

The methods one employs are inseparable from the message one proclaims.

Jesus utterly rejects the world’s way of power. Eventually all must choose between the way of the Lamb and the way of the dragon, between which there is no middle ground.

Those who would truly follow Christ, and thus the way of the Lamb, cannot be in league with those who wield power to dominate others in Christ’s name and, by doing so, take the name of God in vain. Those who would follow Christ must beware of all who exalt power and sheer force, because following Christ entails rejecting any and all cults of power.

God will finally judge evil and set all things right. “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

This victory is assured not by worldly power, not by the way of the dragon, but by the Lamb’s way of unselfish, sacrificial love.

Since God rules only by patient, self-giving, faithful love, those who follow Him are called to live and bear witness the same way, eschewing the self-exalting way of the dragon that is so often deceptively cloaked in Christ’s name. Instead, they must humbly follow “the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:4).

[*] For much more on the way of the Lamb versus the way of the dragon in Revelation and the choice between them all will face before Christ’s second coming, see John C. Peckham, God With Us: An Introduction to Adventist Theology (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 2023), chap. 18.