Hello, saints! Consider 2 Cor. 12:7-10
12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Most of us MAD BAD saints know this story well. Paul had a messenger of Satan buffeting him. He begged the Lord three times to have it removed. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” And thus,nPaul went through the same learning curve we all go through. We want the Lord to remove our problems, but the Lord wants us to appropriate the empowering grace He’s already given us.
Okay, fine. But what is the Lord’s strength made perfect in our weakness?
Let’s exegete these passages and start with another question: What did the Lord mean when He said, “My grace”?
This is important because this is the source of your power.
So what is My grace specifically?
I’d suggest it’s every blessing that comes with God’s gift of grace. Consider Eph 3:7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Paul was not made a minister because he was special. How was he made a minister? By receiving the gift of the grace of God, the same gift of the grace of God we all received!
And how was that gift given to him? “By the effectual working of his power.” He was transformed into a new creature through the power of God when he got saved and received God’s gift of grace. That gift transformed him. That gift empowered him. That gift was how Paul became the great apostle we know him to be, how he was able to excel at serving the Lord, and how he had the sufficiency and the inner strength to persevere with joy.
God didn’t give Paul special abilities. Paul was equipped to excel because he was given that same gift of grace we’re all given. So at the heart of Eph. 3:7 is Paul reckoning as true the spiritual transformation God already accomplished in him through His gift of grace. Paul excelled in all that he did simply because he made the most use out of everything God already made him in Christ through that powerful gift of grace.
Thus, My grace, encompasses every blessing of everything that came with that gift of grace, which, first of all, has to be everything God accomplished for you at Calvary – the all-sufficiency of His payment for all your sins. You have every sin forgiven (Col. 2:13). You have eternal life that can never be lost (Eph. 1:13). You are forever accepted in the beloved (Eph. 1:6), victorious over sin and death (1 Cor. 15:55-58), and you have every reason to abound in hope and joy anticipating all the glory to come.
Plus, My grace includes everything God made you in His Son. You’re dead, buried, and risen with Christ (Rom. 6:3-4). You’re a new creature, behold all things new (2 Cor. 5:17). The old man is D.E.A.D. dead (Rom. 6:6)! Your sins are forever buried, and you are now risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead (Col. 2:12).
You’re identified with Christ in His victory for you at Calvary!
This is also about your freedom from the law (Rom. 6:14-15), your blessed hope (Tit. 2:13), you already seated in heavenly places in Christ (Eph.2:6), you having the completed Word to feed your souls, and you have direct access to the Father when you pray.
So I’d suggest to you that My grace is every blessing that comes with the gift of the grace of God. My grace is every doctrine that is distinctly Pauline for you today. Plus, I think My grace is also the richness of this grace life you already have in Christ, the joy that comes from exhibiting His attributes in your life, the satisfaction of living a life of grace and love. This is why we often say on the podcast, that His grace life is the greatest life you can live today. There is no greater life to be found on planet earth today.
Then the Lord says, My grace is sufficient for thee. What does he mean by sufficient? We know that Webster says, “sufficient is to be equipped to the end.” Adequate to satisfy all needs. In other words, you possess all the adequate provisions necessary to persevere. You are equipped.
John MacArthur, the Calvinist, would say of this verse, “The present tense of the verb translated ‘is sufficient’ reveals the constant availability of divine grace.”
Absolutely not.
This is not about your dependency upon God to give you more grace. This is about the sufficiency of the grace He’s already given you. The all-atoning work of Christ at Calvary for your sins, everything God made you in Christ, every spiritual blessing you already have – ALL OF THAT - is sufficient to empower you through all suffering!
Appropriate the Power You Already Have
In 2 Cor. 12:9 the Lord says to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Notice the two times the Lord says “My.” He talks about “My grace” and “my strength.” The two are intimately tied together. You cannot have one without the other. His strength is found in His grace and His grace becomes your strength.
Again, my question is how do you define my strength? What is it? How does it work? How is it perfect in my weakness?
I can’t help but think of Eph 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. His strength is internal. His strength is spiritual. When Paul says to be strengthened he means he wants you to be made stronger spiritually from within.
We think of strength as big muscles, lots of power, being able to lift heavy things. God’s strength in you is not physical. It’s spiritual. It’s the power of truth, the power of hope, the power of love, the power of His grace working through you. It is manifesting God’s very attributes in your walk. All of that is strength that can carry you through the hard times.
Take for example, the concept of comfort. Paul mentions comfort in Col. 2:2. His prayer for people who haven’t met him yet is that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ... If you never met Paul, then he wants your heart to be comforted by the sound doctrines of grace. A comforted heart is certainly a heart that has been relieved from pain, it’s encouraged, it’s been given some hope. But Webster makes the point that comfort is more than just relief from pain.
Comfort is a strengthening of the heart.
A heart that feels endless anxiety, crippling depression, hopeless anguish – that heart gets weakened by all of that emotional strain. But a heart that’s comforted by hope, comforted by God’s love, and grace, and peace, that heart becomes strengthened. Comfort of the heart is power inside of you.
So when you endure hard times and you study the Word, you are comforted by hope and that comfort is a strengthening of your heart. You can now persevere because you have a strengthened heart that has been comforted by the power of truth and the power of hope inside of you. The heart that rests upon the truths of God is not weakened by pain. That heart is made strong because it’s invigorated by hope, and that hope is Christ in you.
Here’s another example. Peace. In Phil. 4:7, Paul tells us that the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
How do you get this peace?
I’d say you do everything Paul says to do in the previous verses. I think the context goes back to at least vs. 4 when he says, Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Rejoicing isn’t just something you feel. It’s something you DO. Because you feel all this exhilarating gladness to a high degree, you celebrate! You rejoice! You vocalize your joy and praise to God!
Then in vs. 5, he says Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. We’re to practice moderation. We should be free from the tempers and passions of the flesh – gentle, meek, patient. Why? Because the Lord is at hand! The Rapture also functions as motivation to serve God.
In Php. 4:6, he says, Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Be careful for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. Do not worry. There’s another call to prayer.
Thus, if you do all these things, if you rejoice, if you practice moderation, if you’re not worrying about stuff, if you’re in prayer and expressing thanksgiving to God, if you do all these things the peace of God… shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Do you know what peace is? Peace is freedom. Freedom from what? Anxiety.
When Paul says the peace OF God, he means that God’s peace has become your peace. That peace God feels is coming alive in you. You’re feeling some of that peace God feels. Notice Paul says the peace of God… shall KEEP your hearts and minds. His peace is designed to protect your hearts and minds. Peace protects you. God’s peace protects your hearts and minds. God’s peace guards your heart and your mind. Webster says peace is freedom, but God’s peace is also the great protector of your heart and mind.
Do you see what’s going on? When God’s own attributes come alive in you, that is supreme inner strength designed to empower you to persevere and do it with joy.
Here’s another example of inner power - charity.
In 1 Cor. 13, Paul lists the attributes of charity. From vs. 4-8, you have roughly 15-16 attributes of agape. Consider vs. 7. Charity Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Okay, here’s a question: what’s the difference between Beareth all things and endureth all things?
Let’s start with beareth all things. Charity, or agape, is the strength that can bear the weight of all burdens. Love is its own form of supreme inner power. Love with real depth to it, true charity, that agape charity springs from the life of Christ inside of you. That love comes alive, that love takes form and becomes perfected when you study His Word. When you study, your inner man is strengthened, and His own attributes come alive in you. Those attributes are your inner strength. And charity is one of the most powerful inner strengths you can have, because charity can bear the weight, the burden, of ALL THINGS.
Then Paul says in that verse that charity also endureth all things. The love of God that’s alive in you has the power to endure ALL things. Not some things. ALL THINGS. Charity is power. Love is power. Love has the strength to bear the weight of all things. But here, love endureth all things. Love maintains consistency through all suffering. Love never loses its power. Love never stops loving no matter how bad the circumstances get. Even though love has all strength to bear all things, even though love can suffer long, love keeps on loving at the same level all the way to the end of your life. The power of love can carry you through the storms of life, because love itself can suffer long, love itself can bear everything, and love maintains consistency in its power through everything.
Consider also the power hope. The hope you feel isn’t weak because you have to worry about losing your salvation. The hope you feel is perfect. You can’t make the hope you have any better. Your hope is guaranteed. It’s pure. It’s undiluted. And all the comfort and joy and peace that springs from His hope becomes your inner strength. You have the excellency of the power of hope inside of you, because you cannot have a greater hope than the one God has already given you.
This is why Paul would write in 2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We do not simply possess the power of truth inside of us. We possess the excellency of the power of truth inside of us. You can’t know more powerful truths than what God tells you in His Word. There is power in those truths, because believing those truths brings you inner strength in a transformed life.
God’s attributes is the greatest form of inner strength you can possess. You can’t make God’s hope any greater than it is. You can’t make His love any greater than it is. You can’t find greater protection of your heart and mind than the perfect peace of God Himself comes alive when you study. And I have to say, how much more glorious and intimate can our relationship to God be than to feel everything He feels?