The New Life – 20. Power and Weakness
“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities… For when I am weak, then I am strong.” — 2 Cor. 12:9–10
There is almost no word so imperfectly understood in the Christian life as the word weakness. Sin and failure, sluggishness and disobedience, are often set to the account of our weakness. With this appeal to weakness, the true sense of guilt and the sincere effort toward progress become impossible. How can I be guilty, when I fail to do what is not in my power to do?
The Father cannot demand of His child what he can certainly do independently. That, indeed, was done by the law under the Old Covenant; but under the New Covenant the Father does not do this. He requires of us nothing more than what He has already prepared for us to do in His Holy Spirit. The new life is a life in the power of Christ through the Spirit.
The error of this way of thinking is that people estimate their weakness, not too highly, but too lightly. They still imagine they can do something by the exercise of their own powers, with God’s help. They do not realize that they must be nothing before God.
(Rom. 4:4–5; 11:6; 1 Cor. 1:27–28)
True Weakness and Utter Inability
You may think you still have a little strength, and that the Father must help you by adding His power to your feeble energy. This thought is wrong. Your weakness is shown in the fact that you can do nothing. It is better to speak of utter inability—that is what the Scriptures understand by the word “weakness.”
“Without Me you can do nothing.”“…For we have no power…”
(John 15:5; 2 Chron. 20:12; 2 Cor. 1:9)
Whenever the young Christian acknowledges and accepts this weakness, he begins to understand the secret of the power of Jesus. He sees that he is not to wait and pray to become stronger, to feel stronger. No: in his inability, he is to have the power of Jesus. By faith he is to receive it, to reckon it as his own, and to trust that Jesus Himself will work in and through him.
(John 15:5; 1 Cor. 1:24; 15:10; Eph. 1:18–19; Col. 1:11)
Strength in Weakness
It then becomes clear what the Lord means when He says, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” The believer learns to answer, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” Yes, the weaker I am, the stronger I become. And he learns to sing with Paul:
“Most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities.”“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities.”“…For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.”
(2 Cor. 11:30; 12:9,11; 13:4,9)
It is wonderful how glorious the life of faith becomes for the one who is content to have nothing, to feel nothing in himself, and always to live by the power of his Lord. He learns the joy of knowing God as his strength:
“The Lord is my strength and song.” (Ps. 89:18; 118:14; Jer. 12:2)
He lives in what the Psalms so often express:
“I will love You, O Lord, my strength.”“The Lord is my strength and my shield… The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of His anointed.”“But You are my strength; I will sing praises to You.”
(Ps. 18:1–2; 28:7–8; 31:5; 43:2; 46:1–2; 59:17; 62:7–8; 81:1–2)
He understands what is meant when a psalm says, “Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength… The Lord will give strength to His people.” And when another says, “O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people.”
(Ps. 29:1,11; 68:35)
When we ascribe all power to God, He gives it back to us again.
“I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.”
(Ps. 71:16; 1 John 2:14)
The Christian is strong in his Lord—not sometimes strong and sometimes weak, but always weak, and therefore always strong. He has only to know and use his strength trustfully. To be strong is a command that must be obeyed. On obedience comes more strength:
“Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart.”“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.”“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”
(Ps. 27:14; 31:24; Isa. 40:31; Eph. 6:10)
Prayer
Dear God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of glory, grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that we may know the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. Amen.
Practical Lessons
- As long as the Christian thinks of serving God or of sanctification as something hard and difficult, he will make no progress. He must see that this very thing is impossible for him. Then he will cease striving to do something and will surrender himself so that Christ may work all in him.
- The complaint about weakness is often nothing more than an excuse for idleness. There is power to be obtained in Christ for those who will take the pains to seek it.
- “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Remember this: I must abide in the Lord and in the power of His might, then I become strong. To have His power I must have Himself. The strength is His, and remains His; the weakness remains mine. He, the Strong, works in me, the weak; I, the weak, abide by faith in Him, the Strong—so that in the same moment I know myself to be both weak and strong.
- Strength is for work. He who would be strong simply to be pious will not be so. He who in his weakness begins to work for the Lord shall become strong.