How is God's strength made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)?

But again, when once more Paul found himself in the circumstances of earth trial came upon him. The flesh in him had not been eradicated by his sojourn in the third heaven. Its tendencies to pride and self-exaltation were still the same, so the "thorn in the flesh" was given to him. We understand that the word "thorn" is hardly strong enough, though we remember seeing in South Africa mimosa thorns five or six inches long and as hard as the hardest wood. The Greek word indicates a sharp stake. It was God's preventive discipline, and the exact form of it we do not know, and do not need to know. It was a "messenger of Satan," and yet it came permissively from the hand of God, on the top of all the trials that came upon him from the persecuting world and the defects and failures of the saints.

Though thrice he prayed for its removal it still remained, but it became the occasion for a fresh assurance of an abundant supply of inward grace in those immortal words, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." It is not only grace, but MY grace, not only strength, but MY strength. The immensity of the grace and. the strength can only be measured by the divine and eternal fulness of the One whose grace and strength it is. In the presence of this greatness how small was Paul, who was indicated by the "thee," — and we are even smaller than Paul. There is an infinitude of grace and strength with our Lord. It carried Paul to the finish, and enabled him to triumph with martyrdom just before him, as we see in 1 Timothy 4:6-8.

Reckon yourselves to be dead, because Christ has died. When you go down to this world, the only possible dealing with the flesh is making nothing of you. This is not power, but it is the way God deals with us to give power, whether to an apostle or to the giver of a cup of cold water. If you are in Christ, one wants nothing but Christ from you. The thorn is not power in itself, but preparation for power. Suppose Paul despicable in his ministry: well, there never was such a work done before. Then there must be something besides Paul here; Christ must be here. Ah! says Paul, "I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." His strength is made perfect in weakness. He cannot make it perfect in our strength! I am as weak as water — a poor weak thing: God has chosen that no flesh may glory in His presence. Where a person is nothing, "my grace is sufficient." Where is His strength made perfect? In a person who has no strength at all: then it must be Christ. When I am made nothing of, "I glory in my infirmities." There is what the Christian is.

Very naturally Paul betook himself to prayer. It was intense prayer: he not only requested but besought. It was repeated, for he besought the Lord thrice. Yet for all that his desire was not granted. Instead of having the thorn removed he received the assurance of abundant grace; such grace that the thorn would become an asset rather than a liability, a means of blessing rather than a hindrance. The Lord answered his prayer, but not according to his thought. He gave him rather that which was better. The grace bestowed more than counterbalanced the thorn.

We must lay great stress in our minds upon the little word, "MY." The thorn was a messenger of Satan, but the grace was Christ's. The Lord's reply to Paul was, "My grace is sufficient for thee." The Lord and His grace are infinite, sufficient for ten thousand times ten thousand of His saints — surely then sufficient for Paul, or for any one of us, no matter what we may have to face. But He added, "My strength is made perfect in weakness." If the thorn served to augment and emphasize Paul's weakness it thereby opened the way for a fuller and more perfect display of the grace of the Lord.

The first sentence of this verse is sometimes overlooked - "He said unto me." Paul got it from Christ. You may tell me that Christ is sufficient, but I must get it myself personally from Christ in heaven, and that will assure my heart. If we want to be delivered from ourselves, or from whatever difficulties may be in our pathway, He is sufficient. The result is, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities." He besought the Lord thrice to take away the thorn before, but now a communication from Christ has altered everything; the voice of Christ alters everything. There is no third party here; it is not He and us, but He and me. I do not mean anything imaginative, only the simplicity of intercourse with Christ about everything in our pathway. "That the power of Christ may overshadow me, tabernacle over me." For the saint of God who walks in conscious weakness and powerlessness there is an invisible power overshadowing him all the pathway through. I believe we often want to get up power like getting up steam. It must be perpetual weakness, but perpetual power. Christ says I can do anything I like there; that is the state He wants in us. E. P. C.

(V. 7.) However exalted the experiences that the Apostle had enjoyed, the flesh was still in him while yet in this body. And the flesh, though showing itself in different forms, is, as to its nature, no different in an apostle than in any other man. We have to learn that in the flesh there is no good thing; that it never alters, and that in ourselves we have no strength against it. After such an experience the flesh, even in an apostle, might work, leading to self-exaltation by suggesting that no other apostle had been caught up to the third heavens. That he might be kept conscious of his own weakness, a thorn was sent to remind him that while still in the body he was entirely dependent upon the power of the Lord to keep him from the working of the flesh. The Apostle does not directly say what this thorn was. Apparently it was some bodily weakness that would tend to make the Apostle contemptible, or little, in the eyes of men, and thus act as a counterpoise to these miraculous visions and revelations which might have exalted him before men. Let it be noticed, however, that the thorn was allowed, not to correct any wrong in the Apostle, but rather, on the one hand, as a preventive against fleshly boasting, and on the other hand, to give him a deeper sense of his dependence upon the Lord.

(Vv. 8-10.) Judging that his thorn was a hindrance to his services, the Apostle beseeches the Lord three times that it might be taken from him. The Lord answers his prayer, though he does not grant his request. He is told two great truths that we all need to remember: First, that the Lord's grace is sufficient to sustain in every trial; and secondly, that our weakness only becomes the occasion for manifesting His power.

Seeing then that this infirmity keeps the flesh from boasting, and becomes the occasion for the display of the grace and power of Christ, the Apostle henceforth glories in the very weakness that he had desired to be removed. Thus he can take pleasure in the very things that are so abhorrent to us as natural men weaknesses, insults, necessities, persecutions and distresses — for all these things were for Christ's sake, and, while manifesting the weakness of the body, they also made manifest the power of Christ, so that the Apostle can say, "When I am weak, then I am strong."

361 But we have not got quite to the end of the thorn in the flesh. It is called the "messenger of Satan," because it was an instrument of Satan; just as in Job's case, when Satan brought sickness and disease on Job, the Lord let Satan loose at him; so it was Satan's messenger here to buffet Paul. It is an additional proof, that no grace ever mends the flesh. Put the flesh down; everything is useful for that. It was putting down the flesh, making Paul contemptible; it was a sort of counterpoise to the abundance of revelation. He besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from him; but the flesh must be put down. "You must trust My grace, and the character of My grace is that My strength is made perfect in weakness. If it is My strength, it is not in man's power that it is made good." Of course it was all through death: Christ was crucified through weakness, and that He might destroy him that had the power of death; and the character of Christ's strength working in us is the putting down of all our strength, and then His power can work - "Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in infirmity, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." We have the man in Christ first, then we have from the "in Christ" abundance of revelation, which might puff up the flesh, and then flesh is made totally nothing of, a hindrance put upon it, and Christ's power brought out. Only in the case of Paul, all this was for Christ's sake, though it was a thorn in the flesh, so that it was his glory in the other aspect of it, and he was suffering for Christ. All this is very instructive as to any ministry, because the power of ministry is in putting the man down that Christ's power may be there. God's power is a very different thing from man's. Man may take a vessel and do what he likes, but he cannot fit the vessel with any conscious power in itself. God cannot use the vessel until its qualities be mere qualities, and this connection with man's will and energy be broken.

Whatever the thorn was and however Satan buffeted him in it, it cast him on the Lord and made him pray. Peter did not pray for himself, but Paul did—he prayed in an agony: he besought the Lord, not once but thrice, that He would set Him free from this terrible burden, this incubus, that threatened to crush both spirit and life out of him. And what was the result of his praying? He was heard but his request was not granted. What did he say about it? Hear him, “And He said unto me”—weigh every word—his Lord drew near to him and spoke to him and soothed and quieted his spirit by intimate, peace-giving words; and what were they? “My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Could anything be more affecting than that? Then and there Paul learnt what he had never before learnt in all the revelations he had received, no, not even those he had heard when called up to the third heaven. He learnt the Lord’s solicitude for him, the tenderness of His heart, His deep and never-ceasing care for His suffering servant; he discovered that the grace of the Lord was as boundless as His glory and as inexhaustible as His wealth of power. “My grace … for thee.” There was henceforward to be as Paul had never known it in all his Christian experience a continual flow of active love from the heart of his Lord into his very being, and he was to be upheld in this greatest of all trials, not by his indomitable spirit, but by the arm of the Lord. The thing that Satan intended should drive him to desperation and totally unfit him for the service of the Lord was turned into his greatest blessing, and instead of being defeated he triumphed in the grace and strength of the Lord when he cried, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

The tendency to personal pride, even in this devoted servant of the Lord, required what he calls "a thorn in the flesh" in order that he might be preserved from self­exaltation. Even the marvellous experience of being called up to heaven did not eradicate from him the flesh with its insidious evils. His "thorn" was no doubt some physical affliction. It has been remarked that the flesh in Paul might be tempted to boast that he was the only man who had ever been so caught up to heaven, yet in this case the flesh would be boasting in something it had nothing to do with; for Paul was not even conscious of his body being there. And God allowed Satan to inflict Paul with this thorn, no doubt with malicious spite on Satan on Satan's part, but with pure wisdom and love on Gods part.

Neither Paul nor his associates used the gift of healing in this matter; but three times Paul prayed beseechingly that God would remove the affliction from him. God answered, not as Paul had asked, but exceedingly abundantly above his request: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." To have the difficulty removed would have been easier for Paul, but to have grace from God to bear it would bring more glory to God, and deeper blessing also to Paul. God's effective work is done, not by the robust health and energy of man, but by power that uses even the weakest of vessels.

Paul therefore responds, "most gladly" in willingness to rejoice even in his infirmities, for it means that the power of Christ would rest upon him. Simply believing God in this matter, he actually took pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses which came to him for Christ's sake. For in this very weakness he was strong, not with the strength of the flesh, but of spiritual reality.

Bear in mind, however, that we must not expect consciousness of power. It is on this point that so many stumble. They want to feel the power, and failing to do so, they conclude that they are in the wrong condition of soul for its exercise. No mistake could be greater. On the other hand, the Lord, as in the case of Paul, as given in 2 Corinthians 12, has to break down His servants, send them thorns in the flesh, bring death in upon them in every shape and form (see, 2 Cor. 4), in order to reduce them to the sense of their own utter impotence, that they may learn the lesson that His strength is made perfect in weakness. Hence, it is that when we are weak we are strong, because realized weakness leads to and is the condition of dependence, and it is only as we are dependent that we are strong with the strength of Him on whom we rest.

Nor shall we (and we desire to press this point,) be always conscious of the power even though we are dependent. Thus Paul writes to the Corinthians, "And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling" (1 Cor. 2:3). Yet it is evident from the epistle, as well as from the historical account of his sojourn in Corinth (Acts 18), that he was at this time, in a very special manner, the channel of extraordinary power in his ministry of the Word. So now it will often be the same with the Lord's servants. How often have they been permitted to know, after some season of felt weakness and incompetency in preaching the Word, that this was the very time when the Lord used them most largely in the blessing of souls! The same principle applies to every department of the Christian life, illustrations of which might easily be collected all down the line of Scripture-history. Take Gideon. "Oh, my Lord," he says, "wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Was this a disqualification for the mission to which he was called? Mark the Lord's response: "Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man" (Judges 6:15-16). Gideon was in truth nothing, but the Lord was everything, and He can work where this nothingness is felt. In like manner, if the Lord is to show forth His power in and through us, there must be the refusal of every form of self-dependence, — of every thing even which naturally would help us in our work or conflict, that our dependence may be wholly and solely upon the divine power of the Holy Spirit.

What was this thorn in the flesh? Numerous answers have been given to this question. It is evident that it was not something sinful as some suggested, but it must have been some affliction in his body, which made him contemptible in the eyes of others and in his preaching. The exact nature of this affliction in the flesh cannot be determined. And he had gone to the Lord with this thorn in his flesh. "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." And the answer came to him. The thorn was not taken away but something better he hears from his Lord. "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." The assurance of the sufficiency of divine grace was to comfort his heart in the affliction, and that the power of God needed his weakness for its display, was to encourage him as the servant of the Lord. He at once understood the divine message. It enabled him not only to bear with infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake, but to take pleasure in them, for he knew all these things were the things which enable God to manifest His power. He therefore gloried most gladly in infirmities.