What does it mean that God's grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9)?

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.

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.

(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."

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.

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.

All the glory he was in belonged to another and not to himself at all; but the I of Paul's old nature could turn even that into corruption. Paul prays three times, and gets no answer till the third time, and then it is a point-blank refusal. Have you ever considered what this must have been to Paul? Like a child lifting up the foot to step a little higher, saying, "Now I know I shall get it." So he did, but what was it? "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Christ not speaking of Paul's ability to meet the trial, but of His own heart with him in it, to brighten everything, saying, "You want the removal of the thorn, but I shall leave it, because it will be something to make you lean on my arm. Do not you know that I went to the cross and went into the glory, for you? and I am coming again to take you there; but whilst you are down in the wilderness, I must be continually giving you something to guide and help you; my grace, my strength, are for you. I want you to see what a living grace mine is which you have to rest your heart upon. I shall leave the thorn just to make you feel what you have got in. me, you will learn it as did poor Jacob every time the shrunken sinew told him that he was lame."

If Satan fails to beguile us, he will buffet us. There was one man that he could not beguile from Christ, and that was Paul, and so Paul became the object of his intense hatred and buffeting and it looked as though he was all but overwhelmed. This messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh, was the devil's supreme effort to crush him. It must have been something very terrible, for he does not seem to have asked to have been spared any other suffering, but this was something so special, an infirmity so dreadful, that human strength and fortitude failed under it and be pleaded with the Lord three times that it might be taken away from him, such was his agony. And it was not done for him, as we have often heard. But he got an answer, and what an answer! He found that there was something greater than Satan's buffeting, and the Lord spoke to him personally in giving the answer, "MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR THEE, MY STRENGTH IS PERFECTED IN THY WEAKNESS." Do you see what we have here? The Lord is at one end of the sentence and Paul is at the other, and His grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, lies between. There is the ocean at one end, and there is the thimble at the other end, and the truth is that the ocean is enough for the thimble. Paul asked no more. The Lord was enough. Satan might continue to do his worst, his attack was in vain, it only gave Paul a fresh opportunity of showing how wonderful his Lord was and how sufficient was His grace. And here we are, today, so many little thimbles who may be buffeted by the devil, some of us perhaps sorely buffeted, and we have wondered why, and whether the Lord knows the trials through which we pass. It may be because you have been true to the Saviour and have made a stand for Him and for His interests, things have gone against you. You have been and are being buffeted. If it is indeed for Christ's sake you are honoured indeed, "for if ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you" (1 Peter 4:14) and the Lord has said, "My grace is sufficient for thee." The ocean is enough for the thimble. Satan is a defeated foe, and will shortly be trodden beneath our feet, for the God of peace will do this, as His word declares; but he is not trodden beneath our feet now, and we need to know his wiles, and to be watchful. But, blessed be the name of God, though he may be more than a match for us, and will be if we get away from our Lord, he is no match for our Lord, and he can never get ahead of our Lord, our Lord was always ahead of the devil. Never once did the devil steal a march upon the Lord. You remember how He said to Simon, "Satan has desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee." The blessed Lord had looked ahead and prepared beforehand for Satan's attack upon Simon so that it turned out for Simon's good and Satan's defeat.

This "praying always" supposes the person not to be fainting, but to be using the "ARMOUR" in connection with it; "having the loins girt about with truth;" for instance, the soul not resting vaguely on God, but whilst casting itself on Him, reckoning on an answer according to the mind of God as revealed in His word. The saint may not always get a direct answer to his petition. Paul, we know, prayed that the "thorn in the flesh" might depart from him. What was the Lord's answer? Was it removed? No! "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness;" that is to say, "It is better for thee to know the sufficiency of my grace, than to have the thorn taken away." He got the victory over it, but he did not lose it. He was able to say, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." It was not sin in which he gloried. People often call their sins, the spirit of unbelief, and the like, infirmities. The things wherein he gloried were - affliction, persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake, etc.; for through them he learnt the sufficiency of the Lord's grace.

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.

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.