THE SUFFICIENCY OF GRACE! DOES IT MATTER?

The debate over Paul’s thorn in the flesh began right after Paul died and it continues today. Scholars, theologians and TV preachers have taken adamant stands on what the thorn could and could not have been. Some early “experts” were convinced that Paul was the victim of an overwhelming spirit of perverted lust, others that he had eye problems, headaches, stomach aches, epilepsy—and the list goes on and on.

The point is that we don’t know what the thorn was and, frankly, if God wanted us to know He would have told us. It’s a trick of the enemy to get people stuck on the identity of the thorn. What we do know for sure is that the Greek word for thorn, skolops, used in 2 Corinthians 12:7 is not used anywhere else in the Bible. The meaning of the word is more than a little sticker on the stem of a rosebush; in fact, it means a sharpened stake. When the attacks of Paul’s thorn came, apparently it felt similar to being impaled, resulting in intense pain.

Paul prayed on three different occasions for this “thorn in the flesh” to be removed but God said no! I’m glad that God said no and I’m glad we don’t know what the thorn was. Why? Because when God said no to Paul, He spoke and gave him one of the most powerful revelations of the New Testament. If God hadn’t said no, we would not have this revelation:
“But he [the Lord] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Was this revelation of the sufficiency of grace so important that Paul was left with a lingering painful problem?

Paul began this whole section of teaching on grace by referring to the great revelations that he had received years earlier in his life. His descriptions included recounting being “caught up to the third heaven” (12:2) where he saw and heard things that he had no words to describe, and others that he was not permitted to talk about.

A good thing to remember at this point is that God will not talk to (give revelations to) the proud and arrogant. “Though the LORD is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud” (Psalm 138:6 NLT).

Sometimes God will give a wonderful revelation of truth to a humble person and as he/she begins to share that revelation, an insidious thought begins to edge its way into the mind: “You received that revelation because you are a very special person; you are not like the rest—you are smarter, more perceptive.” The father of lies begins his tale of deception, and pride takes root in the heart and mind of the previously humble person. At that point God withdraws and no further revelations come until the pride is dealt with. The apostle Paul understood this principle.

So that Paul would not fall prey to that deception, God allowed a “thorn” to come into his life to constantly remind him of how human and weak he really was. Out of the buffeting and pain of what Paul also describes as a “messenger of Satan” came a revelation for all time. The Lord spoke to Paul as he begged for an end to the pain: “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness” (12:9 NLT). The Lord links grace and power; He says that grace is power and that power flows out of weakness. The honestly humble follower of Christ knows that when life overwhelms him and there is nothing left that he can do…it is not over! It is out of the weakness and emptiness of being at the end of yourself that the power of God begins to flow. We call it a miracle or we testify to a mighty deliverance and we thank and praise Him for it. All of those things are manifestations of the sufficiency of His grace that meets us at the point of our weakness.

“When I am weak then I am strong” (12:10). Paul was a student of the Old Testament; he fully understood the revelation that God gave him about grace, weakness and strength because he knew what Proverbs taught. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding…and He shall…” (Proverbs 3:5-6). Paul learned not to lean on his own abilities, as vast as they were, but on the sufficiency of God’s grace. Paul learned that, as humiliating as it was to preach that Christ heals the sick and yet be sick himself, the greatest manifestations of grace came when he was at the end of himself.

Acknowledged weakness is the trigger to releasing the flow of God’s grace/power in our lives. This is precisely the point of the apostle John’s statement, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins…” (1 John 1:9 NIV). The forgiveness and cleansing come when we acknowledge our weakness.

I am really trying to learn to lean better, how about you? I want His grace, His power flowing more distinctly in my life.

“The weaker we feel, the harder we lean—the harder we lean, the stronger we grow.” (J. I. Packer)