And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 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, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12: 7-10, NKJV).
Heavenly Father, once again it is our privilege to seek Your face in order to receive the message You have for us in Your Word. As we study please make Your will plain. This we ask in the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
What a privilege was Paul’s to be able to experience the grace of God so full and free! In making him the apostle to the Jews, God knew what a struggle it would be for many of them to give up the idea of salvation by works and accept the concept of salvation by grace. Therefore, God gave the apostle, who himself had been a Pharisee of the strictest order, a complete paradigm shift on the topic of salvation! Some of the most powerful statements about the power of grace in the Holy Scriptures are made by Paul.
“(. . . For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ)” (Romans 5: 17).
Notice how the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness are linked together in this text. Grace has the power to produce right doing. It is the only power on earth that is capable of this, because it is of heavenly origin. Therefore Paul said: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2: 20).
It was this “power of Christ” that rested upon Paul during his infirmity. It is also this power that enables us to live for Christ. It empowers us to die to self that Christ may live in us. As we saw in one of our devotionals “faith is the hand that takes hold of grace” and our lives are never the same again!
When sin entered our world and the death sentence passed upon the human race, it was the grace of God that delivered us from complete extinction and opened the gates of eternal life. Thanks be to God for His life-giving grace!