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Transcript 323C
"My grace is sufficient for thee" [2 Cor 12:9]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: This is concerning a passage I read in the Bible, and it's concerning Paul the apostle, and it says, "My grace is sufficient for thee." This is what God had said to Paul. And what I wanted to know was, could you expound on that? I've read it before, but . . .
HC: Yes. That's found in II Corinthians 12, isn't it? I'll be glad to look at that.
What does God mean in II Corinthians 12:9, when God tells Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Now the context is this: Paul is troubled by a thorn in the flesh, "a messenger of Satan, to buffet him." And in all probability, this thorn in the flesh was the fact that the Judaizers, the teachers who belonged to the church that Paul used to belong to before he was saved, followed him everywhere, and harassed him, got the crowds against him, and were always giving him very serious problems. I mean really serious. They caused him to be beaten. They caused him to be stoned. And he speaks of this as a thorn in the flesh.
Now I'm speculating that this is what it was, but I have Biblical evidence that makes me feel that this is what it must have been. Now he besought the Lord three different times, if this could be removed. Obviously, it would be much easier to bring the Gospel if there wasn't this constant harassment, this constant needling of him, and the threat of being stoned, and the problem of having the crowds turned against him. And so it was a legitimate request.
Incidentally, in the Bible, when you see this three times that really is effectively saying that God has spoken, "No, Paul. You besought Me again and again and again, but this is the context, this is the matrix, this is the environment in which you are to bring the Gospel." Then He said, "My grace is sufficient for thee."
In other words, "You don't need this extra care that you think you would like to have. You don't need to have a bed of roses without any thorns to lie on as you bring the Gospel. You don't have to do it the easy way, because I saved you by My grace, and you are a child of God. By my grace you have been taken out of Satan's kingdom, and you are of royal blood. You are My ambassador. And My grace is sufficient for you. It is sufficient to sustain you and strengthen you, as you bring the Gospel in the face of this kind of adversity You don't have to have an easy go of it."
The fact is, if we study the rest of the Bible, we find that the role of the believer always is to be in tribulation: "In the world you will have tribulation." Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets were stoned, and maligned, and slandered, and put to death. This is par for the course.
CALLER: Say, for instance, that some is going through a trial, and he's facing hardship. Then that word comes to them in the Bible. This means to sustain and to strengthen, right? That's what grace means?
HC: Yes. In other words, whatever place we find ourselves in the world. Now there are those who become saved, and they're in prison. There are those who are saved who are crippled for life, and they're in a bed that they'll never get out of again. There are people who are saved who are dying of multiple sclerosis. There are people who are saved, and they're in a concentration camp. God's grace is sufficient for any situation that might prevail in the world. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
You see, it would be one kind of a gospel if the only way the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would be victorious is if all was well, if everything was perfectly set up so that those involved had perfect health, they had a perfect environment in which to live. Why yes, that certainly would be a very nice gospel. But what does it really prove?
The fact is, you will find the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it is shown in the lives of born again believers, in every kind of a situation you want to name. The victory of the cross is sufficient for someone who is wasting away in a concentration camp, or who is wasting away of illness, or who is in a prison for life, or who is a king on a throne, or who is a business man, or a housewife, or a mother, or someone who has just experienced real tragedy in losing loved ones. The victory of the cross is sufficient in every kind of an environment and situation. And in fact, it shows its strength in the weakness in which we find ourselves, in the difficult situation in which we find ourselves.
That's really the sense of this passage. Now incidentally, this passage in II Corinthians 12 cannot be talking about physical illness. It speaks of a "messenger of Satan, to buffet him." Now in Exodus 4 God told Moses in verse 11, "Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Have not I, the Lord?" I do believe that Paul had bad eyesight. There are several indicators of this in the New Testament. But God would have given him that bad eyesight. It would not have been a messenger of Satan.
On the other hand, these Judaizers were emissaries of Satan. They were trying to silence the Gospel, as Satan tries to do throughout time.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Camping.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.