by Mr. Titus Menezes
My grace is sufficient for you(2 Cor 12:9)
Are you full of grace? Hail Full of Grace, the Lord is with you!
Paul learnt that there were a few people in Corinth who claimed to be super-apostles. They were having beautiful visions and revelations from the Lord and they were pushing their messages across to the people: which was contrary to the gospel Paul preached, thereby leading to confusion. Even Paul’s apostleship was being questioned – they said in 2 Cor 10:10 "His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible (disgraceful)."
Paul was naturally concerned about this situation and wanted to rectify it. And he did so by giving an example of his own life. He spoke of or rather boasted of his sufferings, his weaknesses as an apostle in Ch 11:16ff and then went on to boast of his visions and revelations from the Lord not with a view to glorify himself, but the Lord.
While speaking of these visions and revelations from the Lord he mentioned of a thorn in the flesh which he pleaded, appealed with the Lord to take away but was given an answer which was not a ‘yes’ nor a ‘no’ and not ‘wait’. Instead it was: My grace is sufficient for you.
What is grace?
- goodwill, kindness, goodness, favour, joy, charity, generosity etc.
- unmerited favour from the Lord to His people in Christ. Yes, as sinners we deserve the wrath of God Eph 2:3 but the gracious and loving God He is, He is willing to pardon us and show us his grace and love.
God’s grace cannot just be seen in isolation but with its influence on man.
Strong’s Concordance comes closest to this definition where it says: Grace is the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life. Grace is a gift from God and this divine grace has to have an effect, an influence on our heart first (remember the good soil) and it must not end there. It has to be manifested in our life, it has to bear fruit – in our walk with the Lord, our attitude towards His calling, His plan etc.
We can reject or deflect God’s grace (the other three soils) by being adamant, arrogant and disobedient to his call.
Grace is
- an attribute of God, a characteristic of His being. We have it in Exodus 33:19 - And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, 'The Lord and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.(NRSV)
- is a gift from God Eph 2:8c and so its free
- not the results of works Eph 2:9 so no one can boast that he or she got grace because of his good works
Why is grace so important? Eph 2:8 has the answer – for by grace you have been saved through faith. Two parts:
- for by grace you have been saved
- through faith
Grace is not something that originated in the NT but it was at the fall of man to sin. God in His graciousness worked out a plan to save man from his sins and sinful nature. God was so gracious that He sent His only Son to die for us so that we may have eternal life John 3:16. and read John 6:43 - No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me. It is by the Father’s grace that one is drawn to Jesus. No one can come on his own.
How do I get hold of this grace? Through faith. Faith is the means by which we receive the grace of God.
Let me give an example. All of us here receive water in our homes or close to our homes. We receive this water through pipes – right? A pipe is the means through which the water flows to our taps from a larger storage. Now if I want a faster flow of the water I need to increase the diameter of the pipe. Instead of a half-inch pipe, I must go for a 1 or 1.5” stronger pipe. Same here: to increase the flow of grace into my life, I need to increase the diameter of my faith so that God’s grace can flow faster into my life. Faith is the pipe through which grace flows.
How do we get faith? Rom 10:17 says – ‘So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.’ In other words, faith comes from hearing the Word of God.
There are two parts to faith: God’s part and man’s part
God’s part – given to us in Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
God is assigning a measure of faith according to the purpose he has in that person. God is going to give that faith. This comes from the Word of God – the various messages, promises.
Man’s part – With the faith received from God’s word, man has to develop/ build this further. Recall the story of the blind man Bartimaeus shouting for help when Jesus was passing by - Mark 10:52. Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way clearly indicating that there is a part to be played by man too. Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus and when Jesus passed by he shouted for help to heal him. His faith earned him his healing.
A beautiful example of grace and faith is John 15:5 - I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. But look the Father is not satisfied with that much fruit.
John 15:1-2 – My Father is the vine grower and every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. The Father wants that branch to bear more fruit; The Father is not satisfied with much fruit and so He resorts to pruning i.e. cutting, trimming. God is God and He knows best why He does it.
Spiritual pruning may take the form of sickness, hardship, loss of material goods, slander and persecution, loss of loved ones, grief in relationships and in so many other ways. But we have to appreciate the fact that God cares about us and wants us to bear more fruit. When we grumble, murmur, grieve and isolate ourselves on account of suffering, we are not demonstrating our faith instead we are narrowing or blocking that pipe through which grace flows.
How then can we handle this pruning?
Two ways:
- asking the Lord to take away this burden, suffering. I am happy bearing much fruit. I do not want to bear more fruit.
- we accept the burden and now pray for strength to handle the burden. What happens? The pruned branches get stronger and are able to bear more fruit
Paul’s pruning takes the form of a ‘thorn in the flesh’. A thorn in the flesh is not to be taken literally but it was a very popular phrase in Jewish times. Like the commonly heard phrase ‘kabab mein haddi’. When we think of flesh, we are driven to the conclusion that it must be some physical suffering. This thorn in the flesh is an interesting one and to understand this we need to read this in Chapter 12.
2 Corinthians 12:2 - I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. How many years ago? – 14 years ago! After 14 years Paul is relating this incident and he is talking about his experience as if it had been told to him – I know of a person. V4 calls this Paradise. Paul is not sure whether it happened in the physical i.e. body or the supernatural i.e. vision.
Paul had an experience which he is not supposed to reveal. He does not talk of its content. But in v7 he says - Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. God allowed it. Recall the story of Job.
Why was this thorn given? To keep Paul from being elated – to keep Paul under check; that spiritual pride should not come into him as one who was better than the others. They never knew of a fantastic revelation that Paul had. Else they would not have been commenting on the thorn Ch 10:10 - "His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible." And that is why God is punishing him.
Paul found this thorn a hindrance to his ministry. It frustrated every attempt Paul made. It tormented him. Paul was under continuous attack.
Now we do not know what exactly this thorn in the flesh was but let us go through some problems Paul faced in his ministry: 2 Corinthians 11:24-28. Even the basic necessities of life were unavailable at times. But Paul’s thorn in the flesh was even greater than this. Paul the blue-eyed boy of the Lord, the top performer instead of having comfort and ease is being given a thorn in the flesh. Everything seems to be going wrong. Imagine in today’s corporate world, a top performer – he or she is given the best of facilities, comfort, increments, allowances etc. etc. But Paul has none of these. Instead he is given a thorn.
2 Corinthians 12:8 – Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me. Paul even followed what he had written to the Philippians 4:6 – Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Paul appealed to the Lord, here it says three times but that does not mean three times. In Hebrew it meant praying ceaselessly, continuously, over and over again. Paul wanted to escape from this thorn. Just like all of us, Paul wanted God to take away this suffering. God had a response for Paul but it was not what Paul would have hoped for or expected but he had a response – the second alternative.
Instead of removing the thorn in Paul’s flesh, God said I will give you grace to handle this problem. My grace is sufficient for you but God did not stop there – He added - for My power is made perfect in weakness. God would show His power, His perfect power through Paul’s weakness.
Today if you go to a personality development program, an oft repeated line is strengthen your strengths and weaken your weaknesses – be that self-made man, self-sufficient man. But God’s ways are strange – in our weakness, He is strong, we see His grace, His goodness.
God’s grace is not only sufficient but also efficient to meet any need of our lives and of this world.
I would like to consider two personalities, from the Bible, filled with grace:
The first one - Daniel from the OT and the second one: Mary from the NT. Every person has read or heard of these stories. Dan 10:11 is addressed as greatly beloved, same in 9:23 – for you are greatly beloved. He was greatly loved by the Lord.
To cut a long story short, King Nebuchednezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem and took its people captive. He ordered that men of nobility with wisdom and knowledge be placed at his palace. Daniel and his friends were successful. At the first opportunity, Daniel was able to interpret the king’s dream resulting in their promotion. The king then built a golden image and ordered everybody to bow down to it but Daniel and his friends refused to bow before the image. This enraged the king. He ordered that the furnace be made seven times hotter and Daniel’s friends be put into it. Their hands were bound and wearing their tunic they were carried to the furnace. Because the furnace was so heated up, the bible says the fire licked the men who were carrying the four and so Daniel’s friends fell into the furnace.
While in the furnace, Daniel’s friends were singing praises to God. God’s angel kept company with them driving the fire out of the furnace which burned a few more people but inside it, it was like a moist wind. The fire did not touch them nor caused them any distress nor any pain.
Lets read Daniel 3:27: And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them.
Daniel 6 : The king’s men wanted to do away with Daniel and came up with an ordinance that all should worship the king alone and anyone who disobeys will be put into the lion’s den. Daniel was not afraid of this ordinance, continued to pray to his God; as a result he was thrown into den with lions. As Daniel said from the den – My God sent his angel and shut the lion’s mouths so that they would not hurt me.
In the NT lets take the example of Mary. Mary had a visitation from the angel Gabriel and he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." Luke 1:28. Our definition of grace – unmerited favour. Mary had found favour with God and so we say Hail Mary – full of grace, Ave Maria – gratia plena, the Lord is with you. Mary you are going to be the mother of the Lord Luke 1:31ff but my child, my daughter you will have one more gift: a sword will pierce your own soul too (Luke 2:35). Something more hurtful and painful.
During moments of trial, praises were on their lips; they had put their faith in the Lord and grace was flowing. This enabled them to face their trials. Daniel 3 and Luke 1.
Coming back to the definition on grace - Grace is the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.
- Divine influence on the heart – the good soil, the fertile soil capable of seed germination.
- Reflection in the life – the fruit bearing. The fruit bearing tells us the condition of the soil and the health of the tree.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you are saved through faith. By grace you are lifted up through faith. This does not mean the trial will be taken away but through this trial you will receive grace which will have reverberations in every area of your life including the trial.
Faith comes from hearing the Word of God, faith enables grace to flow into our lives and to face trials. This is a cyclic activity continuously increasing. As faith increases, grace increases and if grace increases it is easier to conquer or face trials. This further helps to strengthen our faith and we reach a new level of faith.
God’s grace is sufficient and efficient to meet every need of ours. Do I need any more assurance or insurance cover? I would like to end with a simple line upon which you can reflect – even thorns have roses.