The Strength of Christ Illustrated in the Weakness of His People
Thomas Boston, 1676–1732
Two Sermons Preached on July 31, and August 1, 1731.
2 Corinthians 12:9. "For my strength is made perfect in weakness."IN the Lord's leading his people through the wilderness of this world, there are many mysteries of providence which are too high for them to comprehend; so that, after the narrowest scrutiny into them, they must conclude as Psalm 77:19. "Your way is in the sea, and your path in the great waters, and your footsteps are not known." But the light of glory hereafter will satisfy their sense as to all the particular steps therein; and until that time come, there is a light of the word that may satisfy faith as the general design of them; and the text has a beam of such light in it. In the words,
First, Observe the connection pointing to the mystery this beam of light was sent to clear; "For," etc. That we may see what this aims at, we must look back to the preceding account; where we find,
(1.) Paul enrapt up into the third heavens, while yet alive, verse 2.
(2.) the same Paul quickly after in a kind of Hell upon the earth; where instead of the pleasurable glance and taste of the happiness of the heavenly society he had got, he finds himself yoked in close combat with the devil, verse 7; whom if he did not see with his eyes, he certainly felt the weight of his hands upon his body and spirit; for I think there is no reason to recede from the literal sense of the text.
(3.) Paul praying again and again in this humble situation, to be brought out of it, verse 8. "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me."
(4.) The answer given to his prayer, whereof the text is a part. And here is, 1st, The precise answer to his petition, "My grace is sufficient for you;" Wherein there is,
(1.) Something implied, namely, that the Lord was not minded to give the riding stroke as yet, but the combat behooved to continue longer, and how long he was not to know.
(2.) Something expressed, namely, That he had such a second, that there should be no fear of the issue, "My grace is sufficient for you." Now, 2dly, Our text is the justifying reason of this answer; not of the expressed part of it, the sufficiency of the Lord's grace; but the implied part, the divine conduct in letting the battle go on, though by this time it was with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood. Paul, be not stumbled at this; I have a becoming design in suffering it to go on, and not giving the decisive stroke as yet.
Secondly, The beam of light clearing this mystery in the general to faith: "my strength is made perfect in weakness." Wherein is set forth,
1st, An amicable yoking of divine strength and creature-weakness. There was indeed here a most powerful evil spirit, yoked in a hostile manner with weak flesh and blood; so that had they two, without any interposition from Heaven, been left to dispute it, the former had torn the latter in a thousand pieces. But there was an invisible divine hand with the weak party, that supported against the strong.
2dly, The illustration of the glory of the divine strength by this conjunction with creature-weakness; "My strength is made perfect in weakness." Where,
1. Consider whose is this strength. It is the Lord's to whom Paul prayed verses 8, 9: and that was the Lord Christ, verse 9. To him Paul prayed, in this combat with Satan, it being he who by his office was to bruise the serpent. Whereby it appears, that he is true God, God, by nature, as being the object of divine worship, and the subject of sovereign divine power, Colossians 2:9. "For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
2. What his strength is. It certainly comprehends the strength of his grace lodged in him as Mediator, but is not confined to his moral perfections, but takes in the whole divine power, whereby he is able to do all things for the weak creature, whatever its weakness be: for the words are general.
3. One of those fields wherein it exerts itself, namely, weakness. It exerts itself in the strong, both in Heaven and earth; and without it the strongest would be weak as water. But on this earth there is occasion for exerting itself in the weak, in their weakness; working in, by, and with the real weakness and felt weakness of the creature.
4. With what advantage it exerts itself in the creature's weakness: it is "made perfect" there. There is a twofold perfecting of a thing; one real, by adding to it something that it wanted to complete it, and the power of Christ being infinite, is not capable of that: another manifestation, whereby that which was veiled before comes to be discovered, like the sun getting forth from under a cloud. Thus Christ's "strength is made perfect in weaknsss:" it shines forth the more illustriously there, that it does as it were appear alone, unmixed with creature-strength.
DOCTRINE. The strength and power of our Lord Christ, being perfected or illustrated in the weakness of the creature, sufficiently clears the dispensation of his keeping his people, so long as he really does, struggling in circumstances of weakness in this world.
In handling this doctrine, I shall,
I. Consider this dispensation.
II. The matter clearing it.
III. Apply.
I. First, We shall consider this dispensation. The Father has committed all judgment into the hand of the Son: Christ the Mediator has the charge of conducting all his redeemed ones through the world, to the promised land, John 5:22; Isaiah 55:4. And here is his conduct in that matter, this is the stated course of his dispensations, keeping them long struggling in circumstances of weakness. And here consider,
First, The place of it. That is only this world. It begins with them as soon as, believing on him, they resign themselves to his conduct: it continues with them all along, while they are on the way: but when he has them at home in Heaven, that dispensation is forever laid aside as to them. It has no place but in this lower world. Paul, from the time he became a Christian, had a continued struggle, until he was enrapt up to the third Heaven, Romans 7:24. While he was there in that case, it intermitted. But when he came back again he even fell into it anew; and the first attack of it was most fearful.
Secondly, The nature of it; which we may take up in these two.
1st, He obliges them to a struggle, Matthew, 11:12, "The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." They are not to expect an easy passage through the world to the promised land; but must trust him their desired ease until they come to their journey's end. They are obliged to do it,
1. In that he lays great pieces of work to their hand, doing work, suffering work. He will not have them to be idle: every day will cast up its own piece of work, that unless they fall asleep, they will find their hand filled every day. And if at any time they do fall asleep, when they awaken again, they will find their work increased on their hand.
2. In that he suffers them to meet with great opposition. The wind of providence from Heaven, often blows strong in their face for their trial, Genesis 22:1. The wind of temptation from Hell, and opposition from that airth never falls, and at times rises very boisterous, and becomes tempestuous, as in the apostle's case here, verse 7. Meanwhile they must not run in from their work, and take a house until it turn calm; but must hold on their way. This constitutes the struggle, Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
2dly, Yet, though he obliges them to this struggling life, he, in the depth of his wisdom keeps them in circumstances of weakness; and these circumstances of,
1. Real weakness; whereby it comes to pass, that they really want within themselves a sufficient stock of ability, to manage their work, and grapple with and force their way through the opposition made them in it. He himself owns this to be the way of his managing his people, that he keeps them from hand to mouth, John 15:5, "Without me you can do nothing."
2. Felt weakness. They are not strong enough for their work, and he makes them sensible it is so, 2 Corinthians 3:5, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is of God." So that both builders and bearers about the temple of the Lord, are obliged with one voice to say, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain," Psalm 127:1. And if at any time they lose this sense of their weakness, it is his way to leave them to their own weight, until, catching a fall, the smart bring them to themselves, to a sense of their weakness; as in Peter's case.
More particularly, our Lord keeps his people while here,
1st, Always in circumstances of natural weakness; and these,
1. Of pure natural weakness, a weakness that is inwrought with human flesh, though at its prime, Isaiah 40:6, "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field." The witnesses hereof are, the need of meat, drink, sleep, etc. with which the tabernacles of clay must daily be underpropped. Even this makes God's children objects of their "Father's pity," Psalm 102:13, 14.
2. Of sinful natural weakness; not that he brought them under such weakness, but he suffers them to lie under it. There are remains of the corruption of nature in them all, which makes them a company of poor groaning weaklings, Romans 7:24. Grace has got in indeed, but corruption is not yet quite got out. The Canaanites are left in the land, and they are not able to clear the land of them. And this corruption of nature has a strong bias, in each of them, to some particular evil, according to their various tempers and circumstances, "the sin that easily besets them," Hebrews 12:1.
2dly Often in circumstances of accidental weakness, through a variety of afflictions, trials, and temptations, weakening their bodies, or weakening their spirits, or weakening both together; as in Paul's ease here. The particulars of this kind are too numerous to enter into the detail of: physicians and divines have filled books with them respectively.
Thirdly The difficulty casting up about this dispensation. Th is a twofold knot here.
1. The first lies in that he can put them out of those circumstances of weakness, yet he keeps them in them. The former cannot be questioned, since his divine power could have perfected them in the moment of conversion, both naturally and morally: what he will do to their souls at death, to their persons at the resurrection, he could have done in the moment of their union with him. The latter is manifest from the experience of his people in all ages and places of this world.
2. The second lies in the consequences of this dispensation. The weak things act weakly, leaving the marks of their weakness on all they do, and groan under the whole. Here the creature's hardships and pressures are the easiest part; but the sin, and dishonor to God that eventually attends them under this dispensation, ties the knot strictest, and makes many a weary look for the deliverance.
II. Secondly, We are to consider the matter clearing this dispensation; which is, that the strength and power of Christ is illustrated in the weakness of the creature. And here we would show, 1. Wherein the strength of Christ is illustrated in the way of this dispensation; and, 2. The becomingness thereof.
First, Wherein the strength of Christ is illustrated in the way of this dispensation.
1. In supporting them under their weakness, 2 Corinthians 1:8, 9, 10. The more ready the house is to fall, the more does appear the efficacy of the prop that holds it up. The dispensation of providence towards some of the saints, in supporting them under their pressures, is a train of wonders: the dispensation of grace supporting them all, is a continued miracle, in that the spark of grace is not extinguished, in the ocean of corruption with which it is encompassed in themselves and others, put in agitation by the powers of darkness.
2. In doing great things by them, weak and contemptible as they are. How illustriously shines the power of Christ in making "worm Jacob thrash the mountains," Isaiah 41:14, 15, weak creatures victorious over all the power of the enemy? It is in such Christ chooses to set forth his God-like strength, his divine power, 2 Corinthians 4:7. When he set forth with his gospel in the world, Satan had the power of the sword, and the learning in the world, on his side: but Christ, by a few illiterate fishermen, Paul expected, carried his point against Satan with his swordsmen and bookmen too.
3. In strengthening them out of weakness, Hebrews 11:34. How often is their case, when at the weakest, nearest to a strengthening; and the fainting saint becomes like a giant refreshed with wine, by a touch of Christ's hand, a word from his mouth! Isaiah 40:29, "He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Amos 5:9, "The Lord strengthens the spoiled against the strong; so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress." Paul speaks his usual experience of this, 2 Corinthians 12:10, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." He gives strength for a particular effect: when the work comes to the setting to, it comes, according to Matthew 10:19, "When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak:" when the work is done, it goes. So the timing and continuance of it, speaks whence it comes, that it is not home-bred, but heaven-bred.
4. Lastly, In bringing the weak things, through all their difficulties, safe home at long-run, Psalm 73:24. O wonderful counselor, that will guide such a weak company, through all their snares, to glory! how must the power and skill of the pilot shine, in bringing such broken and shattered vessels, amidst so many rocks and shelves, in a tempestuous sea, safe to land! Surely, whatever doubts remain now with them about this dispensation, when they set their foot on the shore, they will sing the song of Hoses and the Lamb, and say of his whole dispensations, "He has done all things well."
Thus do shine forth in this dispensation,
1. The strength of the wisdom of Christ, and it writes his name in legible characters, THE WONDERFUL COUNSELOR. What wisdom but divine could conduct such a company of weaklings, under such circumstances of weakness, through all the powers of the enemy, so as to lose none of them! Mark that connection, Isaiah 40:28–31, "Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? there it no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint."
2. The power of his hand, which eminently exerts itself here. To do great things by mighty instruments, is the way of the creatures: but to do great things by weak and contemptible means, is the way of Christ, because he is GOD. To overthrow mountains by earthquakes, is the work of God in nature; but to make a worm thrash mountains small as dust, is his work in grace.
3. The power of his grace, 2 Corinthians 12:9. Here it appears an immortal seed; and to be, in its meanest lodging, the heart of a weak creature, impregnable: whence? Not from its own nature, as such a created quality, evident from Adam's case: but that it is the grace of Christ, communicated out of his fullness, and thereby, fed as from a continual spring, John 4:14, "The water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
4. Lastly, The strength of Christ's interest in Heaven, which procures the weak ones so many pardons, keeps them in the state of favor with God, and at last gets them, notwithstanding all their weakness and worthlessness, set up vessels of glory in the upper house.
USE 1. Hence we proclaim Jesus Christ a fit support for all weak ones to draw to: come to him then, you weak creatures, that his power may be displayed in you, to his honor, and your good.
There are other weak ones than the saints, though none so sensible of their weakness as they. Strangers to Christ, you are weak, dead-weak, however strong in your own conceit. To convince you that feel it not,
1. Are you brought out of the state wherein Adam left you? No, you are not. Then you are weak, Romans 5:6, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly:" not only weak bodies, but weak souls, notwithstanding all your natural and acquired abilities. And it is owing to the lowness of your case, that you are not sensible of it.
2. What head can you make against disease or death? 1 Corinthians 15:55, 56, 57. What strength for that encounter? Isaiah 40:6, All must die, say you; but the saints through Christ are proof against the sting of it; but what safeguard against it have you?
3. Are your own legs able to bear you before the tribunal of God? Surely not, Psalm 143:2, "In your sight shall no man living be justified." Why seek you not then for shelter under the covert of blood? I say then,
1st, Insensible sinners, come to a sense of your weakness. and under the sense of it come to Christ. Without it you will not.
2dly, Sensible sinners, let not your weakness scare you from Christ, but rather prompt you not to delay coming, Matthew 9:12. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." They will perish in their weakness that come not.
Let all consider, that whoever they be in whom the strength of Christ's grace shall not be displayed, in a state of union with him, the strength of his hand will be displayed against them for ever, in a state of separation from him, 2 Thessalonians 1:8.
USE. 2. Communicants may hence be directed in their approach, to come under a sense of their weakness, to receive the seal of God's covenant insuring the strength of Christ to be forthcoming for them under all their weakness. And all that are minded for Heaven, may learn to set themselves to submit to this dispensation, and to lay their account to live by faith, not by sense, until they get home.
SECONDLY, The becomingness of this constitution. It will appear worthy of God, and therefore in reason should be satisfying to the creature, if you consider,
1. That the man Christ is now in Heaven, and will be to the end of the world, Acts 3:21. But by this means his divine power is, for his glory, still illustrated in the world. While he was on the earth, he did now and then let out a beam of his divine glory: but he was nevertheless put to an ignominious death in it; and his enemies gave out, that he was swallowed up in death as other men. But by this means there is a continual proof of his resurrection, ascension, and divine power, kept up and to be kept up in the world to the end, in that continued display of his strength in the weakness of his people, 2 Corinthians 4:11. "For we which live, are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." Consider,
1st, His divine power had a veil cast over it, when he was on earth, Philippians 2:7. and in his sufferings, crucifixion, death, and burial, he appeared in human weakness, 2 Corinthians 13:4. Is it not worthy of God then, that now, when he is in Heaven, his divine power should shine forth in its turn in the world; and that there should be a scene of human weakness, wherein it may to the greatest advantage display itself?
2dly, This display of the strength of Christ in the weakness of his people appears full to their conviction: and the more weak they are, they see it the more clearly while it is exerted in them; as contraries appear best by one another's side. And thus the glory of the power of Christ continually shines in the world, in the eyes of them who feel it.
3dly, While there is a people in the world compassed about with much weakness yet professing their dependence on the strength of Christ, and they are accordingly strengthened, in many instances at least, to the conviction of beholders; this is a sufficient objective evidence of the power of Christ to the world, sufficient to extort a confession of it from them, as Psalm 126:2.—"Then said they among the Heathen, The Lord has done great things for them." Isaiah 61:9. "Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord has blessed;" or to leave them inexcusable. Hence, in all times of persecution, the support from Heaven that confessors and martyrs had, has brought numbers over to their side, so that the blood of the martyrs usually proved the seed of the church.
Hence I conclude, that this constitution and method of providence and grace in the church on earth, is a glorious device worthy of God, for displaying the glory of Christ. There, where he was some time covered over with ignominy, reproach, and disgrace, as weak and contemptible, a worm not a man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people," is his glory displayed, Psalm 22:5.
2. It is agreeable to the method of divine procedure in other things, and so makes the divine conduct to be of a piece. Wherein we may observe, that it is God's ordinary way,
(1.) To carry on great works by degrees, and not immediately to bring them to their perfection. So the world was made, first, a confused dark mass of earth and water, and then step by step formed, and finished, and beautified. Was the old creation a work of time, for the more full manifesting of the power of God? it is congruous, that the new creation should be so too, for illustrating the strength of Christ, in and by whom it is done.
(2.) From small and contemptible beginnings to raise the most eminent works, and by most unlikely and unpromising means to do great things; because the power of God appears the more clearly in such a situation. From Abraham's body in a sort dead, and Sarah a barren woman, whose womb by age was deadened too, he raised a nation like the stars for multitude, continuing to this day: and looking to their beginning, we see Isaac an only son, on an altar, ready to be sacrificed; and the first-fruits of them long in slavery in Egypt, and, when delivered, wandering forty years in a wilderness. How congruous is it, then, that the innumerable multitude that shall at length stand on the mount Zion above, round about the throne, in white robes, and palms in their hands, should be brought thither from lying among the pots, and straggling long in the wilderness?
3. Particularly, it is agreeable to the divine procedure in the ease of Christ himself. And that,
(1.) In the constitution of his person as God-man; wherein infinite power and creature-weakness met together as attributes of one and the same person; he who, being true man, was capable of being "crucified through weakness," being also the mighty God, 2 Corinthians 13:4 Now, if the divine power was lodged with creature-weakness in Christ personal, how congruous is it that the same divine power should be illustrated in the weakness of his mystical members?
(2.) In the conduct of providence about his person. The most signal display that ever God made of his power, was by the man Christ and in him, 1 Corinthians 1:24. being "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." By him as God-man he redeemed the world; the last a greater work than the first, as the giving his own Son was more than the speaking of a word. But how was this work brought about, but by subjecting him to a number of weaknesses for his lifetime in this world, concluded at length with his death? And in these the divine power sent forth its most radiant beams, and by them reared up the new creation. Shall it then be thought strange, that as Christ was in the world, Christians should be ever so too? or that, since the power of God was illustrated in the weakness of the man Christ, the same divine power in the person of Christ should be illustrated in the weakness of his people, while they are here in this world?
4. Lastly. This dispensation tends to the heightening of the glory of the victory of the Son of God against the devil. That proud apostate spirit rose in rebellion against God; and having seduced man, set up a kingdom in the world in opposition to God's. Against him the Son of God, for his Father's glory, and the recovery of fallen man, proclaimed war in paradise, Genesis 3:15. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel;" and, for his more shameful defeat, encounters him in human nature, a weak one in comparison of the more powerful angelic nature, whereof Satan was; and illustrates his strength against him in the weakness of that nature, as in his natural body, so in his mystical body. The heat of that battle was on the cross, where he was "crucified through weakness," yet triumphed over him. The battle is carried on in his mystical members laden with weaknesses: yet even in them also he defeats him; and sets them off the field conquerors, one generation after another, without the loss of a man. It will last until the end of the world: and then Christ's victory with his weak men will be complete, Satan with his party being chained down under everlasting darkness. So there will be no more occasion for Christ's illustrating his power in weakness: consequently, there shall no more forever be a weak one among Christ's party; all their weaknesses come then to an end.
USE. This may be of manifold use in the Christian life,
1. As an oracle to satisfy serious inquirers anent the whole of the divine conduct about believers, and particularly as to two difficult questions.
1st, Why the Lord leaves sin in the regenerate? Why though they pant, long, and breathe after perfection, yet they cannot reach it; though they would buy their freedom from sin with ten thousand worlds if they had them, and the bondage of a body of sin cleaving to them makes them long for cold death, to set them free, yet they must wrestle on with it? See what may satisfy. It is that the power of Christ may be illustrated in your weakness; therefore it is that the "wheels of his chariot tarry."
2dly, Why the Lord keeps his people under long and sore afflictions? The reason is the same. Satan might be too hard for the Christian, in a perfect calm of providence about him: yet our Lord will give the Christian a disadvantageous post in a thicket of afflictions and trials, therefore called temptations, James 1:2; and Satan having that advantage of the ground, shall be suffered to attack him, and yet be baffled: to the greater glory of the strength of Christ, and shame of the enemy.
2. As a way-mark, to direct us, if we mind for Heaven, unto the King's high-way to it; that is, the way of faith, and not of sense, 2 Corinthians 5:7. Whatever sweet clusters of sense the Lord may allow any of his people for their refreshment by the way; the life of sense is certainly reserved for Heaven, where all weakness is put off. The life of Christians here is a life of believing, hoping, patient waiting, in a course of doing, suffering, struggling, and wrestling, where Christ's power is illustrated in their weakness.
3. As an interpreter of Christ's mind anent the actings of grace in his people. The carnal world despises these actings as things of no value. A look of a weak creature to Christ, a groan to him for help, believing of a promise, hoping in his word, some confidence in him that he will at length appear for them, are but trifling things in their eyes. And in the eyes of believers themselves, except when they are bound up from them, they are but of small value, hardly worth their own notice, far less Christ's; especially considering that they are so weak, and so long a time intervenes between them. But certainly Christ notices them all, and looks on them as very precious, else this dispensation, whose end is to draw them out, had never been chosen by him, 1 Peter 1:7, "That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Canticles 4:9, "You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck."
4. As a cordial to support, with the prospect of a happy event, all the followers of Christ.
1st, Under their own personal weakness and pressures. He who has brought them under them to illustrate his own strength in them, will surely make a shining morning follow their darkest night.
2dly, Under the low case of the church, whether in point of corruption or persecution. Though she be either of these ways brought to death's door, she cannot die out: for Christ will not let her fall so low, but for the clearer manifesting of his divine strength in her recovery. The utmost point of hopelessness is the usual signal for Christ's exerting his power for his people: Deuteronomy 32:36, "For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left."
5. Lastly, As a persuasive to Christians, with a holy submission of spirit to this dispensation, resolutely to wrestle on, until the Lord have fully served the ends of his glory by all their weaknesses. This bids us,
1st, Stoop to the dispensation, and not quarrel; and after he has thus far discovered to us the design of it, to crucify all our hows and whys on the matter; and that both with respect to our spiritual and bodily weaknesses.
2dly, Resolutely to keep up the struggle, to get forward in the way the Lord calls us. What though we be weak? the works of the Christian life are not to be laid aside, but we are to stretch out the withered hand, that his strength may be perfected in our weakness.
Whoever thus struggle resolutely, and yet stoop humbly to the dispensation, show their concern for his honor, insomuch that they are pleased his strength should be displayed in their weakness. Thus honoring him here, he will honor them in the other world.