What is God’s Strength Made Perfect?

When the Lord told Paul, “for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9), what did He mean by my strength? What is God’s strength made perfect in our weaknesses?

We all know the context very well. Paul was dealing with, what I personally suspect was, a demon or a demon-possessed person verbally assaulting Paul. This was a messenger of Satan buffeting him (2 Cor. 12:7), a messenger from Satan who was buffeting, or attacking, Paul.

Paul begged the Lord three times to have this affliction removed.

What was the Lord’s response? 2 Cor. 12:9, “And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.‘”

Notice that the Lord says “My” twice. He talks about “My grace” and “my strength.” Why? Because the two are intimately tied together. You cannot have one without the other. His strength is found in His grace and His grace becomes your strength.

My Grace

What did the Lord mean by “My grace”?

I can’t help but think of Eph 3:7, “Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.” Paul was not made a minister because he was special. How was he made a minister? By receiving the gift of the grace of God, which we’ve all received.

How was that gift given to him? “By the effectual working of his power.” He was made into what he was through the power of God when he received His gift of grace. That gift transformed Paul’s life and made him able to be a minister. The empowerment he received through that gift of grace was how he was made to be what he was, how he was able to serve the Lord as he did, and also how he had the sufficiency to endure longsuffering with joy.

God didn’t give Paul special abilities. Paul was equipped to do amazing things because he received the same gift of grace we all received.

The way the gift of grace transformed Paul by the effectual working of his power is the same way we are all transformed by His gift of grace. The gift wasn’t some divinely ordained ability to be a good minister. This gift was the empowering of God by His grace to fulfill that role as a leader because of what God made him in Christ by His power.

At the heart of Eph. 3:7 is Paul reckoning as true the spiritual transformation God already accomplished in him through His gift of grace. Paul excelled in all that he did simply because he reckoned as true for Himself everything God already made him in Christ through His gift of grace.

Thus, I would suggest that His grace is literally everything. His grace is, first and foremost, everything He accomplished for you at Calvary – the all-sufficiency of His payment for all your sins, which means you have every sin forgiven (Col. 2:13), eternal life that can never be lost (Eph. 1:13), forever a child of God (Eph. 1:6; Gal. 3:26), already victorious over sin and death (1 Cor. 15:55-58), and you have every reason to abound in hope (Rom. 15:13) anticipating the glory to come (Rom. 8:18), which is beyond comprehension.

Plus, My grace includes everything the Father made you in His Son – you spiritually dead, buried, and risen with Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17), behold all things new! The old you, the old man, is dead (Rom. 6:6), and you are now risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead (Col. 2:12). You’re identified with what Christ accomplished at Calvary on your behalf. You’re dead, buried, and risen with Christ, enjoying the victory that is already yours (Rom. 8:28).

Since you are already risen with Christ, then you must also literally be freed from the bondage of sin in the flesh over your soul (Rom. 6:7-11). If someone who is dead is freed from the sin that’s in the flesh (Rom. 6:7), then you must also be freed from the sin that’s in your flesh, because you are dead, buried, and risen with Christ (Rom. 6:3-4). This means that victory in your walk is you reckoning as true who you are in Christ and choosing to live like the saint you already are.

My grace is also everything else that is distinctly Pauline: our freedom from the law (Rom. 6:14), our blessed hope (Tit. 2:13), which is the Rapture, us already seated in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 2:6), us having the completed Word to feed our souls (Col. 1:25), and direct access to the Father Himself whenever we pray (Eph. 2:18).

Further, I believe that My grace is about all the richness of this spiritual life having Christ living in you (Col. 1:27). This grace life is the greatest life that can be experienced on planet Earth today. There is no greater life in the world today.

My Strength

So what exactly did the Lord mean when He spoke of “my strength”?

When we think of strength, we might think of big muscles or mighty animals or powerful machinery. But God’s strength in you is spiritual. His strength in you is the power of truth, the power of peace, the power of love, the power of His grace, and the power of abounding hope to carry you through the hard times.

Consider, for example, the power of comfort.

Col 2:1 For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; Col 2:2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; Col 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

In vs. 1, Paul mentions the conflict he feels about those in Colosse, Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. Then he expresses his desire for all those believers out there who have never met him. If you have never met Paul, then his heart’s desire for you is that your heart might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.

This is what some have called the “4 C’s of Col. 2:2.” Comfort, Cohesiveness, Comprehension, and Christ Himself. These so-called “4 C’s of Colossians 2:2” are the reasons believers should be abounding with thanksgiving.

Consider comfort. Paul wants your heart comforted through God’s doctrines of grace. He wants your heart relieved from anxiety and distress. This isn’t about not feeling stress from time to time. This is about forever being freed from hopeless anguish. Because these truths are so precious, Paul wants your heart always comforted – invigorated, encouraged.

Webster makes the point that comfort is more than just relief from pain. Comfort is a strengthening of the heart. A heart that feels hopeless anguish is weakened by all that strain, but a heart comforted by an eternal life, love, grace, joy, and a hope that can never be taken away, that heart is strengthened.

What is God’s strength made perfect that can carry you through hard times in life? Comfort of the heart is a prime example. Comfort is power inside of you. Comfort is a strengthening of the heart. You have power to rely on because you have a strengthened heart which has been comforted by God’s doctrines of grace. The heart that rests in His truths is not weakened by pain. The heart that rests in His truths is strengthened by hope, and that hope is Christ in you.

The power of truth, the power of peace, the power of love, the power of His grace, the power of abounding hope, and so many other attributes of God, is your inner strength given to you by God to help carry you through all the longsuffering and all the hard times in your life.

I can’t help but also think of Eph. 3:16, which says, “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” To be strengthened is to be made stronger. Your inner man is strengthened by the power of truth, by the power the Holy Spirit at work inside of you when you spend time in His Word (Rom. 15:13).

How can we not also think of Php. 4:13? “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Christ Himself is the energizing force that strengthens you. When you put on Christ, when His thinking becomes your thinking, when His attributes become your attributes, then you truly possess great, divine, inner strength.

His grace is everything: eternal life, who you are in Christ, the hope and the peace and the love and the meekness. That is where you find His strength to endure all longsuffering with joyfulness.

Notice also the Lord’s not talking about enduring temporary bouts of suffering. He is talking about longsuffering, about grace so empowering, you can endure longsuffering with joy. How? You find strength in His grace. You find your strength in the peace, the love, the hope, the joy that is alive in you! Those attributes are inseparable from His grace! Those attributes are His strength that empowers you to endure longsuffering with joy! That is His grace! That is His grace that has become your strength! His grace lays the foundation for all the inner strength you have. You’re a vessel of weakness designed to excel when you rely on His grace, when you manifest all of His attributes in your life. You were designed to live that way, because His strength was made perfect for all your weaknesses.

How do you access His strength? Through the study of His Word. Rejoicing in the truths of God to you in the epistles of Paul should fill you with peace, joy, love, grace, meekness, longsuffering and hope, and those attributes alive in you makes you strong from the inside out.