“Being Strengthened with All Might”
What do we believe about the Bible as Christians? We believe in what theologians call the plenary inspiration of Scriptures. That is, we believe that the entirety of the Bible is inspired by God, God-breathed. That means, not just the main messages and ideas contained in the Bible, but also every sentence, every word, even every jot and tittle, is inspired by God. The Bible is the Word of God 100%! But that is not all that we believe about the Bible. We believe that the Bible is also 100% words of men. Not only does the Bible have many different genres and types of literature--such as historical narrative, poetry, prophecy, proverbs, parables, epistles and apocalyptic writing--but also different styles of writing, reflecting the unique personalities of the human authors who penned the different books of the Bible. In the Bible there is a perfect harmony of the mind of God and the mind of its human authors.
What does that tell us about Paul’s prayer? Paul’s prayer, as it is the prayer of an inspired Apostle recorded in Holy Scriptures, is an accurate reflection of God’s own heart. Paul prays this prayer because his heart is gripped by the heart of God. Paul prays this prayer because it is God who wants us to be filled with the knowledge of His will. God wants us to be filled with the knowledge of His will so that we may walk in a manner worthy of Him. And He wants us to be worthy of Him by bearing fruit and increasing in every good work by the knowledge of God; by being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. Today we want to deal with the last aspect of walking worthily of the Lord: being strengthened with all might.
Paul’s prayer shows us that God wants us to be strengthened. God wants His people to be strong. To be worthy of the Lord is to be strong.
This, of course, doesn’t mean that only the strong and
powerful people of the world are worthy of Him; that you have to be strong and
powerful first before you can belong to this elite group of people. No! “Father
of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation” (Ps.
68:5). “The LORD tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow’s
boundaries” (Prov.
But who can say that he is righteous before the Judge of the living and the dead? Even the most righteous among us reek with a foul stench of selfishness, mixed motives and hypocrisy. Even the secular world acknowledges, “Who doesn’t have dirty laundry in his closet?” The trouble is that what they call “dirty laundry” is far more serious and bad than they think: it is enough in the court of God to send them to hell. And who is really strong and powerful before God? Even the strongest of us are only mere mortals, only a breath away from extinction: a small illness can incapacitate us; a small wound can paralyze us. If God rejects the righteous and powerful, it is not because they are upright and strong; it is because they think they are righteous and powerful when they are in reality nothing in the eyes of God.
So then, no one is righteous, no one is strong, before God.
In ourselves we are totally depraved sinners--completely incapable of
doing anything acceptable to God, anything to merit His favor; in fact, dead
in our trespasses and sins. How can we save ourselves? As Horatius
Bonar sang, “Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul; / Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit
whole. / Not what I feel or do can give me peace with
God; / Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.”
We need a Savior. We need someone outside of us to save us. Yet no other human being can save us because he too is a sinner in need of salvation. No angel can save us because no finite creature can deliver us from the infinite deserts of our sin against God. So God has to save us. God has to be our Savior. And praise God! The almighty God did not scorn us because we were weak. The holy God did not despise us because we were sinful. Instead He had pity on us with His infinite pity. He had compassion on us with His infinite love. And He did become our Savior in Christ Jesus our Lord! What our hands could not do, He did on our behalf! What our toiling flesh could not bear, He bore for us in His flesh on the cross! What our feelings and works could not give, He gave through His work of perfect righteousness! What all our prayers and sighs and tears could not bear, He did in His agony and sacrifice! So we humbly sing, “Nothing in my hand I bring, / simply to thy cross I cling; / naked, come to thee for dress; / helpless, look to thee for grace; / foul, I to the Fountain fly; / wash me, Savior, or I die.” He has indeed clothed our naked and shameful souls with the robe of righteousness. He supports our helpless bodies with His nail-pierced, almighty hands. He has washed away the guilt and power of our sins with the water and the blood from His riv’n side which flowed.
Oh, how great is God’s grace indeed! He had compassion on us when we were unworthy. He saved us when we were weak. He raised us up with Christ when we were dead. But praise God! His grace, His gracious purpose for us, does not end there! God wants us to be strong! Though we were once unworthy, He wants us to be worthy of Him now. Though we were once weak, He wants us to be strong in the Lord! Though we were once dead, He wants us to live and walk in newness of life, in a manner worthy of Him!
Why?
The salvation God has in mind for us is much more than removal of shame and guilt, pain and misery, punishment and condemnation. His salvation extends far beyond removal… to bestowal. He bestows on us His sonship and all the benefits thereof. He bestows on us all the riches of the heavenly kingdom as our inheritance. He bestows on us the crown of eternal life and glory. But most importantly, He bestows upon us the gift of Himself. And He does this in a most marvelous way: He creates us anew in His own image.
After all, what does it mean to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord? Doesn’t it mean that we reflect His glorious image in our life? It is because He is the true Vine, full of life and life-giving power that walking worthily of Him is to bear fruit in every good work! It is because He is abundant in His being and power, because there is no end to the rich supply of His help and blessings, that walking worthily of Him is to increase in our fruit-bearing! It is because He is the almighty God that walking worthily of Him is to be strengthened with all might!
Many commentators point out the creation motif in Paul’s
first two descriptions of walking worthily of the Lord: “bearing fruit” and “increasing”
correspond to the “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” part of the
cultural mandate (Gen. 1:28). But we also see the creation motif in the third
description as well: “being strengthened” corresponds to the “and subdue it and
have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and
over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And what is the cultural
mandate in the context of Gen. 1? It is coupled with God’s creation of man in
His own image, according to His likeness. So then, the cultural mandate is but
a prescriptive outworking of the image of God. Indeed, as Paul’s prayer
continues into v. 15, we hear him mention Jesus Christ as the image of the
invisible God. And in
We can say, then, that Paul’s prayer is a prayer for the restoration and perfection of the image of God in us. For we have lost the image of God with the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Although we still retain our moral agency--the ability to make moral judgments and take actions accordingly (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Moral+agency)--we only have it in a damaged and defective form. Not only that, we have completely lost original righteousness; we have our whole nature corrupted; and we have been made liable to the guilt of Adam’s first sin (WSC 18). To have lost the image of God is to have lost the very core of what makes us truly human as God intended us to be; nothing less than to be dead, spiritually speaking (Eph. 2:1). How can we be saved without being made alive, without having the image of God restored in us? But God’s intention is not just to restore His image in us, only to have us fall again as Adam did. No, for God to truly save us, He must perfect His image in us. And that is what He has begun, which He will surely bring to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
God wants His people, God wants us, His image-bearers, to be strong because He is the almighty God. We were weak once. We were dead once. And God took us just as we were--“tossed about / With many a conflict, many a doubt, / Fightings and fears within, without…. / poor, wretched, blind…,” dead. But, though He took us as we were, He does not leave us as we were. Praise God! He does not simply transport us to heaven just as we were. “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18)! This is what your salvation, your life, is about!
It is not God’s will that we should remain weak and
impotent. He wants us to grow in strength. He wants us to be strong and
powerful. “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees…”
(Heb.
But what kind of strength are we talking about here? Surely,
we are not talking about our physical, brute force, are we? Nor are we talking
about some supernatural powers to perform miracles. Even during the apostolic
era such supernatural gifts were not given to all. Although each of us has been
given spiritual gifts, there is no spiritual gift that is universally given to
all (1 Cor. 12:4-6; 1 Pet.
What kind of strength is it, then?
This strength is “for all endurance and patience” (v. 11). “Lightfoot
notes that, broadly speaking (though there are exceptions), u`pomonh, [hupomonay, translated as
endurance here] may be called the opposite of cowardice and despondency
and is allied to hope, while makroqumi,a
[macrothumía,
translated as patience here] may be contrasted with wrath and revenge and
coupled with mercy” (C.F.D. Moule, Colossians and Philemon, p. 54).
Endurance,
then, is the fortitude with which we face down others’ aggression or trying
circumstances. It is the fortitude to confront the inevitable afflictions of
this fallen world without complaining, “Why me?” or “Why now?” It is the
fortitude to endure even senseless injustice and “unnecessary” hardships for
standing up for what is right and true in the sight of God. Endurance that Paul
prays for is fortitude, not weakness, not a sense of helpless resignation. To
endure is different from cowering under threats and intimidations and simply
surviving from moment to moment. It may be put through all kinds of humiliation
and persecution but it does not lose its beam of noble purpose and indomitable
resolve. How? Because it does not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill
the soul; it fears only Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt.
What is
stronger than your enemy’s relentless and malicious will to kill you? It is the
heart that does not fear death. Yes, even a gangster may have that kind of
fearlessness. But it is nothing more than a reckless hopelessness. But that is
not what we have, is it? Jesus conquered death for us through His death and
resurrection. We no longer fear death as the end of all. The threat of death
can no longer control us and enslave us to do anything and everything possible
if only to avoid dying. But can we avoid death altogether? All we are doing is
only delaying what is inevitable. Oh, how the threat of death has turned so
many people in history into cowards and compromisers, traitors and sinners! But
the strength we have in our resurrected Lord is greater than death itself! Oh,
how we need to be strengthened for all endurance!
Patience
goes even further: it is the magnanimous disposition we display toward others,
even when they deserve our wrath and revenge instead. If the hope and assurance
of our resurrection give us endurance, then the grace of God by which we have
obtained that hope gives us patience. We who have truly experienced God’s grace
are no strangers to sins and transgressions, for we too were once dead in them.
And we are saved not by works but by God’s sovereign, unconditional grace. We
have nothing to boast of except God’s grace. Of all people we must be the
humblest. Of all people we must be the most patient people. We cannot be so
arrogant as to be impatient with others. And it is in gentle patience that true
strength is shown: “Nothing is so strong as gentleness.
Nothing is so gentle as real strength” (Francis De
Sales).
We can see how far
Christian endurance and patience are from weakness and helplessness. They are manifestations
of strength, not of weakness. Paul shows the greatness of this strength by adding
“with joy, giving thanks to the Father”. So great is this strength that it enables
us not only to endure but also to endure with joy and thanksgiving. We do not
just grit our teeth and bear our trials with a long face; we do it with joy and
thanksgiving! Even in the most extreme of our trials our endurance and patience
are not to be devoid of joy and thanksgiving. So great is the strength we
possess in Christ. And the joy it gives is a true, profound joy. Jesus said in Matthew 13:20, “As for what was sown
on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it
with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when
tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls
away.” “If cara, [chará, joy] is not
rooted in the soil of suffering, it is shallow…” (C.F.D. Moule, p. 55). It is endurance and patience that
enables true joy to grow in the soil of suffering. How is this possible?
Because our God has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the satins (v.
12)! Christ has not only conquered death for us but also earned for us our
eternal inheritance in heaven. Our suffering in this world, then, is not the
final indictment on the true value of our life. God has fixed our hope on the
surpassing riches of the age to come. “For this slight momentary
affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
comparison…” (2 Cor. 4:17).
Is this
not the strength that Jesus displayed in His life on earth? We are called to
look “to Jesus, the
founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated
at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured
from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or
fainthearted” (Heb. 12:2-3). If
injustice so enrages us when we are its victims, though we are sinners, how
much more difficult it must have been for Christ to endure all the injustice
and suffering He suffered throughout His life and on the cross? And yet, did He
display the most marvelous patience with sinners, even with those who crucified
Him? For them He prayed, “Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they are
doing!” And we have been called to walk in a manner worthy of that Christ, to
reflect the image of Him, who endured the cross and prayed for those who
crucified Him!
This strength Paul prays for may not be supernatural in its manifestation but it is supernatural in its origin. For he prays that we may be strengthened “with all might according to His glorious might”. This might does not come from us, does it? He is not telling us to cultivate our own brute physical, mental strength. Something far more powerful is in view here! It is described as “all might” because it is the power of the omnipotent God. It is according to His--God’s--glorious might! And this power of God is available to us because He desires us to be strengthened with it! This strength can enable us to do what we cannot do of ourselves.
Can you imagine what it must be like to be God? What it feels to be the almighty God? Think of the tremendous freedom He must feel as the omnipotent God, who can do everything He desires without any hindrance or difficulty? He wants us to be strengthened with His all glorious might so that we may experience what He feels as much as it is creaturely possible!
We all know what it feels like to be weak or sick. Every movement causes discomfort, if not pain. Just walking upstairs is a challenge, leaving us out of breath and our head spinning. Oh, that utter sense of helplessness! Contrast that with having stamina and strength. The feeling of ease with which you complete your task. We are not even conscious of putting in any efforts. In fact, we get a sense of exhilaration. When jogging, we get into that “zone” where we feel like we can run forever! Remember the movie, “Chariots of Fire”? Eric Liddell tells his sister, “When I run, I feel the pleasure of God upon me.” That is what it is like to have strength, to have endurance and patience with joy and thanksgiving. And to think that it is God’s desire for us that we should be strengthened with all might according to His glorious might! Not to hurt others. Not to domineer over others for our selfish gains. Rather, to be patient with others, even those who persecute us and curse us; to stare down and defeat our true enemies--Satan and his evil hosts and our carnal desires and sinful tendencies!
Oh, who we need to be strengthened! Oh, how we need to increase in our endurance! How often do we fail to bring glory to God, to bear witness to the gospel, because of our cowardice, because of our fear of men! Oh, how we need to increase in our patience! How often do we allow small things to escalate to bitter fights and broken relationships because we have no strength to show patience toward one another!
Many of us are weak. We cannot imagine what it feels like to be strong. Maybe many of us are still shackled by our past history of failures. But do we not give up too easily? We cannot expect to build up endurance with easy victories, can we? Surely, we cannot expect to build up patience in trouble-free, pleasant circumstances. All this may be due to our defective understanding of God’s grace. God in His grace did not just pity us when we were helpless. God’s grace goes further to strengthen us, to make us worthy of Him! If we expect only pity from God, our Christian life will be crippled and stunted. We will continue to complain to God about our trials--the very things that God sends to strengthen us!
What are the things that God has sent us to endure, to be patient with? Are they difficult? Do they seem impossible to bear? Yet we have been bearing them, haven’t we? For Time does not stop; it keeps ticking away even while we complain and cry out, “I can’t do this any more!” The question then is whether we will bear them with complaining and grumbling or with fortitude, with endurance and patience, with joy and thanksgiving. If we have committed our life to follow Christ, don’t we want to follow Him all the way with joy instead of dragging our feet every step of the way? Don’t we want to feel the pleasure of God upon us, the exhilaration and freedom that come from begin strengthened with all might according to His glorious might? Then, should we not apply ourselves diligently and persistently to built up spiritual endurance and patience? There will come a day when we shall be perfected in the strength of God to sin no more and to love God and others with unmixed joy and delight! That is God’s irrevocable purpose and design for us. Let it transform our minds and hearts to grow in endurance and patience until the appointed day of perfection!
© Copyright 2006 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights Reserved.