A Thorn in the Flesh

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 5
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Lest Paul should be exalted above measure, a thorn in the flesh is given to him. We learn from the epistle to the Galatians that it was something that made him contemptible in his preaching. It was something to keep him from being puffed up, but this is not strength. We have got the blessedness of Paul in the third heaven. We have got the man in Christ who can thank and bless God for what we are made in Christ — who can say of all of us, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:1212Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12)). But after this we have another thing, the flesh and its inclination to be puffed up. And then we find a third thing, the flesh made exceedingly disagreeable. But this is not strength — on the contrary, it is the emptying of strength. You cannot get God to help the flesh and to help self-will. He will break it down. He will humble you by it, but He will never help it. He breaks the vessel that we may know that the power is not of man but of God. So that he says here, “When I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:1010Therefore 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. (2 Corinthians 12:10)). When I am weak, I feel that I am weak. I know the truth about myself. Here the apostle was preaching, and his manner of preaching was contemptible, and yet hundreds of people were converted through it. Well, this does not come from what is contemptible: it does not come from Paul but from God. The Lord then, when He had made him feel his weakness, says, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:99And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)). If Paul had gotten his own strength, Christ need not have had so much for him; but if Paul had none, the strength that came from Christ was in him. The man had been brought into conscious weakness that the power of Christ might rest upon him.
Christ in the Man
Now there we have, not the man in Christ, but Christ in the man, and this is what we want down here. If we think of the man in Christ, it is perfection. But when it is a question of walking down here, we want strength as well as sincerity — we want power. If the power is in myself, there is the old man set up, and this will not do. The old man must be set down, and then another power comes in. I have Christ with me; I am a dependent man. Christ said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:44But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)). We see Him constantly dependent, and always right. That is what is so difficult for us. We get into mischief just when we get into independence of God. This is why we so often see a Christian have a fall, after a season of great joy. Why? Because his joy has taken him away from dependence upon God. When I am emptied of self, and am in distresses and infirmities and necessities for Christ’s sake, then I can say, I will glory in them. Why? “That the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Here there will be blessing — being made nothing of in my own consciousness, but then having the consciousness of the power of Christ resting on me. This is not the man in Christ, but the power of Christ resting on him as he walks down here — it is Christ in the man. Supposing I am emptied of self, and Christ is living in me, what shall I get? I shall not be always in the third heaven, but Christ is always there. I have got my security there, my life there, my righteousness there, everything there that I need. Christ is my title: I am in Christ, and not in the first Adam.
J. N. Darby (adapted)