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In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Christ is revealed as the embodiment of grace. Christ is not only the factor of grace but also the embodiment of grace; that is, Christ is grace itself.
In 2 Corinthians 12:2 Paul says, “I know a man in Christ.” A man in Christ — a person who always lives in Christ and is found in Christ — refers to the apostle (v. 7), not as the old creation but as the new creation (5:17). Paul then tells us that because of the transcendence of the revelations that he received, he could not avoid being proud; hence, the Lord gave him a thorn, a messenger of Satan, to keep him from being exceedingly lifted up. Paul entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from him (12:7-8). However, the Lord said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9); instead of removing the thorn, the Lord supplied Paul with the sufficient grace to enable him to bear the suffering. If we put together verses 2 and 9, we see that the grace of Christ is sufficient for a man in Christ. As long as we are in Christ, His grace is sufficient for us.
The grace mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:9 is not something done by the Lord or given by the Lord. It is the Lord Himself within us, supporting us, energizing us, and strengthening us to meet the situation. This is a living grace, a real grace, and it is nothing less than Christ as the embodiment of the processed Triune God dispensed into our being for our enjoyment. Grace is mainly not the work that the Lord Jesus does for us; grace is the Triune God in Christ dispensed into us and experienced as our enjoyment. In his experience Paul realized that grace is Christ Himself. When Christ is enjoyed by us as our portion, that is grace. Grace is Christ, not in doctrine but in experience, because grace is Christ with all He is for our enjoyment; this includes life, power, and His other divine attributes. Therefore, we need to learn not to expect to receive something outwardly or to have something done by the Lord for us. Rather, we should expect to simply enjoy the Lord Himself as grace.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9 the Lord said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Accepting the Lord’s word, Paul could go on to say in verse 9, “Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.” This verse reveals that the grace of Christ is the power that is made perfect in weakness. We must all love our weaknesses because our weaknesses become the very site in which the grace of Christ as His power is perfected. If we are strong in ourselves, we cannot enjoy Christ as grace. In order to enjoy Christ as grace, we must be weak persons. The weaker we are, the more we will realize the sufficient grace that constantly strengthens us into the inner man (Eph. 3:16). Christ does not want us to be strong or powerful in ourselves; rather, He wants us to be weak. Our weakness is precious. It is because of our weaknesses that the Lord’s power has the ground to manifest itself and that we are able to enjoy His power. When we are weak, we may experience the power of Christ in our weakness.
When we are strong, we put the Lord aside because we do not need the Lord. In other words, when we are strong, the Lord has no ground in us and cannot do anything for us. Nevertheless, when we are weak and realize that apart from Him we can do nothing, the Lord has the ground in us and can do everything for us. When the Lord does everything for us, we enjoy the Lord’s sufficient grace perfected in our weakness. For this reason, the Lord allowed the thorn to remain with Paul in order to expose his weakness so that he would experience His all-sufficient grace. Without the thorn Paul would not realize how weak he was; with the thorn in the flesh he needed the Lord to be his grace. The Lord left the thorn with Paul so that he would experience His overshadowing power perfected in his weakness.
We may complain of our weakness or lack of ability. However, we need to see that in our weakness Christ’s power is made perfect. Our weakness gives us an opportunity to enjoy the power of Christ. For this reason, Paul boasted in his weaknesses, not in the revelations he had received, so that Christ as the sufficient grace, the power of resurrection, might overshadow him in his weaknesses. Eventually, Paul learned to say, “I am well pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions and distresses, on behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am powerful” (2 Cor. 12:10). Like the apostle Paul, we also should boast in our weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over us.
For the sufficiency of the Lord’s grace to be magnified, our sufferings are required; for the perfectness of the Lord’s power to be shown forth, our weakness is needed. Hence, the apostle would most gladly boast in his weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over him. Grace is the supply, and power is the strength, the ability, of grace. Both are the resurrected Christ, who is now the life-giving Spirit dwelling in us (1 Cor. 15:45; Gal. 2:20) for our enjoyment.
The grace of Christ is the power perfected in weakness that, as a tent or a tabernacle spread over us, overshadows us in our weakness. The Greek word for tabernacle over is a compound verb composed of two words. The first word means “upon,” and the second, “to dwell in a tent,” as in John 1:14 and Revelation 21:3. The compound verb here means “to fix a tent or a habitation upon.” It portrays how the power of Christ, even Christ Himself, dwells upon us as a tent spread over us, overshadowing us in our weaknesses.
Sufferings and trials are often the Lord’s ordination for us so that, through the divine dispensing, we may experience Christ as grace and power. In his experience Paul realized that the Lord’s grace became power spread over him like a tent. Hence, this grace-power became a dwelling place for Paul in his sufferings. As Paul was suffering, he could dwell in the tabernacle spread over him. This tabernacle, this tent, sustained him, supported him, maintained him, and kept him.
Paul was weak in his old being, but he was powerful in the overshadowing Christ (2 Cor. 12:10). Second Corinthians reveals a person who has been reduced to nothing, with no strength of his own, so that the power of Christ might be perfected in his weakness. Paul was reduced to nothing but took Christ as everything. Like Paul, we need to experience Christ as the all-sufficient grace meeting our need in every kind of environment, and we need to taste Him, experiencing His power being perfected in our weakness.
In 2 Corinthians 13:3-5 Christ is unveiled as the powerful One in the believers. Christ is not weak in us; He is powerful. He is the powerful One. This powerful One is actually the power of resurrection spoken of in Philippians 3:10. Christ Himself is the power of His resurrection.
In 2 Corinthians 13:3 Paul says to the Corinthians, “Since you seek a proof of the Christ who is speaking in me, who is not weak unto you but is powerful in you.” Christ is the One who speaks in the apostle to minister Himself to the believers. Christ was powerful in the believers while He was speaking in the apostle. This was indeed a strong and subjective proof to the believers that Christ was speaking in the apostle.
In 2 Corinthians 13:4 Paul continues, “For indeed He was crucified out of weakness, but He lives by the power of God.” When Christ was crucified, He was weak. No person who is strong can be crucified; for one to be crucified, he must be weak. Christ was crucified out of weakness, allowing His persecutors to do what they wanted. Yet now in resurrection Christ is not weak but powerful, because He lives by the power of God.
Christ was the almighty God, but when He was crucified, He was willing to become weak, and He became weak. For Himself, Christ did not need to be weak in any way, but in order to accomplish redemption on our behalf, He was willing to be weak in His body that He might be crucified. When He was arrested, tried, and crucified, He made no display of His power. Instead, He was weak to the uttermost. If Christ had not been weak, He could not have been arrested, much less nailed to the cross. Only one who is weak can be crucified. Now that redemption has been accomplished and Christ has been resurrected, He is no longer weak. Rather, after being resurrected, He now lives by the power of God.
Second Corinthians 13:4 goes on to say, “For indeed we are weak in Him, but we will live together with Him by the power of God directed toward you.” Paul came to the Greek believers “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). Paul did not display himself as a physically strong man while among the Greeks, who sought to be strong not only psychologically in their philosophy but also physically in their gymnastics. Paul’s bodily presence was weak (2 Cor. 10:10), and he was meek, lowly, and humble when present with the Greek believers. Hence, the Greeks, who desired to be great in their philosophy and athletics, looked down on the apostle. Yet the apostle told the Corinthian believers that although he was weak in Christ, he lived by the power of God directed toward the believers.
The apostles followed the pattern of Christ and were willing to be weak in the organic union with Him that they might live with Him a crucified life. Thus, they would live together with Him by the power of God directed toward the believers. Apparently, they were weak toward the believers; actually they were powerful. We are always taught to be strong, but we must learn to be weak. We are too strong in ourselves, in our natural man. We need to learn to be weak that Christ might be powerful within us.
In 2 Corinthians 13:4 Paul points out to the Corinthians that the apostles were weak in Christ. Through the organic union, they were one with Christ to be weak. The purpose for their being weak in this way was for the sake of the building up of the church. When the apostles came to Corinth, they did not come in a way of strength but in a way of weakness for the purpose of imparting Christ into the Corinthians and of edifying them, perfecting them, so that they may be built up as the Body of Christ. Actually, the apostles were not weak. Nonetheless, they voluntarily became weak and, according to verse 4, continued to be weak in Christ.
The phrase in Him in verse 4 is very important. Our concept is that to be in Christ is to be strong, not to be weak. Nevertheless, in this verse Paul says that we are weak in Him. Why are we weak in Christ? We are weak in Him in order to live a crucified life.
Moreover, for Paul to live by the power of God toward the believers means that he was powerful in his speaking to them. On the one hand, when we go out to preach the gospel to others, we should not display ourselves as physically strong persons; rather, we should be weak in Christ and be humble among them. On the other hand, when we speak to them, we should be powerful in an inward way, not in an outward way; that is, we should be strong in our spirit, not in our body, for it is through the spirit that we can gain people for the Lord.
In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says, “Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?” This verse indicates that Christ is in the believers through their faith. Here the faith refers to the objective faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19). If one is in the objective faith, he surely has the subjective faith, believing in Christ and the entire content of God’s New Testament economy. As long as a person has this faith, regardless of how big or little it is, he has Christ dwelling in him.
