July 1

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. — 2 Cor 12:9 BSB

How mysterious are God’s ways! That someone as highly favored as Paul could descend from the heights of heaven to the very depths of hell—that’s not too strong a word, because the messenger of Satan came from hell. Paul’s soul sank to such a low point, where he was tormented by Satan’s messenger, and all of this to teach him a lesson heaven couldn’t teach: the strength of God made perfect in weakness! Don’t you think that if we are to learn our own weakness, we must go through similar experiences? How did Paul receive his faith? And shouldn’t we receive ours in a similar, though lesser, way, through the same means and inner teachings?

If we are to learn the secret of Christ’s strength, it won’t be by advancing in fleshly holiness and becoming stronger in ourselves day by day. It’s not by gradually improving the old nature until it merges seamlessly with grace, like the blending colors of a rainbow where it’s hard to see where one ends and the other begins. That’s what is really meant by “progressive sanctification”—that the old nature is so gradually softened and blended into grace that it’s difficult to tell where the old self stops and the new nature begins. Did Paul learn Christ’s strength that way? No! He learned it by being beaten down by Satan’s messenger and discovering that his own strength was worthless, while Christ’s strength was made perfect in his weakness.