“My Grace Is Sufficient”: Letting Scripture Define Grace

23 hours ago

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Thirsting deeply enough for the Word that we’re willing to let it renew our minds.

Before We Begin

Before we begin walking through Paul’s writings concerning grace, I would encourage you to stop and read 1 Corinthians 2 in its entirety.

This is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians as preserved in our New Testament, and it helps establish the posture from which I hope we approach everything that follows.

Paul begins:

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.”

Then he tells us why:

“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

And a few verses later:

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

That is the heart behind this writing.

I do not want your faith to rest upon something simply because I wrote it.

I do not want mine resting upon something simply because someone taught it to me.

Paul takes us deeper:

“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

And then:

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”

Paul continues:

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth…”

And the chapter closes with this remarkable statement:

“But we have the mind of Christ.”

So before we decide what Paul meant by grace, before we examine what we’ve been taught about Paul’s thorn, and before we attempt to understand any of this:

Perhaps our first posture should simply be:

Holy Spirit, teach me.

Open the Word.

Let context frame the text.

Let Scripture interpret Scripture.

Keep Christ at the center.

And be willing to let the Word renew your mind.

Why Does This Matter?

Now we move from 1 Corinthians 2, which establishes our posture toward Scripture and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the passage that began this larger conversation: 2 Corinthians 12.

Perhaps you have wondered why there is so much discussion surrounding Paul’s thorn.

Does it really matter?

Whether the thorn was sickness, persecution, opposition, or something else, isn’t this simply a small difference in biblical interpretation?

I don’t believe it is small.

Not because we need to win an argument about Paul’s thorn.

But because the way we interpret Scripture shapes the way we understand God.

If I am taught that Paul had a chronic sickness, that Paul repeatedly asked God to heal him, and that God refused because He wanted Paul to remain sick, I haven’t merely formed an opinion about Paul’s physical condition.

I have formed an expectation about God.

Then sickness comes into my own life and I may wonder:

Is this my thorn?

I pray and don’t immediately see a change:

Maybe God is saying no.

I read about Jesus healing the sick:

Yes, but God didn’t heal Paul.

I encounter another promise of God:

Yes, but…

And before long, an interpretation of one passage can become a lens through which many other passages are read.

That is why this matters.

But we must be equally careful in the other direction.

We should not replace one assumption with another and make faith into a measurement of our own performance.

Biblical faith does not place confidence in the greatness of our faith.

It places confidence in the greatness of Christ.

So perhaps the larger question isn’t merely:

What was Paul’s thorn?

Perhaps we should also ask:

What has my interpretation of Paul’s thorn taught me to believe about God?

Interpretation forms theology.

Theology shapes expectation.

And expectation influences how we approach God, His Word, our circumstances, and prayer itself.

That is not a little difference.

And that brings us back to the words Christ spoke to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9:

“My grace is sufficient for thee.”

Before deciding what those words mean, perhaps we should ask:

What did grace mean to Paul?

Let Paul Tell Us What Grace Means

Grace is one of those Christian words we have heard so often that we may assume we already understand it.

A familiar definition is:

Unmerited favor.

There is certainly truth there. We could never earn what God has freely given us in Christ.

But is that all Paul means when he speaks of grace?

Paul wrote extensively about grace across his letters.

He received grace.

He lived by grace.

He ministered through grace.

He said grace worked through him.

He told others to be strong in grace.

He said grace teaches us.

So rather than bringing our definition to Paul, let’s allow Paul’s own writings to expand our understanding.

Grace Saves

Paul writes to the Ephesians:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

—Ephesians 2:8

But notice what surrounds that familiar verse:

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us… Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”

We were dead.

God made us alive with Christ.

Grace isn’t presented as God merely feeling favorably toward us.

God acted.

Grace Justifies and Redeems

In Romans, Paul writes:

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

—Romans 3:24

Grace is connected to justification.

Grace is connected to redemption.

Grace is centered in Christ.

Then Paul says:

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”—Romans 6:14

Notice the language.

Dominion changes.

And earlier in Romans Paul writes:

“…much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”

—Romans 5:17

Paul isn’t describing helplessness.

He speaks of:

abundance of grace,

the gift of righteousness,

and reigning in life through Jesus Christ.

Grace Works

Now return to 1 Corinthians, the same New Testament book from which we drew our opening chapter.

Later in 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul gives us something deeply personal:

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain… yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

That deserves to be read slowly.

Paul labored.

But Paul says:

Not I alone.

Grace was with him.

Grace was working through him.

The man who once persecuted the church could look at the transformation of his life and declare:

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Grace wasn’t merely something Paul could define.

Grace was something Paul had experienced.

Grace Empowers

Writing to the Ephesians, Paul says:

“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.”—Ephesians 3:7

Look at the words Paul places together:

Grace.

Gift.

Working.

Power.

Keep those words in mind.

We will see similar ideas when we return to Paul’s thorn in 2 Corinthians 12.

Grace Gives Sufficiency

Now we come specifically to 2 Corinthians.

This distinction is important because Paul’s thorn appears later in this same New Testament book, in 2 Corinthians 12.

Earlier, in 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul writes:

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

Notice the movement:

All grace abounds.

Sufficiency results.

Good work abounds.

Then, when we arrive three chapters later at 2 Corinthians 12:9, Christ tells Paul:

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

We should not make 2 Corinthians 9:8 prove something Paul does not say about the thorn in chapter 12.

But neither should we ignore Paul’s language.

Earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul has already connected abounding grace with sufficiency.

Then in 2 Corinthians 12, Christ speaks of sufficient grace, immediately followed by His strength, and Paul responds by speaking of the power of Christ resting upon him.

That gives us a pattern worth noticing:

Grace.

Sufficiency.

Strength.

The power of Christ.

We do not need to manufacture a connection beyond what Scripture gives us.

But neither should we overlook the connections Scripture actually gives.

Let context frame the text.

Grace Teaches

Then, writing to Titus, Paul tells us something about grace that we may not consider nearly enough:

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly…”—Titus 2:11–12

Grace teaches.

The word carries the sense of training, educating, correcting, and forming.

Grace does not merely rescue us from something.

Grace begins forming us into something.

And perhaps that gives us another way to read Paul’s own journey.

Because Paul wasn’t merely teaching others about grace.

Paul was learning too.

Paul Was Growing Up in Christ Too

Sometimes we read Paul’s letters as though the man who encountered Jesus on the Damascus road instantly became the fully mature apostle whose writings we now read.

His conversion was dramatic.

His transformation was undeniable.

But his formation was a walk.

Writing to the Philippians, Paul himself says:

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after…”—Philippians 3:12

Then:

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended…”

Paul encountered Christ.

Paul received revelation.

Paul learned.

Paul suffered.

Paul ministered.

Paul was corrected.

Paul depended upon Christ.

Paul continued pressing forward.

Conversion can happen in a moment.Growing up in Christ takes a walk.

And through the Spirit-inspired record of Paul’s walk, we get to walk alongside him.

His Classroom Becomes Ours

This pattern runs throughout Scripture.

In 1 Corinthians 10:11, Paul tells us concerning those who came before:

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition…”

And in Romans 15:4:

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning…”

We learn through Abraham.

We learn through Israel.

We learn through David.

We learn through the prophets.

We learn through Peter.

And we learn through Paul.

God’s dealings with His people were preserved so generations afterward could learn.

Through the Holy Spirit-inspired record of Paul’s journey, his classroom becomes ours.

And what is Paul teaching us to do?

Grow.

Grow Up Into Christ

Writing to the Ephesians, Paul describes ministry as bringing believers:

“…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

Why?

“That we henceforth be no more children…”

Instead:

“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”

—Ephesians 4:13–15

Then Paul says:

“But ye have not so learned Christ…”—Ephesians 4:20

And shortly afterward:

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind…”

—Ephesians 4:23

There is a progression here worth seeing:

Learn Christ.

Be renewed in the mind.

Grow up into Christ.

Christian maturity isn’t merely knowing more facts about Jesus.

We are learning Christ.

And as we learn Him, what we believe is confronted.

Our assumptions are confronted.

Our traditions are confronted.

Our interpretations are confronted.

Even beliefs we have carried for years may need to be brought back beneath the light of the Word.

Which brings us to Romans 12.

Present the Body. Renew the Mind. Think Differently.

Paul writes in Romans 12:1:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Notice that Paul does not separate Christian life from the body.

Our bodies are presented to God.

Our lives belong to Him.

But we should be careful not to make Paul’s words say more—or less—than he wrote.

Paul does not say here that physical sickness makes a body unacceptable to God.

Nor does this verse by itself promise perfect physical health.

His immediate emphasis is the presentation of our embodied lives to God in response to His mercies.

And Paul does not stop there.

Romans 12:2 continues:

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

And we shouldn’t stop there either.

Because Romans 12:3 says:

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly…”

Look at Paul’s movement:

Present the body.

Renew the mind.

Transform the thinking.

Grace is at work.

And notice how often Paul speaks about thinking:

Do not think too highly.

Think as you ought to think.

Think soberly.

Immediately after telling believers to renew their minds, Paul—speaking through the grace given to him—begins addressing how they think.

That is difficult to overlook.

Then Romans 12:4–5 moves into the body of Christ:

“For as we have many members in one body… So we, being many, are one body in Christ…”

And then Romans 12:6:

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us…”

Follow the movement:

God’s mercies.

Our bodies presented.

Our minds renewed.

Our thinking transformed.

One body in Christ.

Grace given.

Gifts expressed.Service begins.

This is not merely positive thinking.

This is transformation.

Rightly Dividing Means We Apply the Same Standard to Ourselves

There is something important we must acknowledge here.

If we’re going to question whether Christians have read sickness into Paul’s thorn in 2 Corinthians 12 when Paul never explicitly calls the thorn sickness, then we must be just as careful not to read our preferred conclusions into other Scriptures.

Otherwise we have merely traded one tradition for another.

That is why this principle matters so much:

Hold your beliefs up to Scripture, not Scripture up to your beliefs.

And that standard applies to all of us.

Including me.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Paul tells us:

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

So test this.

Test what you’ve been taught.

Test what I’m writing.

Test what you already believe.

And if something is true, Scripture will not be threatened by our examination of it.

Connect the dots.

Don’t manufacture any.

Let Context Frame the Text

Rightly dividing the Word requires us to resist building entire beliefs from isolated sentences.

Context widens.

There is the sentence.

The paragraph.

The chapter.

The letter.

The author’s other writings.

The New Testament.

The larger redemptive story.

And ultimately, Christ Himself.

Jesus demonstrated something beautiful on the road to Emmaus:

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”—Luke 24:27

Later:

“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.”—Luke 24:45

They had Scripture.

What they needed was understanding.

And Jesus connected the Scriptures around Himself.

That gives us a safeguard.

Keep Christ at the center and never lose the forest for the trees.

The Bible is not sixty-six disconnected books containing isolated theological sayings.

From creation through fall, covenant, promise, incarnation, cross, resurrection, ascension, the giving of the Spirit, and ultimately new creation, Scripture unfolds God’s redemptive story.

And Christ stands at its center.

Now Come Back to 2 Corinthians 12

After walking through Paul’s writings about grace, return with me specifically to 2 Corinthians 12:9:

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

What do we hear now?

Not what someone told us the sentence means.

Not what I tell you it means.

What has Paul himself taught us about grace across his writings?

Grace saves.

Grace justifies.

Grace accompanies redemption.

Grace changes dominion.

Grace abounds.

Grace works.

Grace empowers.

Grace gives sufficiency.

Grace teaches.

Grace forms.

In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul could say:

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Then, in 2 Corinthians 12:9, this same Paul records Christ saying:

“My grace is sufficient for thee.”

Christ continues:

“For my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

And Paul responds:

“Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Look at what surrounds the statement in 2 Corinthians 12:

My grace.

My strength.

The power of Christ.

And remember what we already encountered in 2 Corinthians 9:8:

Grace abounding.

Sufficiency.

Abounding unto good work.

Perhaps “My grace is sufficient” deserves far more than being reduced to:

“God said no.”

Maybe before asking what Christ was refusing, we should ask:

What was Christ providing?

His grace.

His strength.

His power.

Whatever conclusion we ultimately reach concerning the exact nature of Paul’s thorn, the passage directs Paul’s attention away from dependence upon himself and toward the sufficiency of Christ.

And something changes in Paul’s understanding.

He asked.

Christ answered.

Paul saw his weakness differently.

And then Paul declared:

“For when I am weak, then am I strong.”

We are watching Christ teach Paul.

And because the Holy Spirit preserved that encounter for us:

His classroom becomes ours.

Why the Difference Matters

Now perhaps we can see why this isn’t merely an argument over what Paul’s thorn was.

An interpretation can become a lens.

A lens can shape how we see God.

And how we see God influences how we approach Him.

If “My grace is sufficient” becomes:

“God may want me to remain defeated, and His grace will simply help me endure it,”

we will approach circumstances one way.

If instead those words turn our attention toward:

Christ’s grace, Christ’s strength, and Christ’s power,

we approach them differently.

That doesn’t mean Christians will never suffer.

Paul certainly suffered.

It doesn’t answer every question concerning sickness, healing,

persecution, unanswered prayer, or why circumstances sometimes

continue longer than we understand.

But neither should unanswered questions be allowed to make Scripture say something it never said.

Our faith does not rest in having an explanation for everything.

Our faith rests in Christ.

Jesus said:

“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”—John 14:9

So when an interpretation begins forming our understanding of God’s character, perhaps one of the safest things we can do is look again at Jesus.

What does Christ reveal about the Father?

And does the interpretation we have inherited fit within that revelation?

If something doesn’t seem to fit, perhaps that isn’t the moment to close the Bible.

Perhaps that is the invitation to go deeper.

Thirst Deeply Enough to Let the Word Renew Your Mind

Maybe this is what the journey has really been about all along.

Not Paul’s thorn.

Not winning a theological argument.

Not proving one Christian tradition right and another wrong.

But learning how to come before Scripture with a mind willing to be renewed.

Remember where we began, in 1 Corinthians 2.

Paul says:

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

—1 Corinthians 2:5

The Spirit searches:

“the deep things of God.”

—1 Corinthians 2:10

The Spirit helps us know:

“the things that are freely given to us of God.”—1 Corinthians 2:12

And Paul ends that chapter by declaring:

“But we have the mind of Christ.”

—1 Corinthians 2:16

Then in Romans 12:2, Paul tells us:

“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Those are different letters written in different contexts, and we should respect those contexts.

But together they reveal themes running through Paul’s writings:

The Holy Spirit teaches.

Grace teaches.

The Word gives light.

Our minds are renewed.

And we continue growing up into Christ.

That is the heart behind As the Deer Pants.

Thirsting deeply enough for the Word that we’re willing to let it renew our minds.

Not afraid to examine what we have believed.

Not afraid to say, Maybe I need to look at that again.

Not afraid to follow the Scriptures deeper.

Because maturity isn’t knowing everything.

It is continuing to follow Christ as He opens our understanding.

Like those disciples walking the road to Emmaus, perhaps our prayer should remain:

Walk with us, Lord.

Open the Scriptures.

Open our understanding.

Teach us by Your Spirit.

And when the Word challenges something we have always believed, give us enough humility to let it.

Hold your beliefs up to Scripture.

Not Scripture up to your beliefs.

Connect the dots.

Don’t manufacture any.