My Grace Is Sufficient: What Was Jesus Actually Revealing to Paul?

In the previous article, Paul’s Thorn: Have We Made It Say Something It Never Said?, I asked a very simple question.

When Paul asked the Lord three times that the thorn might depart from him, Jesus answered:

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

—2 Corinthians 12:9

Where is the “No”?

What if we have spent generations reading refusal into a passage that is actually revealing provision?

I believe that question deserves another walk through the Scriptures.

Because perhaps we have concentrated so much attention on Paul's thorn that we have missed the deeper revelation Christ was giving Paul about grace.

Something Changed in Paul's Understanding

Look carefully at the movement in the passage.

Paul begins here:

“For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.”

—2 Corinthians 12:8

But after Christ answers him, Paul says:

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

—2 Corinthians 12:9

And then:

“...for when I am weak, then am I strong.”—2 Corinthians 12:10

Something changed.

Paul went from asking for the thing to depart to gladly glorying in his weakness because he had come to understand something about the power of Christ.

What did Paul understand?

Jesus had said:

“My grace...”

“My strength...”

And Paul responded:

“The power of Christ...”

Then:

“When I am weak, then am I strong.”

There is movement here.

My inability → His sufficiency.

My weakness → His strength.

My limitation → His power.

Perhaps Christ's answer wasn't primarily revealing what Paul would have to live without.

Perhaps Christ was revealing what Paul already had available IN Him.

Follow Paul's Own Words

We don't have to leave the surrounding chapters to begin seeing this.

Before Paul ever tells us about the thorn, he says:

“If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.”

—2 Corinthians 11:30

Then, after describing the thorn and Christ's answer, Paul writes:

“Therefore 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

Notice what surrounds Paul's language of weakness.

Reproaches.

Necessities.

Persecutions.

Distresses.

And in the previous chapter he had already described imprisonments,

beatings, stoning, shipwreck, dangers, weariness, hunger, thirst, and sleeplessness.

Paul was certainly acquainted with human limitation.

There were circumstances he could not overcome through human strength alone.

But Paul's revelation wasn't:

“I am weak, therefore I am defeated.”

It became:

“When I am weak, then am I strong.”

Why?

Because Paul had learned where his strength actually came from.

What Does Sufficient Grace Do?

Sometimes we hear the phrase “My grace is sufficient” almost as though grace were God's consolation prize.

As though Jesus were saying:

I am not going to change anything, Paul, but I will give you enough grace to tolerate it.

But is that how Paul understood grace?

Listen to what he says elsewhere:

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

—1 Corinthians 15:10

Paul labored.

Yet Paul says:

“Not I.”

It was:

“the grace of God which was with me.”

Grace was not passive.

Grace was working.

And Paul expresses the same dependence elsewhere:

“Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”

—Colossians 1:29

And again:

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”

—Ephesians 6:10

Not strong in ourselves.

Strong in the Lord.

That changes the way I hear Christ's words:

“My grace is sufficient for thee.”

Maybe sufficient shouldn't make us think barely enough to survive.

Maybe we should hear what Paul appears to have heard:

Christ is enough.

His grace is enough.

His strength is enough.

His power is enough.

My inability does not determine His ability.

But Understanding Matters

And this is where I believe the issue becomes much larger than Paul's thorn.

We can possess the words of Scripture and still need our understanding opened.

That happened to two disciples walking toward Emmaus.

Jesus Himself came alongside them, yet they did not recognize Him.

Rather than simply telling them what to believe, Jesus began walking them through the Scriptures:

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

—Luke 24:27

Later they said:

“Did not our heart burn within us... while he opened to us the scriptures?”

—Luke 24:32

And Luke later tells us:

“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.”

—Luke 24:45

They had Scripture.

But something happened when Scripture was opened.

Understanding followed.

The Psalmist describes something similar:

“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”

—Psalm 119:130

The Word enters.

Light comes.

Understanding grows.

And that matters because Jesus said:

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

—John 8:32

Truth isn't given merely so we can accumulate information.

Truth brings freedom.

What If Our Understanding Needs Correction?

This requires humility from all of us.

Scripture says:

“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.”

—Proverbs 9:9

A wise person remains teachable.

Growing in Christ doesn't mean reaching the point where nothing we believe can ever be questioned.

Quite the opposite.

Paul told Timothy:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

—2 Timothy 2:15

Why would Scripture tell us to rightly divide the Word if it did not matter how we understand it?

And a few verses later Paul says:

“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil...”

—2 Timothy 2:25–26

Notice the movement again.

Instruction.

Repentance.

Acknowledging truth.

Recovery from a snare.

Truth matters because deception binds.

Truth brings freedom.

And that is why understanding Scripture correctly matters so deeply.

Let Scripture Correct Us

Paul then tells Timothy something foundational:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

—2 Timothy 3:16–17

Scripture doesn't merely comfort us.

It teaches us.

It reproves us.

It corrects us.

It instructs us.

Sometimes correction means discovering that something we have heard repeated for years isn't actually what the passage says.

Sometimes the Word has to correct our interpretation before it can transform our understanding.

And that standard applies to everyone.

Including me.

That is why Paul gives us this simple instruction:

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

—1 Thessalonians 5:21

Don't believe something merely because it is familiar.

Don't reject something merely because it challenges what you have always believed.

Test it.

Open the Word.

Rightly divide it.

Allow Scripture to correct Scripture as you have understood it.

And hold fast to what is good.

Growing Up Into Christ

Why does all of this matter?

Because God hasn't called us merely to collect doctrines.

He has called us to maturity in Christ.

Paul writes:

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

—Ephesians 4:15

That is the destination.

Truth.

Love.

Growth.

Christ.

And perhaps that is another reason we need to be willing to revisit passages like Paul's thorn.

Not so we can prove someone else wrong.

Not so we can win a theological argument.

But because we want to grow up in Christ.

If I have misunderstood something, I want the Word to correct me.

If tradition has added something to the text, I want the Word to expose it.

If my own reasoning has manufactured a dot Scripture never placed there, I want the light of God's Word to reveal it.

Because I don't want to defend what I have always believed.

I want to know Him.

Come Walk Through the Scriptures

That picture of Jesus on the Emmaus road continues to stay with me.

Jesus walked alongside those disciples.

He opened the Scriptures.

Understanding came.

And eventually they saw Him more clearly.

Perhaps that is a beautiful model for how we should approach Scripture ourselves.

Open the Word.

Rightly divide it.

Test what we have been taught.

Allow Scripture to teach, reprove, correct, and instruct us.

Receive the light it gives.

Grow in understanding.

Hold fast to what is good.

And above all:

Grow up into Christ.

So come walk with me.

Not because I have every answer.

But because I believe the One who walked the Emmaus road still desires for His people to know the truth.

And when the Scriptures are opened, the light begins to shine.

Maybe then we can return once more to Paul's words and hear them without automatically inserting something Jesus never said:

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

Not:

“No, Paul.”

But perhaps an invitation to understand something far greater:

“My grace.”

“My strength.”

“My power.”

And Paul's understanding changed enough that he could finally say:

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

Maybe the deeper question was never simply whether the thorn would leave.

Maybe the revelation was discovering Who was sufficient when Paul was not.