“Weakness is the Way”
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
One of the best book titles on the Christian life I have ever heard was the book by J. I. Packer called, Weakness is the Way. The subtitle expresses even more truth, Weakness is the Way: Life with Christ as our Strength. Having said that I don’t recommend the book. Not because it contains false teaching, but because it is quite boring. I love many of J. I. Packer’s books including Knowing God and Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Many years ago, I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Packer speak at a conference in Florida and it confirmed to me that his calling is as an author and not a speaker!
That aside, the title to this book is so profoundly deep yet simple. In one phrase he was able to encapsulate the entirety of spiritual growth in the Christian life. What an astounding realization when I came to understand that the Apostle Paul was not a strong man, but a profoundly weak one. He was translated to the third heaven which could have stirred up pride, so God gave him a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble. In 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 he responds to this thorn in the flesh. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
There is a fascinating aside where God gives Paul a thorn in the flesh through the agency of a demon under the leadership of Satan showing God’s absolute sovereignty in all things. But that is not what I want us to focus on today. Notice when Paul prays for this thorn to be removed from him that God says no. The reason he gives is weakness is the way. It is God’s strength through manifested in our weakness that glorifies God. We become mature through God’s grace in our weakness.
Becoming spiritual mature is not like lifting weights. When you lift regularly over time you become stronger and the more you work out the more strength you have. We think that the spiritual life is like that. The more I read my Bible, pray, worship, serve, and give the stronger I become to fight temptation. But Paul tells us that weakness is the way. The more mature a believer is, the quicker he realizes he is weak and runs to Jesus for strength. This means that maturity is humble, recognizing how impotent we are to live the Christian life in our own strength and fight against temptation. Spiritual disciplines fill our minds and heart with truth, but they are intended to turn our hearts away from ourselves towards humble dependence upon the Lord. They stir our heart to experience the love of our Father and respond in reciprocal love which causes us to rely on him more.
Packer died five days before his 94th birthday. When Packer was 7 years old, he was chased out into the street by another student and was hit by a car. The doctors thought he might be permanently brain damaged. He lived his life with an ongoing sense of weakness. At the end of his life, he shares how aging has disabused him from any illusion of strength he might have had as a younger man. This ongoing weakness is what inspired Dr. Packer to write the book, Weakness is the Way. The book is not the most interesting I have ever read, however the principle he articulates is one of the most profound truths of the Christian life. Check out the video:
