2 Chron. 26:15; 1 Cor. 1:27; 2 Cor. 12:9; Eph. 6:10, 3:16;
Col. 1:11
The great importance and value of weakness and conscious
dependence is what lies upon the face of these passages when
you bring them together. It almost looks like a contradiction:
"God chose the weak things…" — "Be strong…," "strengthened
with might…". It is always possible to place Scripture over
against Scripture and to make it represent a contradiction;
but Scripture never really does contradict itself. That must
be settled once and for all. The meaning of apparent
contradictions has to be looked for deeper down, and when the
real meaning is found, apparently contradictory Scriptures are
found to be perfectly in agreement. Here is one of quite a
number of those apparent paradoxes. If I were to put it in a
certain form the paradox would appear all the more acute. If I
were to say, weakness is right, and strength is right, and
they are both to exist together at the same time, you would
see how acute the seeming paradox becomes. Weakness and
strength nevertheless are both clearly represented as
according to God's mind, and are to be in the same individual
at exactly the same time. Weak, so weak that you can do
nothing! Mighty, strengthened with might so that marvelous
things are accomplished. A simultaneous consciousness, a
simultaneous experience, a simultaneous reality, and there is
no contradiction in it. You say, how can these things be? That
is simply confusing! It needs to be made clear.
We have said at times something about weakness, the necessity
for weakness, the importance of a kind of weakness,
dependence, consciousness of helplessness, and we have
immediately had thrown at us all those Scriptures about being
strong, with the intent to undo our argument, to destroy our
statement, to undercut our affirmation, as though the two
things could not go together in harmony. People have a strange
way of getting mentally tied up with Scripture in those
seeming contradictions, and it therefore becomes necessary and
helpful if we can understand the meaning of such seemingly
contradictory states as demanded by the Lord to co-exist at
one time in the same object.
The necessity for weakness is perfectly plain. Right through
the whole of the Scriptures, Old Testament and New, it is made
perfectly clear that God begins by undoing men and bringing
them down to a place of weakness and emptiness, that He really
does empty His vessels before He fills them. The Lord really
does break before He makes. The Lord does take away strength
before He makes His strength perfect in the same object. There
is no doubt about that whatever in reading the Word of God and
in studying the history of any instrumentality which has
served the Lord's purpose in any vital way. The necessity for
weakness and conscious dependence is so real as to come into
the realm of Divine value and to be of tremendous value and
importance to us and to the Lord.
Where then does this necessity begin? From whence does it
take its rise? It takes its rise from the desire of nature for
power and strength. Universally man by nature desires
strength, shall we say dislikes (that is a weak word)
weakness, revolts against weakness, desires power. That desire
is in us by nature. It would be difficult to find the person,
however insignificant he might seem to be amongst men and
women, who really naturally delights in being at a discount,
takes pleasure in being set at naught, unable to stand up to
others, to hold his own, to possess a measure of dignity. No,
that is not human nature, and very often even a feigned
humility is only a subtle way of trying to draw attention to
oneself, and thereby to gain an advantage. We have heard
people say boastingly that they were the most humble people in
the world, and that was simply self coming out in a form of
pride under the guise of a feigned humility. We should never
be able to track down every form of self life which in some
way or another expresses itself in the direction of wanting to
be strong, aiming at a kind of power, influence, standing,
holding one's own, keeping one's head up, and so on. That is
human nature.
The point is this, that in human nature as it is now, what we
call fallen humanity, the whole matter of power has been
subverted so that it has become a personal thing, and
thereby it has become an evil thing. God never meant man to be
an undignified grovelling worm in the earth. He meant him to
be noble, magnificent, the highest product of His hand, endued
with a great dignity, possessed of wonderful power and
strength and influence. But God intended all that for His
satisfaction, His glory, His honour, for Himself.
The whole thing has become subverted, and it has become a
nature of personal interests in some form or another, and that
is human nature as we find it now. It is only when the entire
self principle is broken that we can accept gladly a position
of being nothing for the Lord's sake.
Herein lies the secret of the necessity for weakness, that
man as he is has in him a subverted strength or quest for
strength. Back of that there lies that supreme Satanic
objective. The one dominating objective of Satan is power,
strength, dominion, and he put that idea, that suggestion,
into man, to be as God; that is, to have power in himself
apart from God. Man and Satan thereby came into the awful
fraternity of power-seekers for personal ends, and whether we
have that in our minds as our objective or not, our natures
have that as an objective in spite of ourselves. Even saints
discover that in their natures there is that tendency, and
that when God blesses, and marvellously blesses, there is that
evil enemy within the old nature which would take hold of the
very blessing of God and use it for self-glory; "he was
marvellously helped, till he was strong" (2 Chron. 26:15), and
took hold of the marvellous blessings of God as a means of
power, bringing him into prominence and carrying him even into
realms forbidden; that evil enemy within, which even in saints
marvellously helped and blessed of God, from time to time
rises up and becomes their undoing. It is the old thing over
again. Satan's supreme object, brought into the very
constitution of fallen man and manifesting itself ever and
always in that realm towards personal power, strength
for ourselves in self-interest.
This thing is so deep, so subtle, and so secret, that you and
I will never get to the bottom of it. You and I will never be,
as we say, up-sides with it. We shall never be able to lay our
hand upon it, to grip it, to comprehend it. It is too deep for
us; it is too subtle for us. The ways in which the desire for
strength shows itself are often so deeply subtle that it is
thought to be good and right or it is entirely unseen. It lies
back of more of the mischief, the havoc, the ruin, the
limitation even in the Lord's people than we are aware of. Oh,
the tremendous antagonism to the interests of the Lord found
in this nature of ours along the line of a desire for
strength; strength of various kinds, but strength.
The Cross and Human Nature
Herein lies the need then for weakness; weakening, breaking,
emptying. Only one with the full intelligence concerning the
depth and range of that thing could deal with it, and you and
I have not got that. The Lord knows the full range, and
comprehends the utter dimensions of that thing in humanity,
and it was Himself who went to the
Cross to take a fallen humanity to death. The Cross of the
Lord Jesus is something far bigger than ever we have
discovered, far more than we have any idea of. The depths of
our nature have been seen as we have never seen them, and
dealt with in that Cross. All the subtle forces which so
deceive us as to make us think that they are good, God has
seen their real nature and has taken all that of which we are
so ignorant to the Cross and has dealt with it, root and
branch, from centre to circumference. But we know that that
has a practical application, and therein is the necessity for
weakness in that realm, that even a mighty Apostle, with an
opened heaven and a voice from the glorified Son of God, a
chosen vessel before the world was, and all that he
represented of sovereignty and grace, must of necessity have a
stake planted clean through his flesh lest he become exalted
above measure, that is an indication of the Divine mind as to
the damage of a quest after power, which lies secretly within
the old creation, and which would show itself in spite of
consecration, in spite of abandonment to the Lord, in spite of
being willing to die, and die, and die again in the interests
of the Lord. You have no man more utter for God than Paul the
Apostle, a man who will demonstrate that he will die in the
Lord's interests; and yet there is a danger in him of the old
man, which God recognises. It was an eye-opener to him when
the Lord made clear to him why he must have that stake put
through his flesh. The thing is so subtle, it works so
secretly and it works in spite of all that we mean to be for
God. It works in the dark where we do not recognise it.
Therefore there is this tremendous necessity for God to make
the Cross a real thing continuously to the ending of that
thing, to the breaking, emptying and bringing of us to a state
of weakness and conscious dependence because of the tremendous
value of such a state to the Lord, standing over against the
tremendous injury to the Lord's interests bound up with such a
tendency, with such a trait in our characters.
The True Nature and Realm of Strength
There must be a word said on the other side. Just as truly
and equally with the necessity for weakness is there the
necessity for strength at the same time. Just as emphatically
are the words declared: "Be strong…", but what is the nature
of that strength? What is the realm of that strength? "Be
strong in
the Lord, and in the strength of his might",
(Eph. 6:10). That strength will never be in us as ourselves.
It will never be a part of us. It will always be retained and
preserved in the Lord, so that our relationship will always be
on the basis of faith's dependence. We shall never be able to
walk away with the Lord's strength as though it were ours, and
use it. "Be strong in
the Lord…"
The point is this, that there is a Man in whom all the might
of God can dwell without any danger. There is a Man in whom the power
of God can dwell in fullness without any danger. That Man is
in heaven. That Man is not here. The power of God cannot dwell
in us without danger. "…he was marvellously helped, till he
was strong." Oh, what a pity that word "till" had to come in.
It indicates such terrible possibilities. The issue in the
case of Uzziah was that the Lord smote him. A terrible change
in the story. It shows that it is not safe for us to take hold
for ourselves of God's strength, and God has put the Cross
there, where it can never be done. He can never allow it. If
we try it we shall be broken. We shall come up against the
great forbidding of the Cross. But God has found a Man. Yes, I
know He is more than a Man; He is God, He is the Son of God.
That is one side. We never confuse these two sides. But there
is the other side. He is Son of Man, and He is a Man in whom
the power of God can dwell in fullness without any danger.
That Man will never use that power for His own ends as apart
from the Father. You will never have any fleshly laying hold
of power on the part of the Lord Jesus. In Him there is none
of that subtle working of self which, even unconsciously, uses
Divine power and Divine blessing for itself. It is not in His
nature. It is in ours. The saintliest man on this earth has it
in him. He may be, all unconsciously, gratified that people
regard him as good, or as having experience. Oh, yes, it works
there in that realm. But here is One Who can have all Divine
power, and there is not the slightest trace in Him of anything
that would turn that power to personal account; therefore the
power can dwell in Him fully.
Two things are clear if that is the position. You can read,
if you will, that which will establish for you that it is what
God has done. Turn to Acts 17:31 — "Inasmuch as he hath
appointed a day, in the which he will judge
the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained…"
Who is that Man? Turn to 2 Tim. 4:8 — "Henceforth there is
laid up for me the
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give to me at that day…" Now turn back to Romans
2:16 — "In that day when
God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by
Jesus Christ."
The Man whom He has ordained for the judgment of the world in
righteousness, the Lord the righteous Judge at that day. Who
is the Lord the righteous Judge? Jesus Christ, the Man Whom
God has ordained! If you want further evidence, read the whole
of the fifth chapter of the Gospel by John. "And he gave him
authority to execute judgement, because he is a Son of man"
(verse 27, R.V.M.). There is the Man in whom all power rests
without any danger.
The two things are these. We are to be strong in the strength
which is in Christ Jesus. He is to be our strength. We shall
never have that strength in ourselves. It will never be our
strength intrinsically; not here at any rate; it is His
strength, and therefore it must be, on the one hand, so far as
we are concerned, continuous weakness, continuous dependence.
So far as He is concerned, He is our strength. What does Paul
mean when he says: "When I am weak, then am I strong"? That is
a contradiction, surely. In other words, he would say, when I
am weak, the Lord has an opportunity of showing His strength
in me! That is the kind of strength we want, and the Lord's
strength can only be made perfect when we are weak. If we are
strong, the Lord stands back and lets us get on with it, and
we use up our strength and soon come to a grievous end. "When
I am weak, then am I strong." The whole thing is reconciled
when you get down inside. Weak and strong at the same time?
Yes, but never strong in ourselves, only strong in the Lord.
There is this other thing. There is conformity to the Son of
God, opening up the whole process and progress through faith,
through dependence, through weakness, by which we come slowly
— oh, so very slowly — to the place where the Lord can
depend upon us, where the Lord knows we will not take His
blessing, His strength, His using of us and trade upon it for
ourselves, where He knows that we are becoming trustworthy,
with the trustworthiness of His Son, conformed to His image.
As that is so the power is more abundantly caused to rest upon
us. It is those who, most conscious of their own weakness,
exercise the greatest faith in the Lord as their strength, who
open a way for the Lord to make the greatest measure of that
strength manifest in them. The hindrance to the Lord's
strength in us is our own strength, so often. The way for His
strength is our weakness. So the Apostle said that he would
glory in weaknesses that the power of Christ might rest upon
him, might encamp upon him.
The Lord bring us into the reality of this glorious paradox.
First published in 1935 by "Witness and Testimony" Publishers