“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament. - 2 Cor. iii., 5.
n English minister was once travelling in the Highlands of Scotland, and, while dining at a village inn, he spoke to the girl who waited upon him about her soul. Finding her unsaved and indifferent, he asked her to make him one promise, that she would every day repeat these two simple prayers: “Lord, show me myself. Lord, show me Thyself.”
She made the promise, and they parted. Many years went by, and one Sabbath morning, at the close of his sermon in his church in London, a gray haired woman came up to him and asked to speak with him. She asked him if he remembered stopping once at a Highland inn and speaking to the girl that waited upon him, long ago, and then she told him how for months she mechanically repeated the promised prayer every night without feeling or expecting any result, and then how troubles came to her, and her own heart got wrong and things grew darker and darker, until, at last, she was in absolute despair. Instead of getting better she seemed to grow worse, until her own heart was a terror to her, and she seemed incapable even of a prayer. Then it suddenly flashed upon her that God had been answering her prayer and revealing, to her her own heart, and then she fell on her knees and cried: “Lord, Thou hast shown me myself, now show me Thyself.” And so, day by day, she prayed and looked away to Christ, until there began to rise before her heart the vision of one who had came to be the substitute for her, the answer for her sins, the remedy for her failures, the supply of her needs and the filling up of all her shortcomings and deficiencies. So that the more fully she had seen herself, the more perfectly it enabled her to understand the Saviour’s fitness and fulness for her need and nothingness, and now she had come, with the snows of years and the sunlight of heaven on her brow, to thank him for his word of benediction, and to tell him that his little seed by the wayside had borne most blessed fruit.
I.
Let us apply these two principles to the healing of the body. Paul begins this epistle with his physical experience of redemption. In the first chapter he tells us that he had just passed through a violent attack of illness, in which he was “pressed out of measure so that he despaired even of life,” and that he had even passed sentence of death upon himself - that is, that he gave up all hope of life through any conditions in himself. But just then, when his own hopes failed and he found all his resources INSUFFICIENT, then he found the Divine resources at hand to lift him up and restore him. Our trust was not in ourselves, he says, “but in God who raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, who doth still deliver, and in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.”
So again, in the fourth chapter, he tells us that this was his daily physical experience. “We have this treasure,” he says, that is the life of Christ, “in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us.” And again, “we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” That is, the natural life fails - INSUFFICIENT - the life of Christ takes its place, and so “OUR SUFFICIENCY IS OF GOD.”
Thus, in Divine Healing, we do not get always a strong body, but a strong Christ for a weak body, and His power is more wondrously displayed in so using and keeping an earthen vessel than if the vessel were made of gold or stone, and free, intrinsically, from frailty and infirmity
II.
Again, this is the principle of mental and spiritual power, life and blessing. “Not sufficient even to think anything as of ourselves,” is a pretty severe sentence upon a gifted brain and a trained intellect. It would be a good thing if some other brains could pass the same sentence on themselves, and cease from their own pride and self-confidence. Then God could teach them and Christ reveal Himself to them. Then we should be able soon to add: “Our sufficiency is of God who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament.”
This is also true of the spiritual life. There, too, we must come down to insufficiency before we can find His all-sufficiency. The story of the Bible is largely a story of failure. Adam fails, and with him the whole race, and then the All-sufficient comes in to save. Job breaks down under trial and confesses his self-abhorence, and then God becomes his vindicator and restorer. Israel completely fails under the old covenant, and then God gives the new covenant and guarantees to keep our hearts as well as His own promises and covenants. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” the Master says to the in-sufficient ones, “for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” It is by going down and giving up that we get where we can take Him for all. The measure of our grace is the depth of our conscious need. God has, therefore, to let us fail at every point to see our need of Him, and as each new testing shows a new need, we are ready to receive Christ in some new way and measure. Thus we are led on, step by step, as we are able, and at last we find that there is no place where the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be a perfect substitute for us. All we need is fully to see ourself, and then, over against it, Himself.
III.
The same principle applies to our circumstances. In the twelfth chapter, Paul gives us a section of his experience, and tells us how the circumstances grew too hard for him, and he felt he must have them changed. So three times he asked the Lord to remove the trial. But the Lord answered: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” That is, let the trial come, let the strength of nature fail to meet it, and then let the grace of Jesus be proved sufficient.
The pearl oyster sometimes receives into its tiny shell a sharp and irritating grain of sand. The most natural thing would be to try to throw it out. But this would only rasp and lacerate its sensitive flesh, and produce pain, disease and death. Instead of this, it throws out an exquisite crystalline fluid, with which it covers and smothers the rude obstruction, and makes it free from all friction and annoyance, until gradually the rough grain of sand grows into a beautiful pearl. So the Lord Jesus can meet the most trying circumstance with His grace and love, and so cover it over with His comfort and blessing that out of it will grow the most precious experience of our existence, and the very jewel and crown of our Christian life.
Shall we take that great Word today without rebate, discount or compromise, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” and answer back in victory and faith: “Yes, Thy grace is sufficient for me; I AM INSUFFICIENT, BUT CHRIST IS ALL-SUFFICIENT.” Yes, it is ALL-SUFFICIENCY. There is no need, there is no excuse, there must be no provision for failure. When Henry of England sent the Black Prince, his son, into the battle of Cressy, he stood off on a neighboring height with a large force of reserves, and said: “My son, you must win this battle; but if you feel that you cannot stand longer, signal to me, and all these legions will be at your side.” The very thought that his father and all those battalions were there was an inspiration worth twenty thousand men. The sight of yonder floating flag meant all sufficiency, and he fought as he had never fought before, and hastened at night-fall to lay his laurels at his father’s feet with a proud and beating heart. So, on yonder heights, He waits, all-sufficient and ever at your call. He will never fail you. O, let it nerve you for this conflict and change your wailings to shouts of praise and songs of victory. “Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ.” “The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom.” “God is able to make all grace abound so that we always having all-sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.” “We are not sufficient even to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” In His name we set up our banners. There are two. One trails in the dust: MYSELF - INSUFFICIENT. The other floats aloft: HIMSELF - ALL-SUFFICIENT. To Him be the glory forever and ever, Amen.