"The Power of Weakness" Part 3

The Power of Weakness

Part 3

   

   Regarding any attempt to supplant God, created beings must use the power He provides in order to foment rebellion against Him.

   "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

   

    Angels and humans would not exist apart from God's creative fiat - "All things were made by Him" (John 1:3).  They could not continue to exist apart from His sustaining determination - "By Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17).  Nor could they act without using the strength He provides for movement, whether inner motion of thought and decision, or outward activity of doing.  "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  All created beings must use the strength God provides for either trusting response to Him, or tawdry rejection of Him.  Thus, Lucifer's determination to believe that he independently possessed equal or greater ability than his Maker actually required the use of his Maker's provision of ability.  The devil rebelled using the life, movement, and being given by God as weapons against God.  

   This does not mean that the Lord determined Lucifer's rebellion.  God cannot Himself sin, nor can He cause or tempt others to do so (James 1:13-14).  His nature of perfect love and righteousness will not allow such contradiction.  "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works" (Psalm 145:17).  The devil's fall does, however, involve the misuse of God's good gifts as the very means whereby rebellion originated.  This speaks to the futility of such an attempt, and to the reason our Lord presently uses weakness as His primary weapon of countering the devil's lie.  The notion of attacking and overcoming God is absurd to an infinite degree.  The deception must be overcome, however, and it must be plainly revealed for its preposterous nature.  Thus, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence" (I Corinthians 1:27-29).

   This consideration provides the doctrinal and rational basis for our Heavenly Father's present mode of working in His creation.  Moreover, it reveals the reason for much of His seemingly strange way in our lives and walk with Him.  We are often tempted, as were the Jews of old, to desire the manifestation of the Lord Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords.  However, He still frequently comes to us in the garb of a servant, and even of a suffering servant.  "The sufferings of Christ abound in us" (II Corinthians 1:5).  The day will come for open revelation of Christ's absolute Lordship.  But this is not that day.  We rather live in the epoch wherein God reveals His strength in the power of weakness for the purpose of revealing once and for all the wicked futility of distrusting and disobeying Him.  Presently, He will part a Red Sea when necessary, revealing His obvious power.  More often, however, He purposes that we journey through the waters of life as they are, displaying His strength as made perfect in weakness (II Corinthians 12:9).  The way is far from easy, but born again believers are participants in Divine purposes that bear eternal implications and revelations of Truth.  Seeing our lives and all things in this holy light prepares us for the challenges to come, and even more, for the glory known in them…

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

(II Corinthians 12:9-10)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me"