Jesus Christ - the essence of all weakness

Therein lies the heart of the most staggering of all paradoxes: that the God of all power should lay down every hint of power and that He should empty Himself out so completely: “Christ... did not cling to his prerogatives as God’s equal, but stripped himself of all privilege” (Phil. 2:7, PHILLIPS). Furthermore, Christ willingly subjected Himself to the infinitely inferior “power” of fallen human beings, in order to save His creation and make love perfect once again. He took upon Himself all the evil and darkness that had accumulated through generation after generation over thousands of years - as well as the evil that continues to accumulate. Christ has absorbed, and is absorbing, everything that is not of God into Himself. He did this to set us free from the bondage of this inescapable cycle of sin and its vast, cumulative network of terrible consequences. He had a second, astonishing reason for doing it, and that was to enable us - through His own utter weakness - to enter into the “tremendous power” of Ephesians 1:19.

Much is preached and taught about the fact that Jesus died to save us from our sins and to enable us to enter eternal life. That is already a glorious gift. But let us not stop there. Let us press forward to believe and to appropriate the Word of God, which teaches us that we are empowered by God in order to bear lasting fruit.

Weakness - or non-power - was the distinguishing mark of Jesus’ entire life on earth. It is striking that the only occasions he used power were to help others. He never used it for His own benefit. On the contrary, He made Himself vulnerable to the most searing offences, insults, and humiliation from the very first day of His life on earth to His very last.

Jesus could reasonably have exercised supernatural power in Nazareth in a positive way - by healing people and performing miracles - in order to assert His dignity, assuage His hurt, and to try to gain His former neighbours’ respect. However, the measure of His self-emptying love is demonstrated in a most extraordinary way here. Instead of drawing on the supernatural power that was constantly available to Him, the King of kings chose to humble Himself under the consciousness of the people of Nazareth - for love does not force faith: “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matt. 13:58).

In order to live in the freedom that Christ purchased for us, and to experience His power, there is one key truth that we need to grasp: The greatest power emerges from absolute weakness. It is awe-inspiring to reflect on how utterly astonishing it is that the omnipotent God embraced the characteristic of weakness. Weakness is not, and has never been, an inherent part of the Godhead. It was for our sakes - for God’s love of humanity - that He took upon Himself a quality of being which is totally contrary to His holy nature. It was by taking on this quality of being that enabled Him to contravene His character and actually to become weakness on our behalf. He did this for the singular purpose of extinguishing weakness, and all the effects of weakness, for evermore.

How remarkable it is when our eyes fall upon the apostle Paul’s triumphant declaration: “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10b). Paul is a towering figure in the New Testament, with an impeccable religious pedigree and elite education. “Weak” was probably the least appropriate description of this man who took on the Roman Empire and ended up “turn[ing] the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). However, Paul knew that the secret of true power lay in absolute weakness. That is the paradox and the logic of the Cross. He had heard the Lord saying to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Rather than boast in his formidable, personal qualifications, Paul most gladly boasted in his weaknesses, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9).

This experience caused Paul to turn his life around completely. Instead of hounding and persecuting Christians and hating their leader, he became a passionate and devoted follower of Jesus Christ, enduring intense persecution for the sake of the gospel.

The all-consuming focus of Paul’s life is captured in a letter he wrote to the churches in Galatia: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20) and “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). Paul knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the source of all true power and love was, and is, exhibited at Calvary. There is an astounding paradox concerning the power that the apostle Paul promises is available to those who believe. The power that he describes in the letter to the Ephesian church is of “immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness” (Eph. 1:19, AMP). There is no power anywhere that can compete with it, come near it, or overcome it. Yet - and here is the paradox - the only way for us to access and experience that power is to take the diametrically opposite route. That is, we must not only relinquish all power, at every level of the outer and inner planes of our lives, but also willingly accept the weakest and the lowest state imaginable - and sometimes this may actually be beyond imagination. Another name for this power of all powers is love. Most astounding of all, however, is that we human beings have freely been given the direction, the means, and the ability to access and live our day-to-day lives in the flow of that immeasurable power. It is Paul himself who explains so clearly how we can step into that flow of immeasurable power, through understanding and appropriating what Jesus accomplished on our behalf on the cross. His teachings, contained in his letters to the different churches and church leaders, encompass the meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and its application to all those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ.

It’s only by embracing weakness, and letting go of all we’ve known up until now, that we can step into the unknown. There, we start to discover those things that “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard” (1 Cor.2:9). The wonders of God that are already established in the Kingdom - at a quantum level - ready to be brought into manifestation by the intention and proactive faith of believers. Yes! For we are God’s co-workers! (1 Cor. 3:9). It is more than astounding that Jesus waits for us to unite our hearts with His heart - proactively - in order to co-operate with Him and usher in His New Creation!

Weakness audio experience