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The Glory Of The Cross
2 Corinthians 12:1-10; Galatians 6:14
Ronald Tyler , PhD, Religion, Pepperdine University CA


Also, read:   2 Corinthians 11:16-33; 12:1-10; Galatians 6:14; and Romans 5:1-11

The apostle Paul suffered from some painful sickness called "a thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7).  Many proposals have been made as to what it was. Whatever it was, it was very troublesome to him. One wonders why such a thing had to happen to Paul. And whose fault was it – God or Satan? The surprising thing is that Paul says it came from both! Paul arrived at that judgment in three stages. Let us follow his reasoning:

Stage 1. He began by hating the suffering.

He hated, not merely because of the pain, but it got in the way of his preaching The Gospel. So he calls it a "thorn in the flesh." It is an expression describing pain that comes from having a sharp wooden stake driven into the body! He also calls it a "messenger of Satan" (2 Corinthians 12:7). It was the Devil's work to Paul. This was the way Jesus often described the work of the Devil as tormenting people. The miracles of Jesus sought to free many people from this. Paul knew this and he prayed to have this removed from him. Just as Jesus prayed time and again in Gethsemene for physical suffering to be removed, so Paul does the same here. It was the proper and appropriate thing to do. But that was not the end of it – only the start.

Stage 2. He came to understand that he did get an answer to his prayers.

It was not the answer he wanted, or that he expected. Here is what he says: "Concerning this thing, I prayed to The Lord three times that it might be removed from me" (2 Corinthians 12:8). He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My Strength is made perfect in weakness" (verse 9). "Most gladly therefore I will glory in my infirmities, that The Power of Christ may rest upon me" (verse 9-10).

Paul is saying that while suffering is terrible in itself, God may use it to enrich and strengthen lives IF faced in a certain way. And that does NOT mean a spirit of defeatist resignation or hypochondria, but facing it is: faith and love. (Romans 5:1-8)

Paul does not, as did the Cynic and Stoic philosophers of his day, dismiss the suffering as trifling and unreal – they were very real. Nor did he, as they, hold to the power of human self-sufficiency (Hang in there and you will succeed!). Rather, precisely by accepting his sufferings as real weaknesses – he is led to acknowledge his total dependence upon God. Then God's power worked through his weaknesses (and ours). It made Paul into someone he would not have been without the suffering. That is Paul's view of the 'answer' to his prayers.

Does that sound strange to you? Yes – but isn't it true to life? Sometimes it works the other way and a person becomes bitter and angry at God. When we can't get rid of the struggles and pain – faced in faith and love – God can use them to change us. Strength comes out of weakness (2 Corinthians 12:10). That was what Paul learned and that was stage two.

Stage 3. He came to believe that God sent this suffering upon him!

At the beginning he says, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh – the messenger of Satan – to keep me from being too elated. Context here. Who gave him this? God! God sent the pain to him as a gift and it was brought to Paul by Satan (2 Corinthians 12:7). And God affirms this (verse 9).

Paul is saying something profoundly true about the tragic realities of human suffering. There is something wrong with our lives, not to mention the world.  We are self-centered people (Romans 7). We are far from what God wants us to be. That has to be corrected and it can only be done in the midst of the real world in which pain, sorrow, and struggle occurs. And Paul thinks that the very hardships of life are the gifts of God (grace) for our redemption. (Romans 5)

Of course, joy and happiness are good things and we want and need them. And pain and sorrows are evil things from the Devil. But that is not the entire story we can learn from Paul. The sufferings are also God's instrument to save us from the Devil by changing us into people we would not be without them.

How did Paul arrive at such a profound view of dealing with tragedy and suffering? The answer to that is found in Galatians 6:14 where Paul says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." What drove Paul to the last stage about the ways of God in life was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That was the worst thing that ever happened!

People had been asking for centuries about all the terrible things in the world. And they wondered if there was any meaning in life and any God for that matter. Was the cross from God or Satan? It was filled with evil: jealousy of some Sadducees, betrayal by His apostle Judas, the hatred of the crowds shouting kill Him...and behind all that were the powers of darkness. The writers of the New Testament are clear here.

But that was not the entire story was it? The cross is also viewed as the greatest thing that happened in God's Plan. God was in Christ, not in some absent sense of being off in heaven while this happened, but being in Christ bearing the sins of the world. The cross becomes the defeat of evil, the victory of God's love, the redemption of the world. (The very word "cross" would mean punishment by gas chamber or gallows to us.) So Paul speaks of glorying in the cross.

Isn't that a word for us? Isn't it a reality that can fit the tragedies of life? To some of you, the "thorn in the flesh" may seem far away and to others it is quite near. The evening news makes us aware of the mess of life. When you are gripped by tragedy, when pain enters your life, rejoice that the Christian faith has something to say about it all (2 Corinthians 1:3-7, etc.). Thank God that the faith which has come down to us is one that faces the worst – that The Lord went down into the depths and endured the cross, and arose and proclaimed the victory and the glory in The Gospel (Romans 5).

Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that The Power of Christ may rest upon me. God forbid that I should glory, save in The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!


July 11, 2004

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