4Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Partnership in the gospel is what the apostle lays out for us. We serve God, and He makes us adequate for that service. Paul is supremely confident, therefore, that his ministry is and will continue to be life-giving. He is assured that he is serving the new covenant, and not the old (“the letter” or as the NLT renders this word, “the old written covenant”).
Christians have a continuous tension in this relationship between our abilities and God’s enabling. We can so easily place our confidence in ourselves and our skills, aptitude, and talents. The natural man (that is, the unbeliever) has all these things but fails to recognize that anything he has comes from God, for God is the Creator who endows each of His creatures according to His own determination. We (whether believers or non-believers) do not choose our own natural endowments. We may develop them, but no amount of study of art will turn one into a Michelangelo or Rembrandt if one doesn’t have the natural skill on which to build. Many people take great pride in themselves, as though their natural talent comes by their own rewardable efforts. That is like the boy who thinks himself better than his friends because his daddy bought him a fast car for his sixteenth birthday. All that means is that his father chose to spend his money like that; it says nothing about the teen’s ability to be fast, and it is certainly nothing he can rightly boast about.
Paul has absolutely zero confidence in his ability to do the work to which God has called him. Yet at the same time he feels completely adequate because he knows God is working in him to make him adequate. We need to learn this from him. On the one hand, we cannot fall to the temptation that God uses us because of our intelligence, talents, or good looks. If we have any of these things, they come from God naturally. If we have any spiritual gifting, these too are God’s special equipping and nothing we can have confidence in apart from God. We should never fall to the temptation of boasting in ourselves, the most ridiculous and vacuous activity on earth.
On the other hand, we can rest assured in what God has called us to do and not shrink back—for He has made us more than adequate. To be sure, there are others more intelligent, talented, and better-looking. But He has made you for the task He has givenyou to do.
Lord, thank You for making me adequate. Help me serve You with confidence.
0 Comments