‘Inadequate’

“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”   (2 Cor. 3:1-6)

     The Apostle Paul had to constantly defend his apostleship, and here he points to the Corinthians themselves as proof of his apostolic calling.  Their conversion in response to his gospel proclamation was evidence of the genuineness of his gospel ministry.  The line that stands out to me is verse 5 - “Not that we (apostles) are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,...”.  Paul, the Apostle, is expressing a sense of inadequacy to faithfully carry out his call.  Can you identify with Paul?  I certainly can.  The older I get the more inadequate I feel to faithfully follow Christ.  I’ve become more aware of my flaws and failings, and yet, there’s a deepened devotion to Christ. 

     I don’t think this conflicted condition is unique to me, probably most of us feel quite inadequate to faithfully carry out the call of God on our lives.  In fact, this ambivalence was expressed by the Apostle Paul.  Not only did he feel unworthy to preach the gospel, he also understood this sense of inadequacy to be an essential element of the Christian’s self-awareness.  When combined with a passion for the gospel this sense of inadequacy actually serves to amplify God’s glory and the profound nature of his grace. 

Inadequacy 

     What I’d like to do is have us think about this idea that Christian life, rightly understood, always embodies a profound awareness of personal inadequacy and a compelling devotion to Christ and the gospel.  Let me draw your attention to a few lines of text written by the Apostle Paul - “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you (2 Cor.4:7-12).”  In this passage human inadequacy is presented in bold print.  The language Paul uses is strong - “...we have this treasure (the revelation of the glory of God in Christ, Apostolic ministry, and the empowering of the Holy Spirit) in jars of clay,...”  This metaphor is quite striking.  The gospel has been entrusted to flawed and fragile men.  There’s nothing impressive about the men themselves.  They weren’t inherently capable of preaching the gospel in a persuasive way, and they weren’t sufficient in themselves to establish the Christian church in the pagan and hostile environment of Rome.  It appears that God did this intentionally in order to “...show that the power belongs to God…” and not to the apostles.  This is the nature of Christian ministry and Christian life.  God by his grace redeems the weak, the broken, the unattractive, and the incapable and uses them to bring glory to himself.  The kingdom of God is structured in such a way as to direct all the attention and all the praise of man to God alone.

Devotion  

     It appears that there’s a Christ-honoring dynamic created when this sense of inadequacy and dependance on God is combined with a sincere devotion to Christ.  The devotion of the Apostles, demonstrated by their daily dying to personal ambitions, served to produce spiritual life in others - “So death is at work in us, but life in you (v.12).”  This is the way true gospel ministry works, and yet it’s often discounted and neglected in the church today.  We’ve tried to replace sacrificial service with marketing strategies and what we consider a more applicational and appealing packaging of the gospel.  But this produces a less thoughtful and a more shallow kind of Christianity, one that’s not substantial enough to transform and sustain us, when we’re confronted with the harsher realities of life.  Christian life can be challenging and tough.  

     Only the radical call of the gospel to true repentance and deep devotion to Christ - to a devotion that kills us and redirects our affections and reorders our ambitions - works true spiritual life in others.  It’s a devotion to Christ that causes us to become, as Oswald Chambers describes it, ‘broken bread and poured out wine’ in the service of others.  Loving Christ supremely and loving one another sacrificially is the final apologetic.  There’s something very impactful about someone who is self-forgetful and deeply devoted to Christ.  Is this you?....feeling inadequate, so aware of your failings; and yet, moved by spiritual longings and a deep desire to faithfully follow Christ.