Our Sufficiency Is From God

“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God…”

Here is a verse that is so out of step with prevailing evangelical thought today. Many today believe that we are sufficient in and of ourselves. The evidence that we are sufficient as a country is strong. We have everything we need: everything at hand and at our disposal. We lack nothing. As a people, however, generally speaking, we are far from manifesting this kind of sufficiency. We claim it, but the evidence is to the contrary. We are morally bankrupt as a nation, both in terms of government and people. Frankly, we know that it is not possible for a government or a people to recover from moral bankruptcy without divine intervention. Sometimes God leaves a people to their own devices as a form of judgment. Ultimately, however, government by the people for the people will let the people down.

But here in 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is concerned that Christians themselves understand that they are not sufficient. He specifically states that we are not “sufficient in ourselves.” Paul wrote 2 Corinthians because false teachers who claimed to be apostles had entered the church. They promoted themselves and discredited the Apostle at the same time. They questioned his apostleship. So Paul has to go to great lengths to refute them and assert his own apostolic authority. In doing this, he has to also defend the integrity of his character and his motives. Paul did not find this easy because so often he felt as if he were boasting about himself (which was something utterly abhorrent to him), yet it was necessary. He had to establish his credentials. This is all the more remarkable since he founded the Corinthian church, and the Corinthians knew him well. There is nothing more painful than having to revisit previous established authority to prove existing authority. You can see this in 2 Corinthians 3:1 when he writes: “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?” The trouble was that having stressed his sincerity toward the Corinthians, his detractors would probably seize on his statements and twist them to prove that Paul was arrogant. When Paul says “as some do” in verse 1, he is referring probably to those false teachers who needed letters of recommendation, whereas he did not. This should have alerted the Corinthians to the fact that Paul really did love them and care for them, and the false teachers did not. False teachers never have the interests of others at heart. They do what they do for self-gain and self-promotion. They are cut-throat. They are self-sufficient.

In 1 Corinthians 4:16 and 11:1, Paul had urged the Corinthians to be imitators of him. Paul can urge this, because he was imitating Christ. The idea that Paul would need recommendation or even self-commendation was preposterous (2 Cor. 4:2; 5:12; 10:12). He was well known among the Gentiles, and the Corinthians held a special place in his heart. The Lord had urged Paul to stay in Corinth and continue preaching the Word because God had many people in that city: “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.’ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:9–11). As far as Paul was concerned, the Corinthians were his letter of recommendation. It was not a letter written with pen and ink, but rather it was a letter from Christ engraved on the human heart by the Holy Spirit (vv. 2, 3). Paul is speaking of their genuine conversion to Christ. It was real, because it was done by God, and not by them. Much teaching about salvation today is synergistic—God does his part and I do mine. Some even believe that they do it all.

Augustine has a beautiful response to this kind of thinking in his work On the Predestination of the Saints,when he refers to 1 Corinthians 4:7: “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (NPNF, First Series, Vol. 5, III. 7–12, pp. 500–504). He used this verse to prove that if all that we have received is from God how can we boast or say that it is from ourselves. He is referring to saving faith. Faith is the gift of God; it is not from us (Eph. 2:8–10). We have received faith, and this must be true since Paul says “what do you have that you did not receive.” We have it because we have received it. It did not come from us. God gave it to us. Anything that comes from me, I can claim sufficiency for, but if it did not come from me, how can I claim sufficiency for it?

The Apostle Paul always directs our minds and hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. He always focuses on Jesus’ Lordship and work of salvation. This work of salvation is not theoretical; it is real. In 2 Corinthians 3:3, Paul says that the work of salvation was done by “the Spirit of the Living God.” This stresses the reality of the Corinthians’ salvation. It was done by the Living God, the active, self-sustaining God. Now the interesting thing about Paul’s statement is that you have to connect it to where the Corinthians came from. Their background was thoroughly pagan. They believed in idols: “the gods.” There are no living idols (1 Cor. 8:4; 12:2). So a pagan ultimately is trusting in nothing, or to put it another way, he is left only with himself. Any sufficiency is, therefore, his or hers. So any synergistic effort, any co-operation in salvation, is pagan. Paganism is ultimately the elevation of self toward godhood. Thus the Christian Church finds itself today propelled by pagan thinking. Christ is really not enough. Perhaps this accounts for the many moral failures that the Church has. Marriages are on the rocks, families are broken and personal lives are destitute of spiritual power and vigor. This is the legacy of the Church at present. It all comes back to what you think about Christ. In verse 4 Paul says: “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.” Paul has better hopes and higher expectations for the Corinthians because his confidence is in the Lord Jesus. It leads on to God the Father himself. If Jesus is sufficient, and Paul is confident that he is, then God is also. Paul is never going to claim anything for himself. He knows that all glory belongs to God. His confidence is such that he claims he has no sufficiency in himself, but rather it is in God. Confidence in God leads to no confidence in self, because God never shares his glory. When we claim sufficiency in ourselves, we take away from God and his glory. In this way we reduce God to a God of our own devices, who is, therefore, not God.

The remarkable thing about the sufficiency of God is that it makes us competent to serve him. That’s what Paul says in verse 6: “…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.” Our service will be by the power of the Spirit. It will be vital and alive. Paul’s confidence and competency is from God and is directed to God. This places Paul in the place of worship. Self-sufficiency is self-service. Sufficiency from God equips us for service for God. Paul’s confidence is in Christ because he knows who Christ is. True worship acknowledges that all we are and have has come to us from our God, and is not from ourselves. What do we have that we have not received? It was God who told Paul: “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). God’s sufficiency is our power to serve and worship. What a mighty God we have and serve.