From Genesis to Revelation - The Cross

By David Wyper

When I read something in the Old Testament, I can be sure that it is confirmed under the finished work of Christ at the Cross, in the New Testament. God is the same from Genesis to Revelation. His plan of victory for us, and over all evil, was established before the foundations of the Earth were laid.

Take Job, for example, a man of righteousness who was shown wonderful things by God. Satan, we know, was allowed to attack this man unmercifully. Job, in fact, was hit with at least a dozen "thorns in the flesh", but was still, by faith, able to proclaim, "I know that my Redeemer lives." Job cried out countless times to God for mercy and grace and was finally delivered from all the attacks of the Devil. All that Job lost was restored, and more.

Now Paul, also shown many wonderful and marvelous things by God, was also buffeted by Satan. God allowed this, too. The outcome would be the same. Paul, now having seen the manifestation of Christ's finished work, would be set free, as well.

We, however, are taught to believe that Paul must live with his "thorn" for the rest of his life. Being under Satan's threat, he better keep his mouth shut. God's grace is sufficient, we solemnly repeat. Sometimes this becomes an excuse for things in our own lives that, without apparent victory, we can say, "This must be my thorn."

Paul, unlike Job, cried out to God a specific three times (maybe for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) for victory over what was in his flesh. And Paul, like Job, was delivered and set free, receiving the perfected strength of Christ in place of his own weakness. That's why Paul proclaimed confidently that he would much rather be in his weak, submitted state so that the perfected strength of Jesus Christ would be manifest against the Devil's work. Truly, this is the grace of God at work. Blessed is the one who is poor in spirit, mournful and meek, for he will gain Heaven, be comforted and inherit this very earth.

Like Job, Paul proclaimed his victory over Satan through the finished work of the Cross. When he went back to Galatia, Paul said that the infirmity that was with him when he first preached the Gospel there, that "the temptation which was in my flesh", was not held against him, and was gone.

If Paul was not fully and completely delivered from the his thorn, placed in his flesh by God's enemy, I would then have to assume that the thorn was, specifically, amnesia. Paul would have to forget everything he was ever taught or would teach about the Cross.

Listen to the song, No Thorns, on my Peace In The Valley album and you’ll hear this teaching.