His Strength is Perfect

Meet Jerry Salley. You probably don't know his name (unless you're a real music geek). He's an American country and bluegrass singer-songwriter. You may not know his name, but you've probably heard one of his songs. In 1990 he won a Dove award for Inspirational Song of the Year for the song he co-wrote with Steven Curtis Chapman -- His Strength is Perfect.

Back in the day when I was a worship leader, I included that song in the church's repertoire. It sounds so right.

His strength is perfect when our strength is gone.
He'll carry us when we can't carry on.
Raised in His power, the weak become strong.
His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect.

Good stuff, really, but I noticed something. While the focus is (correctly) God's perfect strength, there is a subordinate message in there as well. The song says that His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. It says He carries us when we can't carry on. The implication here is that at the end of our strength, God kicks in, so to speak. We do what we can, and when we reach that limit, God does the rest.

I think that's how most of us think. I think most of us believe that we work as long and hard as we can and then God takes over. We have some ability, some gifts, some talents, some power -- and anyone who thinks these are sufficient for all we have to do is deceiving themselves -- but at the end of the day it's not enough. Thank God He has the strength to carry us to the end. That, however, is not quite what we see in Scripture.

Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), and, to misquote Martin Luther, "That's not a little something." Paul urged the Philippians to work out their salvation with fear and trembling not because they had the capability of doing so, but because "It is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil 2:12-13) Just the other day I came across a statement from Jesus that I've come across a hundred times and saw it there, too. He said,

Whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. (John 3:21)

Here Jesus is talking about two kinds of people. There are those who "loved darkness rather than the light." (John 3:19) Then there are those who come to the light. Only two. And Jesus says here that those who come to the light do so "in God", the same thought that Paul was offering.

Jesus said, "No one is good except God alone." (Luke 18:19) Therefore, any good that is accomplished, from believing to obeying (which, by the way, appears to be the same thing in Scripture -- see, for instance, John 3:36 or James 2:17) is accomplished by God in those who obey.

It leaves no room for boasting. It leaves no ground for self-satisfaction. It leaves no option of "my strength is good enough up to a point, and then He takes over." In the language of the song, "when our strength is gone" and "when we can't carry on" is from the start. On one hand, that concept diminishes us. On the other, it puts us squarely and securely on the shoulders of our God ... whose strength indeed is perfect and in whom indeed the completely weak become strong.