The Wednesday Word ~ 11 March, 2026 A.D.

Without Strength!

by D G Miles McKee

 

‘Without strength’ is a literal description of our state apart from Christ  (Romans 3:12; Romans 5:6). We have no ability to save ourselves. We are utterly helpless! You may argue the point, but God won’t. In His mind it is perfectly clear. He says that we are so weak and destitute in our natural state that we cannot hear His words (see John 8:43) or even see His Kingdom (see John 3:30).

 

It is when we get a sight of our utter spiritual impotence that we realize Christ alone must be our salvation: if He doesn’t save us then we will not be saved.

 

It is those who are without strength whom the Lord saves.  In fact, so long as we think we have some strength to perform ‘the great act of faith’ we cannot be saved. H. Bonar remarks that it is when we find out that we have no strength we will cease to work and believe!

 

Remember how Jesus commanded the man with the withered arm to stretch out his hand? (See Mark 3). That man was thoroughly helpless, yet he was commanded to do the very thing which he couldn’t do--- the thing which Jesus only could enable him to do. Notice how the Lord did not tell him to do anything which might prepare him to have faith. The religious unbeliever, on the other hand, always tries to avoid the truth of his inability to get to God by his own efforts. He is a past-master at devising imaginary plans by which he assists God to save him.

The religious man always invents horrible little ladders on which he thinks he can climb from his wretched pit.  He hopes that God will take note of his efforts and he thinks when God sees his sincerity He will step in and help him. But this is sheer nonsense. He is like a child standing there pulling up hard on his shoelaces in the hope that he can somehow take off and propel himself through the air. We laugh at the child for we know that despite his sincerity and efforts he cannot defy the laws of gravity. Yet the child has more chance of “taking off” than the man, assured of his own strength, has of getting to heaven.  

 

Christ didn't save us because we were strong; He saved us in our utter weakness. Christ alone has provided for our inability, and it is only as we realize our continued lack of strength that we can receive the all-powerful help of God.  In fact, it is only as we know we continue without strength that we can now attempt great things for God for our strength is made perfect in weakness (II Corinthians 12:9).

 

Here’s the truth of the matter: until we come to terms with the extent of our weakness, we are in no condition to receive help from heaven.

 

If we do not see that we have no saving strength we will not believe correctly and our service will be very limited. He is the Creator; we are the creature and not vice-versa. He says we have no ability or strength to save ourselves. Believe Him on this one. We are past experts at expending our tiny stock of imagined strength in holding fast the ropes of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. 

 

We need Gospel strength which comes from resting on Jesus and His Finished Work!. We are not called to be strong in ourselves but are called to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10). This we will never do if we imagine we have strength to save ourselves (Romans 8:7-8). "Salvation is of the LORD"  (Jonah 2:9; Psalm 27:1).

 

Since our salvation does not depend upon our strength, but rather upon His, may we keep looking at Calvary and see the conquering Christ who has rescued us (see Psalm 121). It’s at the cross that we get our daily supply of Gospel strength. As Spurgeon said, “There’s no place like Calvary for creating confidence.”

 

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Putrid Cup of Tolerance: When Evil Poses as Progress

"Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked." -Psalm 97:10 [KJV] "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." Thomas Mann's chilling words pierce through the fog of modern moral relativism like a shard of ice. It's a warning that echoes through the blood-soaked pages of history, a truth we ignore at our peril. The Seduction of False Neutrality We live in an age where tolerance is held up as the supreme virtue, the golden idol before which we must all bow. We're told to accept everything, question nothing, and embrace a faux-unity that sacrifices truth on the altar of political correctness. But what happens when this tolerance becomes a blindfold, obscuring the stark reality of evil lurking in our midst? Like a ravenous wolf, evil doesn't care for our carefully crafted social constructs. It doesn't respect boundaries, it doesn't play fair, and it ce...
Read more

According to God's Good Pleasure...

"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." -Ephesians 1:4, 5 [KJV] It is a very solemn but a very true assertion, that no man can quicken his own soul; and it is an equally solemn, we might almost say, a tremendous truth, that the gospel only comes in power to those whom God has chosen unto eternal life.  Indeed the one flows from the other; for if no man can quicken his own soul, it necessarily follows it must be of sovereign grace that it is quickened at all. Once you allow the fall, and acknowledge that a man is by nature so thoroughly dead in trespasses and sins that he cannot raise himself up out of this state to newness of life, then the doctrine of election necessarily follows.   A living soul may reason thus: "Am I quickened? Yes. Di...
Read more

Christ Alone Be Magnified!

"He MUST Increase, but I MUST Decrease" -J OHN 3:30 [KJV] This was spoken of the Redeemer by His forerunner John. And it is not to be considered as the language of complaint or sullen agreement as if he would say, "I dislike it; but it is unavoidable. It is my grief; and I must bear it." No. It was as agreeable to his feelings as it was firm in his belief. And it showed a fine and a noble soul in John. The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy. We love to be distinguished above others. We wish to rise, even by the fall of others. It is trying, even to a good man, to withdraw, and see a successor filling his place better than himself, and, as the honors he has worn are transferred to another, to say, "He must increase, but I must decrease." It is not an easy thing to go down well, or for a setting star to exult in a rising sun. But it was thus to John. He knew his rank and approved his place. He was the servant, not the Master: the friend, ...
Read more