God’s Weakness

BySkip Moen, Ph.D.

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,  Romans 8:3  NASB

Weak – Oh, the pitiful Law!  It just couldn’t do what God wanted.  It was so inadequate to rescue us.  It did nothing but entice our mortal bodies to sin.

Is that what you were taught?  The “Law” couldn’t save you.  It only condemned.  Jesus got rid of it.  Now we’re free.  There’s only one small problem.  The Law is the embodiment of God’s own character, and the last time I looked, God isn’t weak, incapable, or incompetent.  The Reformation answer is that Christ did what the Law couldn’t do, but does that make any sense?  The Law isn’t a list of rules.  It’s an expression of God’s design for living.  It’s our opportunity to show God our love for Him.  As Paul himself says, the Law is holy, just, and good.  So why does Paul write this sentence?

Perhaps we can make some headway by considering the full range of meanings of the Greek term asthenḗs,  the root of our translation “weak.”  Stählin offers this:

  1. The first reference is to physical weakness, but in the NT weakness a. extends to the whole person, e.g., the “weaker” sex in 1 Pet. 3:7, Paul’s “unimpressive” appearance in 1 Cor. 2:3, the “weakness of the flesh” in Mt. 26:41; Rom. 6:19. It may then be b. a mark of the Christian (in contrast to God’s strength): God has chosen the weak (1 Cor. 1:26); Christ himself became weak (2 Cor. 13:3–4; cf. Heb. 5:2); weakness is a reason for joyful boasting (2 Cor. 11:30); God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:10). Yet weakness can be c. something that must be overcome, as in the case of the “weak in faith” of Rom. 14:1 and 1 Cor. 8:9, who are certainly to be protected by the “strong” (Rom. 15:1: the terms are perhaps party slogans), but who are still deficient in knowledge (1 Cor. 8:7), not having fully freed themselves from their pre-Christian past. Weakness also has d. almost the sense of “sin” in Heb. 4:15; 7:28; Rom. 5:6 (the “helpless” here being parallel to the “sinners” of v. 8).
  2. A special form of weakness is “sickness,” and the group is often used for this in the NT, e.g., in Jn. 5:5 (cf. Acts 28:9); Lk. 10:9; Mt. 10:8. Sickness is seen as a. the work of demons (Mt. 17:18; Lk. 13:11) or b. a punishment for sin (1 Cor. 11:30); Mk. 2:5–6; cf. Jms. 5:16; also Jn. 11:4 and 1 Jn. 5:16). The mighty works of Jesus include healings of sickness (Jn. 6:2; Mt. 8:17, quoting Is. 53:4). So do those of the apostles (Mt. 10:8; Acts 28:9), and later we find the laying on of handkerchiefs (Acts 19:12) and anointing with oil (and prayer) (Jms. 5:14, 16).
  3. Figuratively weakness can also have the form of “inner poverty” or “incapacity.” Thus we read of the beggarly elemental spirits of Gal. 4:9, the inability of the law to save in Rom. 8:3, and the apparent insignificance of some parts of the body in 1 Cor. 12:22.
  4. The weakness may finally be economic, i.e., “poverty,” as in Acts 20:35.[1]

In what sense does Paul use the term here in this particular verse in Romans?  Notice the counterintuitive dichotomy of weakness as helpless and weakness as God’s chosen path and the reason for joy.  Apparently weakness has a much deeper meaning than we usually assume.  What if Paul’s comment about the Law is coupled with God’s choice and the reason for joy?  Suddenly the weakness of the Law isn’t a bad thing at all.  In fact, it is the necessary factor that allows the glory of God’s plan to mature.  If God’s power is made perfect in weakness, then the weakness of the Law is a sign of perfection, not incapacity.

Furthermore, no orthodox Jew believed that the Law “saved” them.  Grace was always the necessary and sufficient condition of reconciliation with God.  The Law did not operate as a means of salvation.  It operated as a pointer to the character of God, a path toward holiness.  Sending the Messiah was not Plan B.  The Messiah did not come to correct a deficiency in the Law.  The Messiah came to call God’s people back to this pathway and secure the foothold of the Kingdom on earth.  Inability, incapacity and impotence were never attributes of the Law.  Weakness is God’s power.

Topical Index:  weak, asthenḗs, Law, Romans 8:3

[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (pp. 83–84). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.