In 2 Corinthians 13:3-5 Christ is unveiled as the powerful One in the believers. Christ is not weak in us; He is powerful. He is the powerful One. This powerful One is actually the power of resurrection spoken of in Philippians 3:10. Christ Himself is the power of His resurrection.
In 2 Corinthians 13:3 Paul says to the Corinthians, “Since you seek a proof of the Christ who is speaking in me, who is not weak unto you but is powerful in you.” Christ is the One who speaks in the apostle to minister Himself to the believers. Christ was powerful in the believers while He was speaking in the apostle. This was indeed a strong and subjective proof to the believers that Christ was speaking in the apostle.
In 2 Corinthians 13:4 Paul continues, “For indeed He was crucified out of weakness, but He lives by the power of God.” When Christ was crucified, He was weak. No person who is strong can be crucified; for one to be crucified, he must be weak. Christ was crucified out of weakness, allowing His persecutors to do what they wanted. Yet now in resurrection Christ is not weak but powerful, because He lives by the power of God.
Christ was the almighty God, but when He was crucified, He was willing to become weak, and He became weak. For Himself, Christ did not need to be weak in any way, but in order to accomplish redemption on our behalf, He was willing to be weak in His body that He might be crucified. When He was arrested, tried, and crucified, He made no display of His power. Instead, He was weak to the uttermost. If Christ had not been weak, He could not have been arrested, much less nailed to the cross. Only one who is weak can be crucified. Now that redemption has been accomplished and Christ has been resurrected, He is no longer weak. Rather, after being resurrected, He now lives by the power of God.
Second Corinthians 13:4 goes on to say, “For indeed we are weak in Him, but we will live together with Him by the power of God directed toward you.” Paul came to the Greek believers “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). Paul did not display himself as a physically strong man while among the Greeks, who sought to be strong not only psychologically in their philosophy but also physically in their gymnastics. Paul’s bodily presence was weak (2 Cor. 10:10), and he was meek, lowly, and humble when present with the Greek believers. Hence, the Greeks, who desired to be great in their philosophy and athletics, looked down on the apostle. Yet the apostle told the Corinthian believers that although he was weak in Christ, he lived by the power of God directed toward the believers.
The apostles followed the pattern of Christ and were willing to be weak in the organic union with Him that they might live with Him a crucified life. Thus, they would live together with Him by the power of God directed toward the believers. Apparently, they were weak toward the believers; actually they were powerful. We are always taught to be strong, but we must learn to be weak. We are too strong in ourselves, in our natural man. We need to learn to be weak that Christ might be powerful within us.
In 2 Corinthians 13:4 Paul points out to the Corinthians that the apostles were weak in Christ. Through the organic union, they were one with Christ to be weak. The purpose for their being weak in this way was for the sake of the building up of the church. When the apostles came to Corinth, they did not come in a way of strength but in a way of weakness for the purpose of imparting Christ into the Corinthians and of edifying them, perfecting them, so that they may be built up as the Body of Christ. Actually, the apostles were not weak. Nonetheless, they voluntarily became weak and, according to verse 4, continued to be weak in Christ.
The phrase in Him in verse 4 is very important. Our concept is that to be in Christ is to be strong, not to be weak. Nevertheless, in this verse Paul says that we are weak in Him. Why are we weak in Christ? We are weak in Him in order to live a crucified life.
Moreover, for Paul to live by the power of God toward the believers means that he was powerful in his speaking to them. On the one hand, when we go out to preach the gospel to others, we should not display ourselves as physically strong persons; rather, we should be weak in Christ and be humble among them. On the other hand, when we speak to them, we should be powerful in an inward way, not in an outward way; that is, we should be strong in our spirit, not in our body, for it is through the spirit that we can gain people for the Lord.
In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says, “Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?” This verse indicates that Christ is in the believers through their faith. Here the faith refers to the objective faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19). If one is in the objective faith, he surely has the subjective faith, believing in Christ and the entire content of God’s New Testament economy. As long as a person has this faith, regardless of how big or little it is, he has Christ dwelling in him.