Enigma

e·nig·ma (noun) - a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand. Have you known someone who is an enigma?

The Apostle Paul can be enigmatic. He has a strange mix of humility and confidence in this one chapter. On the one hand, he says, “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me” (v. 4). Later in the chapter, he warns the Corinthians against their arrogance and tells them to instead imitate him (v. 16). Was Paul ignorant or arrogant?

Paul was not ignorant of his weakness: “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12.9). Nor was he arrogant, for he was acutely aware it was the power that made him strong. He was confident, but his confidence did not rest in himself at all.

While Paul says his “conscience is clear,” he quickly confesses that that does not make him innocent: “It is the Lord who judges me.” What makes us innocent? Only the blood of Jesus! When the Lord looks at those of us who have put our hope in Jesus, he sees only the righteousness of his Son. Once the sin is forgiven, it is... “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103.12).

Amen!