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In this message we will begin to consider aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ as revealed in 2 Corinthians.
Second Corinthians 1:5-6 reveals Christ as the source of the apostles’ comfort. “Even as the sufferings of the Christ abound unto us, so through the Christ our comfort also abounds. But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comforting and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comforting, which operates in the endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer.” In verse 5 Paul speaks of the sufferings of the Christ. Here sufferings does not refer to sufferings for Christ; rather, it refers to Christ’s own sufferings as shared by His disciples (Matt. 20:22; Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24; 1 Pet. 4:13). Furthermore, the Christ is a designation of the condition of Christ; it is not used as a name (Darby). In this verse it refers to the suffering Christ, who suffered afflictions for His Body according to God’s will. The apostles participated in the sufferings of such a Christ, and through such a Christ they received comfort. According to 2 Corinthians 1:6 and 7, all their affliction and comfort were for the comfort of the believers.
The apostles were full of comfort, and the source of their comfort was Christ. As the sufferings of Christ constantly abounded unto Paul and his co-workers, so through Christ their comfort also abounded for the comfort of the believers who endured Christ’s sufferings. Today we may enjoy Christ as such a source of comfort that we may abound in comforting others.
In 2 Corinthians 1:19-20, Christ is presented as the Yes and the Amen.
In 2 Corinthians 1:20 Paul says, “As many promises of God as there are, in Him is the Yes; therefore also through Him is the Amen to God, for glory through us to God.” Christ, whom the faithful God promised and whom the sincere apostles preached, did not become yes and no, did not change, because in Him is the Yes of all the promises of God, and through Him is the apostles’ and the believers’ Amen to God for His glory. Christ is the Yes, the incarnate answer, the fulfillment of all the promises of God to us.
The Christ whom Paul ministered to the saints is not yes and no. The Christ he ministered is always the Yes. He is also the Amen in the universe. The Amen in verse 20 is the Amen given by us through Christ to God (cf. 1 Cor. 14:16). Christ is the Yes, and we say Amen to this Yes before God. The phrase for glory means “for the glory of God.” When we say Amen before God to the fact that Christ is the Yes, the fulfillment, of all the promises of God, God is glorified through us. Christ is the great Yes and the universal Amen.
Us in 2 Corinthians 1:20 refers not only to the apostles, who preached Christ according to God’s promises, but also to the believers, who received Christ according to the apostles’ preaching. Through us there is glory unto God when we say Amen to Christ as the great Yes of all God’s promises.
In 2 Corinthians 1:17-18 Paul says, “This therefore intending, did I then use fickleness? Or the things which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there should be Yes, yes and No, no? But as God is faithful, our word toward you is not yes and no.” Here Paul indicates that he did not use fickleness; he did not change from yes to no and from no to yes. Moreover, he defended himself and his co-workers by saying that God is faithful so that the word of their preaching was not yes and no. Hence, neither were they fickle persons of yes and no. Their being was according to their preaching. They lived according to what they preached. The word of the apostles’ preaching in 1:18, that is, their word toward the Corinthians, was their message concerning Christ (v. 19).
Second Corinthians 1:17-18 indicates that Paul was one with the faithful God. He was the same as God in being faithful. His word toward the Corinthians, the word of his ministry, was not yes and no. Paul did not change his tune. From the first time he came to the Corinthians until the writing of this Epistle, his preaching sounded the same note. There was no change at all in the word of the ministry.
In verse 19 Paul continues, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you through us, through me and Silvanus and Timothy, did not become yes and no, but our word has become yes in Him.” For introduces the reason for what is mentioned in the preceding verse. God is faithful, never changing, especially in regard to His promises concerning Christ. Hence, the word the apostles preached concerning Christ was likewise never changing, because the very Christ whom God promised in His faithful word and whom they preached in their gospel did not become yes and no. Rather, in Him is the Yes. Since the Christ whom they preached according to God’s promises did not become yes and no, the word they preached concerning Him was not yes and no. Not only their preaching but also their living was according to what Christ is. They preached Christ and lived Him. They were not men of yes and no but men who were the same as Christ.
The apostles’ preaching of Christ never changed; likewise, in our preaching concerning Christ, we should never change our tune. We can testify that the tune of our preaching in this ministry has never changed. Although we have encountered much opposition to this ministry, today in our preaching of Christ, we still sound the same note. Our preaching of Christ in Him is yes.
For our experience and enjoyment, Christ is also the anointed One. “The One who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God, He who has also sealed us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (vv. 21-22).
God firmly attaches the believers together with the apostles unto Christ. This means that God has attached the apostles, the ministers, with all those to whom they ministered. The apostles, who preached Christ according to God’s promises and lived Christ according to their preaching, and the believers, who received Christ according to the apostles’ preaching, are joined to Christ, becoming one with Him, through whom they say Amen before God to the great Yes of God’s promises, which is Christ Himself. It is not they but God who attaches them together unto Christ. Their being one with Christ is of God and by God, not of themselves and by themselves.
In 2 Corinthians 1:21 Paul speaks of being firmly attached with the believers unto Christ, the anointed One (Dan. 9:26; John 1:41). The Greek words rendered firmly attaches us with you can also be rendered “firmly connects us with you.” Literally, the word attaches means “establishes.” God establishes the apostles with the believers in Christ. This means that God firmly attaches the apostles together with the believers unto Christ, the anointed One. Hence, the apostles and the believers are one not only with Christ, the anointed One, but also with one another, sharing the anointing that Christ has received of God.
In Greek Christ means “the anointed One.” Christ, the anointed One, is full of ointment, full of anointing. He is the Son of God whom God has anointed above all His partners, His companions (Heb. 1:9). God attaches the apostles with all the believers unto this anointed One. The ointment flows in us because we have been attached to Him. Since we have been attached by God to Christ, the anointed One, we are spontaneously anointed with Him by God.
Second Corinthians 1:21 says that God firmly attaches us and has anointed us. He has anointed us by attaching us to the anointed One. In the universe there is only One who has been anointed by God. This One is Christ, the anointed One. Now we are all in this anointed One. Since we are members of Christ, we are also part of the anointed One. Because we have been joined to the universal anointed One, we also have been anointed.
The apostles were attached together with the believers unto Christ as the anointed One. This anointed One is also the anointing. The anointing is the moving of the ointment, that is, the moving and working of the all-inclusive life-giving, Spirit within us. Through such a Christ, who is both the anointed One and the anointing, God has anointed the believers. The anointing imparts His substance, His essence, into our being. God has anointed Christ and us with Himself as the divine ointment. The more we are anointed by God, the more we receive the element of God’s divine nature. The anointing is for the imparting of the divine element into us. God imparts all His divine ingredients and constituents into us by His anointing.
In one sense, we believers who have been regenerated have all been attached to Christ. Yet in our experience the extent to which we have been attached to Christ depends on the amount of anointing we have received. The more anointing we receive, the more we are attached to Christ. If we are living and doing things under the anointing, this anointing teaches us concerning all things (1 John 2:27). When we walk according to this anointing, we have the sense that we are attached to Christ. If we take care of the inner anointing, that is, if we behave and act according to the inner anointing, we are experientially attached to Christ, the anointed One. Day by day the anointing Spirit anoints us with the ingredients and the constituents of God, the elements of God Himself. If we daily walk and behave according to this anointing, God Himself will be added to us and imparted into us.
Through Christ, God has sealed the believers to impress them with God’s image. Since God has anointed us with Christ, He has also sealed us in Him. We should not regard sealing as something separate from the anointing. Actually, anointing implies sealing. As we are under the anointing, the anointing becomes a sealing. In this way we become different from others. Furthermore, the seal is the image of God; the seal causes us to bear the appearance of God. First God through the anointing adds the essence of Himself to us. Then this anointing seals us with the essence of God and makes us the image of God. In other words, we are first anointed that we may receive the divine essence into our being; then we are sealed that we may receive the impression of the divine image.
The sealing forms the divine elements into an impression that expresses God’s image. We have the mark of the Spirit as the living seal that causes us to bear God’s image. If we experience the sealing Spirit, when others contact us, they will have the sense that God has been formed within us (Gal. 4:19).
In 2 Corinthians 1:22 Paul also says that God has given the Spirit as a pledge in our hearts. The pledge of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the pledge (5:5). The seal is a mark that marks us out as God’s inheritance, God’s possession, as those who belong to God. The pledge is an earnest, guaranteeing that God is our inheritance, or possession, and belongs to us. The Spirit within us is the pledge, an earnest, of God as our portion in Christ.
The Spirit is not only the anointing and a seal but also a pledge. A pledge is a guarantee, a sample, or a partial payment. The Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance that guarantees that we will receive the full taste of God Himself as our divine inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14). We have the Spirit for our taste, our enjoyment, and the Spirit is sweet to our spiritual taste. The Christian life is not a matter of meditating in the mind but a matter of tasting the Lord in the spirit (Psa. 34:8; 1 Pet. 2:3). We can taste the heavenly things and the things of the age to come (Heb. 6:4-5) by the Spirit. The Spirit also transmits the things in eternity and in the New Jerusalem to us because He is the eternal Spirit (9:14). We need to enjoy the indwelling Spirit as the foretaste day by day.
The Spirit transmits all the heavenly things and elements of Christ into us, not for our mental knowledge but for our taste and enjoyment. We need to continually taste the heavenly, spiritual, and eternal things by the Spirit. Everything in the New Jerusalem is included in the Spirit, who has been given to us as a foretaste, a sample, of the full taste of the Spirit in the ages to come. The quantity of the Spirit we have in this age is smaller than that which we will receive in the ages to come, but the quality and taste are the same. We need to learn how to taste the Lord by continually calling upon His name.
God’s attaching us to Christ issues in three things: (1) an anointing that imparts God’s elements into us; (2) a sealing that forms the divine elements into an impression to express God’s image; and (3) a pledging that gives us a foretaste as a sample and guarantee of the full taste of God.
As believers, we have the Holy Spirit as the anointing, the seal, and the pledge, all of which are for our full enjoyment of Christ. Day by day we should be under the anointing, the sealing, and the pledging of the Holy Spirit. These three matters — the anointing, the sealing, and the pledging — are actually one. They are one thing with three aspects. First we are anointed, then we are sealed, and then we have the pledge as a guarantee. We have the essence, the image, and the guarantee, all of which are the processed God who is now the Spirit. The Spirit is the ointment with which we are anointed, the essence with which we are sealed, and the pledge which guarantees that God belongs to us and that He is our portion. Because we have been anointed and sealed and have received the pledge, we are now qualified and equipped to live the unchanging Christ.
