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In 2 Corinthians 4 we see that we may express Christ as vessels.
In 2 Corinthians 4:10 Paul speaks of “always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus.” Here the expression the putting to death of Jesus refers to the killing, the deadening; it also refers to the working of death, the working of the cross, which the Lord Jesus suffered and went through. When the Lord was on earth, He was daily under the killing. Day by day He experienced being put to death. The apostles also experienced this. Daily they were under the killing; daily they were being put to death. In our experience this is a kind of suffering, persecution, or dealing that comes upon us for the sake of Jesus, for the sake of the Body of Christ, and for the sake of the new covenant ministry. This does not refer to sufferings and troubles that are common to all human beings in the old creation, such as illness or calamity, or to punishment, correction, or discipline suffered because of sins, mistakes, or failure to fulfill one’s responsibility. This putting to death of Jesus consumes our natural man, our outward man, our flesh, so that our inward man may have the opportunity to develop and be renewed (v. 16). To be put to death is to be put into a situation of constantly being killed. This kind of daily putting to death will eventually cause the resurrection life to be manifested. This is the living that we ought to have.
The putting to death of Jesus in our environment cooperates with the indwelling Spirit to kill our natural man (our outer man), comprising our body and our soul. The indwelling Spirit works to kill us. The Spirit is the Killer, but He needs an instrument, a “knife,” to kill us. The “knife” may be our spouse, our children, or certain brothers and sisters in the church. A certain saint can become a “knife” which the Spirit uses to kill us.
We all want to have a nice environment where everything is smooth, peaceful, sweet, and nice. But instead, we are under an environment of sufferings and pressures which works with the Spirit to kill our natural man. The putting to death, the killing, in 2 Corinthians 4 is through the environment. In speaking about the application of Christ’s death, Romans 8 refers to the indwelling Spirit, whereas 2 Corinthians 4 refers to the outward environment. The outward environment cooperates with the inward Spirit to carry out the killing of our natural man.
In 2 Corinthians 4:10 Paul goes on to say, “That the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of the resurrection life. This daily killing is for the release of the divine life in resurrection. Here the life of Jesus refers to the resurrection life, which the Lord Jesus lived and expressed through the working of the cross. This portion shows us that the termination of the cross eventually causes the manifestation of the resurrection life. The putting to death of Jesus destroys the natural man, the outward man, and the flesh in order that the inward man can be given the opportunity to develop and be renewed to live out the resurrection life.
The resurrection of Christ is the manifestation of the divine life. Resurrection is the life of Jesus manifested through His death. Paul wrote the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians fully from experience. He described how the apostles lived out the crucified life and manifested the resurrection life.
The continual daily grinding works for a specific purpose: that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our body. This life is resurrection life. The Lord Jesus lived resurrection life even before He was crucified. The life that He lived on earth was a life of resurrection.
The death for Jesus’ sake is the glorious, wonderful, loveable death of Christ. The life of Jesus is resurrection. The death that takes place in Adam is ugly, but the death that takes place in Christ is lovely. Adam died, and Christ also died. However, with one the death was ugly, but with the other the death was lovely. With unbelievers, no affliction is good, but with us, the believers, all afflictions are very good. If persecution befalls us, it is wonderful, but if it befalls an unbeliever, it is terrible. All the negative items in 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 are different aspects of the death of Christ. We may call them sufferings, but according to Philippians 3:10, sufferings are a part of Christ’s death. Philippians 3:10 says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” The fellowship, the participation, of His sufferings is the participation in His death. To participate in His death is to be conformed to His death. Every day we are afflicted, perplexed, cast down, and persecuted, and our outward man is decaying, being consumed. These are different aspects of Christ’s death. When we are suffering these things, Christ’s death is being applied to us. Through this death the life of Christ is manifested.
A sister may love her daughter very much but only with her natural emotion. If God desires this sister to grow in spirit, He must stretch out His hand to deal with her natural love for her daughter. This is a putting to death, a killing. We also may be very clever, relying on our mind in everything that we do, rather than relying on our spirit. Consequently, God will raise up one situation after another to kill our cleverness. This is a genuine experience, and it may be not only painful but also long lasting. Paul says that the putting to death of Jesus operates in us so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
In 2 Corinthians 4:11 Paul declares, “We who are alive are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” The title Jesus in verses 10 and 11 implies that the apostles lived a life like the one the Lord Jesus lived on earth. The Lord’s life was a life under the killing of the cross for the manifestation of the resurrection life, a life lived in such a way that His person was one with His ministry and His life was His ministry (John 6:14-15; 12:13, 19, 23-24). The use of flesh and body interchangeably in 2 Corinthians 4:10-11 indicates that the mortal flesh is our fallen body.
In order for the life of God to come out of the Lord Jesus, He had to pass through death. He indicated that without death there would be no life (John 12:24). Without death as the pathway, life cannot be released. The way of life is the way of death; wherever there is death, there is a way for life to come out. The expression of the Lord’s life in us is contingent upon one thing — death. The extent to which death has worked in us is the extent to which the Lord’s life has a way to come out of us. For this reason, even Paul, who was full of experience and was mature in life, pursued to know Christ’s death; he wanted to be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10). He pursued this death because he knew that the extent to which death worked in him would be the extent to which the Lord’s life could be released from him.
The death that operates in us and the putting to death of Jesus are the realization and application of the death of Christ in our daily life. The more we pass through death, the more life will be expressed from us. For example, a brother who quarrels with his wife may endeavor to express the Lord and to allow the Lord’s life to flow out. However, his natural strength is insufficient to express Christ and to allow His life to flow out. Once he is under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, however, the Spirit will enable him to cooperate with and submit to the Holy Spirit. Then his wife will sense a flavor of Christ coming from him, and she will see to some extent Christ’s life in him because the death of the cross has been realized and is being carried out in him. The cross brings in both death and the expression of the resurrection life.
The Spirit leads us into the death of the cross hour by hour and day by day. This is the leading and work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us wants to bring us into death every moment. The stronger the Holy Spirit’s work in us is, the stronger our experience of the cross will be. Without the death of the cross, there is no work of the Holy Spirit; wherever the Holy Spirit works, there is a putting to death by the Spirit.
From morning until evening and from evening until morning, the Holy Spirit is working in us. He requires that we receive the cross, and He puts us into the death of the cross. The way of life is death, and death is the way of life. When we walk on the way of life, we walk on the way of the death of the cross. The Christian life is a living of the cross and a living of death. Every day we experience death in the Holy Spirit, and we live and walk under death. Death deals with our person. As we are dealt with and broken, the life of God in us will have a free way.
In 2 Corinthians 4:11 Paul does not use the adjective manifest. Instead, he uses the verb be manifested. There is a difference between something that is manifest and something manifested. The word manifest does not involve experience or a process, but manifested involves a process, a procedure. In these verses Paul does not say that the life of Jesus may be manifest. If he had said this, no process or procedure would have been involved. There would be no need for us to go through anything in our experience. But when Paul speaks of the life of Jesus being manifested in us, that involves a process and requires a procedure. In verses 10 through 12 we can definitely see the manifestation of life.
In verse 11 we may expect Paul to speak of being rescued from death, instead of being delivered unto death. Paul, however, was always being delivered unto death so that the life of Jesus might be manifested in his mortal flesh. Paul preferred to be small and to remain in a lowly state. In fact, the name Paul means “little.” The life manifested in Paul was the life of a Nazarene, not the life of a great man in the world. Moreover, the life of Jesus was manifested in his mortal flesh. Paul did not consider himself a great person manifesting something marvelous in a splendid body. Instead, he considered himself a small person manifesting the life of Jesus, a man from Nazareth, in his mortal flesh.
When we consider the record of the Lord’s life on earth, we see that the emphasis is not on works. The four Gospels do not stress what the Lord did, what works He accomplished. The record concerning the Lord Jesus in the Gospels is mainly a record of life. In the Gospels the emphasis is on life, not on works or activities. The Gospels are biographies presenting a person living in a particular way. Therefore, the Gospels are not primarily an account of the Lord’s marvelous works; they are a description of the life the Lord Jesus lived on earth. This is one reason that Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 uses the name Jesus so often. The use of this name in chapter 4 brings us back to the Lord as a man whose life was one with His ministry. The Lord lived in such a way that His person was one with His ministry. Strictly speaking, the Lord did not accomplish a work. Instead, He simply lived a certain kind of life. The portrait in the Gospels was painted in such a way as to show forth the Lord’s life. The Gospels do describe the Lord’s works, but much more the Gospels present the life Jesus lived and show us by what way He lived.
There are a number of indications in the Gospels that the Lord Jesus did not care for the accomplishing of a great work. One example of the Lord’s caring for life and not for a work is found in John 12. In Jerusalem a great crowd gave a warm welcome to the Lord Jesus. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, crying, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (v. 13). Even the Pharisees admitted that the world had gone after Him (v. 19). But when Andrew and Philip told the Lord that the Greeks were seeking Him, He answered, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (vv. 23-24). This indicates clearly that what the Lord Jesus cared for was life, not work. In the four Gospels there are many illustrations of this. Whenever people, according to their concept, thought that the opportunity was right for the Lord to accomplish a great work, He never took advantage of that opportunity. Instead, He departed. He had not come to do a great work. His concern was life.
Jesus of Nazareth did not seek to be great or famous. On the contrary, He was a grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died. In this way Jesus became the first Minister of the new covenant. We need to follow Him to also become ministers of the new covenant. The Lord, as a grain of wheat that fell into the ground, lost His soul-life through death so that He might release His eternal life to the many grains in resurrection. As the many grains, we also must lose our soul-life through death that we may enjoy eternal life in resurrection. Concerning this, we must look to the Lord and pray desperately to Him. We need to tell the Lord that we are willing to be today’s Paul, not a great person or a famous believer, but a small man, a crucified man, even a Nazarene.
In 2 Corinthians 4:12 Paul says, “So then death operates in us, but life in you.” When we are under the killing of the Lord’s death, His resurrection life is imparted through us into others. The impartation of life into others is always the issue of our suffering the killing of the cross. While we are dying, others are being made alive. Our dying infuses life into them and makes them alive. For us, it is a matter of being put to death; for them, it is a matter of the impartation of life.
The work of the apostles is the work of death operating in them so that life may operate in the believers. It may not sound pleasant to us to hear of death operating in the apostles. But the issue, the result, of this operation of death is wonderful — it is life in others. This is the real work of the new covenant ministry. It is not a matter of working; it is a matter of dying. In the Lord’s recovery we need to die so that life may work in others. Hence, our dying is our working. The Lord does not need us to accomplish a work for Him. He needs us to die. If we die, life will work in others. We will minister life to others by dying. The apostles were not followers of a great person but of a small man, Jesus of Nazareth. Furthermore, instead of being exalted, they were always being put to death so that the life of Jesus could be manifested in their mortal flesh. Death operated in them so that life might operate in the believers. Christ’s death was always killing them. The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of the resurrection life. This daily killing is for the release of the divine life in resurrection.
In verse 7 the apostle Paul says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.” We know that the expression earthen vessels refers not merely to our body but to us; we are made of clay and are earthen vessels. This treasure refers to God and His life, that is, Christ and His life. We have this treasure in earthen vessels means that we have Christ in us, that is, in our inner man. In fact, our inner man is Christ; our outer man is we ourselves. Hence, verse 16 says, “Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” This means that while we are being broken by God, Christ is being built up in us.
On the one hand, Christ is the treasure, and we are the earthen vessels to contain Him. On the other hand, we need to be broken, consumed, and reduced so that Christ as the treasure can be manifested from within us (vv. 8-12, 16-17). After we allow Christ to come into us, we as vessels need to be broken in order that Christ as the treasure might be expressed.
God’s shining in our hearts brings into us a treasure, the Christ of glory, who is the embodiment of God to be our life and our everything. But we who contain this treasure are earthen vessels, worthless and fragile. A priceless treasure is contained in worthless vessels! This has made the worthless vessels ministers of the new covenant with a priceless ministry. This has been accomplished by the divine power in resurrection. The excellency of the power is surely of God and not out of us. The ministers of the new covenant were earthen vessels to contain the Christ of glory as the excellent treasure (v. 7). These vessels are like today’s camera, into which Christ the figure enters through the flash of God’s shining (vv. 4, 6).
This treasure, the indwelling Christ, in us, the earthen vessels, is the divine source of the supply for the Christian life. It is by the excellent power of this treasure that the apostles as the ministers of the new covenant were capable of living a crucified life that the resurrection life of Christ, whom they ministered, might be manifested. Thus, they manifested the truth (v. 2) for the shining of the gospel.
Earthen vessels containing a treasure is a metaphor used to describe the ministers of the new covenant and their ministry. Second Corinthians 4 leads us into the real experience of Christ’s death and resurrection. We are the earthen vessels, yet we have a treasure in us. This demonstrates the excellency of the power of the treasure in death and resurrection. Christ’s power is not only manifested in resurrection but also in death. The four Gospels show us how Christ passed through a long journey of death while not being put down by death; the many aspects of death could not restrain Him. He had the power to overcome death. In death the power of Christ was greatly manifested. In His resurrection His power was also manifested. There was no way to subdue Paul because as an earthen vessel he had Christ as the treasure within him. In this way, the excellent power of the treasure was manifested. This was not of man but of God. We also are vessels to contain Christ as the treasure. Day after day we may express the all-inclusive death of Christ and the resurrection power. How much of this treasure we have in us is indicated by how much we express Christ in His all-inclusive death and resurrection.
There is a need for the hand of God to break our being outwardly; that is, there is a need for the Spirit of God to arrange the outward environment to break and consume our being. The word consume comes from 2 Corinthians 4:16, which says, “Our outer man is decaying.” The Greek word for decaying in verse 16 means “being consumed,” “being wasted away,” or “being worn out.” By the continued killing, the working of death, our outer man, that is, our material body with its animating soul (1 Cor. 15:44 and footnote 1), is being consumed and worn out. Decaying in 2 Corinthians 4:16 is God’s dealing in verses 8 through 11.
The outer man, physically, is our body; psychologically, it is our soul. The outer man is our soul, that is, our self. The outer man being consumed means that our self is being consumed; that is, our mind, emotion, and will are being consumed. A brother may have great intellect, a strong mind, and clear thinking, but all of these can frustrate the pneumatic Christ in him. Hence, God will raise up an environment to deal with his mind and thought. This is God’s striking him in the environment and God’s tearing down of his mind with His hand. Such a dealing tears down his mind to the extent that when he encounters a certain matter, he does not dare to rely on his mind. This may be compared to the situation of Jacob. At one time his legs could run very well; moreover, he had a mind that was able to think of many ways to fight and supplant. His mind was clever, resourceful, and full of schemes. One day, however, God met him and dealt with him severely, touching his hip and crippling him (Gen. 32:25). After this, Jacob could no longer run. This is the breaking. Some people who are intelligent and have a very clever mind use their mind in spiritual matters. Such ones do not know how to touch the feeling of God, nor do they know how to live in the spirit. Instead, they allow their mind and intellect to take the lead in everything. When God begins to deal with them, especially with their mind and intellect, they may lose their confidence in their thinking ability. When they encounter similar situations in the future, their spirit will spontaneously occupy the leading position. With respect to their mind, their outer man is torn down, but their inner man is being renewed.
In the same principle, God strikes our emotion to the extent that it fails us, and we no longer have any confidence in it. At such a time, our spirit will spontaneously occupy the leading position and have preeminence over our emotion. It is the same with our will. God’s striking and tearing down are a very painful process. Even the apostle Paul was no exception.
Second Corinthians 4 speaks of the “putting to death of Jesus” and “being delivered unto death” (vv. 10, 11). Christ is killing us. He is not only the life-giving Spirit but also the killing Spirit. Christ is always putting us to death to reduce and consume us in our outer man, our natural man, so that our inner man may have the opportunity to develop and be renewed (v. 16). The real growth in the divine life is to be reduced. We need to be reduced and broken. The killing of Jesus accomplishes the reducing of our natural life. Without this killing, we cannot enjoy Christ’s life.
Whereas the outer man is being consumed, the inner man is being renewed. It is renewed through being nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life. As our outer man is being consumed by the killing work of death, our inner man, that is, our regenerated spirit with the inward parts of our being (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; Rom. 7:22, 25), is being metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of resurrection life. Actually, the renewing of the inner man is a matter of the divine dispensing.
It is not an easy task for the Lord to consume our outer man. In order to accomplish this, He allows us to pass through many kinds of sufferings. Because we imprison Him, He must do the further work of breaking us and renewing us.
Sometimes we may be bothered by the fact that the more we love the Lord, the more we grow in Him, and the more spiritual we become, the more problems we have. For example, the more a certain young person prays, the more he may be persecuted by members of his family. The reason we suffer more as we grow more in the Lord is that we need to be broken; that is, we need to experience the consuming of the outer man in order that Christ will no longer be imprisoned within us.
In 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 we have expressions such as being pressed on every side, unable to find a way out, persecuted, cast down, and always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus. In verse 16 Paul tells us that the outer man is decaying. This is not only the reducing of our outer man but also the breaking of the vessel.
God is doing a work not only to reduce us but also to crush us, to break us. We should not try to keep ourselves so complete, so whole. The Lord wants to break our outer man, the natural man, including the soul and the flesh. Our human element, the soulish life, the fleshly element, all need to be broken. The outer man is the self with the natural life, with the soulish life, and with the flesh. To know what the natural man, the flesh, and the soul are is one thing, but to experience the breaking of the outer man, the holy brokenness, is another thing.
In following the Lord, we should not expect that we will always have a “safe journey.” In taking the way that leads to life, the narrow and constricted way to follow the Lord (Matt. 7:14), we will be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and cast down. We will be put to death, destroyed, crushed, and broken. The Lord has myriads of ways to crush us. We need to realize that we are not in our own hands. We are in His hands. No one knows what tomorrow may bring. Even David said to the Lord in Psalm 31:15, “My times are in Your hand.” We need to praise Him, however, that His hand is the sovereign hand, the gracious hand, and the merciful hand. We should not be afraid. We need to be at peace to take whatever He measures to us and whatever He assigns to us. Because we have the treasure within this vessel, the destiny for this vessel is to be broken.
To be a person in the spirit in the Holy of Holies, we need to be vessels that are broken. We need to bring all these points to the Lord and pray thoroughly. We need to pray ourselves into these points so that we realize subjectively that we are vessels who are always under His dealing, under His breaking, to fulfill His burden to express the treasure within. We need to tell the Lord that we are willing to open ourselves for His working in us. We should tell Him that we are willing to be broken, ground, and constituted; that we are willing to live a crucified life; and that we are willing to renounce and deny ourselves and daily be constituted with the elements of the processed Triune God.
In summary, as vessels, we bear the putting to death of Jesus. The putting to death of Jesus is continually upon us. This means that we are continually put to death by the working of the cross. When we are under the putting to death of Jesus, His life is manifested in our body. We are delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that His life might be manifested in our mortal flesh. We experience this not only while suffering persecution but also through our daily interaction with the fellow believers. For example, believers who live in a house may cause one another to experience the killing of the cross. In married life, a husband and wife may similarly deliver one another to death. Our being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake is for the manifestation of His life in our mortal flesh. Hence, although there is much working of the cross in the church life and marriage life, simultaneously there is much manifestation of life. The more we are under the killing of the cross, the more life will be imparted through us into all those who deliver us to death. For this to take place, we must be willing to experience the killing of the cross. If we are willing to be under the daily killing, we will become life-imparters, even to those who deliver us to death. Moreover, in our daily life none of us as vessels should remain whole but be broken. If we have been in the church life yet have remained whole, then no life has ever been manifested and imparted through us into others. Through married life, a husband and wife may become broken. A broken wife is one who manifests life; a broken husband is one who imparts life to others. As vessels, we need to be broken so that Christ as the treasure within us may be expressed.
