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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12; 4:9, 16; 5:17; 10:1a; 11:10; 12:9; 13:5, 14
Second Corinthians is a much deeper book than 1 Corinthians. I would even say that this is the deepest book, telling us how a person lived by Christ. And we know that this person who lived by Christ was the apostle Paul.
Paul taught us much in Romans and 1 Corinthians that God’s intention is to work Christ into us that we may experience Him as our life, our person, and our everything. This will produce the church life, and then the individual Christ will become the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ. After these two books we have another book, which does not teach us but gives us a history. Paul did not write an autobiography, yet 2 Corinthians may be considered as a kind of autobiography written by Paul himself. This is not a book of doctrines but the story of a personal life.
The first chapter opens in this way. It tells us that Paul was pressed out of measure, beyond his strength: “We do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living” (2 Cor. 1:8). What kind of doctrine is this? Then he says that this kind of burden was given so that he would not live by man’s wisdom but by the grace of God: “Our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you” (v. 12).
As Paul continues, he tells us what the grace of God is. The grace of God is nothing less than Christ Himself experienced and enjoyed by us. Paul opens this book by speaking of grace, and he ends it by speaking of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 12 Paul testifies how the Lord Jesus dealt with him, assuring him that His grace was sufficient. This is not a teaching but a testimony. Paul testifies to us that after he became an apostle, he did not live by himself. He did not have his conduct, which means his living or his walk, in a human way. He did not live by his human wisdom but by the grace of God.
To learn this doctrine is easy, but to get into such an experience requires a lot of pressure. We should never think that it is because we are so evil that God must give us so many troubles, tribulations, and trials. If this is true, what about the apostle Paul? Was he that bad? I believe that he was quite good; he was so faithful to God and honest to those around him. Yet why did God ordain so much trouble and tribulation for him?
All Christians have a kind of religious concept. If anyone gets into trouble or loses his health, immediately his friends begin to think that he is sinful in some matter. Otherwise, how could God let him suffer so much? Suppose after two weeks, I were to become very ill. At least fifty percent of those hearing this word would think that I was wrong in some thing. Otherwise, how could a servant of the Lord be so seriously sick? Or if I were to get into a certain kind of trouble, many would think that God was dealing with my wrongdoing.
This kind of concept is religious and traditional. We all have inherited this kind of concept from our forefathers. But what was wrong with Paul? Nearly all Bible expositors agree that Paul had a kind of physical weakness (12:9). Some of them feel that this weakness was the loss of his sight. In Galatians he speaks of them giving their eyes to him (4:15) and about the large letters he is writing (6:11). Several of his Epistles were not written by him but by someone to whom he dictated (Rom. 16:22). Because of these points, some feel that Paul had very weak eyes. In any case, there was a kind of weakness or affliction in his physical body. Due to this, he prayed three times for the Lord to heal him. We know that Paul himself brought many miraculous healings upon others. But now he could not heal himself. He prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered him. For the Lord to answer does not mean that He does what we ask. “He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me” (2 Cor. 12:9).
Paul prayed three times for the Lord to take away this physical weakness, but the Lord answered, “No. I will not remove this weakness. If I did, you would lose the opportunity to experience My sufficient grace. My strength is not perfected in your strength but in your weakness.”
Regardless of how spiritual we are, we must remember that we are fallen. We were born fallen because our first father fell six thousand years ago. A fallen person is an independent person. All mothers know that there is not one child that is not independent. Whether they are American, Chinese, Western or Oriental, the first word they learn is “No!” Whatever their mothers say, the answer is “No!” Our fallen nature is independent.
Even the sisters who are wives are still very independent. However, they would say it in a nicer way. They would say that to keep their independence is to keep their prestige. For them to submit to their husbands is to lose their prestige. But that is really not the case. The case is just the independence of our fallen nature.
The principle of the tree of knowledge is simply the principle of independence. Knowledge makes people independent. Students, after they finish their course, graduate from school and then become so independent. But can you graduate from life? It is impossible. This is why the principle of the tree of life is dependence. Yesterday we ate, we drank, we breathed, and we slept. But today we still must do the same. We could never say that because we learned to breathe well yesterday, today we have graduated from breathing. You can graduate from any kind of knowledge, but you cannot graduate from anything of life. The tree of life means dependence, and the tree of knowledge means independence. It was at the fall of man that the tree of knowledge, which means the nature of independence, got into man. This is why we were born independent.
However, God’s economy depends upon our dependence. On one hand, God created us as an individual with a proper will. Yet in God’s salvation, God comes into us so that we may take Him as our person. This means that we should no longer live by ourself but by Him. To say this is easy, but to experience it is not so easy.
Let me illustrate. God has created you as a complete unit, a perfect individual. You have your will, your likes, and your dislikes. You have your thoughts and intentions. You are a perfect individual being. You also have your personality. However, God’s creation is one thing, but God’s salvation is another. God’s creation is to create us in such a way, but in His salvation He Himself comes into us to be our life and our person. He dwells in us, and we must live by Him. This is really good, but we have a problem. Now besides ourself, we have another person. This means that now we must be willing to be dependent upon this person, forgetting about ourselves.
In all weddings, brides have their head covered. This means that in a family there can be only one head. But immediately after the wedding, the wives take away the covering. To tell the truth, I have never seen a person fully dependent upon and submissive to another person. I never saw such a one because we were all born fallen and independent. To our feeling, to depend upon others is a kind of shame.
In God’s salvation what is needed is our dependence. However, it is not easy to give up our independence. Therefore, the pressure is needed. God is sovereign. He brings in a certain kind of pressure to take away our independence. This is why there is not one Christian who does not have trouble. Nearly all the husbands are a tribulation to the wives, and all the wives are a tribulation to the husbands. Moreover, all the children are tribulations. I met a certain brother in 1958, and then I saw him again in 1960. At that time I realized that he had nearly no pressure from the little ones. But just five years later, in 1965, I noticed that the little ones had become a pressure to him. There are no parents who can testify that their children are not a pressure to them. Every child is a tribulation. The more children you have, the more tribulations you have.
Everything is ordered by our Father’s hand. In doing everything, including the Lord’s work, we expect it to be one way, but it turns out to be another. Many times, we simply cannot tell the reason it happened that way. We may inquire why, but the answer is always the same. Our Father’s hand ordered it. You need it, and I need it. We all need it.
For example, the Chinese people like to take much time, with the help of their parents, to select their partner in marriage. But the American young people are more simple. After getting to know each other for two months, they marry. But regardless of how selective we are, it does not depend on our selection. It is all under the Father’s hand. You do not know what kind of wife you need, but the Father knows. And you do not know what kind of husband you need, but the Father knows. No wife is a wrong wife, and no husband is a wrong husband. They were all selected by the Father. What we get is exactly what we need. Our Father’s hand could never be wrong. We may think that we made the wrong choice, but God the Father still is right. If His little finger touched our marriage plans just a little, that marriage could never occur. A number of times I made some mistakes. I regretted much, but then I started to thank God. “Father, I thank You that I made a mistake.” I realized that without making such a mistake, I would never have such a good opportunity to experience the grace of Christ.
To talk about taking Christ as our person is easy, but to get to the experience requires much pressure. Otherwise, we would not give up our independence. We need to be excessively burdened, beyond our power. We must even despair of living. Paul says, “Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9). To have the response of death means that, to Paul’s understanding, he should die. But Hallelujah! He was resurrected!
All of us expect to have a good job. And in doing business, everyone likes to make a profit. Eventually, sometimes, the profit is taken to the moon. This is the act of God. Praise the Lord! The Father’s hand ordered it. He ordered it just to press us so that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on the living God, who raises the dead.
Paul’s autobiography opens with tribulation. This man who experienced Christ was a man burdened beyond his power. He felt that he was dying. He even had the response of death. He despaired of living. What was the meaning of all this? It was simply the killing of the fallen man. The putting to death of Jesus was indoctrinated into his life, and that death of Christ was doing the killing work. It was not only by the living Spirit within but also through all the circumstances without. This is why he said, “Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (4:16). The inner man is our spirit with Jesus living within it. Our regenerated spirit with the indwelling Christ is the inner man.
Christ lives within our inner man, but the problem is this: who is doing the living, He or we? Every day, from morning to night, by whom do we live? Do we live by our self, or by Christ? We have heard many messages telling us to take Jesus as our person. But who is really our person? We really have to pray, “O Lord Jesus, forgive me; I did not take You as my person very much today. I just did not live by You.”
We must realize that the indwelling of Christ is not a doctrine. It is a daily experience. If we all have a daily experience of the indwelling Christ, it will enrich the church life and strengthen the church’s testimony. But we can never get into this experience by being taught. It has to be accomplished under pressure. We need to be excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we may despair even of living. We even need to have the response of death in ourselves. This is God’s purpose, because only death brings in resurrection. We all have to be brought to the end. Then we will trust in the living God, who raises the dead.
We all have been terminated in the Triune God, and this Triune God has germinated us. But the problem is that we go back to the old person with the old living. So we need the tribulation. In a sense, the Christian life is a life of enjoyment, but in another sense, the Christian life is a life of suffering. I have been a Christian for fifty years, and there has not been one year that I did not suffer. I did not expect to suffer, but still the sufferings came. In a sense, they are sent to damage us, because they damage the outer man. But they benefit our inner man. All the circumstances, the situations, the surroundings, the personal things, the family relations, the business, and the church work together for good so that we may be conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:28-29). We need tribulation to press us so that our old nature is put to death and His nature is renewed in us.
This is why Paul gives us such an autobiography. He did not begin this book by telling us how the Lord was so merciful to him and how everything was smooth and comfortable. When someone asks how we are, we always answer, “Fine.” But that is a lie. We are not so fine. However, the apostle was honest. He did not say that he was fine. He opens his autobiography by telling us of the tribulation he had. To experience Christ as our person, we need the tribulation. Otherwise, we are just a raw Christian. All the raw things must be cooked. The cooking is a kind of tribulation and suffering to the cooked items. Praise the Lord that we are all under the cooking!
But we should not consider this just as a kind of suffering. Suffering by itself is nothing. Its only purpose is to help us get to Christ. Suffering presses us out of ourselves and into Christ. He is our life and He is our person. When I recall the past years, and when I look at the present situation, on one hand, I feel like weeping, and on the other hand, I feel like shouting praise to the Lord. Without all the sufferings, afflictions, tribulations, and pressures, we could never enjoy Christ this much. The Lord told Paul, “Do not ask Me to take away your sufferings. You need them! But, I assure you, under the suffering, My grace is sufficient. Without the suffering, you could never taste that My grace is sufficient. You have to thank Me. It is by this suffering that you experience My all-sufficient grace.”
There is no other book that tells of the sufferings of Paul as this book does. There are three chapters that make a list of all his sufferings: chapters 1, 6, and 11. In all these chapters we see sufferings after sufferings, sufferings after sufferings. In 1 Corinthians Paul talks about healings. But in 2 Corinthians there are no healings, but sufferings. In the first book he mentions the gifts. But in the second there are no gifts but grace. And we know that grace is just Christ Himself, taken as our life, our person, and our enjoyment. Everyone likes to have healing, but no one likes to have suffering. But if we have healing without suffering, we may have the gift, but we can never experience Christ as our grace.
The person who wrote this autobiography told us how he lived. All the sufferings and tribulations excessively burdened him, beyond his power. Eventually, he did live by Christ. His meekness was Christ (10:1). His gentleness was Christ (v. 1). His truth was Christ (11:10). Whatever he was and did, he was and did in the person of Christ. “If I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the person of Christ” (2:10b). The word person in this verse means in Greek the part around the eyes of the face, which is the index of the inward being. So Paul lived in the index of Christ. And he said that the illumination of the gospel of glory is in the face of Jesus Christ (4:4, 6). If we would see the glory of the gospel, we must see the face of Jesus. Without the face of Jesus, which means the presence of Christ, there is no glory. Paul was living in the glory of the gospel by seeing the face of Jesus. He was walking according to the index that he saw on the face of Jesus.
So we see that Paul was a person who not only preached and taught that Christ is our life, our person, and our everything, but he himself really practiced and lived this kind of life. Second Corinthians is really his autobiography telling us how he lived. He did not live by his natural ability, by his fleshly wisdom, or merely by the so-called spiritual gifts. He lived by the grace of the Lord, which is the enjoyment of Christ Himself. Christ eventually became his person, his life, his living, his enjoyment, and his everything. So at the close of the book he says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). This is all that we need.
