(3)
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 4:7-15
Chapters three and four of 2 Corinthians are the most crucial chapters of both 1 and 2 Corinthians. No other chapters in these Epistles are so related to the constitution of Christ for the deeper experience of life. These two chapters are very deep in the experience of life. First, these chapters reveal how the apostles, as ministers of the new covenant, were constituted. They were reorganized, rearranged, having been made ministers of the new covenant.
Paul considered himself the chief among the sinners. How could such a rebel against God become a minister of the new covenant, a minister of Christ for the carrying out of God’s economy? It is certainly a great matter to convert a rebel against God into a minister of Christ for the accomplishing of God’s administration in the New Testament age.
In order for Paul to become a minister of Christ, he was first reborn and then reconstituted. Rebirth is not sufficient to make someone a minister of the new covenant; it is also necessary for that one to be reorganized, rearranged, reconstituted. A new constitution, however, requires a new element. Without the element as the essence of the constitution, it is not possible for us to be constituted of anything. The redemption of Christ brings us back to God, but it does not do the work of constitution. This work requires some element in addition to the redeeming blood of Christ. This element is not only life, or the Spirit; it is the processed God.
I would call your attention to the steps of the process through which God has passed: incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. These four major steps of God’s process are also the ingredients of the processed God as the element with which we are constituted. These ingredients are typified by the four spices compounded with olive oil to make the ointment in Exodus 30. The olive oil was the basic element, and the four spices were the ingredients compounded with this element. The compound produced as a result of this process was the ointment with its ingredients.
God is the Spirit, the olive oil, the basic element. The four spices are related to incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Incarnation brought divinity into humanity and made them one entity. But neither divinity nor humanity was changed in nature. No, divinity remains divinity, and humanity remains humanity. This is illustrated by the mingling of oil with fine flour in the meal offering. The oil and the flour are mingled together to form one entity with two natures. However, each nature remains separate and complete. The oil does not lose its nature, and the flour does not change its nature. Nevertheless, the oil and the flour are mingled together to produce one entity. But this entity is not a third nature, something that is neither oil nor flour. Rather, it is a complete entity with two natures, the nature of oil and the nature of flour. This is an illustration of incarnation bringing divinity into humanity, making them one and causing them to live as one.
The Lord Jesus, a wonderful Person with two natures, divinity and humanity, lived in the home of a carpenter in Nazareth for thirty years. After completing His ministry, He was crucified. His human living implies that He passed through everything in humanity related to the first creation. When He was crucified, He brought the entire old creation to the cross and terminated it. Because the old creation has been terminated, we should not be bothered by our problems. In the sight of God, all these problems have been terminated. God sitting on the throne can say to Satan, “Little Satan, what are you trying to do? Are you still causing trouble? I’ll give you a little more time to play. However, you must realize that I have already terminated you. You, along with the old creation, have been terminated.” Satan and the old creation have been terminated, and we also were terminated by the death of Christ on the cross. This termination is the true significance of the crucifixion.
Through His resurrection Christ brought God’s chosen and redeemed people into God. Incarnation brought God into man; resurrection brought man into God. Today we, the redeemed people of God, not only have God in us; we also are in God. It is wonderful to have God in us, but it is even more wonderful to be in God.
Perhaps you are not very conscious of the fact that you are in God. By the Lord’s mercy I can testify that I definitely have the sense, the consciousness, that I am a man in God. Apparently, I am a man living on earth; actually, I am a man in God. God is in me, and I am in Him.
God has been brought into us through incarnation, and we have been brought into God through Christ’s resurrection. This is the Triune God, the processed God. The processed Triune God is the very element with which we have been constituted.
Some may say, “I do not feel as if I have been constituted with the processed Triune God.” You may not feel this, but you need to believe it. As Christians, we need to live by faith and walk by faith, not by sight (5:7). We are believers, not those who walk by sight. Are you a believer or one who walks by sight? A believer is one who does not trust in things that can be seen, but he takes certain unseen things, confesses them, and realizes them by faith. To be one who walks according to feelings is even worse than being one who walks by sight. You may not feel that you are living in a certain place. Actually you are living there. Feelings are not trustworthy. You may feel that you are wonderful, but your condition may be pitiful. Do not believe in your feelings — believe in the facts. It is a fact that we all have been brought into God. The processed Triune God is the very element with which we have been constituted. You may not feel constituted, or that there has been any change within you. Again I say, be a believer, one who walks by faith, not one who walks according to his feelings. When God says a certain thing, you should also speak that thing simply because the Bible tells you so. The Bible reveals that God has been processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Now in resurrection, He is the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit as the constituting element. The Bible says this, and we must believe it.
Brother Nee often said that first we have fact, then faith, then experience. The sequence is not experience, faith, and fact. The facts are always first. But how do we know about the facts? The facts are recorded in the New Testament. This testament is a will, something stronger and better than a covenant. A covenant is an agreement similar to a contract. But a testament, a will, refers to something already accomplished. Suppose a will declares that a person has been given a million dollars. The evidence, the proof, of this is the will.
The New Testament is a will. This will says that the processed God is now in us, that He is our portion, and that He is the element with which we have been constituted. Yes, we have been constituted. We need to believe this fact, just as we believe that we are children of God. Sometimes the Devil says, “Look at yourself. Are you a son of God? How can you say you are a son of God when you lost your temper this morning?” Even when we lose our temper, we must insist on believing that we are sons of God. Thus, we should say, “Satan, even though I have lost my temper many times, I am still a son of God. Losing my temper does not change the fact that I am a son of God. Satan, with my declaration of this fact, I chase you away.”
Second Corinthians 4:7 opens with the words, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” The word “but” indicates a contrast with what has gone before. In verse 6 Paul says, “Because the God Who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One Who shined in our hearts for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” The phrase “this treasure” refers to verse 6. Because of the shining in our hearts, we have this treasure, a treasure that is wonderful, precious, and marvelous. However, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, in something that is not at all marvelous. Because the treasure is in earthen vessels, Paul opens verse 7 with “but.”
All of verse 7 reads like this: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” The Greek word for excellence also means transcendence, surpassingness, exceeding greatness. The fact that we are earthen vessels proves that the excellence of the power is of God and not of us. Here Paul seems to be saying, “I am nothing more than an earthen vessel, low and worthless. In myself I am sinful, fallen, and low. How can such a person manifest the truth and shine forth the glory of the gospel? I do not have the power to do this. The excellence of the power is not of me — it is of God. Although I am a worthless earthen vessel, God has shined this precious treasure into me. Now this treasure becomes the source of the power energizing me and enabling me to shine forth God’s glory and to manifest the truth.”
Do you not have a divine motor within you? The marvelous treasure is now a heavenly motor empowering us from within. This motor may not trouble us while we are sleeping, but during the rest of the day it bothers us. Preachers often tell others that Christ will give peace. In my experience, He often does not give me peace. He gives me joy, but instead of giving me peace, He bothers me. If I do not go along with His inward bothering, I cannot have peace. Sometimes I cooperate with His bothering and have joy, but still there is no peace.
According to your experience, can you sit quietly at home and enjoy peace? Is it not true that the Lord often bothers you inwardly? Christ is a bothering One. This treasure is a living and active treasure operating within us. This treasure even constrains us to do certain things. According to 2 Corinthians 5, the love of Christ constrains us. Christ not only bothers us; He constrains us, pushes us on. This is the power, the source of strength, for the apostles to behave themselves in such a way as to shine the gospel and manifest the truth.
Beginning at verse 8 we see that the apostles did not live a glorious life, but a crucified life. To live a crucified life is to live a life under grinding. It is to be like grains under a grinding stone. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He lived a life under grinding. His mother, His brothers, all His disciples, and His opposers and persecutors functioned as grinding stones. Daily the Lord Jesus was under the grinding.
In grinding grain two stones may be used: a stationary stone on the bottom and a movable stone on the top. We may say that the Pharisees and Sadducees were the bottom stone for the Lord Jesus, and the top grinding stone, the movable stone, was His mother, brothers, and disciples. For grinding, the bottom stone needs a top stone to match it and cooperate with it. This means that the Lord’s mother, brothers, and disciples helped the Pharisees and Sadducees to grind the Lord Jesus.
Our experience today is the same in principle. Those who oppose the Lord’s recovery are the bottom stone, the stationary grinding stone. But our husband or wife, the elders in the church, the co-workers, and the saints are the top stone. Therefore, the members of our family and the saints in the church cooperate with the persecutors and opposers to put us under the grinding. Brothers, is it not your experience that your wife grinds you much more than the opposers do? Her criticism is a grinding. If it were not for the dear ones around us, the opposers would not be able to grind us. The real grinding comes from those close to us. The opposers simply lay the foundation for the grinding to take place. Once this foundation has been laid, your husband or wife or certain of the saints will do the actual grinding.
If you read the four Gospels again, you will see that it was those close to the Lord Jesus who caused Him to experience the grinding. When the Lord was persecuted, He was happy. But one day as He was preaching to the multitude, His friends thought He was beside Himself (Mark 3:21). At one point the Lord Jesus even asked, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” (Matt. 12:48). Then He said, “For whoever does the will of My Father Who is in the heavens, he is My brother and sister and mother” (Matt. 12:50). Today we also experience grinding from those close to us, those who love us and care for us in a natural way.
In verse 8 Paul says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not straitened; perplexed, but not despairing.” The Greek word rendered “afflicted” can also be translated pressed on every side. The word straitened also means cramped. This description of the apostles’ life from this verse through verse 18 shows that they lived a crucified life in resurrection, or the resurrection life under the killing of the cross, for the carrying out of their ministry.
Literally, perplexed here means unable to find a way out. The word translated despairing literally means utterly unable to find a way out; that is, the way is entirely shut up. Here the apostle is saying they were perplexed, unable to find a way out, yet not despairing, not utterly unable to find a way out.
Verse 9a says, “Persecuted, but not forsaken.” The Greek word for persecuted also means pursued by enemies. To be forsaken is to be abandoned, deserted; literally, it means to be left behind in some evil plight.
Verse 9b says, “Cast down, but not destroyed.” Cast down also means struck down, and destroyed also means perishing, as in verse 3, that is, killed.
Verse 10 continues, “Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body.” The putting to death here means the killing, the deadening, that is, the working of death, the working of the cross, which the Lord Jesus suffered and endured. 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.
The apostles experienced this killing work “that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body.” The word rendered “that” also means in order that, resulting in. The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of resurrection life. This daily killing is to release the divine life in resurrection. The life in verse 10 is the resurrection life, which the Lord Jesus lived and expressed through the working of the cross.
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 He lived on earth was a life of resurrection. This resurrection life is a life that can withstand being put to death.
In verse 11, Paul goes on to say, “For we who live are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh.” The title Jesus in verses 10 and 11 implies that the apostles lived a life as the Lord Jesus did on earth, a life under the killing of the cross for the manifestation of the resurrection life. The interchangeable use of “flesh” and “body” in these verses indicates that the mortal flesh is in our fallen body.
Verse 12 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. In verse 12 Paul seems to be saying, “We are dying, but you Corinthians are being made alive. Our dying infuses life into you and makes you alive. For us, it is a matter of being put to death; for you, it is a matter of the impartation of life.”
In verse 13 Paul says, “And having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, therefore I spoke; we also believe, therefore also we speak.” The “same spirit” refers to the same spirit as set forth in the quotation from Psalm 116:10.
Concerning the spirit in verse 13, Alford says, “Not distinctly the Holy Spirit, — but still not merely a human disposition: the indwelling Holy Spirit penetrates and characterizes the whole renewed man.” Vincent says, “Spirit of faith: not distinctly the Holy Spirit, nor, on the other hand, a human faculty or disposition, but blending both.” This means it is the mingling of the Holy Spirit with our human spirit. We must exercise such a spirit to believe and to speak, as the psalmist did, the things we have experienced of the Lord, especially His death and resurrection. Faith is in our spirit, which is mingled with the Holy Spirit, not in our mind. Doubts are in our mind. The “spirit” here indicates that it is by the mingled spirit that the apostles lived a crucified life in resurrection for carrying out their ministry.
Verse 14 says, “Knowing that He Who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.” This indicates that the apostles considered themselves dead persons (1:9), for they were always being delivered unto death for the Lord’s purpose. Their only hope was in the God who raised up the Lord Jesus and who would also raise them up. They lived with this kind of faith.
In verse 15 Paul declares, “For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, abounding through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.” Grace, according to the context, is the very Christ who lives in the apostles as their life and life supply for them to live a crucified life for the manifestation of the resurrection life, that they may carry out their ministry for God’s new covenant. As the apostles were under the killing, life was being imparted to others, and grace was abounding through the many. As a result, much thanksgiving will also abound. Paul did not care for the sufferings, because he realized that his being killed imparted life to many and this life became grace to them. As a result, all will give thanks to God. This was the life lived by the apostles, a crucified life for the manifestation of resurrection life by the excellent power of the hidden treasure in the earthen vessel.
Sooner or later, we shall all experience the grinding. We shall be ground between the top stone and the bottom stone. In this matter we have no choice, for we all need the grinding. It is this grinding that causes resurrection life to be manifested.
Yes, in the sight of God we have already been constituted. But we still need the testing to determine how much we have been constituted, and we also need the grinding to work out this constitution in a practical and experiential way. Although we have been constituted, we still need this constitution to be carried out. This is done mainly through opposition and the grinding of the dear ones close to us.
Every church is a grinding mill. Perhaps you do not like the church in your locality and desire to move elsewhere. If you move to escape the grinding, you will find that in the place to which you move you will be ground even more. Therefore, if you move to escape the grinding, you should be prepared for even more grinding. We cannot avoid it. This has been ordained for us; it is our destiny. Praise the Lord for the grinding which causes the resurrection life to be manifested!
