2 Corinthians, 4:10-13

2 Corinthians chapter 4. Jack said this morning, gee this handout is 12 pages. Are we going to be able to go through that? I don't know. Fast maybe. Okay, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. What I'd like to do is start at verse 7 and read down through verse 13. So starting at verse 7.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we who live are always deliberate unto death for Jesus' sake, and the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death works in us, but life in you. We, having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have spoken. We also believe and therefore speak.

Okay, last week we looked at verses 6 through 9. We did a summary of verses 6 and 7, but last week our focus was on 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 8 and 9. And it starts off The verb in this whole sentence starts off back at verse 7, and it just simply says, we are having. It's something that we are having, it's a present tense, we are continually having, and it's an active voice, it's that we're participating in this, and it's a reality in our life. It's indicative mood, which says it's just a reality in our life, we're having. And as we go through the passage today, I've added something in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 10-12. So, we're having in verse 6 and 7, it talks about something that's in us.

We're having in us a treasure. And the treasure was the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. we are having what's happening to us trials and suffering and we went through all of those trials and sufferings last week and today it says we're having in us the dying of the Lord Jesus and and death in us. So I want you to notice this and just take a look at this. It's like there's two bookends here and something in the middle. And the something in the middle is that we are having trials and sufferings. We're troubled, we're perplexed, we're persecuted, we're cast down. Those are the things that are happening to us. And those are the things that are ordained by God. God ordains every single trial, every single suffering that comes to us.

And He ordains it for a reason. Does anybody remember the reason why He ordains it? Back in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, He ordains it because he has a purpose, and one of the purposes is that we are an ambassador for him. And so as an ambassador, we represent not only the land which we come from, which is heaven, right? We represent the country that we come from, heaven, but we also represent our sovereign, right?

God. So he appoints us to trials and sufferings. But look at the bookends here. Just look at the bookends. We're having trials and sufferings, but we're also having happening to us, but in us. Look what's happening in us. We have this treasure, the very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And look at the other bookend. We're having in us the dying of the Lord Jesus and death in us.

So now the question is, what does all this mean in verses 10-12? The dying of the Lord Jesus and death in us. As you look at the passage in the whole, Once you observe something, verse 10, always appearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Look at verse 11, for we which live are always delivered unto, what? Death. For Jesus' sake, that the life Also, Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Verse 12, So then the death works in us, but the life in you. So, notice the repetition of death and life, death and life, death and life.

What does all that mean? point is that, as it's mentioned several times, there's an importance, there's an emphasis that God is bringing out in these verses. So what is it? But here are the questions as you look at these verses. Always appearing about in the body, the dying of our Lord Jesus, or this word, bear, Thero means to bear or to carry, so we can say that we're bearing or carrying the death of the Lord Jesus in our body. What does that mean? How are we carrying the dying of Christ in our bodies? How is that happening?

Look at verse 11. In verse 11, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Here's the question as you look at this verse. Who or what is delivering us unto death? It says, for we which live are always delivered unto death. And it's a passive voice. We're being acted upon. So who or what is delivering us to death? Then, of course, the question is, what death is this speaking of? Is it physical death? Spiritual death? I mean, what death is it speaking of?

Then as you get to verse 12, so then, by the way, there's a definite article in verse 12, so then the death works in us, and there's also a definite article in terms of life, but the life in you. And often you'll hear it said, death in us, life in you. Right? Death in us, life in you. What in the world does that mean? What is the death? So then, the death works in us. What is the death? And then, what does death in us, life in you, mean? We're going to try and answer those questions. Okay? So, here we go. First of all, verse 10. Just looking at the definitions.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Bearing about. The word is comes from thorough, it's emphasized, it's intensified, I should say, by a little preposition here, but the basic word is thorough, which means to bear or to carry. And when you put this preposition in front of it, it means to bear or carry about or carry around. So we are bearing or carrying around in this body of ours the dying of our Lord Jesus. How are we doing that? What does that mean? The word body, soma, is as you think, this whole physical body of ours. It's the instrument of life.

And the word dying there, Better translated, a putting to death. The dying or a putting to death of the Lord Jesus. So, we're caring about, in our body, the putting to death of our Lord Jesus. We're caring about it. So, all we can summarize there is to say, whatever the trial, whatever the circumstance in our life, we're bearing about or caring about in our body the dying, the putting to death of our Lord Jesus. Literally, that's just a literal translation. Alright, what does it mean?

What death are we talking about? So, as we look at the verse, and we say, always bearing about in the body the dying of our Lord Jesus, What dying of the Lord Jesus? How did the Lord Jesus Christ die? What death? When you think of the dying of our Lord Jesus, what do you think about? Dying on the cross. Dying on the cross, and then dying on the cross, was there more than one purpose in him dying on the cross?

Well, he took on the sin of the world and then he died to sin. Okay, he took on the sin of the world and he died to sin. Okay. So then, which one is it talking about? Is it talking about where he died for the sins of the world as our substitute? Or is it talking about that Jesus Christ died unto sin, that is, unto the sin nature, as our representative? Or as Vine says, that, so I ask this as a question, or does this refer to our physical sufferings endured in fellowship with Christ? The fact that as we go through life, as we minister, that there's going to be trials, and there's going to be suffering, and there's going to be physical sufferings because of our ministry that the Lord has given us. So is it talking about physical death? Well, hold it. It's not about the dying of our Lord Jesus, right? Substitute which word went separation. OK. OK. Death. Death means separation. OK. Why can't it mean all those. Why can't it mean. All right. Can we ever imagine or carry about the dying of our Lord Jesus for the sins of the world? Was that a transaction between Christ and God? And did we have any part in that? Okay, lack of fellowship? Bob?

Yeah, the preface to this are being troubled on every side, yet not distressed. What's the normal human response to these trials and tribulations? Is to whine, and grieve, and plead, and look for somebody else to blame. I mean, the whole atom nature is the natural response. So that really sets the second answer to your question as the most relevant, I think. Everybody here with Bob Satt? In terms of the context, which is as written, you've got to go back to verses 8 and 9, with troubles in every side, perplexed and distressed, etc. Let me go through what I think the logic is on this. Here's the logic.

Our sin nature resides where? in our body, right? Our sin nature resides in our body. We know that the Lord died unto the sin nature, right? He died unto that sin nature, and when He died unto the sin nature, because of our identification with Christ, we died with Him. So He died unto the sin nature, who else died? We died unto the sin nature. As Wayne says, death means what? Separation. So we were separated from our sin nature.

Next point. Good. That's great. That's great. Obviously I wasn't smart enough to look at that. Okay. But that's great. We're all tracking. So we were identified with, and the identification with, we were baptized, we were immersed into his death. When he died, we died. Okay.

So, positionally, I should ask the question, without you looking at your notes, positionally, Where is our sin nature? On the cross. Our sin nature is on the cross. So, since we're bearing and caring about our sin nature, our sin nature was not eradicated, our sin nature still remains with us in our body, then we also must be bearing and caring about the dying, his dying, unto the sin nature.

Does that make sense? Okay. Let's go on to the second part. Because there's a purpose of that. There's a purpose by the little word, that, and it introduces a purpose clause that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. So, here's a picture of this.

Here we are, and residing in us is the sin nature. However, the sin nature, positionally, as God sees it, as it is, it's on the cross. We're bearing about and caring about that sin nature, but we're also bearing and caring about the cross, His death, His burial, His resurrection. His death is our death. And as you go on in Romans chapter 6 verse 4, it says, we were raised into what?

The newness of life. And remember, I think we've gone through this before, that we were raised in the newness of life, and newness is a noun. Newness is not an adjective. Newness does not describe life. We were raised in newness. Of life describes or modifies the newness. And it's a genitive, I think, of source, which tells us where the newness comes from. The newness comes from life. Whose life? His life. And it's continually new. Okay? So, we're raising newness to life. So, we're caring about, we're bearing about in our body the dying of our Lord Jesus, that His life might be made manifest. Okay?

So, here's the question. In our trials, in our troubles, in our suffering, how does this happen? How does this all go together? Now, I'm an engineer, so I like to have pictures and at least the concept of what's happening. OK, so so you'll have to bear with me. You may not like pictures in terms of something like this. Okay, but let's put it all into context now. Here we are in verse 8, we're troubled, or as the New American Standard says, afflicted, we're persecuted, we're cast down, or New American Standard says, struck down.

And this is just a small list of things. If you were to go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 to 33, in 10 verses, Paul lists all of the trials and sufferings, or most of the trials and sufferings that he's been through. It's a horrendous list. I'll tell you what, since we're in 2 Corinthians, just turn there to chapter 11, verse 23. He's talking about these men out there, these teachers. He's saying, are they ministers of Christ? You know, think about it. People come to you and supposedly minister to you, but are they ministers of Christ? He says, I speak as a fool.

I am more, in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received, I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep. in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils made by my own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils amongst false brethren, in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger, in thirst, in fastings, often in cold and nakedness.

Let me ask you a question. You know, is that a fair amount of trials? And we're adding to those kinds of things. We're adding to those trials. But they're external, right? And remember the bookends. The trials are externals, but we've got the two bookends. We've got this treasure in us, the very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the other bookend is we have this death in us, the dying of our Lord Jesus. those two bookends. So here are the trials and sufferings that come at us.

They're external. When they come at us, guaranteed, whenever a trial, whenever suffering comes in your life, guaranteed, the response, the first response, is one out of the sin nature. And out of the sin nature, there's going to be irritability, discouragement, some of the things that Bob just mentioned, anger, casting blame, bitterness, resentment, anxiety, self-pity, fear, all of those things. That's going to be the response of the sin nature. And that's all internal.

But when all these trials come, You are perplexed. You don't know which way to turn. And fortunately, if we say, Lord, I don't have a clue. I don't have a clue where to turn in terms of this perplexity. But by faith, we say, Lord, I just trust you in all of this.

And that's our response, right? In believing. And in verse 13, Paul emphasizes that. He says, we believe. And so we believe and we rest upon the truth that we are dead, we are separated from the sin nature and its response to the trial, to the irritability, discouragement, anger, worry, fear, and all of the rest, and we're alive unto God. dead unto sin, separated from the sin nature, and alive unto God. And by faith we abide in Christ.

Lord, I trust you. And I don't have a clue what's happening in my life, but I trust you in it. And Lord, you have told me that your yoke is easy. Right? Your yoke is easy. And my burden is light. You take all the burden. So that's the faith response. And by responding in faith, verse 7 says that the excellency of God's power may be of Him and not of us.

That the only way the only way that we're going to not be distressed and not feel boxed in like there's no way out or not despairing that we see that we're in total despair. In fact, when people are in total despair, the next step is usually suicide because the feeling of being in despair is you feel like Exactly that. That there is absolutely no way out. And the only way out that looks good in that situation is suicide.

So we're not spirit. And we're not forsaken. We know that God says, I'll never, never, never, it's a triple negative in Hebrews 13, leave you nor forsake you. Right? It's the strongest way you can say something in the Greek language. and we're not destroyed. Remember last week we looked at this word destroyed. It's not a loss of being. It's a loss of well-being. We're never without a loss of well-being.

And then look what happens in verse 10. So that we're carrying about in our body the dying of our Lord Jesus that we reckon that His death is our death, and our response to the sin nature is nailed to that cross, and we're separated from that, and if we do, then Christ's life is manifested. Okay? Verse 10. Does the picture help, by the way? You can follow it. You can follow it. Okay. Verse 11. Verse 11. First part of verse 11 says this.

For we who live are always, meaning constantly, being delivered unto or over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So here we have it again. We have death on the one hand, life on the other. What death is this? I think the life aspect is pretty clear. that it's his life, right? Always it's his life. When we get to verse 12, it's not clear whether it's his life, but we'll see that in a minute.

Okay. First of all, it says, we who live. And it says, we who are living. So the question is this, does that mean we who are just have life, you know, just physical life and walking about? Is that what it's talking about? Is that the life it's talking about? It's the new life that they just talked about. Okay. It's the new life that they just talked about.

Yeah, I mean, as you go through this passage and you take it all in context, I think it's those who are walking in the newness of life. Those who are walking in newness, whose source is life, and the source of life is the very life of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, those who...

Is that conditional or positional? Positional. Are we always... so here's my question. Pardon me? Walking implies... doesn't that imply... Okay, so that was good. So that was going to be my question. Does walking always imply position? Normally, walking implies our condition. And it's peripetuo. How we're walking about. how we're going about in our life, moment by moment. That's what it means. Other ways to say it, those who are walking according to the Spirit and not the flesh.

In terms of Galatians 5.16, Galatians 5.16 says, now there's a command, walk in the Spirit and what? and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's an imperative. Maybe you will, maybe you won't. So walk talks about condition as opposed to position. Or another way of saying, for those who live, those who are abiding in Christ. I am the vine, you are the branches, He that abides in me, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

Now, what does it mean when it says that we're always constantly being delivered unto or over to death? the word there for being delivered. It's an interesting word, and as you go through Vines of Zodias, as you look up these definitions, in terms of what these words mean, you can see that they have, I mean, they have a list of usages which are that long. And it goes, and it says, well here's usage number one, usage number two, usage number three, now which use is this? So, but basically, the word paradidomi, para means up, Didim means to give. It means to give up or to give over. And it's used in the sense of delivering a person or thing to be kept by another. So just think of the root meaning of the word.

It means delivering a person or a thing to be kept by another. In the context, what's being given over, who's giving it over, and what's it being given over to or kept by? For we who live are always constantly being delivered unto or over to death. Who's being delivered over to death constantly? Okay. Alright.

Somebody says the sin nature. Let's... If you're in the spirit, the sin nature isn't... If you're abiding in Christ, the sin nature is not part of that. Because it says, for we who live are always being delivered over. I mean, I don't know. Okay. All right. Good question. Good question. And another question came up. It said, well, hold it. The sin nature is not alive. So how can all of this be? Should we take the second question first? So here's the second question first. Is the sin nature alive and well? Depends upon who's looking at it. So here's my question.

When a trial or suffering comes into your life, into my life, and the response always, every single time, bar none, is either irritability, discouragement, anger, cast of blame. Why is that the response? That's it. So why is that the response? When we walk in the spirit of a new man, we don't respond that way, right? But you're saying always we must respond that way, and my experience is exactly what you said. So I agree with you conditionally. Okay, so here's the question then.

Is the sin nature alive and well? In whose eyes? In our eyes. In God's eyes? In God's eyes? In our eyes? Whosever eyes you want to take? Yes. Is it alive and well? Yes. It sure is. I mean, every morning I wake up, I know it's alive and well, right? How long does it take? Microseconds. No, it doesn't take very... that you know, that you know it's alive and well. Because here is the response. And think about this.

We just talked about Galatians 5.16, right? Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh has desires and the spirit has the word lust there, epiphany is the word desire so walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh or the desires of the flesh for the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh lusts or desires against the spirit and the two are contrary to each other, right? diametrically opposed Is the sin nature alive and well? Sure is. Is the new nature alive and well? Is the spirit of God? Sure is.

They have different desires. The desires are diametrically opposed. And the desires of the sin nature are these kinds of desires. And the desires of the spirit are different desires. They're love and joy and peace and long suffering. The desires are totally 180 degrees apart.

Both are alive and well in this. And you see that struggle in you, and if you don't, you're not alive. You're dead! No. So there's that struggle that goes on, right? Two quick points out. The first is that the desire of the flesh, or the sin nature, is to preserve self. And those are the manifestations to preserve self, right? Exactly. And the second thing, you make it sound like all the power positive thinking.

In other words, I'm going to choose to respond in the spirit rather than choose to respond in the flesh, but that's kind of an intellectual assent, isn't it? That's not the way this happens, right? Okay. See what Bob is saying? Is that this is not an intellectual assent. And here's the thing.

In order to recognize this, in order to recognize the desires of the sin nature, irritability, anger, and all of that in your life, to recognize that, where must you be walking? You won't recognize any of this if you're abiding over here, right? So that's the spirit. So you need to be abiding, you need to be walking, right, in the spirit. You need to be abiding in Christ. And so that's not an intellectual ascent, it's that that's where you're resting, moment by moment. And then comes the trial, as you're abiding in Christ and fellowshipping with Him.

Then comes the trial. But the sin nature has these desires 24-7, and when these desires When these desires, when the trials come, these desires come. As Bob says, there's that self-preservation about the sin nature and wants to preserve self. And so here come all these desires. So it's not a matter of making a choice as to where you're going to walk. The thing is, you are walking in the Spirit. You are walking in fellowshipping with Christ.

Because you'd never recognize this. Marilyn? Yeah, but does that mean that... I mean, there's a toggle switch there. So if we don't have the toggle over it, just in nature, that stuff's not going to be happening. Or is it happening when we're over in the Spirit, no matter what? Okay, so let me see if I understand your question, Marilyn. You're saying that this is not going to happen when we're walking in the Spirit? Well, I thought this, we're not, we're the little switch, there's no gray area.

There's no gray area, so if we're not energizing this in nature, then it's not Or is it just doing this stuff all the time? Okay, see Marilyn's question? Marilyn's question is, if by faith we're abiding in the sin nature, then yeah, then she can see all these things happening. But if we're over here abiding in Christ, then the question is, is the sin nature having all these desires? Yeah, that's the nature. That's the nature. 24-7. It's a spiral though. If we happen to go over there, are we going to be down in suicide? Okay, okay.

Now, now the thing is, you use, Marilyn, you use the word energized, okay? When we're walking by faith, and we're walking in the Spirit and abiding in Christ, then we're being energized by Him. His life is energizing our life. And even though these desires are operational at that time, even though we're walking in the Spirit, these desires are there. They're there. But we're not being energized by them because we haven't, by faith, walking over here in the flesh.

Okay? I think rest is a great term here. Okay, rest. Either we're resting here or we're resting here. But also, isn't it our response? I mean, because we're being energized by our response to those things is a totally different response than if we were abiding over things in nature, and that's what was energizing. Okay, so good question. Now let's talk about our response. If we're resting or abiding by faith in Christ, and here comes the trials, and here comes the sufferings in our life, and the sin nature, because if it's very nature, it says, it gets irritable, discouragement, it wants to solve the problem, and here are the desires that come out of the sin nature. Okay? Let's see, what were we talking about? Response. So, our response is, and do we sense all this? We sure do. And let me say this.

The more we know Christ, the more we know Him, the more we're going to recognize every one of these. And this is just a short list. I've got a two-page list. which should be about ten pages of the response or the desires of the sin nature. But the thing is that unless we know him, we're not going to recognize this as sin. Right? We're not going to recognize this.

And so, our response then is that as these things come into our life, now the response is, Lord, here comes this temptation. I'm discouraged. And I'm starting to worry about this situation, this financial situation, this health situation, or whatever it is in my life. And so the response is, Lord, you've separated me from the source of that. You've separated me from that nature. I am dead. I am crucified with Christ. So the response is that I'm dead. I'm separated from it. I don't need to be a slave to this because most of my life I've been a slave to that nature, to that sin nature.

You want to understand worry and anxiety? Just come to me and I'll tell you all about worry and anxiety. I was just going to say, you know, the recognition of these responses of the sin nature have people in the offices of psychiatrists and psychologists around the world. What's that all about?

I mean, so there is an ability for the non-believer to recognize these as manifestations of unsettling, if you will. I think I told you the story. that the guy in the next bed in the hospital from me, right, behind the curtain is a psychologist and in my discussion with him after they stopped my bleeding and he came over and he says, I've never seen anybody in my life that had the peace and love that you do.

I said, hold it. It's not me. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to understand that. So, but I said to him, George, you know, as a psychologist, you understand all of, and I rattled off all of these things. He says, yes, we understand them thoroughly. I said, but you don't have the answer. See, I mean, they do have an answer, and their answer is self-image. Increase your self-image versus Christ's image. Self-worth. Count yourself worthy versus the worthiness of Christ. So the answer is always in self and not in Christ. Self and not Christ. George, you don't have the answer.

I was expecting him to come out with all six shooters and just blow me apart, which most psychologists do. He didn't. And he thought about it. He says, Hal, you are absolutely right. I was stunned. I said, why? He says, because I'm going through this right now in my life. Terrible anger in my life. And I'm about to commit suicide. No one knows that. I haven't even shared that with my wife. And he says, I don't have the answer. George, the answer is in Christ. Okay, deal. Suicide rate. Yeah, they have a very high suicide rate.

And the thing is, I talk to a lot of psychiatrists, and if you talk to a psychiatrist and you say, how come you chose psychiatry? How come you chose psychiatry? The reason they chose psychiatry is because they had deep problems in their life. And they thought by being a psychiatrist, they could work them out and figure them out. And they could. They can. It's interesting that the solution to their problem is the problem itself. It's like a worn out engine repairing itself.

How do you want to finish this next week? Remember, we mentioned a month and a half ago that we we don't necessarily need to remain on the fast train. Right. Right. I mean, because I it ends up that two weeks from now, I was going to be gone. I'm here now. So I can. In other words, we can delay things. We're going to do some planning right in the middle of class here. I mean, this is so valuable that I don't I mean, my opinion is that you shouldn't rush for three votes to finish up. Okay. All right. Are we okay delaying it, do you think?

I'm okay in doing that. Did you ever answer Margaret's question? Oh, let's see. Margaret's question. In terms of, well, I was going to try and get through all this. So if I could pass the question. Response. No. Oh, I'm sorry. This is before response.

This was the question you asked, something about being alive. And I said if you're walking in, if we're abiding in the spirit or in Christ, then... Okay, we're abiding over here. Well, this is before death. Or, we're biding over here. It says, for we who live or constantly think we're going to get produced, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in their place. Okay. And so we said that you can't, we decided that was the walking. For we who walk about.

Okay, and we never got past this. Right. So next week. Tune in next week. and we'll continue on. Okay? Okay. Hey, I'm thrilled with the interaction and the questions. So, great. If it wasn't for Bob, I wouldn't be here today. I am much better. Let's close in a word of prayer.

Our Father, we are just so thankful for your love and your grace. Father, we are ever so thankful for your word. And knowing, Father, that you tell us who we are in Christ. You describe to us every situation in our life, our possible responses to it, and we give you thanks, Father, knowing that we are identified with Christ in His very person and His very death and His very burial and resurrection, that we might walk in the newness whose source is His very life. And Father, we are also thankful that as we come to know Him, we come to know more about the old man and more about the desires that come out from him. And so that we can recognize what's not of Christ and what is of Christ. We ask it in His name. Amen.