Having received this ministry of righteousness and of the Spirit, the
foundation of which was Christ glorified beheld with open face, he not only
used great boldness of speech, but his zeal was not abated, nor his faith
enfeebled by difficulties. Moreover, with the courage which through grace
was imparted to him by this doctrine, he held back nothing, weakened
nothing of this glory; he did not corrupt the doctrine; he manifested it in
all the purity and brightness in which he had received it. It was the word
of God; such as he had received it, so they received it from him, the
unaltered word of God; the apostle thus approving himself, commending
himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. All could not say
this. The glory of the Lord Jesus was set forth by Paul's preaching in all
the clearness and brightness of its revelation to himself. If, therefore,
the good news which he proclaimed was hidden, it was not as in the case of
Moses; not only was the glory of the Lord fully revealed with open face in
Christ, it was also manifested without a veil in the pure preaching of the
apostle. This is the link established between the glory accomplished in the
Person of Christ, as the result of the work of redemption, and the ministry
which, by the power of the Holy Ghost acting in the instrument chosen of
the Lord, proclaimed this glory to the world, and made men responsible for
the reception of the truth-responsible for submission to this glorious
Christ, who announced Himself in grace from heaven, as having established
righteousness for the sinner, and as inviting him to come freely and enjoy
the love and the blessing of God.
Now there was no other means of coming to God. To set up any other would be
to put aside and declare imperfect and insufficient that which Christ had
done, and that which Christ was, and to produce something better than He.
But this was not possible: for that which he announced was the
manifestation of the glory of God in the Person of the Son, in connection
with the revelation of perfect love, and of the making good perfect and
divine righteousness; so that the pure light was the happy abode of those
who by this means entered into it. There could not be anything more, unless
there was something more than God in the fulness of His grace and of His
perfection. If then this revelation was hidden, it was in the case of those
who were lost, whose minds were blinded by the god of this world, lest the
light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine into their hearts.
This is translated "glorious gospel." But we have seen that the fact of
Christ's being in glory, the glory of God being seen in His face, was the
special subject of the preceding chapter. To that the apostle here alludes
as characterising the gospel which he preached. It was the proof of the sin
Christ had borne being utterly put away, of victory over death, of the
introduction of man into the presence of God in glory according to God's
eternal counsels of love. It was withal the full display of the divine
glory in man according to grace, which the Holy Ghost takes to shew to us
in order to form us after the same likeness. It was the glorious
ministration of righteousness, and of the Spirit, which opened the free way
for man to God, even into the holiest, in entire liberty.
When Christ was thus proclaimed, there was either the joyful acceptance of
the good news, submission of heart to the gospel, or else the blinding of
Satan. For Paul did not preach himself (which others did not fail to do)
but Jesus Christ the Lord, and himself their servant for Jesus' sake.
Because in fact (and this is another important principle) the shining forth
of this gospel of the glory of Christ is the work of God's power-of the
same God who, by His word alone, caused the light instantaneously to shine
out of the midst of darkness. He had shone into the apostle's heart to give
forth the light of the knowledge of His own glory in the face of Jesus
Christ. The gospel shone forth by a divine operation similar to that which
had, in the beginning, caused the light to shine out of darkness by a
single word. The heart of the apostle was the vessel, the lamp, in which
this light had been kindled to shine in the midst of the world before the
eyes of men. It was the revelation of the glory which shone in the Person
of Christ by the power of the Spirit of God in the heart of the apostle, in
order that this glory should shine out in the gospel before the world. It
was the power of God which wrought in it, in the same manner as when light
was caused by the word "Let there be light! and there was light." But the
treasure of this revelation of the glory was deposited, in earthen vessels,
in order that power which wrought in it should be of God alone, and not
that of the instruments. In all, the weakness of the instrument shewed
itself in the trying circumstances which God, for this very purpose (among
others), made the testimony pass through. Nevertheless the power of God was
manifested in it so much the more evidently, from the vessel's shewing its
weakness in the difficulties that beset its path. The testimony was
rendered, the work was done, the result was produced, even when man broke
down and found himself without resource in presence of the opposition
raised up against truth.
Afflicted by the tribulation, this was the vessel's part; not straitened,
for God was with the vessel. Without means of escape, that was the vessel;
yet not without resource, for God was with it. Persecuted, that was the
vessel; not forsaken, for God was with it. Cast down, that was the vessel;
but not destroyed, for God was with it. Always bearing about in his body
the dying [see note #3]
of the Lord Jesus (made like Him, in that the man as such was reduced to
nothing), in order that the life of Jesus, which death could not touch,
which has triumphed over death, should be manifested in his body, mortal as
it was. The more the natural man was annihilated, the more was it evident
that a power was there which was not of man. This was the principle, but it
was morally realised in the heart by faith. As the Lord's servant, Paul
realised in his heart the death of all that was human life, in order that
the power might be purely of God through Jesus risen. But besides this, God
made him realise these things by the circumstances through which he had to
pass; for, as living in this world, he was always delivered unto death for
Jesus' sake, in order that the life of Jesus might be manifested in his
mortal flesh. Thus death wrought in the apostle; what was merely of man, of
nature and natural life, disappeared, in order that life in Christ,
developing itself in him on the part of God and by His power, should work
in the Corinthians by his means. What a ministry! A thorough trial of the
human heart, a glorious calling, for a man to be thus assimilated to
Christ, to be the vessel of the power of His pure life, and by means of an
entire self-renunciation, even that of life itself, to be morally like unto
Jesus. What a position by grace! What a conformity to Christ! And yet in a
way in which it passed through man's heart to reach man's heart (which
indeed is of the essence of Christianity itself), not surely by man's
strength, but God's made good in man's weakness.
<61472F:33>226 Therefore it was that the apostle could use the language of
the Spirit of Christ in the Psalms, "I believed, and therefore have I
spoken." That is to say, 'At whatever cost, in spite of everything, of all
the danger, all the opposition, I have spoken for God, I have borne my
testimony. I have had confidence enough in God to bear testimony to Him and
to His truth, whatever the consequences might be, even if I had died in
doing it.' That is, the apostle said, 'I have acted as Christ Himself did,
because I know that He who raised up Jesus would do the same for me, and
would present me, together with you, before His face in that same glory in
which Christ is now in heaven, and for my testimony to which, I have
suffered death like Him.' We must clearly distinguish here between Christ's
sufferings for righteousness and for His work of love, and His sufferings
for sin. The former it is our privilege to share with Him; in the latter He
is alone.
<61472F:34>The apostle said, "will present me with you," for, he adds,
according to the heart and mind of Christ towards His own, "all things are
for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of
many, redound to the glory of God." And therefore it was that he did not
allow himself to be discouraged; but on the contrary, if the outward man
perished, the inward man was renewed day by day. For the light affliction,
which was but for a moment (for such he esteemed it in view of the glory-it
was but the temporary affliction of this poor dying body), worked out for
him an eternal weight of glory which was beyond all the most exalted
expression of human thought or language. And this renewing took place; and
he was not disheartened come whatmight, in that he looked not at the
things that are seen, which are temporal, but at the things that are not
seen, which are eternal. Thus the power of the divine life, with all its
consequences, was developed in his soul by faith. He knew the result of
everything on God's part.
<61472F:35>It was not only that there were things invisible and glorious.
Christians had their part in them. We know, the apostle says in their name,
that if this earthly house (passing away as it is) were destroyed-and it
had very nearly been the case with himself-we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Precious certainty! He
knew it. Christians know it as a part of their faith. We know [see note #4]
-a certainty which caused this glory, which he knew to be his, to be a real
and practical hope in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost-a reality
present by faith. He saw this glory as that which belonged to him, with
which he was to be invested. And therefore also he groaned in his
tabernacle, not (as so many do) because the desires of his flesh could not
be fulfilled; and because satisfaction of heart cannot be found for man,
even when those desires are fulfilled; nor because he was uncertain whether
he was accepted, and the glory his or not; but because the body was a
hindrance, tending to depress the divine life, to deprive him of the full
enjoyment of that glory which the new life saw and desired, and which Paul
saw and admired as his own. It was a burden, this earthly human nature; it
was no distress to him that he could not satisfy its desires; his distress
was to find himself still in this mortal nature, because he saw something
better.
Not however that he desired to be unclothed, for he saw in Christ glorified
a power of life capable of swallowing up and annihilating every trace of
mortality; for the fact that Christ was on high in the glory was the result
of this power, and at the same time the manifestation of the heavenly
portion that belonged to them that were His. Therefore the apostle desired,
not to be unclothed but clothed upon, and that that which was mortal in him
should be absorbed by life, that the mortality that characterised his
earthly human nature should disappear before the power of life which he saw
in Jesus, and which was his life. That power was such that there was no
need to die. And this was not a hope which had no other foundation than the
desire awakened by a view of the glory might produce: God had formed
Christians for this very thing. He who was a Christian was formed for this,
and not for anything else. It was God Himself who had formed him for
this-this glory, in which Christ, the last Adam, was at the right hand of
God. Precious assurance! Happy confidence in the grace and the mighty work
of God! Ineffable joy to be able to attribute all to God Himself, to be
thus certified of His love, to glorify Him as the God of love-our
Benefactor, to know that it was His work, and that we rest upon a finished
work-the work of God. It is not here resting upon a work done for us; but
the blessed consciousness that God has wrought us for this: we are His
workmanship.
Nevertheless something else was necessary to our enjoying this, since we
are not yet glorified in fact; and God has given it-the earnest of the
Spirit.
Thus, we have the glory before us, we are wrought for it by God Himself,
and we have the earnest of the Spirit till we are there, and know that
Christ has so entirely overcome death that, if the time were come, we
should be transformed into glory without dying at all. Mortality would be
swallowed up of life. This is our portion through grace in the last Adam,
through the power of life in which Christ was raised.
But next the apostle will treat of the effect as to the natural portion of
the first fallen man, death and judgment; for the testimony here is very
complete.
