Exploring Paul's Teachings on Jesus' Divinity and Lordship

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2nd Corinthians 4.5-8

October 14th 2018

Continuing Paul's Message

Okay, we left off last week having covered the first four verses of chapter four where Paul wrote:

1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

And now adds an additional clarification

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Paul's Intentions in Preaching

I like the RSV which says, “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. Paul seems to give a reason for what he had said in the previous parts of the epistle respecting his conduct in the ministry and reiterates that he has been open, pure, and free from dishonest arts and tricks, not corrupting the word of God or resorting to anything that could question his apostolic integrity.

Instead of “preaching” for his own benefit and ego, he says here that he instead preached Jesus Christ as Lord. He made Him known as Savior, as Lord, as Redeemer – which is why he himself says that instead of preaching for own interests he preached Jesus . . . as Lord.

Sorry, but we note that Paul does not say that he preached Jesus as God. Instead he chose to say, Lord. His point in doing this was to show that his intentions in preaching was to promote Jesus as Lord and not his own agenda, but He does not say that in promoting Jesus He promotes Him as God.

I frequently wonder why neither Paul nor Peter promoted Jesus as God. Have you ever wondered this?

This is NOT to say that Jesus of Nazareth was not God in the flesh or the Word of God made flesh. I believe that is exactly what He was – God in a human being named Jesus of Nazareth who was born of a woman. What part of God was in Him? His Word. His logos. To me it’s as simple as that because that is what the scripture says.

But in places like this it seems that the Apostolic Record makes the main focus on Jesus always being Lord and Savior and never God. We have to wonder if this was because Jesus of Nazareth had to overcome His humanity in order to attain deification.

Jesus' Role as Lord and Savior

Here, in verses 5-7, Paul actually takes the time to distinguish between preaching Jesus as Lord and God as he says:

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

I am reiterating the biblical fact that when it comes to Jesus and God in the New Testament, Jesus is described mostly as a Man, a Son of Man, a Son of God, of Nazareth, the Lord, the Redeemer, the Savior and the references to the God in Him do NOT support a Trinity (unless a person is taught that that is what they are teaching) but they support the fact that God was in Jesus of Nazareth, as His Word made flesh, and as a means to redeem the World.

These passages support this overall picture in my opinion. So after admitting that his business was to preach Jesus Christ as Lord, which is ruler over all

The Light of Revelation

things, and not to promote himself, Paul adds that in so doing they make:

Themselves (ourselves) your servants, and adds (verse 6)

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Here Paul seems to take the time to explain why he and his fellow apostles didn’t promote themselves, but instead Jesus Christ, saying

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The Light of Creation

Most translations admit that Paul is quoting God from Genesis but it's not a quote, it’s a description of the quote. Because when God created the heavens and the earth, DARKNESS was on the face of the deep; and there in Genesis 1:3 God said, “Let THERE BE LIGHT; and there was light.” Therefore, what Paul says here is that God “caused the light to shine out of darkness” as darkness was on the face of the deep and God said, “let there be light.” For God, (the one who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in Genesis 1:3), hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The Purpose of the Light

Why did God shine (what appears to be the same light) into the hearts of the apostles? For them TO GIVE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD in the face of Jesus Christ! What exactly does this mean? First of all, God shined his light into their hearts – he had given them personal revelation (as the light was shined into their personal hearts) and he did this in order “For them TO THEN GIVE the light (of what?) For them to give the LIGHT of the KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY of GOD to others (that was) IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST.

The doctrines which they were preaching were not derived from men in any form. It had all been communicated to them from God directly into their hearts. No traditions of Men required. No interpretations of laws written in stone by a Sanhedrin. Just direct Light from God right into their hearts. Are we allowed to receive the same? We are not only allowed we are promised that in this age this would be what God would do! And we have talked about this concept quite a bit in the past few weeks.

Because God is love and all of the law and the prophets hang on the two great commandments to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves, we know that the Law God writes or shines in the human heart is to Love! Here Paul admits that as an apostle this was directly imputed to them, light right into their hearts, which in the end winds up being the equivalent to love no matter how it manifests itself, and as a result of possessing this heavenly revelation these apostles were able to “give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (which abides or abided in) the face of Jesus Christ.”

According to the scholars like Tindale and Bloomfield and Doddridge, we can understand this passage in two different ways: First, we can see it as saying that the apostles were able to “give knowledge or insight into what the glory of God is” and the second view is that it was “to give light of knowledge about the Glorious God.” In the first interpretation, the view is more about “revealing the glory of God itself and in the second its more about revealing the Glorious God. I tend to side with the first interpretation because

Back in chapter three Paul spoke about Moses hiding His face to conceal the glory which would have revealed to the COI the end of the law, meaning Christ – so that is some context. Because Paul mentions the Glory in the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, I tend to see the reference about the light that has been shined into their hearts as revealing the same glory that pours from the person of God. From this, Paul seems to be saying that his object as an apostle who has had this glory shined into his heart is to show and share it with other Christians that they too, by looking into

Glory in the Face of Christ

The face of Christ could also behold the Divine glory of the Invisible God. I believe that Paul says that this glory was in “the face of Jesus Christ,” is multi-faceted. First, where the COI were prevented to look into the shining face of Moses, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, believers could look right into the face of Christ, without any obstacle, and see in Him (perhaps not literally unless it was given them) the very person of God.

We remember that Jesus said, “to see him was to see the father,” and I do not think this was a play on words but a living reality. Jesus WAS God with us. To “see Him” (and I think this meant to see Him for who He really was) was to see the Father. Same light. Same glory. Same love. I reject the idea that to look upon His physical features was to see the Father – and so therefore we are only left with seeing Him for what He was spiritually. The word rendered "face" here in the King James can mean either the actual face or the person. In the end, I am still of the opinion that Paul is speaking of the Divine perfections that shone in and through the Redeemer.

The Divine Glory in Jesus

Remember the following:

Hebrews 1:3 says that the glory of the Divine nature was/is seen in Him, since He is "the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person."

It was in and through Him that the Divine glory of God’s attributes were made known – from being love itself, to what love looked like, to Divine judgment, justice, mercy, and goodness. It is REALLY important that as believers we do not skip over the fact that what Jesus did would have been what His Father God would do – no difference – had He been walking about in flesh as the Divine Moral character was perfectly displayed in and through His Son.

From this we make NO LEAP whatsoever to say that with God in Him, Jesus of Nazareth was God with us as the inhabitation of God in a man of flesh and bone would not produce anything less. In this we can say that Jesus of Nazareth was on earth as incarnate God in heaven and God in heaven became as human being on earth. So when Jesus of Nazareth spoke of eternality there was no conflict, when He spoke of forgiving sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace., there was no conflict, when scripture speaks of Him as creator there is no conflict.

Nevertheless, we cannot completely assign all the attributes of God the Father to Him because if we did we would be out of harmony with the scriptural narrative. Jesus of Nazareth learned obedience. He was tempted. He was not all knowing. And He died. Such things cannot be forgotten when speaking of Him or we run the risk of being guilty of spiritual hyperbole simply as a means to close all gaps in our need for certainty.

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

The example given over and over is that as the wax bears the perfect image of the seal perfectly – we have this between our Redeemer and our God. But One is the Seal and the other is the wax – and we cannot forget this important distinction in our understanding of them. At verse seven Paul says:

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

When Paul refers to “this treasure” he obviously is speaking of the light shined into their hearts that revealed the Glory of God through the face of Jesus Christ. But he humbly admits that the treasure was contained in “earthen vessels” – or bodies fitted to life on this material earth which are weak and feeble, having propensities for decaying and dying and therefore fragile and in the end truly ill prepared to contain such a valuable treasure of knowledge.

In fact, the Greek term for earthen refers to shells and then clay and so if you examine either very closely you know that their resistance to cracking and breaking is slight. So Paul is admitting that even though he is a vessel that has been gifted with this priceless treasure, he is still a mere mortal subject to breakage. He summarizes these facts by saying:

“that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” To me Paul is saying that the excellency of the power in them, the great power that was

Apostolic Endurance and Trials

Manifested in connection to all that he and the other apostles did, including the power of healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out devils, being bold, bearing persecution and trials, and traveling over land and sea to share the truth with the world, amidst dangers, and travail, and suffering, was manifestly beyond human strength therefore proving that it was from God and not of their own power. At this point Paul enters into some personal revelations about what the Apostles have endured in the name of Christ and by the power of God.

Paul's Trials and Revelations

From verse 8 to the end of the chapter this is the subject he is addressing and so I want to read the verses as a whole – beginning at verse 8 as he says:

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 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.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

So, let’s go back to verse 8 and work forward until our time runs out.

The Apostles' Sufferings

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Without question the “we” here refers to the apostles – this is proven in my mind by the fact that he refers to the “you” of his writings in verse 12. And Paul opens up here and describes the sufferings and trials he and his fellow-laborers were subjected to in making the treasures they bore to others. It could be that Paul sought to recover the hearts of some of the Corinthians who had become cold toward him and if we read these passages in the right light they have the ability to shift from just being travelogue facts to some real expressions of apostolic love and devotion he had for the church at Corinth.

So, let’s “laundry list” his seven statements and then talk about them.

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 which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, (that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh). So, then death worketh in us, but life in you.

1 Troubled on every side Yet not distressed

2 Perplexed but not in despair

3 Persecuted but not forsaken

4 Cast down but not destroyed

5 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.

6 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.

7 So, then death worketh in us, but life in you.

Troubled Times in Ministry

but not forsaken

4 Cast down but not destroyed

5 Always bearing about in the body that the life of Jesus the dying of the Lord Jesus might be made manifest in body

6 Always delivered that the life of Jesus unto death for Jesus Sake might be made manifest in flesh

7 Death worketh in us but life in you

Wrestling with Challenges

The word rendered troubled appears to have reference to wrestling or to the contests in the Grecian games which the reader at Corinth would be familiar. It properly means, to press, to press together and also to press as in a crowd where there is a throng but it also means to oppress with evil or to distress and afflict.

Paul speaks of some of those trials in 2nd Corinthians 7:5 when he said: "When we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears."

Here, Paul says that they were troubled on “every side,” which seems to mean in “every respect” or “in every way.”

The phrase “yet not distressed,” is translated by Tindale as, "yet we are not without our shift," but it is a difficult Greek word and properly means, to crowd into a narrow place. So putting the whole idea together he says: “We are pressed in on every side but we are not crowded into a narrow place to the point that we cannot turn around.” And this is why the Syriac translation renders it: "In all things we are pressed, but are not suffocated," therefore the idea is he or they were not wholly discouraged, and disheartened, and overcome.

Endurance in Persecution

Number 2!

We are “perplexed” the King James says with the Greek being “AP-OR-EHO” and means, no way out or even doubting, so combined it means not knowing or even doubting of a way out” (probably of certain situations) “But not in despair” – which Tyndale says better means, “not without help or means.”

So far Paul is describing the lot all Christians face over their course of their walk – a walk where it appears that there is no escape – but with God there is always salvation waiting in the wings.

Apostolic Persecution

Point 3

“Persecuted, but not forsaken”

The Book of Acts explains Apostolic persecution well. And yet the Book of Acts also supports Paul’s follow-up where he says: “But not forsaken.” (Not deserted; not abandoned by God).

This is one of the great mysteries of God amidst His people to me – that He allows His children to be persecuted – many to the point of physical death.

And while we are ever ready to give God the credit

Suffering and Perseverance in Faith

For saving people from death, disease, injury, and woe, we don’t often speak to the fact that He allows His own to be persecuted—again—even to the point of death, loss of family, loss of life, limb, and property.

And the apostles were no exception. And folks, I cannot tell you how important and pivotal a role these men played in that day and age, and in the Kingdom, then and now. They were a one-time shot just as Jesus was a one-time shot, just as the Bride was a one-time shot, and just as that age was a one-time shot—and Paul with the others set the stage for this great news to spread out into the world from that point forward. Along the way, while persecuted, God promised (and proved) that He would never leave or forsake them. God always interposed on their behalf until their work was done.

Trials and Spiritual Endurance

4 Cast down (thrown down by our enemies, perhaps another allusion to the contests of wrestlers or of gladiators) but not destroyed. The meaning is not killed which would be how an enemy would destroy them, but the word is appolomahee—which we discovered last week is translated lost and perish all through scripture, but as we also pointed out last week, also means “not annihilation.” At verse ten Paul adds

10 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. Apparently, this expression is designed to show the great perils to which Paul was exposed and how that they sort of paralleled the sufferings of Christ that He bore when He walked the earth. I think the parallel to Him is not so much literal but more to the idea that Christ Jesus suffered and so did His apostles.

In Galatians 6:17 Paul wrote: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." The word that is translated "marks" here is interestingly enough “stigmata” and it means, “marks or brands which are pricked or burnt in upon the body.” Slaves were sometimes branded by their masters, to prevent their escape; as were devotees to idol gods. Herodotus (ii. 113) mentions a temple of Hercules in Egypt, in which if any slave took refuge, and had the sacred brands or marks impressed on him, stigmata he thereby devoted himself to the god, and it was not lawful for anyone to injure him. Many have supposed that Paul here says, in allusion to such a custom, that he had the name of the Redeemer impressed on his body, and that he regarded himself as devoted to him and his cause. It’s possible. But it seems more probable that Paul means this in the way mentioned—that as Christ was beaten with stripes, so was Paul, and these scars were marks that proved his allegiance to the Savior.

Bearing Spiritual Marks

The marks Christians spiritually bear about in their bodies today might be likened to those associated with subdued animal propensities, and other imitations that would have been found in the Lord relative to kindness, love, and the fruit of the Spirit. So, Paul says that they were 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. In other words, Paul seems to be saying that by and through the mortifications of the flesh and temperament that they bore in their physical body as believers—perhaps even down to the actual wounds they had suffered on His behalf—that the very life of Jesus was constantly made manifest as they sojourned around sharing Him with others.

As they bore about in their body the dying Lord it seems to be a strong connection to Paul saying that he “dies daily” in Christ and where he says in 2nd Corinthians 11 that he found himself in “deaths often.”

The question is do we, borrowing off these principles, experience the same? And if the answer is yes, what is it that people see in us that reflects his death? And then at verse 11 we read another similar passage where he says:

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.

The Psalmist said (44:22) Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Then in Romans 8:35-36

Paul's Suffering and Its Significance

Paul famously said:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulationA real historical event fulfilled in 70 A.D.—not a future apocalyptic crisis. More, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Death and Life in Apostolic Ministry

So, when he said here:

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.

We again know what he is speaking of because of what he said in verse 10 – which was very similar to what he is saying here. But this verse is a bit different from verse 10 because 10 speaks of bearing the marks of the dying Lord in their body, but 11 speaks of them being delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. One refers to the process of dying and the other speaks to the death itself once it has been accomplished.

So it seems that Paul is not only admitting that they have suffered affliction and infliction as apostles but that they constantly always faced death itself – nevertheless, the end results were all the same – they served as evidence in verse 10 of:

the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

And in verse 11:

“that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”

Apostles' Trials as a Pathway to Life for Believers

What is the difference between Paul using body for the inflictions in verse 10 and death for the mortal flesh in verse 11? If any?

He wraps it all up here with a simple summary for the believers at Corinth, saying:

12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

He has made it clear that as apostles they were constantly exposed to inflictions and death. That the preaching of the gospel exposed them to trials which could have been designated as a pathway to death. But then as a result, he tells them that the believers at Corinth, because of these Apostolic perils, are able to live. They reap the advantage of all their exposure to trials and their sufferings.

Let’s stop here.

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