The Life of Jesus Manifested In Us

Modern Christianity, which often should does not match how the Bible defines it, is mostly about the comfort, happiness, and prosperity of people. Even many of the songs that are sung in today’s churches are centered on personal feelings, emotions, and what God can do for us more so than focused on Christ, the attributes of God, and on His glory, honor, adoration, and praise.

This is not a knock on modern Christian music – if you have been around this church, you know that I love contemporary worship music as I do the standard hymns. Many of the old standard hymns are lacking in Biblical lyrical content as well. So, I have found myself being much more selective when ordering the music, we sing here on Sundays, trying to ensure that the lyrics are honoring God and the truth of His Word as opposed to honoring us and our emotions. I don’t always succeed in choosing such songs, but I am gradually becoming more keenly aware of what we are singing about in these songs.

Sadly, this penchant to focus more on feelings and emotions rather than on Christ has wormed its way into the presentation of the Gospel. The Gospel has been watered down so much in so many denominations and churches that it is no longer the Gospel as the Bible defines it. The cost of discipleship has been replaced with warm and fuzzy feelings of determining on your own how following Jesus fits into your lifestyle. The cult of self-esteem and the power of positive thinking has overhauled the Biblical mandate of denying yourself and taking up your cross to follow Jesus.

The church must return to the Biblical Gospel and Biblical discipleship. The danger of self-made religion has never been greater than in our current culture. The Apostle Paul was aware of this dangerous reality almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus Himself warned of this danger on several occasions, and it is most obviously a danger that many if not most have succumbed to in our age.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2nd Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Let’s pray.

Those who hate Jesus persecute His people. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you were not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

Jesus also said, speaking of those who will persecute believers, “They will make you outcasts…but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God” (John 16:2).

This essential theme in Scripture for the believer points to what Paul opened this section with. The verse we studied several weeks ago, verse 7, has many implications and applications, but the primary aspect of us being described as earthen vessels or clay pots or jars of clay, while the Gospel message that God has entrusted to us is the treasure, reveals to us that the focus is on the treasure as opposed to the vessel. How God chooses to use us is the focus. We are priceless masterpieces in His sight, but we are fragile, breakable, and replaceable as vessels for His use.

2 Corinthians 4:10a

If you recall from two weeks ago, Paul wrote about the endurance and perseverance of the believer, in that “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed”, thus, we are “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus”. That is an interesting phrase that is ripe with meaning.

He first says that we are always carrying about – it is a persistent, consistent, and even constant state of being. We, meaning true believers, as fragile and breakable clay pots who are afflicted in every way, perplexed in every way, persecuted in every way, struck down in every way, are always carrying about the dying of Jesus. I’ll come back to the phrase “in the body” in a moment, but first I want to unpack the phrase, “the dying of Jesus” – what does that mean?

First, the Greek word and grammar signifies this as a prolonged process of dying as opposed to the single event of death. This indicates to us that this state of being in the believer’s life is not an isolated incident but more so in line with the daily trials and hardships that Jesus experienced during His earthly ministry. We know from the Gospel accounts that from the inauguration of His public ministry immediately after His baptism, that Jesus was under attack spiritually, verbally, and even physically in certain ways.

Paul asserts that this aspect of dying is present with him, and by implication with every believer. The daily trials, hardships, persecutions, and tribulations are the present reality of the dying of Jesus, but he adds that this condition shows up in our bodies – we are carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus.

Lenski writes, “It is ‘in the body’ for the simple reason that the attacks of the enemies are directed against our bodies; and these enemies are always after us, at least to hurt us if not also to kill us.”

The reason for this is that our enemies, especially Satan and his demons, know that they have absolutely no power over our redeemed souls. Those who have been justified by God’s grace through faith and in Christ, are eternally secured by the Holy Spirit – we are wrapped in the all-powerful grip of Jesus and then His hands are wrapped in the all-powerful hands of the Father. Our eternal souls cannot be touched, which only leaves the physical and emotional aspects of our body as the target for attack.

And while the attacks can only be inflicted on our mind and body, these attacks are under the umbrella of spiritual warfare. We will cover this topic in much greater detail when we get to chapter 10, but there are few things that need to be said about this while we are here in this passage.

Several of you were here in 2015-16 when I preached through the Book of Job. In that Book it is undeniable that the attacks on Job were of a spiritual nature, yet each and every attack was on Job’s emotions and his body, and again because it is the only avenue that Satan could take. Even the misguided counsel that Job received from his closest friends was, I believe, influenced by Satan. The devastation on Job losing his wealth, losing all of his children, losing his health, and in the damaged relationships with his wife and his friends were all in the realm of spiritual warfare.

So, here’s the rub – the reason that these spiritual attacks are so effective and so prolonged at times and so damaging to our lives, is that we are incessantly employing human means, human intellect, human logic, human wisdom, and human methods to defend ourselves and to fight back. And it is a fool’s game because the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh (10:4). Yet everything that we use to defend ourselves and to fight back are almost invariably weapons of the flesh which have zero effectiveness against spiritual attack.

And here’s the kicker – we know this. Deep down inside, we know that our human efforts are of no use against spiritual attack, but in the throes of battle all but the most disciplined believers, and sometimes even those who are spiritually mature and disciplined, fall back on our natural instincts, instincts that are rooted in the flesh. Our emotions are always the immediate response to attack and if not caught quickly they will take full control of the situation and fail miserably.

2 Corinthians 4:10b

So, besides the fact that our minds and bodies are the only avenue of attack that our enemies both spiritual and physical have, why else are we always carrying about in our body the dying of Jesus? – “so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body”.

We must yet again understand that it is all about Jesus and not about any of us. If these attacks were only about the physical and the material, then as I look around the auditorium this morning (so-and-so) are the only ones who stand much of a chance physically speaking, and they would then be able to grab the credit and glory if they were victorious.

But it’s not about any of us. And here’s the thing, it’s not about any of us who are in better shape spiritually either. (So-and-so) or anyone else who has been reading and studying their Bibles for years and decades, and also growing in their faith, cannot claim any credit for spiritual victory either. Even for those who respond spiritually to spiritual attacks are relying on the Holy Spirit to fight their battles for the glory of Christ alone.

I hope you see this because it is vital. The battles that we face in the body, as Paul states it, are of a spiritual nature so that also in the body the life of Jesus may be manifested in us. The Gospel, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the glory of the Father, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are the treasure, we are clay pots. And again, that is not an indication of our value to God, it is only to remind us yet again that it is not about us but about Jesus alone! Our weaknesses, and clay pots are weak, makes it abundantly clear that it is the power of God only that allows us to claim victory of any kind.

The life of Jesus is thus only manifested in us as we cease and desist from any acts of pride, any words of arrogance to promote our accomplishments, and any high-mindedness in attitude that we have somehow achieved any physical, emotional, social, or spiritual status above any other believer no matter how backslidden, how far out of God’s will, or beaten down they are. All of us are clay pots and there is nothing that you can do that will make you a stronger, more effective clay pot than the next clay pot.

Yes, we are called to grow spiritually and to become more and more like Jesus Christ every day of our lives, but regardless of how effective you are in that pursuit it is all by the grace of God and for the glory of Jesus Christ in you – it is NEVER about you, personally. And this is the primary battleground in each of our lives.

1 John 2:16 tells us, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is of the world.” This is Satan’s three-pronged attack against mankind since the Garden of Eden. The serpent used this same tactic against Eve, and he uses it against you and me every day of our lives. And do you know why he keeps using this same tactic? – because it still works! Our sinful, prideful, arrogant, self-absorbed, self-promoting, self-exalting flesh has no defense against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life – it’s what our flesh lives on and thrives on.

It is only as we allow the life of Jesus to be manifested in our body and the filling of the Holy Spirit to control our body, that we experience victory. And then we must continue to rely on the life of Jesus to be manifested in our body and the filling of the Holy Spirit to control our body to not take any credit for the victory and to not be proud of what we have accomplished.

All the glory belongs to Jesus! Say that with me – all the glory belongs to Jesus!

2 Corinthians 4:11

Paul uses different wording but the same message. But please note again that he says constantly here as he said always in the previous verse and “in every way” in the previous verses. In other words, afflictions, perplexities, persecutions, being struck down, carrying about in our body the dying of Jesus is the way of life for the believer and the unceasing state of being. Not meaning that God withholds His supernatural peace and abundant comfort in the midst of all these things, but that this physical, human, temporary life was never meant to be an unending river of happiness and outpouring of health and prosperity, or as I often date myself with the old song, our lives are not going to be filled with roses and lollipops.

And don’t miss this – Paul also says that “we who live”, meaning we who live for Christ, “are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake”. Beloved, this is the privileged and exalted position of the believer to be delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, to be given over to afflictions, and perplexities, and persecutions, to be struck down and to carry about in our body the dying of Jesus. This is the “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:2).

And again, it cannot be repeated often enough, again this gracious act of God in delivering us over to death for Jesus’ sake is “so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh”. Even our sinful, unredeemed, clay pot, mortal flesh is capable of manifesting the life of Jesus for all the world to see when we totally rely on Jesus and give Him all the glory.

It is only in our weakness that He is shown to be strong to the world. We will see this more fully in Paul’s life when we get to chapter 12 in the passage concerning the “thorn in the flesh”. We are only strong and only useful to God for His glory, His purposes, and His exaltation in the world when we are weak and out of the way. He graciously uses us to accomplish His work but only to the measure that we stop hogging the credit and promoting how great we are in what we did when it is all about Jesus and only through His power at work within us.

2 Corinthians 4:12

The church as a whole and each of us individually must grasp the message of this verse. The word, “you” in this verse is in the plural sense. In the down-home southern version of the Bible, this would say, “life in you all”. Paul is telling the Corinthians and all of us that it is only as we embrace the dying of Jesus in our lives that we are given the incredible privilege to bring the words of life to unbelievers. Sharing Christ with others and witnessing them respond to the Gospel is only possible through a humble servant’s heart.

Pride, arrogance, self-confidence, and the like will render us useless as witnesses for Christ. It is only through the weakness of knowing and acknowledging that we are but unworthy servants who are granted the privilege to participate in the work of Christ in another person’s life, it is only then that we can be mightily used by God because we will only then divert all the glory to Jesus and take none for ourselves.

Let’s pray.