2 CORINTHIANS 4 AND 5
2 CORINTHIANS 4 AND 5
2 Corinthians 4:16-18; 2 Corinthians 5:1-21
CAC We have to learn the difference between the outward man and the inward man. We ought all to be exercised that we never get older than fifty; the Levite finished his service at fifty, and the Israelite at sixty. One would not like to become so feeble that one was not fit to be reckoned among the servants or warriors. It ought to be an exercise not to get so old as to be incapacitated. Paul felt the pressure of things in the outward man, but the inward was “renewed day by day”. There is no age limit for priests; they never get old! There seems a special cheer in this being “renewed day by day”; it suggests a daily supply. It was actually the experience of the apostle, and therefore we might look that it might be ours.
Rem The inward man is in touch with God, and with unseen things.
CAC Then no kind of affliction ought to touch the inward man. I suppose Paul’s afflictions here were those of a servant, not only a man.
Ques Is it like Colossians 1: 24, “I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body”?
CAC In our measure we ought to be on the same line, though we could not take the place of being servants like Paul. He speaks of filling up what was behind, as if Christ had left some of His sufferings to be continued in others. Paul took them up in a special way and continued them. Christ suffered for the church and Paul did, so it was Christ still suffering in the apostle for the church, and the result was a surpassing weight of glory. Paul was [p. 257] conscious of gain. I find in connection with suffering saints that there is a lack of that; there is perhaps more a sense of being helped through the trial. Paul had a real sense of gain: “our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”. It was all bringing the vessel into suitability to the treasure, the glory; suffering kept the vessel in keeping with the glory.
Ques “But the Lord stood with me”, 2 Timothy 4: 17. Was that for encouragement?
CAC Yes. Paul had spiritual manifestations of the Lord’s presence at different times when he was severely tested. There were two at Jerusalem, and again at Rome; I think there were seven times in all, each at some crisis in his history.
Ques Does not Paul dwell on the fact that he had something to look at, a system of glory that he saw today, not only in the future?
CAC There is a whole system of things within the veil. Jesus has gone within; He is the Forerunner, and all this glory system is within; it is not outwardly manifested in any way. We read of being “strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory unto all endurance and longsuffering with joy”, Colossians 1: 11. That is a wonderful thing. The epistle to the Hebrews was written to bring the Hebrew believers into the light of eternal things. They were apt to be taken up with religious things on earth, but it is an immense thing to get better acquainted with the whole system of things within the veil, for they are eternal things. Look at Hebrews 12, the things to which we are come. If one asks people, ‘What have you come to?’ some would say, ‘I have come to Jesus’. That is very good; that is the centre of all, but there is a whole system of unseen things, Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, myriads of angels, the assembly [p. 258] of the firstborn, many wonderful things. We are called to labour in connection with that system of unseen things.
Paul says, “We faint not”; that is he goes on with his labours. We are not to be turned aside by politics and what is going on in the world. All that is transitory and it is all marked by lawlessness; the best things in man’s world carry that stamp and it is all passing. Men that are labouring to put things into better shape in this world are like a great sculptor building a snowman: he would be wasting his time; he should work in marble.
Ques Might one connect the thought of unseen things with the house not made with hands?
CAC The treasure and all connected with it was eternal, but for the moment it was in an earthen vessel.
The earthen vessel and the “earthly tabernacle house” go together; the “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” is what we shall be in the future, and then the treasure and the vessel will correspond.
Rem Looking at things not seen was the secret of Paul’s labour in chapter 4, and of his confidence in chapter 5. The house here is different from the many mansions in John 14.
CAC This is our house, not the Father’s house; we must go in there clothed. The best robe involves the glorified body; the completeness of it will be the glorified body. It is wonderful to think of being clothed with a body of glory; it is either that or being “found naked”, a very solemn word brought in, “If indeed being also clothed we shall not be found naked”.
Ques Is there a distinction between unclothed and naked?
CAC Yes. The unclothed state is the state of the departed spirits, not yet clothed, but “naked” means being found entirely unsuited to the presence of God, just as Adam felt himself to be when he said, “I feared,
because I am naked”, Genesis 3: 10. That is, he found himself quite unsuitable; he had come under death. We must either be found naked eternally or be clothed upon with a glorified body, the same kind as is found in the Person of Christ on the very throne of God. It is the heavenly body here in contrast with the earthly; in 1 Corinthians 15 we have the resurrection side, but this is the heavenly side of the glorified body. “It is raised in incorruptibility” (1 Corinthians 15: 42) looks more at what comes up, but here it is what comes out of heaven; saints are going to be clothed with that bodily condition that is now already in heaven in the Person of Christ. There is only one glorified Man in heaven as far as I know.
There is disparity now between the treasure and the vessel — we all feel that constantly — but what is mortal will disappear; it will be “swallowed up by life”. The apostle did not wish to be unclothed, but he was always confident, and ready to be absent from the body if it were so willed of God.
We cannot think of anything better than to be with the Lord; it is so wonderful to be with Him. Once or twice in one’s life, one has realised what the presence of the Lord meant. He does visit His saints sometimes; He said He would, “I will come to you”. We get a touch of it when He comes to His saints; no saint found in a company when the Lord came into the midst could ever forget it. That is the sort of thing that the departed saints enjoy; it is what we touch for a minute, perhaps two or three times in a long life! What a moment of rapture it is when a saint touches the blessedness of the Lord’s presence with His own! The rapture of such a moment is always the portion of the departed. There are only eight words that describe the happiness of those who have departed. People talk sentimental rubbish about heaven, but the whole truth of the revelation of God as to departed saints is in eight words: “with me”, “with the Lord”, “with Christ” “rest”. These eight words cover the blessedness of the departed; there is nothing else in Scripture. Who can tell how much is in them! The Lord said, “with me” to the thief, that is, with Jesus the Saviour. The thief went to be with the One who had saved him, who had brought all the grace and blessing of God to him. Think of being with Him! What rapture! The Lord is One who is supreme in power in the domain of death. He is Lord supreme; we do not need to fear death or anything. Christ is the blessed anointed One in whom everything is substantiated that God has purposed for us from eternity. Think of being with the One in whom all our blessing is eternally secured! The departed are in the enjoyment of all they have known of Him in nearness to Him. Even that is not full fruition, we want clothing upon because we want to see Him. Every one of the departed saints is longing to see Him. We cannot see Him unless we are like Him — “we shall be like him”; the moment we see Him we shall be like Him, so that we shall never have the smallest sense of unsuitability. When we see His face His name will be written on our foreheads; that is the reflection of His likeness. What a supreme moment when the saints see Him with their eyes!
God had this wonderful thought that we should be conformed to the image of His Son; He has wrought us for it. We talk of God working in us, and He does that, but that is not the thought here; it is that He has wrought us. Every detail in the history of a saint has that in view, so the light affliction works for us. It seems to me like a lapidary working on a precious stone; he is grinding and polishing it and will in the end bring it out in all its glory.
The Spirit is the earnest of it all. The Spirit is really the glory brought into our hearts.