2 CORINTHIANS 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 189] 2 CORINTHIANS 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC The apostle is now free to speak of the things on God’s side which he could not do in the first epistle. There he drew the contrast between milk and meat. Here I think things are taken up more on the divine side — it is positive ministry. It is very interesting to see that all that the apostle brought out in this epistle had been the comfort of his own soul when he was heart-broken about them. The things that had been a comfort to him in exercise he could pass on to them now that they are in exercise. The first epistle is much more on the general ground of christianity, the second epistle supposes a people really attached to Christ and anointed and sealed. The same exercise had been going on in the apostle and in the Corinthians, only he had been going through it with God and they as being guilty in the matter.
The assembly at Corinth was brought to its proper moral condition by the exercise it went through. If ministry is to be of any good to us there must be state of soul; it is very much the parable of the sower; there is the divine seed and the divine work. There must be a preparatory work of the Spirit in the soul. There is nothing of the work of God apart from exercise of soul. There is exercise of conscience and heart too and that is the work of God. It is just the same as with the new birth. “The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it goes” (John 3: 8). It is like “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (Luke 18: 13); that is the sound.
There were some at Corinth as much exercised as the apostle; he speaks of some. 1 Corinthians is the firmament of His power, 2 Corinthians gives us the sanctuary side of things — they are the two spheres where God is praised; one [p. 190] is the outside and the other the inside. The Supper brings before us that every other man is gone and only Christ remains. Christ is the Yea. It was really the positive stability of all the counsels of God in Christ. It is a contrast to all that had gone before. God had been setting forth His Yea, and man had been answering Nay, and now Christ has come; He is the Yea — everything that is of God and for God. When you come to the Son of God there is the perfect revelation of God in Him; then everything that is for God; it is all yea.
Ques What is “for glory to God by us” (verse 20)?
CAC I thought His glory was that He is the Minister of the new covenant — the intelligence and praise of it is in the saints. If the saints do not give the praise of it, who will? It is an Old Testament thought, “Thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22: 3).
Ques What are the “promises” (verse 20)?
CAC As the power of evil encroached on God’s domain, God gave a promise to meet it. There are three great classes of promise. The first, as to sin and death; God answered that by the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. Second, the confusion of Babel; God answered that in His promise to Abraham; the seed of Abraham brings in what answers all the confusion. Third, weakness, man’s inability to hold the field for God; God met that by His promise to David. The seed of David brought in One who could hold all for God. David at the end of his life has to say, “Although my house be not so before God” (2 Samuel 23: 5), yet his heart turns to One who could hold it all for God. God brings out what He is in face of all the power of evil. God establishes everything in Christ and then He anoints us. I think the sealing means that one carries God’s mark in this world. “God, who also has sealed us” (verse 22). Everything in Christ carried the Father’s seal in the presence of men; if they had known the Father at all they would have known the seal. God has a [p. 191] people in this world who carry His mark; that is what sealing is. It is a wonderful thing to be in this world carrying God’s mark. The anointing is what qualifies a man to fill the position in which he is set. Christ was perfectly competent as anointed to fulfil everything that He undertook. I think morally the anointing precedes the sealing. The true power of the gospel is the setting forth of the Son of God. I suppose that by the preaching of the Son of God the assembly is formed. “On this rock I will build my assembly” (Matthew 16: 18). You think of the strength of the testimony in a place where saints have come to the Son of God. The preaching of the Son of God takes in both sides: the revelation of God, and what God has brought about. Whenever He is spoken of as the Christ, it is His office. As to the Son of God, it is more His Person you think of.