2 Corinthians, 4:14-16
Bob Eckel · Oct 3, 2004
2 Corinthians (2004-05), No. 14
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262313416899

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right. Originally, today's lesson was going to be one week, meaning next week's and this week's together. But for scheduling purposes and from content perspective, we've divided this into two. So this week, The text before us is 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 14 through 16, and then next week we'll deal with, actually I'll be teaching next week, one of my two favorite verses in the whole Word of God is 17 and 18 in 2 Corinthians 4. So let's kind of set the stage, and what I'd like to do to set the stage would be to go back and introduce these verses by looking again at the verses that precede it. So Wayne, I'm going to ask you if you could, could you read verses 7 through, just take it down to the end of the chapter if you could. So beginning in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7 and down.

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

We, having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, and therefore have I spoken. We also believe, and therefore speak. Knowing then, he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

For all things are for your sakes. that the abundant grace of life, through the thanksgiving of many, rebound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not, that though our outward man perish, that the inward man is renewed day by day. For our life, affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but that the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Thanks, Wayne.

I want to jump to 1718 right now. We're going to just delay that to next week because there's plenty of meat that we have to cover today. How about the verb for knowing here? Let's look at verse 14 now. It says, who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by, or the interlinear Greek would indicate with. So it's an interesting preposition and we could discuss that too, and shall present us with you.

The Greek verb here for knowing, there are three, right? What are the three verbs in the Greek? Can anybody recall the three verbs for knowing? Okay, there's gnoska and epignoska, and then the final one is this one, eido. Now, what kind of knowing is this? This is important contextually in terms of, I think, getting the most out of the verse. What does this verb for know mean? So, Harry, the gnoska is the experiential and kind of really the verb that calls the believer to the new life. I mean, I think in epigenesis is really superlative. But the ido is kind of what kind of verb?

What might we think about in terms of an analogy about the use of this term? Fact. Isn't that interesting? Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also. They consider that factual. I mean, that's a neat way to, I think, introduce these few verses, is that this isn't some leap of faith. The fact is that He who raised up the Lord Jesus is going to raise us up by or with Him, and He'll present us with you.

Isn't that really neat? This is as factual as the law of gravity. or as factual as traffic lights when they turn from green to yellow to red in terms of what we're to do to respond. This is an act of faith. Do we really accept the Word of God as fact? The world would look at us skeptically, wouldn't they, to think that this is a factual statement to know that we're going to be raised up as He was and be presented with a body.

This isn't Gnoska that you're kind of experientially knowing. This is kind of the way it is. This is the law of the land. Now, the question I might ask at this point is that what we're to know here is that He who raised us up is going to raise us up. What does that relate to in terms of our trials and sufferings? And I'm giving you a couple of options here.

Is this simply a hope or is this potentially also identification? What do you think? It should be a hope, but it's a certainty. It's not a, we hope it happens, it's a certainty that it's going to happen. But it's also identification. But remember, scriptural hope is built on certainty of the faith played out in our lives.

Okay, so Margaret, are you saying then that this hope of being raised up is the physical land or bodily resurrection? Is that what we're talking about here? I think it's both. Okay, so you're saying it is that. Would anyone disagree with that? That this does relate to the resurrection of us either at the time of the rapture or when our bodies are dead and buried, that when Christ returns we will be raised bodily, spiritually? Well, I think it does relate to that, at least in part. Let's look at a couple of verses that support that.

1 Thessalonians 2.19 says, For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming? Okay, that certainly would be a text that would be supportive of that position. Secondly, in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20 through 22, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

But, Let's consider the alternative. Maybe it can be extended beyond that. In context, by the way, this idea of us being raised from the dead as he was, or taken up like him, is kind of a leap beyond what the text says. And I think it's valid to interpret it that way. But let's think of another possibility. 2 Corinthians 5, 1-5.

If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands. Of course that does relate to our eternity, does it not? And then it goes on at the end of verse 5 to say, Now he that hath wrought us for the very same thing as God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. So in context, this section of Scripture would promise the hope that we all have. But also, the idea of the earnestness of the Spirit is not something that's futuristic. I mean, build on the foundation of our resurrection with Him is the foundation that the Spirit is activating the process within us right now. So I think even though in context perhaps this verse is best interpreted as the hope of our future presence with the Lord Jesus Christ, we maybe can extend it a bit in terms of being raised up positionally so that our condition is more consistent with our position. And in context, that does, I think, allow us room for that interpretation.

When we think about being raised up, how many of you just this week have thought about being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, physically after your life has ended here? I mean, has anybody thought about that? I think about that all the time.

What's the motive? What is our motive usually of, gee, I wish I were with the Lord? Doesn't that really, isn't that what motivates you a lot of times? Boy, if I could just get out of here and be with the Lord Jesus Christ, we'd have all these problems. In context, all these trials and sufferings and tribulations we go through, boy, an alternative would be, wouldn't it be great to be not only positioned at the right hand, but being at the right hand.

It's also the condition of the world. I mean, even if it's not directly affecting you at that minute, when you hear the news and you just see the spiraling down of the world. And even though we know we're not of this world, we hate to see that happening. We just hate to see it. But we know it's going to happen. I mean, it's sort of like you know this is not going to get better. But you still hate that.

So what should be the true motive? Well, that's possible here, Jack, right? But, you know, Hal in the last few weeks has spent a lot of time on this whole issue of ultimately as we grow in His great grace and His great truth, ultimately that life does get portrayed in us. And what else gets portrayed is the inadequacy of the flesh and the old man. So in a sense, when light becomes brighter, darkness becomes more evident.

So the idea here, I think, is that we do have this certainty of our faith, which is active in being and in process of knowing that eternally we're with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that's clearly the intention here. But our motive should not be to just simply get out of our problems and trials and tribulations here. Those are purposeful, are they not? And, you know, Paul summarizes it so well in what we'll cover next week. But the purpose is that we're knowing Him increasingly well here in terms of who He is and His great beauty and love that ultimately our desire is to be with Him for the reasons that are along that pathway and not so much for us to be spared from all these issues that we have to deal with day in and day out.

I mean, where's our citizenship, right? Our citizenship is in heavenly places, and that's our purpose for going home, even though suicide occasionally enters a lot of people's minds. Remember how spiral of the atom nature played out, and at the bottom, at the last step, is taking your own life. I mean, and I guess occasionally believers have done that. I mean, they've actually committed suicide, they claim to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, but ultimately the step of suicide is not trusting God to meet your needs where you're actually at, right? So that's a culmination of the playing out of the self-serving, self, you know, purposeful mechanism of living the daily life, and it actually reflects, I think, very, very outwardly our lack of trust in the Heavenly Father working through us through these trials and tribulations.

Any other thoughts here until we move on? Alright, good. Okay, at the end of verse 14 it says, "...and it shall present us with you." And in what manner are we to be presented? We're already righteous in His sight. Okay. Think anything's going to change there? Not in His sight. Our position is always That's where we are. All right. And Margaret's right along the right track, and she hasn't looked at my notes. Okay. In Colossians 122, it says, In the body of his flesh through death to present you, meaning you and I, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

You know, I did a little bit of a word study on unblameable and unreprovable, and they're a little bit different. They really are very similar in interpretation. but unblameable is without spot. Unreprovable means with no guilt. In a sense, as I said, they're very related terms, but they're a little bit different. The unblameable is just with no blemish at all.

Nothing that could be made accountable to us in terms of what we need to do to be presented to the Heavenly Father. then in Colossians 1, 27 and 28, to carry on the same thought as Paul has revealed in Colossians 1, and Verne covered this in the service months ago, to whom God would make known the glory of this mystery, Christ in you, the hope of glory, warning and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Does that relate to how we deal with our daily trials and tribulations in our lives? Does that deal with how much time we've been on our knees? Does that deal with the works of righteousness which we've performed? No. It doesn't relate to any of that. It relates to the truth that each one of us who are saved are presented perfect in Christ Jesus.

Now here, if we move down the wrong path, which we do frequently, day in and day out. Ultimately, there's consequences of that behavior. Fortunately, the spirit's there. I was really encouraged by Hal reminding us that when we continue to choose the old man first, that ultimately the spirit in us is reminding us of that, and that's growth. As much as we hate having to be constantly reprimanded and ultimately confronted by the fact that we've chosen the wrong thing in terms of the circumstances we are presented with. Ultimately, we are reminded by the Spirit that we're a child of God. So that's an encouragement.

I'm going to ask who's you down there at the bottom. So let's just hold off on that a second. So Jude 1 24 and 25, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy through the only wise God. So in other words, the scriptures are ripe with support of the fact that we're presented unblameable, unapprovable, perfect, and faultless. So there's nothing about what we do here that has anything in relationship to how we're presented to the Heavenly Father. Now, Doug's asked a good question.

Who's we and who's you? What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it's Paul and Timothy? What makes that so restrictive, Harry? Okay. All right, good. And who's you? All believers, so all the saints of all time. Is that the way we're interpreting this, or are we talking about the saints at Corinth here, to whom the letter is written? What are your thoughts, Doug, about that? Do you have an opinion? What do you think? Well, so all believers.

Well, certainly to the believers at Corinth, but... Paul has said this in other places too, you, whoever is talking is delusional. What would that mean? The scriptures have like a direct application, which would be specifically to the Corinthian believers, but in the general overarching kind of indirect application would be all the believers.

I think in context it's to them. That's right, but inclusive. Right. And that was my interpretation, looking up in context what the word would mean. It has a direct application to the church in Corinth, but has broad applications. It can be extended to the entire body of Christ.

Well, we again is, you know, what Harry said, he thought it was Paul and Timothy, and I think that would probably be in context correct. Okay. cut me off. Never cut you off. Do you think that there's room to say that he could be talking about as well when the bride is presented to Christ in the future time where Paul and Timothy are joined together with the born believers and believers of all time and they're presented Don't you think that's an extension, though, of you, the broad you, but you're thinking about the marriage sufferer, the lamb, is what you're thinking? I didn't extend my thought there, but I think it's perfectly appropriate to do so, because what do we think about being presented to Christ? I mean, when's the marriage sufferer take place?

During the tribulation time, after the rapture, during the tribulation. But to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I relate that, I think, more, you know, simplistically to that. I mean, being absent from the present with the Lord.

The question is, where are we at that time? I think it all goes against the timeline. The Lord has no timeline. I mean, time and space are outside of our thought process of time. So what you're saying is right, and what Bob's saying is right too. It all is instantaneous. You know, think about man, we all think of time in terms of seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, years, millennium, etc., centuries, millennium.

And God's time sphere is totally irrelevant to that temporal sequence. And so, to be You know, absent from the body and present with the Lord is now being placed in our eternal relationship with the Heavenly Father. And spatially, where is that? Well, I think some believe that we are in spiritual bodies at that point in time and we're just existing in the framework of eternity wherever that is.

But this is obviously unclear scripturally exactly, you know, how this is going to take place. But we trust the scripture. Remember, that's an iodo. We know. We know factually that the Lord has this all worked out, that we're going to be presented as Christ was. Gail?

I was just wondering if we use the analogy, I think of it in terms of the analogy of the married couple of their own idea. When a couple are married, before they're married, there's a togetherness. and an interaction, and a relationship, and then there's the official presentation at the marriage ceremony that now, okay, now the time is complete or whatever, and you know, this is the real thing now. And could we think of... Like an espousal of sorts then? Yeah, that we're, it's not that we're just going to be there, but I like to think that when I get there, I'm going to have a relationship with the Lord, even though maybe Yeah, I think that's a perfect way to view this text here, and whether the marriage supper of the Lamb is the ultimate culmination of this experience, I don't think the text really gives us clarity on it.

But I think it's certainly possible that we could extend it to that level. Good point, Gil. Thank you. Yeah, sure. So, then death worketh in us, but life in you? Was that... Yes. Yeah, it was the same type of interpretation, Larry, where you may have been directly to the people that Paul's letter was written, but had that broad extension and application. All of us. I mean, although it was directed to the Church of Corinth, we think that the letter from Paul to the Church of Corinth is perfectly applicable to us today, do we not? And I think that was the same kind of thought process Hal had on this, Larry.

All right, verse 15 then. For all things are for your sakes. Boy, really? Hal. Well, in a lot of ways. So in context, we're talking about trials and suffering, are we not? And this is certainly something that the world doesn't understand. But yet we are not only encouraged to understand it, the text is written to us that we might understand it.

So just to revert back to the first chapter of this important book, blessed be God who comforts us in all tribulation, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, for your consolation and salvation. What do you think about when you think of consolation? What's consolation mean to you? If somebody would stop you with a gallop pole on the street tomorrow, and say, define consolation, what would be your response?

Comforting. It would. You're one of them scriptural guys, aren't you? Good for you, Harry. And that's exactly what the Greek means. It does mean comforting. Consolation is comfort. But what's the world's interpretation of consolation? Wayne, you look like you're ready to burst. I'm thinking reward. Okay. Thank you. Good, Gail. That's where I'm taking this. This is not a weak term in the Greek for the body of believers. Consolation is second place, isn't it? Oh, by the way, you get the consolation prize. Plus one, there's only two candidates. Anyway. I won't go down that path.

Okay, and then of course the great verse in Romans about the things that we know that work together for good, meaning all things to them that are called according to His purpose. So this idea that these trials and tribulations have come our way, that's nothing new to you today, but we need to be reminded that these are for our sakes for growth and maturity and to demonstrate the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world.

And here's the outcome. in terms of how it works for our sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, and the interlinear Greek says may cause to, may cause to abound to the glory of God. Now, this is kind of an interesting phrase here, and I think the first point I'd like to discuss with you would be The concept here is the multiplication of God's grace through the majority.

So what does that mean? I mean, grace we know is infinite in quantity. And the concept here is making more through more. Can you think about how that plays out? How does that play out? If God's grace is like this huge infinite supply of His love for us, which extends to all of mankind. What's the idea here that this grace is then made for the thanksgiving to the glory of God abound? What's the concept that we're coming across with here?

It's even more overflowing. through other believers, through the body. The idea here of God's glory is what the purpose of these trials are, right? That through His grace, the idea is that as the trials get worse and more significant, and the body in fact sees these in terms of their purpose, that for our sakes these are their to bring about the glory of God, we see this multiplied upon itself. So I sense that a body that is ripe and well in terms of scriptural truth on this concept is a body that's really reflecting this purpose played out in our life. And remember, Hal spent a lot of time on the glory of God.

This is how God's glory is revealed. And who are we talking to the other night? I guess maybe some Bible study where we're saying, you know, keep in mind that the world around us may only see God's glory through the way you walk. They may never see it in the Word of the Lord. They see it in the way you respond.

Now what that does is doesn't put the pressure on us to respond correctly, but it does make us realize that knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is really what accomplishes this in our lives. And it does present a challenge to us in terms of knowing the truth and having that lived out in our life. 1 Peter 5, 10, 11, But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered a while, make ye perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be the glory. and dominion forever and ever. Remember citizenship. The citizenship is to reflect who we are in Christ in our daily walk in a way that the world will notice.

Now, if you look at the Greek here, it's a little bit capable of being interpreted slightly differently, and here we'll look at it kind of a different way of looking at it, that grace being made the greater multiplied on account of the thanksgiving of the greater number for grace already received, is something I put in parenthesis, may abound abundantly. Thus, the idea here is that abound has not taken on an active sense, but in its ordinary neuter sense, and so the other Greek words.

So the idea is that thanksgiving invites more abundant grace. Why? Again, this little twist in the interpretation, I'm just bringing this to you to consider. Why would our thanksgiving bring about more grace? The idea here, though, is that on account of the thanksgiving of the greater number, the majority in context. the idea is that there may be more abounding grace. So why would Thanksgiving bring about more grace? I mean, again, keep in mind this infinite supply of grace. What about experientially when we respond in an atmosphere of Thanksgiving?

Well, how often anyway do most people give glory to God for their trials and suffering? I mean, you have to know the truth and understand your identification and what the purpose, as you said before, what the purpose of that trial is. So when everyone is rejoicing or thanking the Lord for those trials... How are you doing at that, everybody? Are we thanking God day in and day out for our trials? Not too well. So the concept is we're positioned scripturally in our trials.

God's grace, it's not that he's going to give us more, it's just that we're taking advantage of the abundant grace he's already given, and in a sense we're getting more dished out that's already infinite in amount. So my point here is that the atmosphere of thanksgiving in the heart of the believer for the trials and sufferings we go through is an opportunity for his grace to be increasingly perceived. Because that response is not a weak one of the Adam nature. That is being manifested by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ in our life.

As we said the last couple of weeks, too, and in fact, let me give you a case in point. As much as we can mentally and intellectually identify this important truth in Scripture, Gail heard this Friday night, but the other day I had a speaker in from Vanderbilt that I was to introduce at 8 o'clock, and so I had to pick him up you know, 45 minutes in advance to get him there and get his computer set up and everything. So I left from my Morrison house at 6.15. Now he was at Havana and I-70, which ordinarily leaving at 6.15 is a maximum of 45 minutes, although my commute's never fun. So here I'd reached Sheridan and it was a parking lot and I got to I-25 and it was already close to 7.30 and here this guy, I'm responsible for him.

In other words, I'm So my response is, what's going on here, Lord? You know, the issue is, we still got, I mean, this is a small problem. This isn't what you call big truck tribulation. But the initial response, I think, is very natural to respond in the flesh. To say, you know, what am I going to do to get this taken care of, you know?

Should I get off of here, and I'm getting anxious about the fact that here I'm responsible for this visitor, and getting him there for the talk he's going to be giving at 8 o'clock? Anyway, all that aside, what I'm pointing this out for is the initial response in many circumstances, whether it be small or large, is why me? How do I respond?

Where's the strength coming from? Do I trust God to really do something here in me to grow me and graze, or am I expecting still a result? We live in a real world, right? I mean, they're day-to-day issues that come up, we still have to deal with. And so the question comes up here is the ultimate realization of the fact that we've responded, at least initially in the flesh, is the power of the Holy Spirit making that clear to us, that that's been the source of our response.

So the idea of having a spirit of thanksgiving, I think, begins with the fact that we acknowledge God for the fact He's working through these trials and tribulations and sufferings to bear about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. So I really like this interpretation almost better, that the atmosphere of thanksgiving in the heart of the believer ultimately breeds more grace. Remember, grace is infinite, but it breeds experientially more grace in our life because it has us view these things in the right atmosphere. We are to thank God for these tragedies. And the grace is already there. It's not that it isn't there, but it's just that now we're plunging into that full grace that we have the opportunity to pleasantly. Right? That's right. Absolutely. Grace is infinite.

And Paul goes on to encourage us, then, that for which cause we think not But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. The interlinear Greek words this a little differently. Wherefore we faint not, but if indeed the outward of us man is being disabled, yet the inward of us is being renewed day by day.

What's wherefore relate to? Okay, so it builds on the truth of the preceding verse. The fact that through His great grace we in fact bring glory to the Heavenly Father. So it relates to his glory. Wherefore, because these trials are in the process of abounding us in God's glory and grace, ultimately we faint not. Who's we? Yeah, I think it really relates back to what we discussed earlier in terms of we and you. Now, let's take a look at this outward and inward man here for a second. What chance does the outward man really have here?

Well, I just picked up a couple of places in scripture where we can kind of look at this. And David had it well thought out, my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And that's pretty profound, although that really goes back to Genesis in terms of its origin. But the concept of the human ability to respond in a way that is glorifying to God is really not possible.

And then in Ephesians 4.22, that she put off concerning the former conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lust. I mean, the scriptures are just really replete on support of the idea that we have an ability in the old man to do nothing that's pleasing to God, right?

So we're talking here about the outward man perishing. So what do you think about is the outward man's perishing? Is your outward man perishing? How are you doing? Hair is it? Okay, is that, you're talking about the physical body now? Okay, do you think that in context that that's what we're talking about here?

Okay. So you're going to say that the outward man is the physical body ultimately undergoing destruction rather than the outward man being a representation of the out of nature played out in the individual. It could be both actually. Yeah, I think it potentially could imply both. As Hal talked about last week, death brings forth life. We had that discussion last week.

And you get the idea in context that with the ultimate placement of the believer in the presence of the Lord, that ultimately physical death was related to that. So in a sense it could be interpreted both physically, the outward man, and in terms of the inward man. The inward man is perishing because increasingly we're being made to recognize our lack of strength in our own selves, in our own abilities.

But the inward man, Romans 7.22, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man, Ephesians 3.16, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened in might by his Spirit in the inner man. So the inner man really is increasingly to be a reflection of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ within the believer.

There's no perishing there. That's eternal. So even though these outward bodies are physically decaying and the inner man is perishing, Actually, we know the inner man has been crucified. But experientially, the inner man is increasingly perishing as we're abounding in his great grace. So in a sense, experientially, the inner man is also perishing as we get to know and experience the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm confused. You're saying the inner man is perishing? No, the outward man is perishing. Correct. Corrected. Corrected. So the outward man who can be considered the body or the flesh... That's true. ...is perishing and the inner man is Christ or the nature being reflected. Absolutely. Yes, I mistakenly spoke it. Okay, so corrected. Outward man perishing, body spirit. Inner man growing.

And the truth of that is that we're being renewed day by day. And that's really a very important part of our life, that each and every day that that new man is being made increasingly beautiful in our lives. And by processes that we would not choose many times, right?

Colossians 3.10, a new man that is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And finally, let it be that the hidden man of the heart, the inward man, right, in that which is not corruptible of a meek and quiet spirit, which is really in the sight of God a great prize. So this is kind of a representation of verses that speak to this kind of being renewed, based on our salvation and ultimately the outworking of the Holy Spirit in each one of us on a day-to-day basis.

So the idea of being renewed would be a conditional statement. That's right. A position is true, because we're already in Christ, but it's being renewed or conditioned. Right, and position never changes, so it's the condition that's being renewed by the working of these trials and tribulations day in and day out.

I always think of, when I think of that as the molding of clay, you know, like Hal talked about, we're the vessel, and the Lord's molding our condition every day with everything that comes along our path, those trials and tribulations. which in a sense establishes our position to be even more true, doesn't it? And that's to God's glory. I mean, that's the ultimate result of this, is that through His grace and our response in Thanksgiving, His glory has been made known to not only us, but those around us. For, again, the daily process is really something that Hal covered the last couple of weeks, for we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, Larry, but life in you, the verse you brought up a little bit earlier in terms of the more extensive application of this verse to the body of Christ.

How's your outward man doing? Well, Harry brought up that physically we're not certainly maturing in the right direction in terms of capabilities. And the outward man, as manifested by the presence of the flesh, driving the outward man, is certainly not a viable way to live by faith.

And the Christian body, to some extent, says, keep looking up. And that's kind of what the outward man does, doesn't it? I mean, the outward the outward activity of the flesh and the atom nature is to keep looking up. And what does the concept of keep looking up imply? You've got to earn your way to get in. It doesn't talk about your position at all. It doesn't recognize your position.

I mean, we go to God with a request, don't we? But where do we... Do we go from here to there? Where are those prayers brought up, Gail? It seems to me that it implies that the resources and the strength and everything I need for this moment are up there, they're not here with me.

Correct. It really lacks any position of truth connected to it. It's the idea of being in a position of begging, doesn't it? And it's a lack of identification with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I would suggest to you that the majority of the body of Christ is looking up, right? I mean, we're privileged to be in a body of believers that I think has interpreted the Scripture correct, that the inward man looks down, because that's where he's positioned. And so that's a great place to be looking from, isn't it?

As we think of 2 Corinthians 3.18 and our reflections of where we find ourselves in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, he becomes more beautiful and more sufficient in our lives. The idea here is that this position that we have is ultimately our condition as we look from where he has us.

And as I mentioned, 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord.

Just interestingly enough, this morning, I don't know whether any of you read None But the Hungry Heart series, but this is this morning's, as I was preparing for this morning, note in the 10th volume of None But the Hungry Heart. It says here, we are spiritually both in the wilderness and in Canaan. We are partakers on earth of the heavenly calling and we are seated in Christ in the heavenly places. the enjoyment of the favors of the Father to us in the heavenly places in Christ enhances the sense of his favors to us in the wilderness. And I thought that was really timely that this is the third day of the 10th volume. I'm not sure how many uses as daily devotionals, but it's been my great privilege to be able to just look at these as a daily devotional, and this really fit today. I think this wilderness we're in can really seem that way at times, but as we have our position appropriately understood and our citizenship played out, It's a wilderness with great favor.

Let's bow and thank the Lord. Father, we're thankful for the time together that the Word of God we pray is made true in each of our hearts and souls and that we look to you to give us the truth of our Our position has played out in our experience as we realize that these trials and sufferings are those that we are thankful for. And we're thankful for them because your great truths are played out to your glory in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.