The Vision of the Tabernacle |
Treasure in Earthen Vessels |
In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 we find a description of the daily experience of a genuine minister of the new covenant: “We are pressed on every side but not constricted; unable to find a way out but not utterly without a way out; persecuted but not abandoned; cast down but not destroyed.” After we believe in the Lord and consecrate ourselves to serve Him, we are pressed on all sides and experience many sufferings. However, we are not constricted. We go through every one of the situations of trial and suffering described in the verses above but none of them is able to destroy us. This is because we have a treasure within us.
Satan is not as afraid of us believing in Jesus as he is of us serving Him. Consequently, as soon as we have a desire to serve God absolutely, Satan will begin to raise up pressure on all sides. He will use our family, school, workplace and friends to try to hinder us from consecrating ourselves to serve God. But “having this ministry as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart” (v. 1).
In addition to these outward pressures, that are easier to understand and deal with, there are also inward pressures. “Unable to fund a way out but not utterly without a way out” indicates an inward condition. Satan will try to discourage us by making us consider how difficult it is to serve the Lord, or causing us to think that we are giving ourselves so much for the saints yet they have no regard for us. The more we serve the Lord the more sufferings we will surely have, and consequently, the more reasons we will give to Satan to try to discourage us. But we must persevere. When we think of giving up, we must turn our heart again to behold Christ’s face, beholding Him in our spirit. In this way we will be reconciled to God once more and be encouraged by His life.
Sometimes we experience situations that knock us down. This is something positive and it happens because our old man is very strong. We see this in Jacob. His experience portrays how God needs to eliminate the old man, the natural man, the living by the flesh, in order to fulfill His plan in us and through us. In the valley of Jabbok, Jacob wrestled with God all night! This illustrates how difficult it is for God to defeat us and how long this process takes. Eventually, God touched him in his strongest part, his thigh.
If we really love the Lord and the church, we must long for Him to touch the strongest part of our natural man. We need the Lord to raise up situations that bring us down and wear us down. When we are knocked down, we will say to the Lord, “Lord, I don’t know how to go on with You. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to serve You. Lord, I am nothing!” This is a glorious moment because we will have given up on ourselves and we will experience what it means to bear about in the body the putting to death of Jesus (v. 10).
The natural man of some people is so strong that when they are touched by the Lord, they immediately regain their composure, rise up and justify themselves, showing that they are proud and dissatisfied with God. People like this become a big problem to the church because they do not accept correction. They demand that their opinion always be accepted and they are incapable of mingling with other saints. They are like a board of one and a half cubits that needs to be fit together with another board. If they act like this they will never, in fact, be ministers of the new covenant. If we genuinely want to be such ministers, we must allow our feelings and opinions to be torn down and put to death. However, this putting to death is not to destroy us, but that through it Christ’s life might be fully manifested in us.
“Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus” indicates that this experience is not once for all. Our old man was crucified once for all on the cross (Rom. 6:6), but our flesh, which is the manifestation of the old man, needs to be put to death continually, “that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”
The experience of the death of Christ makes it possible for us to experience His life. We can say that we live to die and die to live. Every day we must die so that the life of Jesus may be manifested. Paul was someone who preferred to die constantly in order for the divine life to flow from him to the saints. If we love the Lord, the church, and love to serve the saints, we will also rejoice when we die with Christ. However, if we do not want to die, the church will not gain the spiritual benefit and we will become a problem to the saints. Hence, we must make a serious decision to deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow the Lord (Matt. 16:24) in order to serve Him in the church.
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