DEATH AND LIFE IN THE BODY (2 Cor.4: 10-12)

v.10 “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.

v.11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh,

v.12 So that death worketh in us but life in you”.

The apostle wrote at the beginning of his second letter to the Corinthian church of the privations he suffered in Asia and it is to these sufferings that he alludes in the verses under consideration, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus …..”, v.10. This was for the holy purpose “that the (resurrection) life also of (Christ) Jesus might (aorist tense) be made manifest in our body”.

From a naturalistic viewpoint it might be thought that “the life” refers to the natural life of the Lord but that of course could not be the case for in that life He was unique. As students of the Word will have noted, it is the life of Christ Jesus, His resurrection life, that is in view and the apostle clearly infers so in v.12. Further, this life is manifest, as with the Lord, to faith for resurrection (spiritual) life is unseen by natural eyes – it is veiled in flesh.

So we live in the power (spiritually) of resurrection life as a present experience, for just as we died with Him so we were raised with Him into newness of life, Rom.6:4, Col.2:12. This is the life of Christ Jesus that is manifest in our body.

The context presents the identification of the servant with his master, “… bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus…”, following after His steps in the pathway of suffering. ‘The more the natural man was annihilated the more was it evident that a power was there which was not of man’ – JND.

“For we who live are constantly experiencing being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake that the resurrection life of Jesus also may (aorist tense) be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death”, v.11 (Amplified N.T.). Again, the evidence or manifestation of new life in our flesh is to faith, not the world of natural man.

The apostle concludes with a short summary, “So then death is working in us but (resurrection) life in you”. v.12.

We may not be called upon to suffer in the signal way of Paul, whose ministry was in so many respects unique, but we are called to share with him in manifesting the spiritual evidences of divine life, “the life also of Christ Jesus”, for the pleasure of God and His saints.