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TRUE CHRISTIANS CARRY DEATH IN THEIR "We are no better than pots of earthenware to contain this treasure, and this proves that such transcendent power does not come from us, but is God's alone. Hard-pressed on every side, we are never hemmed in; bewildered, we are never at our wits' end; hunted, we are never abandoned to our fate; struck down, we are not left to die. Wherever we go we carry death with us in our body, the death that Jesus died, that in this body also life may reveal itself, the life that Jesus lives.* For continually, while still alive, we are being surrendered into the hands of death, for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be revealed in this mortal body of ours. Thus death is at work in us, and life in you." (2 Cor 4:7-12 NEB).
This
transcendent
power is "the glorious knowledge of God by the face of Christ"
that illuminates the spirits of His servants while their mortal bodies are in a
continual process of death. (2 Cor 4:6). Unbelievers do not understand
this, nor would they find the apostle Paul's words acceptable We who are dying as to the world for the sake of The Christ, are becoming subjected to God by the spirit of his Son working within us. (1 Cor 15:28). However, we are an offence to the spirits of untaught unbelievers and apostates. Instinctively, they feel that our natures are different from theirs and they cannot understand it. That is why they begin speaking abusively of us, to persuade us to revert back to the spirit of this worldly "darkness". (1 Peter 4:4,5) (Eph 4:17,18). * The apostle Paul was referring to The Christ's life after his ascension to heaven.
9/6/04. |
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