Dying to Live (2 Corinthians 4:13–18)

As you read the Gospels, it becomes evident that the Lord Jesus never spoke of his death without also speaking of his resurrection. He was, we might say, always dying to live.

Paul lived the same way. He realised that God’s power was revealed through the weakness of his “outer man” (vv. 7–12) and, in the words of Kent Hughes, “this weakness-power principle was, in effect, the life-death principle of Christ himself.” Though intellectually we know this to be true, how often we find ourselves fighting against it! Rather than dying to live (v. 10) we are tempted to avoid dying at all costs—in many cases, quite literally.

Self-preservation is a prominent characteristic of this age, which is ruled by “the god of this world” (v. 4). Self-preservation is a means that the prince of the power of the air uses to further blind unbelievers from seeing the unveiled glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet believers can also be blinded. A mind set on self-preservation is a constant threat to both the Christian and to the local church.

Self-preservation keeps us from obedience. It hinders our faithfulness and thereby impedes the advance of the kingdom. After all, the Great Commission requires serving, sacrifice, and, yes, suffering.

Obsession with self-preservation was behind the satanic taunts when Jesus was on the cross: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40). Self-preservation is what led to the bitter experience of Peter denying his Lord three times (Luke 22:54–62) and it was the reason for all of the disciples forsaking Jesus in his human hour of need (Mark 14:50). Self-preservation is what tempted Demas into apostasy as he forsook Jesus and his servant, Paul, running off to Thessalonica, the Monaco playground of the first century (2 Timothy 4:10). Self-preservation was the motivating factor of John Mark abandoning Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 15:37–38). Self-preservation was the satanic motive behind Judas and his fellow disciples when they criticised Mary’s lavish gift to the Saviour (John 12:1–8). Self-preservation was the satanic temptation leading to Ananias and Sapphira’s hypocritical lying about how much they gave to meet the needs of suffering saints (Acts 5:1–11). Self-preservation was ultimately the motive of Judas when he chose to betray the Lord Jesus Christ.

Self-preservation was the motivation of the majority of scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees for rejecting the authoritative teaching of Jesus. Self-preservation was the motive of the Judaisers who taught a culturally acceptable but ultimately false gospel of salvation by race rather than salvation by grace. Self-preservation was the motive of the false apostles who infiltrated the church of Corinth disseminating a kind of prosperity gospel. And self-preservation is the reason that you and I are attracted to a kind of Christianity that eschews affliction, perplexity, persecution, and being struck down for speaking up and speaking out on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though the light of the glory of God has been revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ, we are sometimes hesitant to let that light shine for fear of the consequences. Sadly, because we are too often controlled by a commitment to self-preservation, we miss out on living a supernatural life.

Ultimately, obsession with self-preservation robs us of experiencing the resurrection life that is ours in Christ Jesus. If we will truly live, we need to be willing to die. As Paul teaches in this passage, the key to living is dying. The Christian who truly treasures being a “container” (v. 7) that houses the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ will be dying to live.

Paul exemplified a life not controlled by self-preservation. As he explains in the passage before us (2 Corinthians 4:13–18), he was committed to faithfully “speaking up and speaking out” for the Lord because he really believed the Lord. Motivated by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus, he was committed to the dying process of the Christ-centred life with the result that he truly lived. Quite literally, like Jesus, Paul was dying to live. This is God’s call to every one of those whom he saves. There are at least four themes in our text related to Paul’s rejection of self-preservation:

1. Be Willing to Speak Up (v. 13)
2. Know that You Will Be Raised Up (v. 14)
3. Long for Praise to Be Offered Up (v. 15)
4. Learn to Look Up (vv. 16–18)

Be Willing to Speak Up

First, we must be willing to speak up: “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak” (v. 13).

Seifrid writes, “One wonders how Paul would have fit into today’s Facebook culture. At this point, there were few in Corinth who ‘liked’ his message, and fewer still who were willing to ‘friend’ him.” Yet here we see Paul’s freedom (3:12,17; 4:2b) from self-preservation, evidenced by the fact that he was willing to speak up and to speak out for the Lord. He was willing to showcase the treasure of Christ’s gospel despite the afflictions it attracted. Despite the afflictions, such “deliverance to death does not make him sad and silent” (Erdman). Perhaps he went on his missionary journeys singing the Sunday School song, “This Little Light of Mine.”

Without repeating what we have learned in the former passage, it is important to recognise that Paul does not change themes in v. 13. He very much has on his heart and mind the reality that he is always carrying the dying (nekrosis) of Jesus. He was aware that, like Jesus, he would suffer in this life for the glory of God and for the good of God’s people. In doing so, he was also aware that he would experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection life.

With this in mind, he (like the author of Psalm 116) says that “since” he chooses to believe God, he will continue to speak of God and of his gospel. We need to pause here.

First, it is necessary to understand the content of Psalm 116 from which Paul quotes v. 10. The psalmist had undergone a serious trial of some kind: “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol [death] laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish” (Psalm 116:3). (Compare this to Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 4:8–9.) Just as the psalmist experienced a gracious and powerful deliverance from the Lord (Psalm 116:4–9) so did Paul (vv. 8–9). Therefore, the psalmist cries out confessing, “I believed [in God’s gracious power], even when I spoke: ‘I am greatly afflicted’” (Psalm 116:10). That is, though afflicted, he continued to trust, to believe God as his deliverer, as the one who is able to give life amid death.

But the psalmist continues to express his faith as he repeatedly says that he will continue to “pay my vows to the Lord” (Psalm 116:14, 17–18). That is, in light of his trust in God, who delivers from death, he will continue to speak of him, regardless of the outcome.

Paul picks up on this (LXX) and says that he likewise would continue to speak up and faithfully fulfil his calling. And, like the psalmist, he would do so in the presence of all his God’s people. In a nutshell, Paul would continue to put himself in jeopardy of affliction, perplexity, persecution, and being “knocked down” to speak about the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He would speak the truth, though unbelievers opposed him. He would speak the truth though believers afflicted him. He would speak the truth despite staring death in the face.

This is what each of us is called to. Rather than pursuing self-preservation, we are to embrace the risk and speak out and to speak up for the gospel’s sake and for the church’s sake. Speak out as you witness to Christ at school, in the workplace, and in the community. Speak out as you guard the gospel unity of the congregation at the risk of being misunderstood and even rejected.

Our motivation in speaking up is not a matter of raw bravado or stoic courage. No. In the next verse, Paul provides the motivation for carrying the dying of Jesus.

Know that You Will Be Raised Up

We speak up because we know that we will be raised up: “knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence” (v. 14).

Knowing that he would be raised up—for time and for eternity—Paul was willing to lay his life on the line. He was literally committed to dying in order to live. The resurrection of Jesus Christ (vv. 10b–11) empowers us to resist the ubiquitous temptation to self-preservation. As Guthrie comments, “The apostle focuses on a theology of resurrection as providing him with confidence while he faces the threat of death.”

Paul was not afraid to speak up. He was not swayed by self-preservation. He was daily motivated to take up his cross and follow Jesus Christ. This was true because, like Jesus—because of Jesus—he was certain of the resurrection of Christ and therefore of his own resurrection.

I suspect that the song “You Raise Me Up,” made famous the world over by Josh Groban, has been so widely popular is because of the hope it portrays. I don’t know what motivates those lyrics, but the truth that Jesus was raised up and that he will raise up all those whom he has saved is the motivation for us escaping the allure of self-preservation with its truncated and shallow living. Under the shadow of Psalm 116 Paul was likewise certain of God’s rescue from death.

I once heard Chris Williams, a pastor in India, say in a sermon, “The worst thing that can happen to a Christian is also the best thing that can happen to him.” Several months later, I was sitting in the back of an SUV with him when it began to spin out of control on a wet road. When the vehicle finally came to a standstill, we looked at each other with a bit of terror and I said, “Well, like you said—!”

If this statement is true (and it is), let us stop our obsession with self-preservation and speak up and speak out to the glory of God. It is this conviction that motivated a multitude of Christian men and women over the years to risk their lives and livelihoods to spread the gospel both at home and abroad. It continues to motivate missionaries and church planters today.

This same resurrection power is available for every Christian. It is amazing in its supernatural effect: fearlessness in the face of calamity, calm amid storms, peace amid perplexity, and hope in the face of trauma. Though Christians await a resurrected body, even now we have access to resurrection “behaviour” and a resurrection disposition.

One more observation from this verse is important: Paul speaks of his assurance of being risen and being with the Corinthian believers. This is interesting and encouraging.

This church in Corinth obviously had a lot of problems, which motivated Paul’s 29 chapters of inspired correction! Yet he had confident hope that they would be raised from the dead. This conviction no doubt helped him to persevere amid the afflictions they caused. Such a conviction will go a long way towards helping each of us to lovingly, faithfully, and hopefully persevere with one another. We will all be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51)!

Long for Praise to Be Offered Up

A third way for us to resist the scourge of self-centred self-preservation is and to rather take gospel risks is to long for God to be universally glorified: “For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God” (v. 15).

Paul’s aversion to self-preservation was not motivated by pagan stoicism or self-actualised masochism. His supreme motive was that God be glorified in his life and by his death. He therefore was willing to speak up and to speak out in the face of afflictions so that, when the Spirit of God lifted the veil from blinded hearts, an increasing number of voices would give thanksgiving to the glory of God.

When Paul says “for your sakes,” he is saying that he was willing to forego self-preservation so that people like his readers (and others) would hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ. In this way, the grace would be extended to more and more people, resulting in their giving thanksgiving to the glory of God. To summarise, Paul was committed to increased gospel proclamation, resulting in increased gracious conversions, which yielded increased gratitude to God. This worthwhile goal surely motivates laying aside the pursuit of self-preservation.

Brothers and sisters, the old catechism continues to relevantly ask, “What is the chief end of man?” And the correct and constructive answer remains, “To glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” Are we living with this chief end in view? Are we willing to speak out and point out to more and more people that this is what life—and death—is all about?

Do our pursuits proclaim that our chief end is making money, building a career, having a happy family, pursuing recreational achievements, the here and now? Is our chief pursuit living for retirement? Kent Hughes is spot on when he writes, “For most Christians, the contemplation of retirement trumps the contemplation of their ultimate destiny…. There is a difference between saving for retirement and living for retirement.”

One day, all those saved by the grace of God will redound in universal, ascending, and unending praise around God’s throne (Revelation 7:9–10). With that truth in mind, let us lay aside self-preservation and speak out and speak up for our triune God, trusting him to send the light of his glorious gospel into the hearts of hitherto blinded sinners. As Douglas Kelly says, “Through death, life springs forth, the world is changed and souls are saved. The broken jars reveal the glory of the Lord Jesus, and our triune God is glorified.”

Be encouraged that those whom you cannot imagine giving praise to God might one day join their grateful voices with yours.

Learn to Look Up

As Paul brings this chapter to a close, while laying a foundation for what follows in chapter 5, he shares that, rather than morbid and even self-pitying introspection because of the temporal, he has learned that the key to dying to live is to look up at the eternal.

An Emphatic (Energising) Perspective

The words “so we do not lose heart” are repeated from v. 1 and indicate an inclusio: repeated material at the beginning and end of a passage that shares a similar theme. Paul wants to make clear that, despite afflictions, perplexity, persecution, and being struck down, he is not faltering either in his faith or in his faithfulness. Having spoken of the morale and the moral implications of not faltering, here he speaks of the mortal implications. Though aware of his outer physical, emotional, and even mental challenges (mortal), he knows that his inner self (immortal) is being daily renewed.

“Wasting away” refers to something that is coming to ruin, like a moth-eaten garment or a rust-destroyed piece of metal (Luke 12:33). Paul recognises the fragility and frailty of his life but also appreciates that his inner person is being renovated.

It is important to note that Paul is not deprecating the physical body, like a dualistic gnostic philosopher. Instead, he is making the point that he is aware of the difference between that which is transient and that which is eternal. He emphasises this further in vv. 17 and 18. But we should pause to contemplate his productive perspective being revealed. Though he suffered in his dying body (v. 10), his gospel perspective was that there is more to life than the physical. This guarded him from obsession with self-preservation. After all, if one is aware that God is doing a gracious and glorious work of renovation of the soul, we can better handle the failure of the body (see Colossians 3:10).

This is the glory of the promise of Romans 8:28. This is the meaning of John 12:24–26. You cannot cling to self-preservation and experience progressive sanctification at the same time. The cross precedes progress in Christlike character.

In the light of this, we need to beware a culture that despises age and the aging process. We need to beware its obsession with health and fitness as the be all and end all. We also need to beware of the “polite” or “uncomfortable” avoidance of talking about death. Embrace it rather than euphemising it away. My first funeral was that of a three-year-old boy. Death is meant to be a sobering reality. It is meant to give perspective as we live. The reality of death helps the Christian to be dying to live.

An Eternal Perspective

The opening words of v. 17 are rather remarkable when one considers all the hardship Paul experienced in his life of faithful ministry. As he faithfully spoke out and spoke up, he suffered (vv. 8–9). He will recount some of these afflictions in 11:23–29. And yet he summarises these as “light momentary affliction.” They hardly registered on the scale of his life. As far as he was concerned, the various pressures were barely noticeable and barely measurable. In comparison to the weight of glory they produced, his afflictions were like a feather that that rested on him for a mere blink of the eye. No wonder Jesus used this word when calling sinners to himself (Matthew 11:28–30). The sin-burden he takes away leaves us with a light burden.

The word “preparing” speaks of rendering someone to be fit for something. It speaks of a full and final accomplishment. This is how Paul viewed his afflictions. This is how he viewed “carrying in his body the dying of Jesus” (v. 10). That is, he realised that God was using suffering, God used his “dying” to render him fit for eternity. For the Christian, the eternal weight of glory far outweighs the burdens of life. We can translate this as “an eternal tonnage of glory” or “an accumulated “mass” of glory (BDAG). It does so “in a manner that is so surpassing that it can hardly be described: it surpasses even that which is surpassing.” (Seifrid)

This is to be the Christian perspective. This eternal perspective is what provides us with life even as we are dying. An eternal perspective is not a pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die, Pollyanna denial of reality. Rather that which is eternal is about that which lasts. All else is fallen and fading with a shelf life that is not negotiable.

This is why Paul could see beyond the immediate to the ultimate. He did not live oblivious to the things that are seen, but neither was he obsessed with or by them. He was “obsessed” with what will last. This is the upward look we need if we will resist the world’s call to self-preservation.

We should forever be done with that nonsensical saying that a person “is so heavenly minded that he or she is of no earthly good.” That is impossible. I suppose it is possible to be so unrealistically and dreamily and fantasy-minded that one is of no temporal good. But to be heavenly minded is to set your affections on things above rather than on the earth with the result that earth will become more heavenly (see Colossians 3:1–3; Matthew 6:9–10).

Don’t Despise the Dying

William Barclay wrote, “All through life it must happen that a man’s bodily strength fades, but all through life it ought to happen that a man” soul keeps growing. The very sufferings which may leave a man with a weakened body may be the very things which strengthen the sinews of his soul.” Implicit here is that, the older we grow, the more we have to offer. Those younger should be careful of being dismissive of the elderly.

Though, as we grow older, our outward man is wasting away, nevertheless our inner soul should be growing godlier. And this should not be dismissed by those whose outer man is seemingly not wasting away.

Churches should always be undergoing a succession plan in which the older are training the younger to take their place (2 Timothy 2:2). But that does not mean that the older no longer have a place. It is a shame when younger generations ignore the godly wisdom available through those who have lived for Christ for decades. How foolish to ignore the opportunity for godly counsel from those who have raised families for Christ. How wrongheaded to dismiss the potential mentorship of those who have faithfully walked through valleys of the shadow of death. How shortsighted to sideline those who, for decades, faithfully made disciples. Don’t neglect to glean from those who have faithfully stewarded the treasure of Christ and his word because you are unimpressed with their cracked jars of clay. Those who have walked with the Lord for decades might indeed have cracks but, just a skilled potter repairs damaged ceramic, God has filled those cracks with his gracious gold. Beware chronological snobbery.

However, we who are elderly need to beware to not give the next generation reason to dismiss our input. If we are not growing in godliness and godly wisdom, we should not be surprised if we are marginalised. And, by the way, young people, most of you will grow old. Prepare for that by being renewed where it matters most.

Conclusion

We are continually tempted to pursue comfort, to practice self-preservation, to avoid affliction. But, for the Christian, that is neither reality nor realistic—if we truly treasure the glorious gospel of God. That message is too weighty to compromise and the Christian’s destiny of a surpassing weight of glory outweighs any temporal benefits to the contrary. I love the words of George Guthrie summarising this passage: “Spiritual renewal trumps quitting.” Therefore, like Jesus, let us be committed to dying that we might live.

AMEN