2 Corinthians 4:10

2 Corinthians 4:10

How is 2 Corinthians 4:10 to be understood: “Always bearing about in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body”?

Here Paul speaks about bearing something within him, in his body, just as he says in verse 7 that he has this treasure in an earthen vessel. Here it was Jesus’ death that he bore with him wherever he went—Jesus’ death to sin and self-life—and we bear this death with us so that Jesus’ life—not the old life—shall be revealed in our body.

It was in the very tribulations that Paul had to endure that he had opportunity to show that he lived for Christ and not for himself, for he says: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;” etc. Vs. 8-9. Tribulations lead a God-fearing soul always further into the death of Christ, even as Paul himself says it: tribulation produces patience.

The word death in 2 Corinthians 4:10 is nekrosin in Greek and means “putting to death” (in English, “dying, putting to death”). In the Norwegian language we have the same word in medicine: nekrosis, which means “gangrene, wasting, wasting away.” Bearing about Jesus’ death is therefore a continually active death process affecting the old self-life. He who loses his life, finds life. He must increase, but I must decrease. Being crucified with Christ is an act of faith, but being molded to be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10) is a process of sanctification. Therefore, bearing about Jesus’ death means that His finished work is continually at work in my inner man. It is true in Him, and now it is becoming true in us by faith. This is what is called the objective and the subjective. It is finished in Him for us, and it is in the process of being finished by the Spirit in us. Paul says, “Death is working in us.” 2 Cor. 4:12.

Why did Paul bear about Jesus’ death? So that Jesus’ life would be manifested. Thus he could be an aroma of death to death and an aroma of life to life. 2 Cor. 2:16. Paul was longing for the life of Christ. “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:16-18.

If the death of Christ were to wreak more havoc in the assemblies, we would see more of the life of Christ revealed, as well as the church’s growth as a body. Then we would see less of carnal striving, backbiting, arguing, envy, love of money, immorality, and various kinds of theft; we would see less of numerous vain plans that have been devised in a carnal manner and which, as is evident in our days, God has blown away.

The idea that the self-life has been taken out of a person after he has been baptized with the Spirit doesn’t belong anywhere except in a puffed-up, false holiness, thereby freeing itself from exhortation, the cross, and the blood. May God preserve His people from an invented and imaginary holiness, leading them into the pure reality of themselves and the finished work of Christ.