We have great treasure, but it is contained within jars of clay. We need to hold on to both aspects of this. On the one hand we have the wonderful good news of Jesus Christ. We are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are adopted into the family of God. We have a glorious inheritance. On the other hand we are still human beings, with our weaknesses and failings. If we forget one or the other of these then we are not being true to God.
Paul here is again contrasting the truth and reality of the Christian life with the false triumphalism of the false apostles.
So there are times when we find things very difficult. Times when we feel pressed in on every side, when we are utterly perplexed by what is happening, when we are persecuted or struck down. These things happen, but they do not defeat us. None of us like going through trials, but they are normal. We need to take heart from the fact that just because we are finding things impossibly difficult it does not mean we are defeated or are going to be defeated. For we are not dependent just upon ourselves, but on the living God.
Jesus was crucified on the cross and He was raised from the dead. Now we need to always remember that we share both in the cross and in the resurrection. If Jesus had not gone to the cross He could not have been raised from the dead, this is blatantly true. But it is also true that we cannot know the power of the resurrection in our life unless we also know the cross.
It is not true that Jesus went to the cross so that we would not have to do so. It is true that He went to the cross so that we would not have to suffer the punishment that we deserve, but Jesus spoke about us all having to carry the cross, about sharing in His sufferings. and the church in Acts, particularly the apostles, demonstrated the reality of this.
No comments:
Post a Comment