Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;
Who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ.
But whether we be afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we be comforted, it is for your comfort, which worketh in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer:
And our hope for you is stedfast; knowing that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also are ye of the comfort.
For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
Yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God Who raiseth the dead:
Who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver: on Whom we have set our hope that He will also still deliver us;
Ye also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift bestowed upon us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf.
For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
Our Father, we do thank Thee for this privilege of gathering together in Thy presence, under the blood of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, we do praise and thank Thee that we are privileged to read Thy Word. We ask Thee, O Lord, that Thou wilt speak to us again through Thy Word, that it may become life and spirit to us.
We ask Thee to take away any veil that may be upon our hearts, and give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may come into the true knowledge of God. We just commit our time to Thee and trust Thee for Thy Spirit’s working, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
The second letter to the Corinthians is a very unique letter. As a matter of fact, every letter in the Scripture is unique, but this second letter to the Corinthians is unique because it does not deal with doctrines as such. It does not deal with problems as such. It does not deal with practice, the practice of daily life.
It is actually a fellowship of the apostle Paul with the church which he dearly loved. It is the pouring out of his heart without restraint. There is no letter written by Paul in which we can see the man Paul more than this second letter to the Corinthians.
It is not in the sense of Paul in action, but in the sense of Paul, the man in Christ. If we know anything about the apostle Paul, I think 2 Corinthians is a letter that we should really study. We can almost say that 2 Corinthians is Paul’s autobiography.
We see the man in Christ—not Saul, the great Pharisee, but Paul, the man in Christ.
Now, if we want to use one word to sum up 1 Corinthians, what word would we use? I think it is evident. The word that sums up the situation in the church in Corinth at that time, when Paul wrote the first letter, is carnality.
How carnal they were. Carnality is the root of all their problems. And, of course, the solution to carnality is the cross. That is the reason Paul said in 1 Corinthians that he knew nothing among them but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. The cross is the only solution to carnality.
But in 2 Corinthians, if we want to use one word to sum up the letter, I think it is clear that the word will be spirituality. First Corinthians is carnality; that is the condition of the church in Corinth. Second Corinthians is spirituality; that is the character of Paul the apostle.
If you want to understand what spirituality really is—not in the sense of being pseudo-spiritual, but true spirituality—you have to go into the second letter to the Corinthians. The whole letter speaks of spirituality: the man in Christ who is characterized by spirituality.
It tells us what spiritual life is, what spiritual ministry is, what spiritual sacrificial giving is, and what a spiritual man is.
Now, this morning we would like to begin with this question: What is spiritual life? Perhaps it will surprise you to see that the first element, or factor, of spiritual life is the sentence of death.
There in 2 Corinthians 1:9, Paul says:
Yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God Who raiseth the dead.
Paul is trying to share with us what spiritual life is. Actually, he is not trying to tell us what death is; he is trying to tell us what life is. But in order to enter into life, there is one thing that must be present. It is a prerequisite to true spiritual life, and that is the sentence of death.
Without the sentence of death, without knowing what death is, without experiencing death, without having the sentence of death announced over you and answering that it is death, you will never be able to know what life really is.
Because true spiritual life is resurrection life. It is life out of death.
The word sentence—the sentence of death—is a judicial word. It means that a judicial decision is made, and the decision is death: the end of everything.
In some versions, you may find that the word sentence is translated answer: the answer of death. In other words, when that judicial decision is made and the sentence of death is proclaimed over you, then you respond with an answer.
When you are faced with this matter of death and life, your answer is, “It is death. That is it. There is no hope. It is finished.” Dear brothers and sisters, the sentence of death is the door to spiritual life.
We do not really know what Paul refers to when he says that, when he was in Asia, he was in such great affliction and tribulation. The tribulation was so severe that he despaired even of living.
Now, just think: Paul was not a weakling who would cry out with a little pain or a little suffering. He was a man with almost an iron constitution. Yet he said to the saints in Corinth that, when they were in Asia, they were under such pressure that it was beyond their power to bear.
He came to the conclusion that he was dead. There was no hope. He gave up even the hope of living.
Now, we do not really know what had happened. Some people say he might have referred to the tumult in Ephesus, because you remember in Acts 19 there was a great tumult in Ephesus. They wanted to kill Paul.
Yet we can hardly say that Paul referred to that, because if you read Acts 19, even though the tumult was great, Paul was not really in such danger. His friends advised him not to enter the theatre, so he was not really in such danger.
Some people say Paul referred to some grave, serious illness that he suffered during that period. We have no record of it, so we do not know whether that was so. It may have been that he was afflicted with such sickness that he despaired of living. He was literally dying.
He literally experienced death. The sentence of death was pronounced over him, and he responded, “Oh, that is it.” Probably it was sickness; we do not know.
You will find that he used the word we. Whether it was something that happened not only to Paul—for when he wrote 2 Corinthians, he wrote with Timothy—or whether Paul and Timothy, and perhaps others, went through the same great tribulation and despaired of life, we do not know.
We do not know whether he referred to a corporate experience or simply to Paul himself, because oftentimes he used the word we when actually he was referring to himself. But one thing we do know: he was in such a situation that the sentence of death was pronounced over him, and he accepted it and answered with the word, “Death.”
But, dear brothers and sisters, when the sentence of death was pronounced and accepted, humanly speaking, that would be the end of everything. If there were no life of Christ in him, that would be the end.
But because the life of Christ was in Paul, the sentence of death was the end of himself, but it was the beginning of God in him.
It was through the sentence of death that he learned a precious lesson: not to trust in himself, but to trust in the God Who raises the dead.
The sentence of death is not altogether negative, because it teaches him, on the one hand, not to trust in himself. And how much we trust in ourselves is almost unbelievable.
But, on the other hand, it teaches him to trust in God, Who raises the dead.
The result was that he had a testimony to give. The testimony was the testimony of his conscience: that in simplicity and sincerity before God, not in fleshly wisdom but in God’s grace, they had had their conversation in the world, and more abundantly toward the Corinthians.
In other words, out of this experience a testimony comes forth. The testimony is that from now on he lives not by human wisdom, but in God’s grace. From now on, he lives in the simplicity and sincerity of God—that is, what God would have and what God will produce.
In other words, from now on he lives by God, by God’s life, by Christ, and no longer by himself.
Now, brothers and sisters, of course Paul referred to a very specific situation, a particular condition. But the principle is a general principle.
In other words, the sentence of death is not applicable only to a particular condition that Paul was in during that time. As a matter of fact, you will find that the principle of the sentence of death is applicable to every area of our spiritual life.
Unless we know the sentence of death, we do not know what spiritual life really is.
There are three things in our natural life that oppose the grace of God, and that God has to deal with in order to bring us into true spiritual life:
You find in everyone these three things.
We have an energy within us which is natural, and that energy is tremendous. Sometimes you think that you are very weak, that you do not have much strength; yet, when it comes down to practical issues, you find how strong you are.
You find how much you depend upon your own strength. You find how you strive and struggle. You will not give up. You have confidence in yourself. You think, “Yes, I can do it.” Tremendous energy.
Even at a time when we say we are weak, we are struggling. We have not given up yet. We have not come to the end of our energy yet. We are still wrestling with God, and we are like Jacob. The angel of God finds it very difficult to overcome us because we are so strong.
That is what we are: human energy. And because there is such energy in our natural life, we do not know the power of God.
There is fleshly wisdom in us. How we think we are clever. We can plan and plot; we can scheme and maneuver. We try and we attempt, and if we do not succeed with one plan, we have the next plan ready for it. We are really clever.
So even when you are saying, “I am foolish,” well, in saying that, you are still clever. Fleshly wisdom is almost unthinkable. Because it is there, we do not know the wisdom of God.
Then there is self-glory. Oh, how we seek distinction. How we seek position. How we seek status. How we seek glory for ourselves.
Even when we say, “Oh, let all glory be unto God,” secretly we think, “Well, we have done it. Do we not deserve a little bit?”
So you find within us these three things: “We can do it. We will do it. We show God this is the best plan. And because of that, we should have some glory.”
Now, dear brothers and sisters, as we are under the bondage of these three things, are we living spiritual life? Do we know what spiritual life really is?
If we are living in the energy of our flesh, our natural energy, are we living in spiritual life? If we are living in fleshly wisdom, are we in spiritual life? If we are seeking self-glory, is this spiritual life?
How strange it is. When we first came to the Lord, we knew that we could not do anything. We had tried. We knew that there was nothing that we could boast of. Because of that, we came to the Lord and accepted Him as our Savior and our Lord.
But after we are saved, we think that now we have changed. Now we have energy, and we can use our energy. Now we have wisdom, and we can use our cleverness. Now we can seek for something. Is that not strange?
We forgot what we learned when we first came to Christ. We began to rely upon ourselves again. Even though we have the life of Christ in us, we have spiritual life in us; instead of using that life, we are still using our old life.
How do we know? There is human energy, there is fleshly wisdom, and there is self-vainglory. That shows that we are not living in spiritual life. We are still living in ourselves, in the old life, in the flesh.
Because of this, and because of God’s love toward us, He has to bring some tribulations to us.
The tribulations can take many forms and come from many directions. They may be physical; they may even be mental; they may be spiritual. Tribulation may come from people, from certain things, or from certain events.
The tribulation may be something inward—an inward conflict—or it may be something external—external circumstances. But as we are following the Lord and serving the Lord, while still relying upon our human energy and fleshly wisdom and secretly seeking self-glory, the Lord has to bring some tribulations to us, whatever they may be.
When these tribulations begin to come upon us, we begin to feel that a sentence of death is proclaimed over our lives.
Dear brothers and sisters, sometimes you feel as if you are surrounded. You are pressed beyond measure. There does not seem to be any way out. You give up the hope of living; you give up any hope. You feel that now this is the end, as if a sentence of death is announced over you, and your answer is, “That is it. It is death.”
Now, when you come to that point, you cease struggling and striving.
When you accept the sentence of death, you find that it is the end of you, but it is not the end of God.
It is true that, because of the sentence of death, you cannot trust in yourself anymore. You cannot trust in your energy or your wisdom. You cannot boast anymore.
Yet, at the same time, it creates within you a trust in the God Who raises the dead.
When the sentence of death is upon you, you say, “God, this is death.” Then you look up, and you find that He is the resurrection.
It is only out of such experience that you taste and touch spiritual life, which is the life of God—resurrection life. Only after you have touched that life can you testify that you no longer live in human wisdom, but in the grace of God.
From now on, you live in the simplicity and sincerity of God. It is His life. You live by Him. Now, brothers and sisters, this is spiritual life.
Let us see it clearly.
Take Job as an illustration. Job was an upright and perfect man. He feared God, and he abstained from all evil. He was so perfect that God used him to challenge Satan.
Satan roamed over the whole earth. He was an incessant traveler. Satan traveled to and fro throughout the earth. He never stopped. He was very observant, noticing everything and trying to find some hole, some gap, that he could enter.
After he had completed his trip, God said, “Have you considered My servant Job?” No doubt he had. He knew how perfect Job was. Satan accused Job before God, and God allowed Satan to attack Job. With Satan it was evil, but with God, He turned the evil into good.
When Job was afflicted, Job really had a sentence of death over him. Consider a few verses from Job.
Oh that I might have my request,
And that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
Even that it would please God to crush me;
That He would let loose His hand, and cut me off!
Then should I yet have comfort;
Yea, I would exult in pain that spareth not:
For I have not denied the words of the Holy One.—Job 6:8-10
Job asked God to crush him and let him die before he would deny the Holy One.
In Job 17, he said:
My days are past, my purposes are broken off,
Even the thoughts of my heart.
If I look for Sheol as my house;
If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father;
To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;
Where then is my hope?
And as for my hope, who shall see it?
It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,
When once there is rest in the dust.—Job 17:11, 13-16
The sentence of death was upon him, and he accepted it. He answered it: “This is death.”
But, dear brothers and sisters, out of his affliction, under the sentence of death, the glory of God appeared to him. Is that not strange? We often think that we will see the glory of God when the sky is blue and the sun is shining, but not so.
Oftentimes the glory of God appears when you are afflicted. The glory of God appears when the sentence of death is upon you. The glory of God appears when the sky is darkest.
The glory of God appeared to Job under the sentence of death. Job said:
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee:
Wherefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.—Job 42:5-6
When did Job see God? When he was under the sentence of death. Because of this, what was the result? He received a double portion of blessing.
The sentence of death was the end of Job, the old man; but it was the beginning of Job, the man in Christ.
Take Abraham as an illustration. By faith Abraham obeyed God. He went out, not knowing where he was going. He knew that God was leading him, but he did not know where.
Even after he was in the land of promise, God said, “I will give you this land,” yet he sojourned in that land and had no seed. He tried with human energy and wisdom, and he got an Ishmael. God said, “This is not it.”
When he came to ninety-nine years old, you have to combine Genesis 17 and Romans 4 together. When he came to ninety-nine, the Bible says that his body was already dead, and his wife Sarah’s womb was dead.
There was completely no hope. He had given up every hope of ever having a child through Sarah. Yet when he was ninety-nine, God said, “Sarah shall give birth to a son.”
He believed God, hope against hope. By faith his hope was strengthened. He believed that God could do it. But what kind of God did he believe? He believed in the God of resurrection, and he received Isaac.
Dear brothers and sisters, before the sentence of death was pronounced over him, before he accepted the sentence of death, he could have Ishmael, but he could not have Isaac.
God had to wait until Abraham was dead and Sarah was dead so far as her womb was concerned. Then the God of resurrection began to work.
Of course, Jacob was a typical case. How clever Jacob was in himself. Oh, he was a planner, a plotter, a twister, a deceiver, a maneuverer.
Yet God dealt with him and dealt with him and dealt with him. After twenty years, Jacob was still strong—wounded, but not dead.
Then he came to the ford of Jabbok, and the angel of the Lord wrestled with him the whole night and could not overcome him, could not prevail against him. Oh, Jacob was so strong.
His energy was so strong. His human fleshly wisdom was too strong. His self was so strong that God had to touch his thigh and cripple him.
Brothers and sisters, when the sentence of death was upon him, Jacob literally hung upon the angel and said, “Bless me. Now You must bless me. I could bless myself before without Your help, but now I am helpless. You have to bless me. If You do not bless me, I cannot live anymore.”
God changed his name from Jacob to Israel.
Jacob came to know the God of resurrection. From then on, he lived by the strength of God, by the wisdom of God, and by the glory of God.
Yes, it is true that sometimes the old Jacob still tried to revive. But whenever the old Jacob tried to revive, he felt the pain in his thigh. He could not run that fast anymore. He was reminded.
Finally, he could lean upon his staff and worship God.
Brothers and sisters, think of Peter. How confident he was. Even during the Last Supper, when the Lord said, “The shepherd shall be smitten, and the sheep shall all be scattered,” Peter said, “No, no, no. These disciples, they may be weaklings, but not me. I am willing to die with You.”
And he denied the Lord three times.
In Mark, we often say Mark’s Gospel is the Gospel according to Peter. There in Mark, you find that Peter went out weeping. When he went out weeping, he thought, “That is my end. That is it. That was the end. How could I deny the Lord three times? No more hope. Peter is finished.”
But, dear brothers and sisters, when the Lord was raised from the dead, He appeared to Peter.
Not only did He appear to Peter, but He appeared to Peter and the other disciples. He not only restored Peter before Himself; He restored Peter in the eyes of his companions. How kind God was.
The sentence of death—but after the sentence of death, there is resurrection. And how beautiful resurrection is.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the eleven. What authority he had in preaching the gospel and in opening the door to the kingdom of God.
Paul not only had that experience in 2 Corinthians 1, but we can see that Paul had many such experiences. For instance, in 2 Corinthians 12, he mentioned how a thorn was in his flesh, and the thorn was a sentence of death.
Yet there he learned that God’s grace was sufficient for him. So he boasted in his weakness, that the power of God might be manifested.
Or, if you want to turn to spiritual experience as such, consider Romans 7. There you find how strong Paul was. “I can do it,” he said. The law says, “Thou shalt not covet,” and Paul said, “I am not going to covet.”
But the more he tried not to covet, the more covetous he became. He found that his willpower, no matter how strong his will was, could not fight against the law of sin and of death.
Finally, the sentence of death came upon him. He said:
For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.—Romans 7:18, 24-25
Now, brothers and sisters, for Paul to say that, for Paul to confess that there was no good in him, was not easy. To confess that he was a wretched man was not easy. But when the sentence of death was accepted, immediately he said, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Resurrection.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we want to know life that is life indeed, if we really want to experience spiritual life, remember: before the sentence of death, before death, there is no life.
Before that, the life is the old life, the natural life, the life of the flesh. And that life is no life at all.
It is only that which can pass through death and come out on the other side—which is resurrection—that is life.
Brothers and sisters, how do we measure spiritual life? Do we measure spiritual life by how much knowledge we have, by how many activities we have, by how much achievement we have, or by what position or status we have arrived at?
Oh, no. You do not measure life with these things. You measure life with death, with the sentence of death.
How much of the sentence of death do we know? It is only after the sentence of death that we come to know the God of resurrection. The Lord said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” His life is resurrection life.
We do not experience His life until we know what the sentence of death is.
You remember that our Lord Jesus said in John 12:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will the Father honor.—John 12:24-26
Brothers and sisters, life indeed has to come out of death. When you go through this, that which cannot come out will be buried there. That is what we were. But that which comes out is Christ. It is life. It is spiritual life.
So this morning my burden is just one: How do we measure spiritual life? How do we know this is life, and not just our human energy, not just our fleshly wisdom, not just ourselves?
We measure it by the sentence of death. The more we know the sentence of death, the more we know the God of resurrection.
Of course, this is not merely an experience that we experience once and for all. It is an experience that has a beginning, but there is no end to it in this life.
In other words, we have to be brought to the place where we are under the sentence of death in order to know what resurrection life is. Then, from that point onward, we need to learn more and more of the sentence of death and of resurrection life.
Maybe in one area the Lord pronounces His sentence of death over you, and there you learn His life in that area. But perhaps in another area you are still depending upon and trusting in your flesh, and God has to pronounce death over that.
So far as God is concerned, the sentence of death has already been pronounced. Romans 6:6 says:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.
The sentence of death has already been pronounced over the old man. But so far as our experience goes, probably we have to enter into it step by step, day by day.
Thank God, the sentence of death to the world is the end; but to us who are the Lord’s, it is the glorious beginning. May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast planted Thy life in us, and that life is a life that overcomes death.
We do praise and thank Thee that unless we know the sentence of death, we will not depend upon Thy life. We will still be living our old life.
So, Lord, we welcome the sentence of death. We ask Thee that, instead of going under it, we may rise up in resurrection life, and come to know Thee as the God of resurrection. We praise Thy precious name. Amen.