Life Study of 2 Corinthians

Message 11 THE MINISTERS OF THE NEW COVENANT (4)

Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 5:1-8

In this message we come to the last three verses of

chapter four, verses 16 through 18. These verses are still
related to the living of a crucified life for the
manifestation of the resurrection life by the excellent
power of the treasure in the earthen vessels.
In chapters three and four we see that first the
apostles were constituted of God Himself. That
constitution was everything in relation to their life and
behavior. Every aspect of their living and behavior was
based on this constitution. Furthermore, this
constitution afforded them the life supply with the
power, strength, riches, wisdom, and even the ministry.
They ministered with what had been constituted into
them.
The apostles did not preach something which they
had merely heard or had been taught. What they
ministered was not something that had only been
revealed in a vision. What they preached, taught, and
ministered was altogether what had been constituted
into them. The apostles were constituted in a certain
way, having become constituted persons. Therefore,
what they ministered was their constitution. They
ministered what they were, what they had become.
This means that their reconstituted being became their
ministry.
Paul’s writings are very different from today’s
Christian writings. Paul’s writings are a record of his
constitution, whereas today’s writings are mainly
concerned with theology, doctrines, teachings,
expositions, and interpretations. Among the fourteen
Epistles written by Paul, chapters three and four of 2
Corinthians are the richest as far as his personal
experience of Christ is concerned. In these chapters
we have an accurate and precious record of Paul’s
spiritual constitution. If we would know what kind of
person Paul was as a minister of the new covenant, we
need to spend much time in these two chapters,
chapters which reveal Paul’s spiritual constitution.
Because ministry requires constitution, Brother Nee
told us that we could receive a gift immediately, but
we could never have a ministry in a short time. It takes
years to become constituted. This involves growth into
maturity.
Everything related to this constitution is organic and
of life. This life is by the Spirit, the ultimate
consummation of the processed God. Paul was a
person constituted of God. It is not sufficient to speak
of him as a God-man, for he was actually a person
constituted of God. Therefore, Paul’s ministry was his
being. What he preached and taught was what he
was. He ministered his very being to others. As Paul
ministered in this way, Christ was imparted into others,
for Paul and Christ had become one. Paul was one
with Christ and had been constituted of Christ. His
ministry was a ministry of the Christ who had been
constituted into his being. Without this kind of ministry,
there is no way to have the church adequately built up
or to have the bride properly adorned.
The Bible indicates that what God initiated at the
beginning will be accomplished. Moreover, God is a
God of resurrection. As the God of resurrection, His
purpose cannot fail, and He Himself cannot be
defeated. Rather, all frustrations and distractions prove
His unchangeableness, prove that He is the
unchanging God. What He has determined, He will
accomplish. What He set out to do at the beginning,
He will fulfill at the end. In the New Testament God
began with a group of ministers. Paul was among
them. At the end God will also have a group of the
same kind of ministers. Here and there around the
world, He must have ministers of the new covenant. My
burden is that many among us will become ministers of
the new covenant.
I hope that these messages on the ministry and the
ministers of the new covenant will remain with you. I
hope especially that the leading ones, the co-workers,
and all those who have a heart for the Lord’s recovery
will aspire to be today’s new covenant ministers. We
need to have a heart not only to love the Lord in a
general way, but also to become ministers of the New
Testament. If we have such a heart, we must be serious
with the Lord and dwell on these two chapters of 2
Corinthians, praying over them, having fellowship
concerning them, and telling the Lord that we are
willing to open ourselves for His working in us. We need
to tell Him that we are willing to be broken, ground,
and constituted; that we are willing to live a crucified
life; that we are willing to renounce ourselves and deny
ourselves and be constituted daily with the elements of
the processed Triune God; that we are willing to be
today’s Paul, not a great person or a famous believer,
but a small man, a crucified man, even a Nazarene.
Jesus of Nazareth did not seek to be great or
famous. On the contrary, He was a grain of wheat that
fell into the ground and died. In this way Jesus became
the first minister of the new covenant. We need to
follow Him also to become ministers of the new
covenant. Concerning this, we must look to the Lord
and pray desperately to Him.
The Decaying of Their Outward Man and the Renewing
of Their Inward Man

1. Not Losing Heart

In 4:16 Paul says, “Wherefore we do not lose heart,
but if indeed our outward man is decaying, yet our
inward man is being renewed day by day.” In this verse
Paul says, as he does in 4:1, “We do not lose heart.”
Many things had happened that could have caused
Paul and his co-workers to be disappointed or to lose
heart. Hardly anything was encouraging. Nevertheless,
because they were in resurrection, they did not lose
heart. Actually, resurrection requires death,
discouragement, and disappointment in order to be
manifested. Without death, how could there be the
manifestation of resurrection life? Death allows
resurrection to be manifested. Therefore, as they
passed through death, the apostles did not lose heart.
Although many disappointing things happened, they
were not discouraged.
In verse 16 Paul says that our outward man is
decaying. The outward man is our body and our soul,
with the body as its organ and the soul as its life and
person. The inward man is our regenerated spirit with
our renewed soul. The regenerated spirit is its life and
person, and the renewed soul is its organ. The life of the
soul must be denied (Matt. 16:24-25), but the functions
of the soul, the mind, will, and emotion, must be
renewed and uplifted by being subdued (2 Cor. 10:4-
5) to be used by the spirit, the person of the inward
man.
The Greek word rendered decaying also means
being consumed, being wasted away, being worn out.
By the continued killing, the working of death, our
outward man, that is, our material body with its
animating soul (1 Cor. 15:44), is being consumed and
worn out.
In verse 16 I prefer the word consumed to the word
decayed. Decay implies that something is
disintegrating by itself without anything acting upon it.
Here Paul does not mean that the apostles were
decaying. According to the context, their being put to
death was not initiated by them. If they had taken the
initiative, then we may say that they were decaying.
But since the initiative was taken by the persecutors
and by the circumstances and environment, it is better
to say that they were being consumed. They were
being wasted away. The meaning of the Greek word
includes decaying, being consumed, and being
wasted away.
The persecutors and the environment were working
on the apostles. This was not a work carried out by the
apostles on themselves. Grinding is never initiated by
the grains. Rather, the grinding work is carried on by
the person doing the grinding. The apostles were not
the grinders; they were the ones under the grinding.
Their outward man was being consumed, destroyed,
put to death.
Teachers of the Bible have different interpretations
and explanations of the term the outward man.
Certain of the so-called inner life people regard the
outward man as the soulish man, the natural man, and
they consider the spiritual man, one who lives in the
spirit, as the inner man. In 1 Corinthians 2 and 3 Paul
does speak of the spiritual man, the soulish man, and
the fleshly man. A fleshly person is one who lives in the
lust of his flesh, whereas a soulish person lives in the soul.
Those who are soulish are divisive. In the church life
they have their own preferences and choices. The
spiritual person, like Paul and the apostles, lives and
walks in the spirit. According to some inner life
teachers, we may either be soulish ones who live in the
outward man, or spiritual ones who live in the inward
man.
According to the context of 2 Corinthians 4, the
outward man refers mainly to the body in verse 10 and
to the mortal flesh in verse 11. These terms are used
inter-changeably, for our fallen body has become the
mortal flesh. The outward man in verse 16 certainly
refers to this fallen body, to this mortal flesh. However,
it is not adequate to say that the outward man simply
denotes the body. This understanding is not complete,
for the body itself cannot be a man, a person. The
body is merely an organ. In 1 Corinthians 15:44 Paul
speaks of a soulish body, a natural body animated by
the soul, a body in which the soul predominates.
Therefore, the outward man has the body as its organ
and the soul as its life and person. Hence, the outward
man comprises both the body and the soul. The body
is not the person. The person is the soul, and the body
is an organ. Likewise, the body is not the life; the life of
the outward man is the soul. The soul is both the person
and the life of the outward man. Yes, the body is a
major part of the outward man. Nevertheless, it is
merely an organ directed, animated, and used by the
soul.
The inward man is our regenerated spirit with the
soul as its organ. The spirit is the life and person, and the
renewed soul is the organ. The life of the soul, the
soulish life, must be denied. But the functions of the
soul—the mind, the will, and the emotion—must be
renewed. In the church life we are experiencing the
renewing of the mind and the uplifting of the mind. As
our mind is subdued by the Lord, it is renewed. Then it
can be used by our spirit, which is the person of the
inward man. The outward man is being consumed. It is
being worn out and put to death. But the inward man
is being renewed day by day. Being consumed implies
decreasing, and being renewed implies increasing.
Thus, our outward man is decreasing, and our inward
man is increasing. Outwardly my body is getting older,
but my inward man is getting younger and newer.
Outwardly we are all getting older, but inwardly we are
becoming newer.
The inward man is renewed by being nourished with
the fresh supply of resurrection life. As our mortal body,
our outward man, is being consumed by the killing
work of death, our inward man, that is, our
regenerated spirit with the inward parts of our being
(Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; Rom. 7:22, 25), is being
metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of
resurrection life.
Being renewed is similar to being constituted. In
both cases there is the need for a particular element.
In order for us to be renewed, some element must be
added to us. This renewing element is the treasure
hidden within us (v. 7). However, for us to be renewed,
it is not adequate simply to have the treasure within.
There is also the need for the killing, the destroying, the
consuming, the grinding. For this reason, inwardly we
have the treasure, and outwardly we have the
environment. Through our environment, God
sovereignly places us under the grinding stones.
 It is impossible for us to escape God’s hand. Are you
mature? Have you been broken? You may still use your
cleverness to escape the breaking and the grinding.
No one is able to deal with you. However, those who
try the hardest to escape the breaking eventually
suffer the most. It is our destiny to be consumed.
Brothers, the Lord will probably use your wives to grind
you. Even the best wife is used by Him in this way.
The Lord sovereignly uses our environment to
consume us. Do not think that it is because you are
wrong that you need to be consumed. Actually, it is
because you are right that you need to be consumed.
The more right you are, the more you need to be
consumed. Paul was very right. This was the reason he
needed a great deal of consuming. This does not
mean, however, that you should purposely try to do
something wrong. If you are wrong, you may be
punished.
You may wonder what you should do, since you will
be consumed if you are right and punished if you are
wrong. The answer is that you should not do anything.
Sooner or later, the Lord will put you under the grinding
stone.
Because we love the Lord, we are willing to be
ground. But this does not mean that we should place
ourselves between the grinding stones. That is suicide,
not grinding. Let the Lord sovereignly put you under the
grinding. There is no need to do anything concerning
this; it will happen spontaneously.
Only by the consuming of the outward man can
Christ be lived out and ministered to others. This is the
Lord’s way. Only in this way can the bride be prepared
for Him.

2. The Momentary Lightness of Affliction Working Out for

Them an Eternal Weight of Glory
In verse 17 Paul says, “For our momentary lightness
of affliction works out for us, more and more
surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory.” The affliction
here refers to the putting to death, the working of the
cross. Literally, more and more surpassingly means
excessively unto excess. The eternal weight of glory is
in contrast to the momentary lightness of affliction.
Glory here is the expression of God as resurrection life
and is in contrast to affliction.
The momentary lightness of affliction works out for
us an eternal weight of glory. This weight of glory will
become the beauty of the adorned bride.
3. Not Considering the Things Which Are Seen and
Temporary, but the Things Which Are Not Seen and
Eternal
Verse 18 says, “While we do not consider the things
which are seen, but the things which are not seen; for
the things which are seen are temporary, but the things
which are not seen are eternal.” The things seen are of
the temporary affliction, but the things not seen are of
the eternal glory. Paul did not care for the affliction, the
environment, the poverty, the opposition, the
persecution, or the grinding. Those things, things which
are seen, are temporary. He cared only for eternal
things. He knew that while he was in the condition of
being ground, the affliction was working out something
weighty, beautiful, and eternal. In this way we shall be
adorned as the bright and beautiful bride for Christ at
His coming back.
In these chapters we see the ministers with the
ministry, and we also see the result of the ministry. Here
we have a portrait of the ministers of the new covenant
with a beautiful and wonderful ministry that builds up
the church and beautifies the bride.