2 Corinthians 1:10

‘Who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver. On whom we have set our hope that he will also yet deliver us.'

This verse contains a number of significant points. It speaks of ‘so great a death', which in the light of Paul's continued use of ‘death' as the prime way of signifying man's final fate, must surely have special significance. It speaks of ‘our hope', a thought that in Paul is regularly looking forward to salvation and deliverance and Christ's coming. It depicts the past, the near future and the far future as covering the whole of life until that day. (To make ‘he will deliver us, on whom we have set our hope that he will yet deliver us' signify merely a hope of escaping a violent death in the future seems a little trite). And it follows immediately a reference to the supreme fact of ‘God Who raises the dead'. This must surely suggest therefore that we are to look here beyond the simple idea of death as depicted in 2 Corinthians 1:8, which to Paul was something he regularly faced, to something of more permanent significance.

So we must first ask, why does he speak here of ‘so great a death' and of ‘setting his hope'? Surely death is death, whether it be by illness, drowning, execution or violent men. One death is not greater than another. This in itself alerts us to the fact that there are two possible ways of looking at these words. One way is to see them as arising directly from the idea of ‘God Who raises the dead', and thus delivers from ‘the great death', an idea which we may see as making him briefly digress in order to glory in the fact of full salvation, past, present and future, as he considers the glorious truth of total deliverance from ‘death', even ‘so great a death'. And the other which sees him as going well over the top in his thoughts about his own vulnerability, and declaring confidently that God will preserve his life, not only yesterday and tomorrow, but into the distant future. (In which case some of his later protestations about death as though it were constantly imminent seem a little exaggerated. Paul does not elsewhere give the impression of great invulnerability).

The first alternative then is that as he considers that greatest of all triumphs, God as the One Who ‘raises the dead', it calls to mind that even greater deliverance than his recent deliverance from mere earthly death, a deliverance from the even ‘greater' death, from Death the great enemy itself (1 Corinthians 15:26; 1 Corinthians 15:5), by the resurrecting God, a death from which God has delivered him through his participation in the resurrection of Christ, and would continue to deliver him, which then leads on to him triumphing in the fullness of salvation.

For in the end to Paul it is death that is the great enemy. Not physical death, but death in all its finality. That is what he surely sees as ‘so great a death'. In which case we may see his words here as a typical Pauline flight into a declaration of triumph at the certainty of the final defeat of that death, of the final deliverance from ‘so great a death', brought to mind in the light of their recent experiences of facing and escaping physical death.

That would mean that we are here to see him as declaring in awe and gratitude that He Who raises the dead had indeed also acted on their behalf in an even greater way than delivering them from a momentary physical death. He had delivered them from an even greater death (‘so great a death') through the cross, the eternal death that is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23), giving them life from the dead when they believed in Him (2Co 4:10-11; 2 Corinthians 6:9; Romans 6:4), and that He would continue to deliver them as they walk with Him, and that he has ‘set his hope' on the fact that God will finally deliver them in the end by the final triumphant resurrection (2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 6:5). For this is what is involved in the Christian hope, the knowledge of having been delivered from ‘death', the need for continual recognition of our deliverance from death, and the certainty of having a glorious part in the coming ‘day of our Lord Jesus' (2 Corinthians 1:14), with the joyful expectancy of the resurrection from the dead or its living equivalent (1 Corinthians 15:52) when death will have been finally defeated (1 Corinthians 15:26).

For we must remember that to Paul all death was ever a reminder of the greater death that was the last enemy, the enemy which was defeated at the resurrection and would finally be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). He ever thought of man's final fate as ‘death' (Romans 1:32; Romans 5:10; Romans 6:23 compare 2 Timothy 1:10). (He never speaks of Hades or Gehenna). Deliverance from this ‘death' was what the cross and resurrection was all about. It was a foe which sought to gain victory and, in those who belonged to Christ, finally failed (1 Corinthians 15:55). And behind it lay the dark figure of Satan (compare Hebrews 2:14). This was surely the ‘so great a death'.

For in all that he is saying here Paul is constantly aware of the great saving purposes of God (compare 2 Corinthians 7:10), and as we have seen already (2 Corinthians 1:5 in general but specifically 2 Corinthians 1:6), it is ever in the background and especially so earlier in this passage. We have already noted the sense of the ‘end of the age' apparent in his references to God's ‘comforting' of His people, in the light of Isaiah 40:1, and to the process of salvation as ‘the sufferings of Christ' abounded towards them (2 Corinthians 1:5), along with his sudden introduction of the idea of ‘salvation' in 2 Corinthians 1:6, all lying behind the words he speaks, and this is further apparent in 2 Corinthians 1:14 in his reference to ‘the day of our Lord Jesus', which demonstrates that the glory of God's eschatological deliverance is lying behind all he is saying. What more likely then that he should burst into praise in this way?

For this idea of being ‘delivered' (‘ruomai) soteriologically compare Colossians 1:13, ‘delivered out of the power of darkness' (in the past), and 1 Thessalonians 1:10, ‘Who delivers us from the wrath to come' (in the future). Compare also Romans 7:24, ‘who shall deliver me from this body of death (body which deserves death and is dying)?'. The Gospel not only contains the idea of ‘salvation' but of ‘deliverance'.

This would seem to be confirmed by his reference to ‘set our hope'. This idea of ‘hope' regularly refers to the expectation of salvation and deliverance and of Christ's coming (compare especially 1 Timothy 4:10; see also 1 Corinthians 13:13; 1 Corinthians 15:19). In the light of this New Testament usage can we really see it as an expression he would use merely in relation to facing death in the future? Was he really just hoping not to die? Surely his hope was something that went beyond this life (1 Corinthians 15:19). To him the facing of death in the normal sense was a commonplace experience. And even something to be desired (Philippians 1:23). And added to this is the fact that we know of no reason why Paul should have had such a portent about a continual facing of death in the future, other than that which he was used to and treated lightly (1 Corinthians 4:9; Romans 8:36). He even exults in it (2 Corinthians 4:10). Would he then here give deliverance from it quite such prominence and importance?

On the other hand it must be admitted that most do see it as referring to the fact that they were aware that they had been marvellously saved from a particularly unpleasant death and that this situation of facing such a death was weighing heavily on them, so that they were trusting Him for continual deliverance on and on into the future. They had been delivered out of the violent death they faced, they were sure that God would continue in the same way to deliver them from such a death which would constantly face them, and indeed they had set their hope on the fact that He would go on and on delivering them, presumably until their time was come.

But in the light of Paul's desire to depart and be with Christ (Philippians 1:23) and the fact that he believed that to die was gain (Philippians 1:21) this interpretation would seem to make the verse go rather over the top (some good manuscripts exclude ‘and will deliver', possibly for this reason). Would Paul really have been so overwhelmed at the thought of facing death, something which he had faced many times, and even looked forward to, that he would write about it in this extended and exaggerated way even to the extent of speaking of escape from it as his ‘hope'? The only possible reason for such a deep concern might be that he was afraid of what effect his death might have on the progress of the Gospel, but that would have been a slight on God's sovereign power. He knew as well as any that no man is indispensable, even though he was aware of his value to the church (Philippians 1:24).

We might also ask, would Paul have seen this mere deliverance from earthly death in terms of the ‘raising of the dead', unless it was leading on to a declaration of the greater hope. Jewish writers did so, but while they believed in the resurrection, they did not have the great vision of the resurrection and the Christian's triumph that Paul had (1 Corinthians 15).

And we might add that if the possibility of constant death had so deeply weighed on him at this time for so long a period is it likely that we would receive no hint of it from Luke in Acts, who would surely have known about the events he had in mind if they were so serious and long lasting.

So we might rather feel that the earlier part of the passage has been building up to such a triumphant statement of God's saving purposes, which he has now released. If it is seen like that we have here the whole sweep of God's purposes revealed, as guaranteed by His being the Raiser from the dead, salvation in the past from ‘so great a death' accomplished once and for all as they trusted in Christ and were delivered from the power of darkness and the fear of death; salvation in the present and near future as they walked daily with Christ trusting in His daily deliverance; and salvation in the end future as they were raised by God to share eternity with Him and were delivered from the wrath to come. (See our summary of the evidence below).