2 Corinthians 4:10

THE MARKS OF A CHRISTIAN

‘Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.’

2 Corinthians 4:10

We cannot reasonably suppose that it is necessary or desirable to aim at a literal interpretation of these words, as far as we are concerned. The modern Christian need not seek to make a martyr of himself, yet he may still bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus in other ways.

I. By bearing about the remembrance of what the Lord Jesus did, and how He died for us, so that the thought of it may unconsciously affect our views of things, and may give a tone and colour to all our thoughts and ideas and opinions. Most of us know what it is to mourn over relatives and friends. Some of us can never quite forget father or mother, child or brother or sister who has gone. We always carry in our secret hearts a fond and loving remembrance of all that they were to us when they were here—a reverent and affectionate regard for the carrying out of their wishes.

II. We may show in our daily life the transforming power of His death.—Our whole life ought to be changed and affected by the fact that Christ died for us. This carrying about with us the dying of the Lord Jesus should make us have—

(a) A decided horror of sin.

(b) Trust in His love.

III. We will show the dying of the Lord Jesus in that daily dying to sin and living unto holiness which is so essential to the Christian, and in the mortifying, killing, and extinguishing the evil thoughts, the bad desires, the crooked, perverse ways, and the aggravating temper which are to-day our inheritance from the first Adam.

IV. Always bear it, never lay it down.—Always bear it, not in discontent, but in humility. There need be no change in our outward position or circumstances, but amidst the busy occupations and the multitude of little things to be thought of and done every day—letters to be written, business to be attended to, work to be got through, household affairs to be looked after, family and domestic concerns to be seen to—we may preserve in the inmost depth of the heart the secret of success and of happiness, the sacred remembrance of the dying of the Lord Jesus, in the light of which every anxiety, every trouble, every worrying detail, and the little trials of daily life will become easy to be borne.

Rev. Dacre Craven.

Illustration

‘The old librarian at the Bodleian used every morning to look up at the portrait of John Bodley at the top of the staircase and say to himself, “I will try to do to-day all that I am sure you would wish me to do.” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE DYING OF THE LORD JESUS

The world does not ask so much for Christ to be preached as it does for Christ to be lived. That is the meaning of our text.

What does it mean, and how is it to be done? We must now die the death that Christ died in order that we may live again here and now, and be ourselves proofs of the truth of this resurrection.

Consider what the death of Christ means.

I. It was an act of complete self-renunciation—the voluntary death of self. There was no thought of self in the death of Jesus. What a large place self occupies in our hearts! Self must die and Christ must reign in its place. That is one way in which we may bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that His life may be made manifest, that men may know that self indeed is dead in us and that Jesus lives instead.

II. It was a death to the world.—Christ might have been an earthly king surrounded with all pomp and power, but His Kingdom was not on this earth. It is as hard to die to the world as it is to die to self, and yet if we are to bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus we must die to the world as He did. It takes time for people to say that the business and pleasures of the world cannot satisfy, and yet it is perfectly plain that any man serving Jesus Christ properly must put Him first in all things.

III. The death of Christ was an act of completion.—For some of us this struggle goes on through all our life, and is only ended with actual, physical death, yet this death to self and the world should take place now and here. Jesus Christ did not remain in death, and as He rose so we must rise to a new life altogether.

Rev. Martin Shewell.

Illustration

‘There can be no difficulty in understanding what St. Paul meant by these words. He and his fellow Apostles and preachers of the Gospel literally bore about in the body ‘the dying of the Lord Jesus,’ in stripes, in imprisonments, in watchings, in fastings, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, and every conceivable privation; in perilous journeys amongst savage tribes, in shipwreck and exposure to the storm and tempest. These experiences had a marked effect on their health, and left behind them unmistakable traces. We know how in past days men, and women too, have literally followed their example, and experienced the privations and bodily sufferings of the Apostles, some voluntarily and some by force of circumstances.’