Perseverance and Love

"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us" (II Cor. 1:8-10). These words were written by the man who may very well have been the man of greatest faith and love in the history of the world, excluding the one man that came from heaven. We're talking about the apostle Paul here, the man who persecuted the early followers of Christ with a vengeance like none other. But when God turned the man completely inside out he ended up with a love, a faith, and an understanding that I believe surpassed all who have lived upon the earth, other than the one who came from heaven to earth. One of the things I love so much about Paul is the same thing I love about all of the righteous souls we read about in the Bible: He was totally honest and open about where he was at all the time. When it was necessary to do he wasn't afraid to make it known that he was pretty much at the top of the heap when it came to the Gospel and the ministry thereof (Rom. 11:13; I Cor. 15:10; II Cor. 11:5; II Cor. 12:11). By the same token when it was time to tell of his weakness and neediness he was not afraid of that either, as our text passage graphically illustrates. The thing that I would like to point out from our text passage of scripture is that anyone who stays the course of holiness with Jesus over an extended period of time, is going to be well practiced for being in the resurrection of the dead by the time they get to it.

To see what I'm saying here just read the opening passage of this article again. The apostle plainly stated that his troubles in Asia, as well as those who were with him, were as good as a death sentence. He acknowledged that their circumstances squeezed them beyond their capacities, above their ability to endure, and brought them to a place of having no hope left to live. That is right, the word 'despaired,' as in "despaired even of life," comes from the Greek word Exaporeomai; and it simply means to be "utterly at loss." But the good news is that from the greatness of their tribulation they learned, as he said, "that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." By trusting in God when there was no hope left, the result was that God did indeed deliver them from what he called "so great a death." This is part of the calling of every child of God who expects, as Paul did, "to attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (Philip. 3:11). If we are in Christ then we are the seed of Abraham, and it is Abraham of whom the scripture says, "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be" (Gal. 3:29; Rom. 4:18). So we simply must realize as the children of God that there are going to be times when there just isn't any hope in a situation we're in, and we're going to be pushed beyond our limits and capacities; and we may very well feel like death is all that is left. That is exactly what the great apostle described about himself and his fellow laborers in our text from 2 Cor. 1. Nonetheless we must keep firmly in our mind and spirit that when there is no hope left, and we have what amounts to a death sentence in our own hearts; we CAN, as Paul did, trust in God who raises the dead.

That is what it amounts to. We cannot expect to be in this journey for very long a time, and be serious about holiness, and not run into something that puts us into that territory. The good news is, as it was with Paul, that if we hold fast to God in holiness and refuse to be defeated, God WILL raise us up from the very grasp of death, so that we can live even more powerfully for him! It's no wonder that this is the case, because after all "the Captain of [our] salvation" himself was made "perfect through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10). Not only so, but this same 'Captain' has gone before us in death, and he has also preceded us in the resurrection from the dead. In fact Jesus is, as he himself said, "THE resurrection, and THE life" (Jn. 11:25). If we abide in him and we refuse to allow sin to become our companion, then we are going to be raised out of every death-like circumstance that we find ourselves in, and ultimately we will physically be raised from the dead and glorified at his second coming. It simply can be no other way because that is his estabished will (Jn. 6:39,40,44,54). But rest assured that by the time we leave this world, if we have been faithful to our calling, we will have become well versed in being raised from the dead, even as Paul and his brethren were. I honestly couldn't count the times that I've been in that place, but somehow God has lifted me above it all every single time. It is sometimes hard for me to believe that I'm still in the land of the living, because so many times I've been pushed beyond my capacities and have felt certain that death was all that could be left. One day it most likely will be, but until God is done with me, or with you, "we [can] trust that he will yet deliver us," as the apostle said. So we just need to hunker down for the journey, pray always, and let God have his way with us. His way is always good, even if and when we find ourselves in a state where "we [have] the sentence of death in ourselves." Amen.