2 Corinthians 4

This New Covenant ministry of the Word that we have been considering together is not boring. Somehow we are lead by unspiritual prophets of commercial success to think that the Bible will be dull to new people if we minister to them simply by giving them a plain sense of the words. I wonder, are we reading the same Bible? Have they heard of the eternal plan of God in Christ to bring all things together in Him, things in heaven and things on earth? Perhaps I don’t get out much, but I think this is all extremely interesting. I am not alone in that assessment. Paul also finds it far from boring.

This is the ministry we have been given, and we should steer very far away from any salesmen who want to give us a new and improved ministry product. Some people want us to spend all our time talking to people about how bad everything is in the world. Others want us to talk forever about how bad everything is in the church. Now I will admit that after a few years of hearing that kind of negativity it does get rather boring. But we have an awful lot on this New Covenant ship of God that is good in the extreme, and we need busy ourselves talking like movie critics that have never seen a show they liked. If we focus on Christ and the eternal plan of God, we will not lose heart, and we will begin to see that we have been granted a tremendous ministry.

We renounce, as Paul does, all disgraceful, ridiculous, and underhanded tricks to somehow dress up the message of Christ to be impressive to others. We don’t need those things because we are too busy speaking of the wonder of the One who died for the many, so that the many might be made righteous in the blood of the One. Now that is a powerful story, and we did not make it up! It has been more than vindicated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So why would we want to do something strange to deceive the ignorant into loving Jesus, as if such a thing were really possible. Nor will we tamper with God’s Word, changing something here or there, or living in fear that people will find out that God has actually provided a singular savior for people all over the world. Here is our plan: the open statement of the truth. This is a very positive enterprise, because we have been given a very excellent truth.

Furthermore, we want nothing that has the tiniest whiff of coercion connected to it. No physical force, no once-in-a-lifetime deals of emotional manipulation. As Psalm 110 promises, “A willing people in Thy day of power will come to Thee.” Therefore let every person throughout the world give careful consideration to the truth of the Word as it touches upon the conscience of every hearer. Christ Jesus saves, and He alone can do this. He rescues from hell by taking hell’s curse for us on the cross. We were in Him in His death, and we are in Him in His heavenly life. This is very good news, and there is no light show that needs to brighten it up.

This does not mean that every hearer immediately sees the glory of this simple message. Some are perishing, and to those who are perishing, even the plain statement of the love of God in this Jewish Messiah can seem like a veiled and cloudy wish with no real substance. The substance is in the Word, for those who will hear and believe. It is in the Word from beginning to end in a way that cannot be explained without the power of God as the divine author of our salvation, and the Speaker of the Word by which we have come to know life. Some are blinded by the devil, and find the jewels of a fading earth more impressive than the many-faceted gem of the glorified Son of God. This Jesus is the perfect image of God, the Lord who comes to save sinners.

In a word, this New Covenant ministry is not the proclaiming of ourselves. Paul’s story is not about the glory of Paul, but about the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul does fit into the story in his place, along with all ministers of the Word, and all Christians: your servants for Jesus’ sake. We follow the Leader of servants, who came to serve, and so we serve with joy. The joy comes from heaven. Heaven’s light has been shining into the windows of our hearts of late, by the Word of the One who said “Let there be light,” and darkness had to flee.

This is a great treasure, to have light in us, but the vessels that contain that light are only plain jars of clay. Let’s not brag about the relative beauty of one jar of clay over another, but let us seek to serve the true and living God in the light of the face of Jesus Christ. He is no ordinary jar of clay, though he was nothing to look at, as Isaiah had warned us long before. Yet what surpassing glory is our Jesus, our Lord. The face of His perfect holiness is without blemish. The smile of His love is the fullest expression of the complete sincerity of the divine mind that chose you in love before the foundation of the world.

This is what we are as the church of Jesus Christ in the world. We are willing to suffer for Christ and for one another, though we are nothing to look at in terms of outward glory. We show forth our Lord’s death, but don’t you see His life in us too, life for you? We believe and we speak, knowing that these mortal lives, these jars of clay, are not our final story. We will rise in the newness of heavenly life, and be where Jesus is in His glory. This is so wonderfully exciting and fulfilling, this ministry of life, that many millions around the world, some in the worst poverty, others facing deadly oppression, are thanking God Almighty today that they have the privilege of worshiping Him through His only-begotten Son. And they know that there is an eternal weight of glory that is theirs, and it is beyond all comparison. There are a lot of words that we could use to describe this ministry, but I don’t think boring is one of them. What would be worse than boring today, what would be horribly disappointing and depressing, would be the thought that this transient world is everything. But this is not the case. By the authority of the Word of our Redeemer, who came from heaven, saved us on earth, and returned to heaven again with all power and authority, we can know for certain that the things that are unseen today, the things of the greatest enjoyment and wonder, are eternal.