2 Corinthians (Program #17) – Attached, Anointed, Sealed, Captured, Subdued, and Led to Scatter the Incense of Christ

In one short passage in 2 Corinthians chapter two, the apostle Paul uses two striking metaphors that give us a marvelous insight into his understanding of the Christina life, his service to the Lord and what it means to be a pattern to the believers.

14 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place.”

15 “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:”

The first metaphor that of a possession, of captured folks. We, who were previously God’s enemy are been captured and subdued by Him and now are following His victorious possession willingly.

The second metaphor is that of incense bearer, those who accompany such a possession, scattering the sweat fragrance of Christ. A fragrance that affects all who come in contact with it. May we all be such one, captured, subdued and led by Him and now those who even scatter His very fragrance.

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2 Corinthians (Program #16) – A Pattern of Living Christ for the Church

The apostle Paul’s two epistles or letters to the Church in Corinth are definitely related. But if we read carefully we can see that really they are in two different realms.

The first letter dealt with many major problems in the Church. Problems that are in many ways still plague the Church today. The solution that Paul presents in 1 Corinthians is for the believers to live Christ for the church. And this is the link to the other realm that is clearly presented in 2 Corinthians. For in this book more than any other in the Bible, we see the pattern of person living Christ for the church not merely spoken of but demonstrated. The apostle Paul and even other apostles with him really lived this pattern.

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2 Corinthians (Program #15) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (7b)

All genuine believers in Christ know that an essential of the Christians faith is that Christ our Savior is sinless. In fact the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians that He did not know sin. Yet the very same verse tells us that this One that did not know sin, was made sin. Here is chapter 5:

21 “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

What mysterious, marvelous language. He, Who did not know sin, was made sin on our behalf. We, who believed treasure the fact that He died for our sins. Yet do we really have the proper understanding, a proper appreciation of the fact that according to God’s word that He was made sin on our behalf?

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2 Corinthians (Program #14) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (7a)

The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that he and the other apostles had received a ministry or reconciliation. To reconcile one person to another is to restore the offending party to the offended party.

Of course in our case we all had offended God and the moment that we believed into Christ, receiving His work on the cross for us, we were brought nigh to Him and experience the first step or first level of reconciliation.

But actually 2 Corinthians reveals that there is a further step, a second level or degree of reconciliation. And that only someone fully in God can have such a ministry to reconcile others fully into God. This is the ministry of reconciliation that Paul was commissioned with.

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2 Corinthians (Program #13) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (6)

At the beginning of chapter 5 in 2 Corinthians Paul the apostle speaks in a strange way.

1 “For we know that if our earthly tabernacle dwelling is taken down, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.”

Well, we may consider that we have understand this at least in parts. But listen to:

2 “For also in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our dwelling place from heaven,”

3 “If indeed, being clothed, we will not be found naked.”

Actually what Paul is expressing here is his deep longing and desire to be raptured.

Rapture, is a topic today that fascinating millions today even unbelievers are intrigued by this topic as we’ve seen by the tremendous popularity of recent series of novels on this subject.

But what is most often missed by Christians considering rapture it that it’s linked not just to our initially salvation but much more to our growth and maturity in the divine life. For as we grow and mature, our longing for this day deepens as we can clearly seen in Paul’s words.

4 “For also, we who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened, in that we do not desire to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.“

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2 Corinthians (Program #12) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (5)

Let me give you three important spiritual terms from the New Testament.

1. Regeneration
2. Transformation
3. Transfiguration

I selected these because many believers confuse them or perhaps think that they are synonymous or interchangeable. But actually while they all refer to various steps in the process of God’s full salvation, they certainly are not interchangeable, in fact they apply to the three distinct parts of our being. Our spirit, our soul and our body.

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2 Corinthians (Program #11) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (4)

2 Corinthians makes a marvelous contribution to the New Testament because it describes so vividly the experience of Christ not from a doctrinal prospective but from the details of how the apostle Paul and his co-workers gain Christ experientially.

In fact chapters three and four may be the top chapters in the whole Bible in the experience of Christ. especially as this experience relates to how the genuine ministers of the New Covenant are produced. What we see in these chapters is that what these ministers preach, teach and minister is not based on what they have heard, studied or learned but upon what they themselves had been constituted with.

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2 Corinthians (Program #10) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (3)

The apostle Paul speaking about himself prior to his salvation refer to himself as the chiefest of sinners or the foremost of sinners, yet this one who had been the great persecutor of the church eventually becomes the chiefest among the apostles.

How did God accomplish such a reconstitution of Paul?  Was it His miraculous work transforming him in an instant? Or was it the constituting work of the Spirit over many years?

2 Corinthians chapter 4 is the key chapter in providing answers to this profound question.

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2 Corinthians (Program #9) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (2)

What should be the important criteria or qualities to be a genuine and proper minister of the gospel of the New Testament? We all might have our own ideas and thoughts about what are the most important qualities. But the Bible devotes several chapters to the subject in the book of 2 Corinthians and it’s there that we see several items that we likely would never have even considered.

First, the ministers must be those that are constituted with the life giving and transforming Spirit as chapter 3. This means that they are full of Christ and therefore able to minister this very Christ into people.

Second, as we will see today in chapter 4. They are those who conduct themselves in such a way that the glory of the gospel of Christ might shine through them and out from within them. In other words, their goal should not be just to preach the gospel, but to allow the gospel in its glory to be shined out through them for other to see. Oh, how we Christians today need such healthy, heavenly ministers.

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2 Corinthians (Program #8) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (1)

All believers have their favorite verses, verses that just seem to minister particularly to us in our situation. But one verse that deserves to be on every list is 2 Corinthians 3:18, listen to the apostle Paul in this marvelous verse,

18 “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”

Why is this verse so particularly important? Because it brings us face to face with the Lord Jesus in an intimate and personal way. But also in a way where by we are infused, transfused even transformed by Christ Himself as the very life giving Spirit.

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