Everyone has suffered, or will. Virtually everyone has made that mournful trip to the cemetery. People have suffered illness, injury, pain, financial difficulty, worry, fear, and on we could go. Even serious Christians who have surrendered their lives wholly to God and sought to walk with him in faith and obedience have known suffering. Perhaps I should say, especially serious Christians who have surrendered their lives wholly to God and sought to walk with him in faith and obedience have known suffering. One of the great questions of human history is, Why do people suffer? A man named Harold Kushner wrote a book in 1981 entitled Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? I do not recommend the book, but it raises the question. How are we to deal with this question?

I do not propose to give a detailed answer. My purpose in writing this article goes to one particular aspect, which I will come to momentarily. I can say that as far as human history goes, we suffer because of sin. God made his universe without sin, but humanity did sin and has reaped the consequences ever since. One of my favorite authors wrote that as soon as Adam and Eve sinned the trouble started. Adam and Eve were one in a perfect relationship, but when sin came Adam blamed Eve. Then Eve blamed the snake. Then they had two sons and one killed the other. On and on it goes. That, and Satan’s rebellion against God depicted in Is. 14 and Ezk. 28, are the fundamental answer. But let’s go on to my purpose.

When we think about death and resurrection we are usually thinking about Jesus’ physical death and resurrection, and ours, but that has to do only with our bodies. There is another aspect, our death and resurrection with or in Christ at the cross and its ongoing application throughout life. Rom. 6.3-11 is a classic passage on this topic. We will quote it in full.

“Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through the baptism into death so that as Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with the likeness of his death, we will also be of the resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be made idle, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For the one having died has been justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we have faith that we will also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised up from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer lords it over him, for the death which he died he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives he lives to God. So you also consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus.”

Another important statement on this theme comes from Gal. 2.19: “I have been crucified with Christ….” And Phil. 3.10 adds, “… to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.”

When Christ died we died. When he was raised from the dead we were raised from the dead. Obviously we did not die physically and were not raised physically. This is a spiritual matter. Paul is making the point that Christ is a representative man. As Adam represents all people, so does Christ. But as Adam represents fallen man, the old man, Christ represents the new man, no longer fallen, but free from sin. I do not want to get too much into the weeds, but this does not mean that we never sin again. There are what theologians call positional and conditional truth. Positional truth is what we are in Christ. Conditional truth is what we actually are in practice in this life. In Christ we have no sin. In ourselves in this world we do. When we are physically raised from the dead, or alive when Christ returns, we will no longer have sin. What we are dealing with in this article is positional truth.

All of this has been written to lead us to 2 Corinthians, the book which more than any other reveals Paul’s heart and tells us about life out of death. We do not mean physical death and resurrection. We said that there is another aspect of death and life, our death and resurrection with or in Christ at the cross and its ongoing application throughout this life.

After its introduction, Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians begins in v. 3 with mercies and comfort, which implies suffering. Then he goes on in vs. 4-7 to use the word “affliction” or “tribulation” three times, “suffer” or “suffering” four times, and “comfort” ten times. Then he tops it off in vs. 8-10 with, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, concerning our afflictions, those having taken place in Asia, that to excess, beyond ability, we were weighed down so as to despair so as for us to despair even to live. But we ourselves have had the sentence of death that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, the one raising the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and will deliver us, in whom we have hope that he also will deliver us….”

What a cheerful way to begin a letter! But Paul is showing us that the life of a Christian who is seriously surrendered to the Lord will be a life of suffering. And he shows the reason: “… that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God….” Do you remember Peter’s self-confidence? When the Lord told his disciples after the Last Supper that they would all fall away that night when he was arrested, Peter replied, “’If all are caused to stumble because of you I will never be caused to stumble.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Amen I say to you that on this night before a cock crows you will deny me three times.’ Peter said to him, ‘Even if it be necessary for me to die with you, I will not deny you.’” Peter had confidence in his flesh: I will not deny you. I will die with you.” I, I, I. And what happened? He forthwith denied the Lord three times. It was Paul again who wrote in Phil. 3.3, “… we are those … not having confidence in the flesh….” Peter had to learn what Paul learned, and Paul tells us here in 2 Cor. 1.9 how he learned.

And notice how Paul emphasizes his difficulties: “…our afflictions, those having taken place in Asia, that to excess, beyond ability, we were weighed down so as to despair so as for us to despair even to live.” “we ourselves have had the sentence of death….” “God … who delivered us from so great a death….” Then Paul shows that he expected more death: “… and will deliver us, in whom we have hope that he also will deliver us….” It seems that Paul is almost raving. What is he saying?

He is saying that there is a working of death in our lives as servants of the Lord, not physical death, but the making practical of our death with Christ on the cross. Remember positional truth and conditional truth? God works in our lives to make our positional truth in Christ to be our actual truth in life. He is putting to death our old man. Eph. 4.22 and 24 tell us to put off the old man and put on the new man, and Col. 3.9-10 tells us that we have put off the old man and have put on the new man. The old man is the flesh, our sinful self-nature. We have a sin problem and a sins problem. Our sins problem is the sins we commit. Our sin problem is our flesh, and that is the real problem, that which gives rise to sin. God forgives our sins, but we are born sinners (Ps. 51.5). We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. We are born as fallen creatures. God is trying to bring about in us what is stated in 2 Cor. 5.17: “Therefore if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation.” The old man, the fallen man, is dominated by flesh. The new man, the new creation in Christ, is dominated by Christ, controlled by the love of Christ, as 2 Cor. 5.14 has it. That is why we suffer. It is God’s means of making actual in practice the death of the old man in Christ and the life of the new man in Christ. What we need is the resurrection life of Christ living in us now, but the only way to have resurrection life is to die. God is trying to bring resurrection life, the life of the risen Christ, out of our death with Christ now, in this age. Every time we suffer the working of death and yield to God in it, we gain a bit more life. Life out of death.

There was a problem of immorality in the Corinthian church that we see in 1 Cor. 5. Paul went through a good bit of agony in dealing with the Corinthians about this. In 2 Cor. 2.5 he writes, “For from much affliction and distress of heart I wrote to you through many tears, not that you might be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly for you.” The affliction and sorrow that Paul went through in having to deal somewhat harshly with the Corinthians is another experience of death for him. The outcome? Life: “Now thanks be to God, the one always leading us in triumph in Christ and manifesting the fragrance of the knowledge of him through us in every place…” (v. 14).

In 2 Cor. 4 Paul writes about the treasure of God shining in hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” But then he gives the source of this treasure:

“But we have this treasure in vessels made of clay that the hyperbole of the power may be of God and not from us. In everything being afflicted, but not restricted, being perplexed, but not despairing, being persecuted, but not being forsaken, being struck down, but not being destroyed, always carrying around in the body the putting to death of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be made manifest in our body. For we the living are always being delivered to death that the life of Jesus also may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you” (vs. 5-12).

Paul gives a list of many of the sufferings he went through for the Lord and says that this is a “carrying around in the body the putting to death of Jesus.” All this was death to Paul. But the result: “…that the life of Jesus also may be made manifest in our body.” The life of Jesus, resurrection life, comes out of Paul’s sufferings as he submits to God in them. Life out of death.

This experience of the resurrection life of Jesus in him enables him to know “that the one having raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and present us with you.” The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the guarantee of our physical resurrection at the end of this age.

Then Paul pens what I think is one of the more sublime statements in the Bible in vs. 16-18: “Therefore we are not losing heart, but if indeed our outer man is wasting away, our inner man is being renewed day by day. For the momentary light burden of our affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory from hyperbole to hyperbole, we not looking at the things being seen, but the things not being seen. For the things being seen are temporary, but the things not being seen are eternal.”

Our outer man is wasting away – death. Our inner man is being renewed day by day – life, resurrection life. Yes, our experiences of affliction are death to us, but the result is “an eternal weight of glory from hyperbole to hyperbole” – life out of death. How does this come about? By trust in God and obedience to him. We do not look at the things seen, but at the things not seen. I recall Norman Grubb saying that we need to be not “see at-ers,” but “see through-ers.” See through the circumstances to the God behind them. He has purpose, a purpose for our good, in all that he lets us go through. That purpose is life, resurrection life, eternal life. Life out of death. “Therefore we are not losing heart.”

“For we know that if our earthly house of the tent be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this one we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling which is from Heaven, if indeed also having been clothed we will not be found naked. For indeed we the ones being in the tent groan being burdened in that we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, that the mortal may be swallowed up by life. For the one having prepared us for this very thing is God, the one having given to us the earnest of the Spirit.

“Always being of good courage therefore and knowing that being at home in the body we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight), now we are of good courage and are well pleased to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether being at home or being away, to be well-pleasing to him” (5.1-9).

A part of that being well-pleasing to God is our acceptance of the working of death in our flesh that life may result. In chapter 6 Paul makes a plea to the Corinthians “not to receive the grace of God in vain.” He is not pleading with them to be saved. They have already been saved. They have received grace. He is pleading with them to turn from their failings dealt with in 1 Corinthians. He says that. This plea is not meant as an offense to them, “but in everything commending ourselves as ministers of God.” He does not mean that he is commending himself in pride, and then he gives another list of his sufferings, a quite remarkable list:

“… in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleepless nights, in fastings, in purity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unhypocritical love, in a word of truth, in God’s power, through the weapons of righteousness of the right hands and the left hands, through glory and dishonor, through bad report and good report, as deceiving yet true, as being unknown yet as being well known, as dying yet look, we are alive, as being disciplined yet not being killed, as being sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor, but making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.”

Oh what sufferings Paul went through, what death to his flesh, as he served the Lord. And it was all for the comfort of the Corinthians. Life out of death.

In 7.5 Paul writes, “For even having come into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but being afflicted in every way, fightings without, fears within.” This brief statement shows the ongoing working of death in Paul. But then in v. 6 he adds, “But the one comforting the lowly, God, comforted us in the coming of Titus.” The comfort of God – life out of death.

We have yet another list of Paul’s sufferings in 11.23-29:

“Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as being beside myself.) I more: in labors more abundantly, in imprisonments more abundantly, in beatings beyond measure, in deaths often. From Jews five times I received forty lashes but one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have been a night and a day in the deep. In journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my race, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers, in labor and toil, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides the things not mentioned [the afflictions not listed here] there is the daily pressure on me, the care of all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble and I do not burn?”

This list is basically the same as the other lists, but the last verse reveals what may have been his greatest burden: “the care of all the churches.” Paul was not living for himself, but for the Lord, and he had charged Paul with bringing people to Christ and shepherding them. He could endure all the physical sufferings, even die for the Lord, but his heart was with the churches. We read some of his prayers for them and some of the things he wrote to them by way of revealing his heart for them, either correcting them or showing his love for them. If someone in the churches was weak, I take it as spiritually weak, Paul felt that weakness for he knew his own weakness, as we will see in chapter 12. If someone stumbled, Paul burned inside with concern. This constant concern for the churches would have been a working of death to him, but life came out of that death as he prayed for them and worked with them.

Then Paul makes a short reference to what had happened to him when he had just been converted and was in Damascus. He soon began preaching the good news and was proving to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Because of this they wanted to kill him. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 11.32-33, “In Damascus the ethnarch (a ruler of a people) under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window through the wall and I escaped his hands.” Almost immediately after his conversion and beginning to preach people were out to kill him. This attempt at physical death would have been a working of an inner death in Paul, but God was using this to begin the process of putting Paul’s flesh to death that he might know life out of death, resurrection life.

Chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians is a very special chapter. Here Paul reveals something of the foundations of the Christian faith. How did the early Christians come to know Christian truth, we might even say Christian theology, though I am careful with that term. Christianity is not about theology, but about the Lord Jesus. He himself, of course, taught the disciples much, but he was not so much about doctrine as about bringing the disciples to know HIM inwardly as they began to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to know Christ living in them. Christianity is not believing Christian doctrine. “Even the demons believe – and they tremble“ (Ja. 2.19). It is a relationship with a Person, being in him and he being in us. How many times does the New Testament say “in Christ”?

But there is a place, of course, for truth. We do not want to believe false doctrine. Paul tells us in Gal. 1.15-17, “But when he was pleased, the one having separated me from my mother’s womb and having called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles before me, but I went to Arabia, and I returned again to Damascus.”

Paul was not taught the truths of the faith by a man or men, but he knew the truths+ by revelation. God revealed his Son in Paul. Then Paul went to Arabia and spent time there seeking the Lord. I am sure there were truths about the Lord Jesus that Paul learned from other men, but he tells us in chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians,

“It is necessary to boast, not profitable indeed, but I will go to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago – whether in the body I don’t know or out of the body I don’t know, God knows – such a one having been caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man – whether in the body or without the body I don’t know, God knows – that he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible speakings not being permitted for a man to say. About such a one I will boast, but about myself I will not boast except in the weaknesses. For if I should want to boast I will not be foolish, for I will be speaking truth, but I refrain so that no one will credit me with more than what he sees in me or hears from me. And with the hyperbole of the revelations, that I may not exalt myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he may strike me with the fist, that I may not exalt myself.”

This is difficult to understand, a man caught up to the third heaven and to paradise and hearing inexpressible speakings. ((“Speakings” is a translation of the Greek ‘rema, which can also be translated “word.” It is different from “word” (logos) in that it means something spoken, not just written. Here it refers to God speaking to Paul, whether it was out loud to his ears or inwarldly in his heart.) How can this be? We began this section with the question as to how men knew the truths of Christianity. Rom. 1.20 tells us, “For the invisible things of him are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by the things made, of both his eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse.” We know that God exists because of the creation – things cannot just happen out of nothing. But we know the truths of our faith because they were revealed by God. They are not things that man can know by searching or experience or reason. We can know God only by revelation. The things that the Lord Jesus revealed to the disciples were just that, revelations. Some of the things that he said they did not understand – later they would (see Jn. 12.16 and 13.7). But Paul was given further revelation by the visit to the heavens that gave him a full understanding, though that may have increased as time passed. God is not limited to one revelation.

Our point in all this as regards our subject of life out of death is found in v. 7: “And with the hyperbole of the revelations, that I may not exalt myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he may strike me with the fist, that I may not exalt myself.” Paul was given not only surpassing revelations, but also a thorn in the flesh to keep him from exalting himself. He had said in v. 5 that if he boasted of this experience it would be true – he did go to the third heaven and paradise and receive such revelations – but he would not boast about it. God made sure of that with a thorn in the flesh. We might say that every time that he started to boast that thorn stuck him.

That thorn was a touch of death, crucifying Paul’s flesh. But why is the dying necessary? To make the way for resurrection life. It was a blessing because it kept Paul from growing in the flesh and helped him to grow in spirit instead. Life out of death. He goes on in v. 10 to say, “Therefore I am well pleased with weaknesses, with insults, with necessities, with persecutions and difficulties for Christ, for when I might be weak, then I am powerful.” In other words, he was well pleased with his thorn, “for when I might be weak, then I am powerful.” Remember chapter 1 and v. 9: “But we ourselves have had the sentence of death that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, the one raising the dead….”

In 13.4 we read, “For he was crucified from weakness, but he lives by God’s power. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him from God’s power toward you.” We see here both the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the working of death in Paul, his weakness, and the life of God by his power toward the Corinthians, life out of death. This reminds us of Jacob who, when he was physically strong was weak spiritually, but when he was crippled physically he was strong spiritually. His flesh had been crippled by the touch of God. Then life came into Jacob. Life out of death.

We see one of the great truths of Scripture. Rom. 8.28 says, “But we know that for those loving God all things work together for good, for those being called according to purpose.” We learn that God uses even our sufferings for our good. We suffer because of sin, both the fallen condition of the world and our own sin, but our great God is able to turn the suffering to good if we yield to him in it. And what is the good? V. 29: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, for him to be firstborn among many brothers.” The Lord Jesus gained the crown because he accepted the cross. God highly exalted him because he accepted death (Phil. 2.8-9). And we are to be glorified with him if we suffer with him (Rom. 8.17).

Yes, Paul knew the working of death in himself, but he also knew the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus that comes out of it. And the Lord says to us, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The cross is not a symbol or a piece of jewelry. It is an instrument of death, but out of it comes resurrection life, life that never ends. Death to the flesh. Life to the spirit.

Copyright © 2020 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.

Scripture quotations from the Old Testament are the author’s updates of the American Standard Version. Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.