Chapter 4, Verses 1-14
The ministry of the glorified Christ, committed to Paul as to no other of the apostles, filled his heart and formed his life. In this once wicked man, persecutor of Christians to death (Acts 22:44And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. (Acts 22:4)), we now see the “chosen vessel” of Acts 9:15, 1615But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: 16For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. (Acts 9:15‑16); the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)) has become the pattern servant. Thus in verse 1 he speaks of mercy received or shown him, the mercy of God; and in a deep sense of that mercy, he applied himself to the service of his Master.
“We are not as many, which corrupt the Word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ,” Paul wrote in chapter 2 (17); and continuing to pen words which the Holy Spirit supplied, he in the second verse of our chapter tells more of the character of his ministry,
“But (we) have renounced (or, as more accurately expressed in the New Translation, have rejected) the hidden things of shame (see the margin of your Bible); not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.”
Thus the Word of God, exactly as it was communicated to the apostle Paul, has been delivered to us by him in the writing of his epistles. How thankful we should be, and surely we are, to God for this!
Now this manifestation of the truth which had been given to Paul, commended him to every one's conscience in the sight of God. Deep down in every human breast there is a little monitor that, notwithstanding the passing of fifty-nine centuries and an increasing tide of evil, still persists. It was at the fall of Adam that man received a conscience (Gen. 3). It tells the wrongdoer of his guilt, though its voice may in many be very faint; but it requires the all-powerful Word of God to bring the sinner to a true sense of his sins to see his profound need of a Savior. So the small, still voice of the conscience may be at work, telling the possessor of it that there is reality in the preacher's message, in the message borne by a tract; that there is a God, and some day he must meet Him in regard to his sins.
“But,” continues the apostle, “if our gospel be hid (literally, veiled), it is hid (veiled) in them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light (radiance) of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (verses 3, 4).
This is most solemn. Here is the gospel of the glory of Christ Jesus, the Savior of sinners, revealed in the world; it is exactly what everyone should wholeheartedly and without reservation accept and believe to the saving of his soul; yet many, as it surely appears, are unmoved by the thought of it; they continue as though God had not spoken, had provided no way of salvation from impending, eternal judgment; as though the cross of Christ and the promised day of doom for the lost were but idle tales.
The explanation is at hand: If the gospel be hid, it is hid to those who are lost, in whom the god of this world—Satan, man's ancient and relentless enemy has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving so that the radiancy of the glad tidings should not shine forth for them.
How is it with you, dear reader, as your eyes fall upon these pages? Is the gospel anything personal to you? Not all who call themselves Christians are true. Have your eyes been opened to see the truth of the word in Rom. 3, that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God? And has your heart been opened to receive Christ as your personal Savior, like Lydia, the seller of purple, in Acts 16:1414And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. (Acts 16:14)? If your answer be an unqualified Yes, then you are not in the dangerous darkness and blinding of Satan of which verses 3 and 4 speak.
Verse 5. Christ was the apostle's theme; he did not preach to exalt himself, but the person and work of his Savior and Lord. Paul and his companions were servants for Jesus' sake of those who owned Him as their Savior. One cannot read much in the Epistles without being impressed by the various titles given God's beloved Son; they are indeed many, and by prayerfully noting in what connection a title or name is used, we may learn with profit to our souls.
“Jesus,” is of course His name as Man: “... and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins,” was the angel's word to Joseph, Mary's husband, in Matt. 1:2121And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21). It is only in this chapter that the Second Epistle to the Corinthians gives that name; see verses 5, 10, 11 and 14. Does it not, in each case, bring before us Himself as the God-Man who trod this earth in lowliest grace? The apostle desired to be like Him in his own path of service.
“Because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine, Who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth (or radiancy) of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (Verse 6, N. T.)
By the example of the divine act from the first of the six days in Gen. 1, here referred to, we are shown what a work of God's power is the causing of the light of His truth to shine into darkened human hearts. The apostle, we may suppose, was thinking too, of that unforgettable meeting on the road to Damascus of which he told King Agrippa in Acts 26:12-1812Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, 13At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. 14And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 15And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 16But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; 17Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, 18To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:12‑18). It was then that God had shone in Paul's heart to give forth the light of the knowledge of His own glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
Salvation is indeed a work of divine power in the soul. It is not attained by human effort, but by the word of God being received. “Being born again”, as says the apostle Peter in his First Epistle, chapter 1:23,
“Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.”
The light of God shines into the soul as into a vessel, a lamp, that it may shine out, and this treasure, this light of the knowledge of the glory in the face of Jesus Christ, is, as we are reminded in the seventh verse, in earthen vessels, that the excellency, or surpassingness, of the power may be of God, and not from us. The vessel is as nothing, compared with the light it has, to be shining out for others that are lost to see.
In a marked degree the light shone out from Paul, the earthen vessel, and to keep him in a true sense of his dependence upon God, he must be in uncommon measure a sufferer for Christ. As another has said,
“The vessel is made nothing of, but it is sustained by another power, which is neither the treasure, nor the vessel, and so the man is dependent.”
“Everyway afflicted, but not straitened; seeing no apparent issue, but our way not entirely shut up; persecuted, but not abandoned; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying, or putting to death, of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body; for we who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh; so that death works in us, but life in you. And having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I have believed, therefore have I spoken, we also believe, therefore also we speak; knowing that He who has raised the Lord Jesus, shall raise us also with Jesus, and shall present us with you” (Verses 8-14, N.T.).
These verses tell something of the life of the apostle Paul; no easy path was his as he toiled for his Master in the glad tidings of salvation for perishing sinners. Seeking to make Him known, he went into the darkened lands of paganism, and met there the reproach that only the name of Christ could bring upon him.