710 The Spiritual Man
long therein? No, for he informs us that the power of Christ rested
upon him and made him strong. We notice a “law of contrast” here.
Neither the thorn nor the weakness which came from the thorn had
left Paul; yet the power of Christ inundated his frail body and gave
him strength to meet every need. The power of Christ was in contrast
to the weakness of Paul. This power did not waft the thorn away nor
did it eliminate weakness, but it abided in Paul to handle whatever
situation with which his weakened frame could not cope. It may be
likened to a wick which though kindled with fire is not consumed
because it is saturated with oil. The wick is as flimsy as ever, but the
oil supplies everything the fire requires of it.
Thus do we apprehend the principle that God’s life is to be our
bodily enablement. His life does not transform the nature of our
weak and mortal body: it merely fills it with all its necessary
supplies. As to his natural condition, Paul was unquestionably the
weakest physically; as to the power of Christ which he possessed, he
was the strongest of all. We know how he labored day and night,
pouring out his life and energy, performing work which several
strong-bodied men could not stand. How, then, could a weak man
like Paul undertake such work unless it were that his mortal frame
was made alive by the Holy Spirit? It is an established fact that God
imparted strength to Paul’s body.
How did God do it? Paul was speaking about his body when he
related in 2 Corinthians 4 how he and those with him were “always
bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be
manifested in our mortal flesh” (v.10-11 ASV). What particularly
arrests our interest is that verse 11 in relation to verse 10, though
seemingly redundant, is not repetitious. Verse 10 is concerned with
the life of Jesus being manifested in our bodies whereas verse 11 is
concerned with the life of Jesus being exhibited in our mortal flesh.
Many are able to express the life of Christ in their bodies but fail to