13. Weakness Filled with Confidence

As I complete the JSV translation of 2 Corinthians, I am struck with the beauty and flow of the Gospel. We now see the entirety of this letter to be one central theme throughout, that is, the weakness of our human frame, hearts of flesh, earthen vessels, filled with an utter Confidence in God.

Our ruling verse is 2:14, being led always in triumph – making the knowledge of God visible everywhere we go. But this confidence is found in hearts of flesh, an earthen vessel, Jesus’ power made complete in our human weakness, life swallowing up death.

A Rearrangement. But of all my earlier work in The Jesus Secret II, 2 Corinthians needs a re-ordering of the flow of topics and pages. And so, I have not just added pages, but I have also rearranged things, pulling things out of one page and putting them into another. For this reason, our redo of 2 Corinthians includes some mish-mash. There are whole pages I have added in order to include the chapters left out in my earlier version. But some of our “lessons,” including this one, are just filling in the opened-up spaces in a number of different pages. I had a lot of wasted space on the pages of my earlier rendition, and so, in tightening that up, our first page, “I Comfort and Encourage Others,” gave space for another box, which I have titled “My Human Travail.”

One or the Other. I am writing elsewhere about the triumph of evil in Christian theology, the accusation that God knows evil. The thing about the Gospel is that Jesus is the all-Active and all-present Savior, and even when hearts have not yet opened to Him, He sustains all inside of goodness.

The thing about the knowledge of good and evil is that the good allows for an accommodation of the actual Jesus and gives place to those who know Him. Yet it then brings them into the presence of evil. When good and evil are together, evil will always grow in one’s sight and good will always diminish. As I am writing about these things, I am struck with horror at the evil that has filled the “Christianity” we have known.

Removing Evil. I am also fully aware that as I allow the Spirit to remove all tendrils of evil from my definition and knowledge of God, so I become more and more “heretical” in every definition.

Our ministry of reconciliation is not to save people from a future hell and deliver them to a future heaven. Tomorrow is a day that cannot ever actually exist. Our ministry of reconciliation is to save our fellow Christians from their very present hell inside their own minds and deliver them into a very present heaven now, inside the Spirit and mind of Christ. And at the center of this Christian hell is the definition that God hates human weakness (~ because humans do).

Belonging only to God. Yes, there is an evil side to the flesh, but that is “the mind of the flesh,” which treats with God and Salvation inside the knowledge of good and evil. Yet human flesh is the dwelling place of God. – And this is why 2 Corinthians has so little impact on the overall meaning of Nicene theology.

Just as gold is soft and can be beaten into beautiful forms, so the human heart of flesh can be written with every Word God speaks. A stony heart must be chiseled first and shattered second, of no use to anyone. But a heart of flesh can be broken, pouring out blood and water into the earth. One is God and Life; the other is good versus evil and death. In 2 Corinthians, human flesh belongs only to God – all our human ANGUISH belongs only to God.

My Human Travail. I endure great difficulty in this present season, as is common to all mankind, but I have given all that I am to God, my Father, and I call it all good. Even my suffering, I share with Him and He with me, and together, we turn it into that which becomes wondrous comfort and encouragement for others. My travail, in every aspect, I give to God that it might become goodness for others. It’s not about me, and it’s not even about God; rather, it’s God and me together for them. This is my right and my joy inside of God, to turn all my sufferings, and all the pressures of travail into goodness for the sake of others.

Personal and Close. 2 Corinthians 4:7 is now split onto two pages. “The Treasure” is found on the page “I Am the Face of Christ.”

Much treatment of “God” is as one distant and impersonal. I do not know such a “God.” The God I know is Personal and close. He shares life with me, yet He remains Himself. I share life with Him, yet I remain myself. As I give an account of the Treasure I possess inside my earthen vessel, I think only in terms of Personal and close, this mighty Being who shares my life with me, and I, His life with Him. The Treasure always begins with Jesus, and Jesus always connects me directly with the Father. The Treasure that is God, then, is the Father sharing all with me.

The Treasure. God, in all that God is - all the fulness of God - is the Treasure that fills my earthen vessel. Let me recount this Treasure belonging to me.
 

• Jesus Sent into me as my Savior and Friend.
• Jesus written on my heart as every Word God speaks.
• God-Love shed abroad in my heart by Spirit Devoted given to me.
• God-kindness made visible on my face.
• All the wisdom of God.
• All the power that creates and sustains all things in every present moment.

 

• No knowledge of evil; rather, all-reconciliation to Himself in me.
• The reciprocating Favor between my brethren and me. The reciprocating Love within the Community of Christ.
• The possession of all created things - wealth.
• The power to set all free.
• Life sustaining all.
• The entrance of a meek and lowly Heart.
• All giving and receiving; all joyous welcome.
• All glorious liberty inside of which all creation dwells.

This is my God; this is my Treasure made Personal in me.

When People See “God.” The thing about God, in all that He is, the one attribute that marks Him above all other things, is that He is INVISIBLE! Forever and ever, when people see “God,” they will see only the faces of believers in Jesus walking together, loving one another with pure hearts fervently. God seeks no other form for Himself.

Fire and water, rocks and wind, these and all created things teach us about God. But God-visible has only one form – our human faces. You will know God when you see Him, and what you will see is the face of human kindness. Was Jesus “God” or was He just a “man?” The question itself is utterly FALSE, asked only by those who refuse to believe what God says about Himself and us.

Placing the Earthen Vessel. I already had a page titled “I Am the Face of Christ,” but then I added the page “The Treasure Is in My Earthen Vessel.” These two are now side by side. I moved most of what was already on the page over to the new page, leaving room for only one box to write in this lesson, “My Earthen Vessel.” This box is actually my primary focus in this lesson. Let’s consider the topic a bit before we write the box.

My earthen vessel. – Part of Paul’s purpose in this second letter is to soften or give context to some of the confusion of his first letter. In fact, I suspect that he regretted some of that. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul had said that “flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” To be honest with you, I do not understand what that line means or how it fits.

Our Home. In 2 Corinthians 4 & 5, Paul now states that the life of Jesus is made visible in our mortal flesh and that our physical body, flesh and blood, is swallowed up by LIFE. “Shall not inherit” cannot mean that we must become heaven-spirit beings only, no longer actually human. It must mean “swallowed up by Life.” The weakness of our earthen vessel in its relationship with God must remain, for the power is always out from God.

The earth is good; there is no evil in it. It is the Lord’s. The image of “outward spirit-perfection” is human lust anointed by the evil one. The resurrection removes the skin of the beast with its amplified animalistic drives, but our bodies remain human vessels. This earth bathed with heaven is our home.

Goodness. Goodness is heaven and earth fully married together in peace and joy. But that’s still not Life. Life is the goodness of heaven and earth together, filled with all the Treasure that is God, in full acknowledgment of Him. Just as our heart of flesh is good and filled with Jesus, so our earthen vessel is good and filled with God – our bodies washed with pure water.

All present suffering we give to God, fully shared with us, for the sake of His Church, and we call it good. All present animalistic desires we give to God; He alone saves us from hurting other people or dishonoring Christ. The goodness of God becomes the goodness of our earthen vessels.

My Earthen Vessel. My earthen vessel is the container of all the Treasure of God. God dwells inside my human flesh and His kindness shines from my face. Just as my heart is good because it is filled with Jesus, so my earthen vessel is good, because it is filled with God. My physical body is washed with pure water, made clean and devoted by God. I never call “unclean,” that which God has cleansed. My earthen vessel is clean and pure, utterly devoted to God. All the difficulties of this present season belong only to Him.

Heaven and earth in full union together is the place where all Goodness dwells. My human form is earth breathed upon by heaven. This earth of goodness is my home, my dwelling place and God’s. It is God who has made me; I do not make myself. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My earthen vessel is Christ; I am part of the body prepared for God.

My Acknowledged Source. Finally, in tightening up the page titled “I Walk through Faith, not through Sight,” I gained room for another box which I also bring into this lesson, as it fits our present topic. That new box is titled “My Sufficiency.” It is preceded by “What Is Faith?” – Faith is the entrance of God into me. Faith is my permission to God to be Himself in me…

God needs one thing from me, and that is that I acknowledge God coming through Jesus as my all, the Source of everything I am in all my humanity. “My sufficiency” is my acknowledged Source. That is all God wants – KNOW that I am God. He then energeoes all.

My Sufficiency. The God who fills me full is my only Source in all things. I do not need to “be somebody” in myself, that I might proclaim “myself.” It is my joy to acknowledge my Father, that everything I am comes out from the Life we share together. I know that this God who is my Source remains invisible. I know Him through the Spirit-Word that is Jesus whom God sent into my heart. I know God as the Word written upon my heart of flesh, the Treasure inside my earthen vessel. The Word God speaks is sufficient for me; I take God at His word. I come out from the Word God speaks; God energeoes all inside of all that I am. All things in my life are brand new; all things our out from God. God-Treasure is all that I need.

The Face of Human Kindness. Just as God fills our earthen vessels with the Treasure that is Himself, in all that an infinite God can be, so our earthen vessels shape the very expression of this God through us. This is how the face of human kindness is the very Face of God. – Having been unveiled in face, we all are reflecting the glory of the Lord [to one another] as a mirror… – This same God shines inside our hearts towards the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God as the face and presence of Jesus Christ.

Be kind with one another, tender-hearted, giving favor to each other…. Be just like God, as beloved children (Ephesians 4:32-5:1).