Bearing About in the Body the Dying of the Lord Jesus

The following is by H. A. Ironside from Care for God's Fruit-trees and other Messages:

"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." (2 Cor. 4:10,11)

"This fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians is the Apostle Paul's statement of power for ministry. He shows us in these stirring verses that God is not looking for brilliant men, is not depending upon eloquent men, is not shut up to the use of talented men in sending His gospel out in the world.

"God is looking for broken men, for men who have judged themselves in the light of the cross of Christ. When He wants anything done, He takes up men who have come to an end of themselves, and whose trust and confidence is not in themselves but in God.

". . . How are we broken? By affliction, by trouble, by the discipline of the Lord, sometimes by sickness, by pain and anguish. All these are the divine methods for breaking God's pitchers in order that the light may shine out to His praise and glory.

"Men may misjudge us, misrepresent us, persecute us bitterly; we may not have enough food to eat or water to drink; we may be cast down; we may suffer all kinds of sorrows; but it is all right if it breaks us in order that God may be able the better to use us.

"And so he says, 'We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed' (2 Cor. 4:8,9); for in all these experiences we are simply 'bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body.' He 'came from Godhead's fullest glory down to Calvary's depth of woe.'

"We sometimes sing a little hymn that always stirs the heart. I remember hearing Dr. Torrey say that he believed of all the hymns that were used in his great meetings around the world, it was the one that seemed to be most blessed of God to the people. It is:

    "'I surrender all,
    I surrender all,
    All to Thee, my blessed Saviour,
    I surrender all.'

"But that hymn never had the appeal it ought to have for my own heart until one day I found myself changing that chorus.

"I was thinking of Him who though He was 'in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.' (Phil. 2:6-8).

    "He surrendered all,
    He surrendered all,
    All for me, my blessed Saviour,
    He surrendered all.

"And then my heart said, 'O Lord, it will be easy to sing it the other way now, for what have I to give up, to surrender, in comparison with what Thou didst give up in order to redeem my guilty soul from going down to the pit?'

"It is as you and I realize from day to day what it all meant to Him that we can bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Dying day by day to our own hopes and ambitions, dying to the good opinion of people, dying to human praise and adulation, to everything that the natural heart grasps, dying in the death of Jesus to it all, because He died for us in order that 'the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our body.'"