of the flesh and the necessity for the resurrection, and so complement the

doctrine.  In the first chapter this experience meets us:

`For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, as to our tribulation

which happened to us in Asia, that exceedingly beyond power were we

weighed down, so that we despaired even of life.  But we ourselves have

the sentence of death within ourselves, that we might rest our

confidence not upon ourselves, but upon God who raiseth the dead'

(1:8,9 author's translation).

This same twofold experience is found expressed in connection with the

apostle's ministry:

`But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of

the power may be of God, and not of us ... 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 ... in our mortal flesh' (4:7,10,11).

`Approving (commending) ourselves as the ministers of God ... as dying,

and, behold, we live' (6:4-9).

To the last chapter this twofold experience follows us, for there we

`... since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, (Who unto you is

not weak, but is mighty in you.  For even He was crucified through

weakness, yet He lives by the power of God; and though we also are weak

in Him, yet we shall live with Him, through the power of God unto you),

examine yourselves' (13:3-5 author's translation).

Paul had ceased to know Christ after the flesh.  In Galatians Paul had

left it crucified with its `affections and desires' (Gal. 5:24); in 2

Corinthians it is repudiated in all its forms, `fleshly wisdom' (1:12), and

`fleshly weapons' (10:4).  He set aside a knowledge of Christ after the

flesh as entirely incompatible with his ministry.  The Corinthians were urged

to cleanse themselves `from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit' (7:1).

Paul repudiated the charge that he `walked according to the flesh' (10:2), or

`warred according to it' (10:3).  As a `fool' he makes his boast in the flesh

(11:18) and lest he should be exalted above measure he received a `stake in

the flesh' (12:7).

We must now turn our attention to the section of the epistle that deals

with the ministry of the reconciliation wherein fleshly distinctions are set

aside.  The references to the old covenant in chapter 3 left Israel with the

veil over their hearts, parallel to the blindness that is spoken of in Romans

11.  The law was used by Satan to blind the eyes to the fulness of grace in

the reconciliation:

`If our gospel be veiled, it is veiled by those (things) which are

destroyed (i.e. chapter 3), by which (things) the god of this age

blinded, etc.' (2 Cor. 4:3,4 author's translation).

This is the background for the reconciliation of the Gentile.

Let us

see the setting of the subject before going further.