But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written,
I believed, therefore I spoke (Psalm 116:10),we also believe, therefore we also speak,
When you really know what is true reality, you will be confident in expressing it.
knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.
Paul told them all about this already in his first Epistle to them, which we discussed on September 10, 2019.
For all things are for your sakes,
Everything we do is to bring people to Christ, who you are in Corinth. And who we are today, who believe and trust Jesus.
so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
As we talk about these things, more and more people will hear and learn about God and Christ and come to faith also, which brings glory to God. The more people come to accept His gracious gift, the more glory God receives.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
That's why we keep on, even though we may be sustaining serious injuries, and illnesses, and growing older; we are more encouraged and renewed each day, every morning we have another opportunity to worship our Lord.
For momentary, light affliction
All Paul's beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, and so on, he considers light afflictions, and momentary because they all come to pass so quickly.
is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
What God has prepared for us so far surpasses everything we could possibly have to endure here, there's just no comparison!
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
What we can see with our physical eyes is all the physical things here. What God has for us is spiritual, which we won't be able to see until our physical bodies are changed into spiritual bodies, and we have spiritual eyes to see the spiritual things.
All physical things are tied to the Time-line of this Earth and the Universe. When Time runs out, and comes to the end of the line, then all these things will end, too.
So Paul was taking the long view, and considering all that Jesus was preparing for him to enjoy for all eternity, forever and ever; so whatever he had to go through here really didn't bother him. Sure, it still hurt, but it was only temporary, and would be over soon.
When we know it will be over soon, we can endure anything. So people can do to us whatever they can, but they can never deter us from our long view. We will thereby get the victory, we win.
I've read the last chapter, so I recognize that Jesus Christ is our Champion, our Victorious Warrior, and He has won for us the victory! Victory over all our enemies, and our supreme enemy who is behind all the others. And the last enemy He will destroy will be death itself (I Corinthians 15:26--See September 10, 2019).
We see Him doing this and what follows in Revelation 20-22. These are the final chapters in the Story of Mankind, and Jesus is the Star of the Show!
O my Father, You are great! You are Magnificent! You have planned out this entire Time-line, from beginning to end, and how You plotted out all the plot twists and dramatic moments totally outshines every effort every member of Mankind has endeavored.
You have made us in Your image, and even those who reject You, still bear enough of Your likeness to be creative and inventive and clever and wise in a Worldly way. But we all still fall short of Your glory, so far short!
But You have sent Your own Son, our Lord, to make up the shortfall, and to do all the work necessary for us to be able to live with You in Your presence.
Now we can look to You, and see what we don't see, by faith. And one Day our faith will be sight, as we witness and take part in the culmination and consummation of this creation of Yours. Everything is from You and will go back to You. Jesus will cleanse and renew this whole creation and then present it back to You to enjoy forever.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
