During my mini-workout this morning, I was listening to Sinclair Ferguson preaching on 2 Corinthians 4. The text, which I have read many times, particularly struck me today. The passage that most penetrated my heart was that of verses 7-12, which is below:
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
I want to focus today on the first verse in this passage, 2 Cor. 4:7. "This treasure" that Paul is referring to is mentioned in the preceding verse, as "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," or simply the Gospel. And so we store this beautiful glory in ourselves, as jars of clay. Why do we do so? "to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."
Too many teachers today (particularly the health and wealth preachers) are trying to paint the jars of clay. To make us look better than we are. When I go to a church service and the pastor says something to the effect of "we are all good people," I want to throw up. That is not God-glorifying, claiming that we are good people. We need to continually acknowledge, as Jesus did, that only God is good (Luke 18:19). In direct contrast to this, Paul refers to us as "jars of clay."
Jars of clay have no particular beauty to them. Sure, they are made for a purpose, for storage, but they are not very aesthetically pleasing, and certainly no one would attribute great glory to them. For it is what is inside that counts when it is a clay jar. It could be the most hideous jar ever (as my days in various ceramics classes produced), but if something is glorious inside, then we value that treasure. This is what Paul is saying. We do not have any particular glory ourselves (other than the dignity, value and worth in being created in the image of God). But inside, we hold the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ultimately, jars of clay are brittle, and easily broken. When we are broken, we are always shown for what we are. Even the "super apostles" who espouse health and wealth theologies will be shown to be merely human when they are broken, in death or otherwise. But if we have inside of us the Gospel, in all its glory and saving power, when we break, it is actually more profitable to the kingdom than if we do not. God works much more often through weakness than strength, because man's strength adds nothing to God's strength, but God's strength in man's weakness adds to God's glory.
Let us remember that the surpassing power belongs to God, not to man. Let us hold dear to the Gospel of Christ's life, death, burial and resurrection. And let us take heart, when things push in from every side, that Jesus went through the same thing. That as we might be crushed, he was crushed. And that through these momentary afflictions, God might win even more glory to his name, because when we break, then the Gospel of Jesus Christ will shine forth from the rubble of our jar of clay.
So help us. Amen.
Just over a year ago, I took a class in Game Theory (for those who don’t know what that is, the guy who developed most of it is John Nash, the subject of A Beautiful Mind).
In the class, one of the “games” we looked at was the interaction of a human and some higher being (usually referred to in the problem as God). The game was set up like this:
· There are two suitcases, one with one million dollars and one with one thousand dollars
· You, as the human, take either one or two suitcases.
· If God knew you would take one, you take the one with one million dollars.
· If God knew you would take both suitcases, he puts one thousand dollars in one of them and takes the one million dollars from the other suitcase.
· If you then take one suitcase and he predicted you take one suitcase, you would get one million dollars.
· If you take two suitcases and he predicted you take one suitcase, you get 1,001,000 dollars.
So that makes the following payoff table, with God being the column player, and you being the row player:
|
|
Predicted Take Both |
Predicted Take One |
|
Take Both |
$1000 |
$1,001,000 |
|
Take One |
$0 |
$1,000,000 |
Here is why this is a big game theory problem:
The dominant strategy for you, the row player, is to take both, because the payoffs are better for each prediction. $1000 is better than $0 and $1,001,000 is better than $1,000,000.
However, consider if God is wrong 10% of the time:
EV(take both) = (.9*1000)+(.1*1,001,000) = 101,000
EV(take one) = (.9*1,000,000)+(.1*0) = 900,000
The expected values tell you that you should always take one. In game theory, the dominant strategy and expected values are always supposed to support one another.
Some economic philosophers has speculated that this kind of a deep paradox proves that there is no God.
If you have read this blog before, you should know that I do not agree with the above position; in fact I readily maintain that there is a God who is active and present, especially shown to mankind through the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
The problem with the above “game” is that it assumes that God does not have definite foreknowledge (that he does not know the end from the beginning) and from there concludes that there is no God. If we are considering a God like that, it is simple to disprove his existence. This is exactly why I will maintain until the day I die that the God of the Bible has an exhaustive foreknowledge. If we bend that doctrine at all, we end up not with a weaker God, but with no God.
It has become hip as of late, at least in philosophical circles, to question whether God knows the future. While the Bible teaches clearly that God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), this should also compel us to hold onto the doctrine of God’s foreknowledge. Believe me, I was one of those people, who tried to talk around this doctrine, to soften it; I have since been convicted of my error. If we weaken this doctrine, all of a sudden we lose the ability to pray with confidence; we lose the comfort of the sovereignty of God. And not only that: we lose God. Might I submit that while the doctrine of God’s exhaustive foreknowledge is offensive to some, discarding it is offensive to God. Who would you rather offend?
Now to him who can do more than we can ask, think, or even imagine. To Jesus be all the glory forever and ever. Amen.
