Gratitude Overflowing

[nChrist]

Gratitude Overflowing
by C.R. Stam
==================

“For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might
through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.”  — II Cor.
4:15

It is said that the word “thanksgiving,” in one or another of its forms,
flows from the heart and pen of Paul more than 50 times, while in all the
rest of the New Testament Scriptures it is found only 21 times.  Since
the size of the rest of the New Testament is about two and a half times
that of Paul’s epistles, this makes the ratio 6 to 1.  That is, for every
time some other New Testament writer uses the word, Paul uses it six
times.  This is probably correct, for Paul’s epistles are indeed filled
with thanksgiving.

DISRESPECT AND INGRATITUDE
==========================

What a contrast this was to the pagan world about him!  Long centuries
before, the Gentiles who “knew God...glorified Him not as God, neither
were thankful” (Rom. 1:21).  Their attitude was that of disrespect and
ingratitude.  The result:“...[they] became vain in their imaginations
[or reasonings], and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image make like to corruptible man, and to
birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Vers. 21-23).

How superstitious and stupid intellectual man can be!  Five hundred years
of paganism showed its results in the great moral and spiritual depravity
of the Egyptian dynasties.  The Egyptians were intellectual people (Acts
7:22).  They knew secrets that we moderns know nothing of.  We do not
know how they built their great pyramids and it is said that no engineer
today would know how to build one.  They knew also how to embalm their
dead so that the mummies of many of their dead are still, after 3500
years, in existence in museums in Chicago, New York, London and elsewhere.

The Great Pyramid at Gizeh is a marvel of geometry, astronomy, and
engineering, a permanent record of geometric facts, and a living proof
that the ancients had an amazing knowledge of astronomy.  Joseph A. Seiss
calls the Great Pyramid “the oldest and greatest existing monument of
intellectual man.”1

But think of the superstition and fear involved in their worship of the
hawk, the bull, the cow, the cat, the frog, the baboon, the jackal, the
crocodile, and other beasts and reptiles!  To these the Egyptians
prostrated themselves, bringing them sacrifices to placate them when
angry or ill-tempered.  And to this we must add religious rites so vile
that they are deeply repulsive to the Christian mind and heart.  Little
wonder, for five centuries before this,

“God...gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own
hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves” (Rom. 1:24).

God did not instill unclean desires; He simply gave them up to “the lusts
of their own hearts.”

The record further states:

“[They] changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served
the creature more than the Creator...” (Ver. 25).

Again, the results:

“For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their
women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And
likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in
their lusts one toward another; men with men working that which is
unseemly [Lit., shameful], and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error which was meet” (Vers. 26,27).

[nChrist]

Gratitude Overflowing
by C.R. Stam
==================

Ah, but surely all this had changed a great deal by the time of Paul, for
it was then that the great Greek philosophers stepped forth, those men
after whose wisdom modern western culture is said to be patterned.  But
was it so different in Paul’s day?  Listen to his not-very-complimentary
description of the wise of his day, as they gathered at Ephesus, that
seat of learning where the goddess Diana was worshipped.  To the
Christians who lived there, he wrote:

“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles [i.e., the unsaved Gentiles] walk, in the
vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of
the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:17,18).

Again, the moral result:

“Who being past feeling [Lit., calloused], have given themselves over
to lasciviousness, TO WORK ALL UNCLEANNESS WITH GREEDINESS” (Ver. 19).

Had the pagan world changed so much by the time Paul arrived on the
scene?  Indeed, has it changed even since then?  Have not pagan
philosophies gained amazing headway even in “Christian” America?  And
have they not brought their sex-madness with them?  Are there not
millions here in America who “work all uncleanness with greediness”?

EARTHEN VESSELS
===============

But how did Paul combat heathenism in his day?  And how should we combat
it in ours?  First, we should recognize, as Paul did, that we are nothing
in ourselves and that the power to bring light and salvation must come
from God.  Referring in the passage we are considering to “our gospel”
(II Cor. 4:3), he says:

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of
the power may be of God, and not of us” (Ver. 7).

We do not put diamonds and rubies and other precious items in “earthen
vessels.”  They are too fragile.  They are too easily broken and crushed.
 Yet God has deposited “this treasure,” the riches of His grace, in
“earthen vessels” — us!  Why?  So that when hearts and lives and homes are
changed by the gospel, it may be evident that the power was “of God, and
not of us.”

Some people think that Paul was “the strong, bold type,” but not so.  To
these same Corinthians he wrote:

“And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling”
(I Cor. 2:3).

Nor was his moral background such as would inspire respectful attention.
True, he had been conscientious and religious but, in his unsaved state,
also ruthless and cruel, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter
against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1).

Thus he says,

“...I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He
counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a
blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious...” (I Tim. 1:12,13).

Paul had been anything but faithful to God, to his Messiah, or to his
people, but he was divinely enabled and counted worthy, as God entrusted
him with the dispensing of the riches of His grace to a doomed and lost
world.  Thus, when these riches yielded great dividends, it was evident
that the results were not due to Paul’s oratory or his persuasive powers;
they were of God, for the instrumentality employed in defending and
dispensing this treasure was altogether disproportionate to the amazing
effect produced.

SATAN'S ATTEMPTS TO CRUSH THE EARTHEN VESSEL
====================================

And now let us see how Satan, in the case of Paul, sought to crush the
“earthen vessel.”  In II Corinthians 4:8-14 we have the story of the
Apostle’s struggles — and his victory in Christ.  It is replete with
metaphors, some taken from the Corinthian games, with which his readers
were so familiar.

[nChrist]

Gratitude Overflowing
by C.R. Stam
==================

Verse 8: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.”  The words
“on every side,” or “all around,” are expressive.  The Apostle was
hard-pressed, as by a wrestler seeking to suffocate his opponent with his
hold — yes, hard-pressed, but not crushed!

“We are perplexed, but not in despair.”  He himself testified that “we
know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26).  But he was
“not in despair,” for he knew that the Holy Spirit does know what is good
for us and pleasing to God (Rom. 8:26,27).  What an encouragement the
Spirit’s intercession should be to us who likewise, so often, find
ourselves not knowing how to pray!  We need not “despair” that our
adversary will succeed in crushing these earthen vessels if we simply
trust God for the outcome.

Verse 9: “Persecuted, but not forsaken.”  The metaphor seems to be that
of one pursued, harassed, by wild beasts.  Constantly pursued by Satan’s
henchmen, plotted against, waylaid, hunted down, surrounded by enemies (I
Cor. 15:32 cf. II Cor. 1:8), he was not abandoned or left to perish, for
in life or in death, deliverance and victory were his (II Tim. 4:17;
Phil. 1:20,21), so that spiritually he could say what Daniel said of his
physical circumstances after a night in the lions’ den: “My God
hath...shut the lions’ mouths” (Dan. 6:22).

“Cast down, but not destroyed.”  Evidently a metaphor from the boxing
ring.  In fight after fight, the count had seemed to pronounce the
end — 6,7,8,9! but God had again raised him up to go on fighting the good
fight of the faith.  The above phrase has been rendered, “knocked down,
but not out”!

By this time the Apostle had already suffered almost constant
persecution, as II Corinthians 11 tells us.

Five times he had received “forty stripes save one” (II Cor. 11:24).  Why
does not the record simply say “thirty-nine stripes”?  Because the Romans
had a law on their books which said in effect: “Don’t give a man forty
stripes; you will kill him.”  So they gave him “forty save one.”

Three times he had been “beaten with rods” (Ver. 25), those terrible
clubs that could break a man’s spine or leave him terribly disfigured.

Once he was stoned (Ver. 25) — and left for dead, and who cannot see, as
they read II Corinthians 11, that repeatedly his very life stood in
jeopardy.

AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST
======================

It should be noted in Verses 10,11 that the Apostle bore in his body “the
dying of the Lord Jesus...alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake.”
Why?  Because, as an ambassador for Christ, he appeared before men “in
Christ’s stead,” i.e., instead of the rejected Christ.  Men would not
have Christ, so the Lord sent Paul — and us — as His ambassadors.

In Colossians 1:24, he declares that he suffers to “fill up that which is
behind [or still remains] of the suffering of Christ,” for His Body’s
sake.  He, of course, refers not to our Lord’s vicarious sufferings, for
these are complete and all-sufficient to save the sinner, but rather to
the fact that our Lord, now glorified in heaven, is still despised and
blasphemed and hated on earth.  But who suffers this hatred?  Paul did;
we do!  We stand before men “in Christ’s stead.”  One of the greatest
evidences that the present dispensation is “the dispensation of the grace
of God” is the fact that the Book of Acts closes with the Apostle of
grace in prison.

From Psalm 2 and Acts 2, it is evident that at Pentecost the stage was
set, as it were, for the outpouring of God’s wrath upon the nations — and
the nation Israel.  This was the next number of the prophetic program.

But God, so “rich in mercy,” in “His great love wherewith He loved us”
said, “Not yet!” and saved His chief enemy on earth, making him both the
herald and the living example of His love and grace.  And — mark well — when
man declared war on God and threw His ambassador into prison, God did not
make a counter-declaration of war, but left Paul in prison, to be
beheaded by the enemy.  Thus our Lord waits in grace, as a Royal
Exile — waits to judge this world, meanwhile letting us, His ambassadors,
take part in “the fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10) as we plead
with men to be reconciled to God.

[nChrist]

Gratitude Overflowing
by C.R. Stam
==================

"For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on Him, but also to suffer for His sake, Having the same conflict which
ye saw in me [at Philippi] and now hear to be in me” (Phil. 1:29,30).

But there is more: In II Corinthians 4:10, the Apostle declares that he
bears about in his body “the dying of the Lord Jesus,” that “the life
also of Jesus” might be made manifest in his body.  Remember, the Lord
Jesus died and rose again, and, as Paul ministered for Christ, he did not
only share “the fellowship of His sufferings” but also “the power of His
resurrection.”  As men saw him preach the gospel, they did not see a
whipped, defeated man before them, but one who was animated by the glory
of the message of life which he proclaimed.  Paul did not cower before
death; he trusted in “God, who raiseth the dead” (II Cor. 1:9).  He had
been “in deaths oft” (II Cor. 11:23); he had to face it almost
constantly, “always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in [his] mortal flesh” (II Cor.
4:11).

“So then, death worketh in us, but life in you” (Ver. 12).

The idea is that his having been constantly delivered to death for Christ
had borne its fruit in them.  Death working in him had wrought life in
them!

And he meant, by God’s grace, to go right on proclaiming Christ and His
grace, for he had “the same spirit of faith” as the Psalmist, who said
(in Psa. 116:10), “I believed, therefore have I spoken” (Ver. 13).
Unlike so many men of God today, who are dominated by “the spirit of
fear,” Paul declared: “We having the same spirit of faith...we also
believe, and therefore speak” (Ver. 13).  Paul had placed his trust, not
merely in one who would keep him physically safe, but in the One who
raises the dead! (Ver. 14).  Long ago he had answered the college
professors and their senior students who had come running up, all out of
breath, scoffing that according to biology and half a dozen other
sciences, resurrection from the dead is impossible!  His devastating
reply to them was simply:

“Thou fool!  That which thou sowest is not quickened [brought to life]
except it die” (I Cor. 15:36).

“Look about you,” he said: “Resurrection impossible?  You are surrounded
by it!”

Our Lord had said the same thing during His earthly ministry:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn [grain] of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth
forth much fruit” (John 12:24).

GRATITUDE OVERFLOWING
=====================

Back now to our original text:

“For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might
through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God” (II Cor.
4:15).

Paul’s heart often sang with thanksgiving for those whose hearts and
lives had been changed through his ministry, but this thanksgiving was
being — certainly was meant to be — multiplied in them: “that the abundant
grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of
God.”  “Redound,” here, means to greatly exceed.  God’s abundant grace is
enhanced by our thanksgiving!  In Romans 5:20, “where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound,” or “exceedingly overflow,” but here “abundant
grace” is made to abound still more, or shine still more brightly,
“through the thanksgiving of many.”  Indeed, the joy of heaven will be
the gratitude of the redeemed for the infinite grace of God in saving and
glorifying them!

It is God’s eternal purpose “that in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus” (Eph. 2:7) and it will be our joy to praise Him for His grace
through all eternity.