As we look at our text, I want to remind you about a very basic truth about the end times and about heaven, the ultimate reality and things that exist beyond our perception. As I mentioned last week, when we talk about heaven and we talk about the ultimate perspective and the ultimate reality that exists, we discuss it in terms of a very basic distinction of the intermediate state and also the final state. So when I am talking about heaven, heaven is a part of what we call the intermediate state.

That means this: heaven is where we go if we trust in Jesus Christ after we die in this life, but it is before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. After that coming of Christ, our souls, which went to be with Christ, will be reunited with our bodies at the resurrection. There will be a new heavens and a new earth (and we will come to that eventually). But when we speak of heaven, then we are speaking about a temporary and a provisional place in which we go to dwell with God. It is wonderful, it is amazing, it is real, it is true, but yet heaven as we are describing it is not our ultimate resting place. The new heaven and the new earth is, which is a little bit different.

So the Heidelberg Catechism question 57 asks, “What comfort do you receive from the resurrection of the body?” and the answer is, “That not only my soul after this life shall be immediately taken up to Christ its head” (that is what we call the intermediate state), “but also that this my body, raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul and made like the glorious body of Christ” (that is the final state). Heaven is a place where our souls go. The final stage is where our soul with our body will dwell forever. You can read about that as well in question 58 from our catechism.

Suffering for the Gospel⤒🔗

So congregation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, here in 2 Corinthians the Apostle Paul gives us his defence of his apostolic ministry. He did that against those who called themselves in 2 Corinthians 11:5 the so called “super-apostles.” There were those running around saying that they were super-apostles. “If Paul was an apostle, well, we are greater.” These self-appointed preachers, these self-appointed apostles, these “uber-apostles” claimed that Paul's sufferings and Paul's weaknesses in the flesh (and we will see a text that describes that) were a sign that he was not a true apostle.

We have heard that, right? If you suffer in the body, if you are not healed of a certain type of disease (cancer, for example), then you are not a triumphant Christian and you lack faith. This is similar. Different, but a similar charge. They were saying Paul was not an apostle because of his sufferings, and many today would say, “You are simply a carnal Christian. You are on a lesser level because you do not have the faith to believe that you really should be healed.” But isn't it ironic that those who preach that with such passion and vigour themselves meet their Maker through death?

Paul opens up this epistle where he wants to defend his ministry to the Corinthians by showing that he was an apostle of Christ and these super-apostles were really less than apostles. He opens up 2 Corinthians with one of the most amazing texts of all the New Testament where he praises God the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” who is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” Notice how he uses that language over and over again.

…who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.2 Corinthians 1:4, ESV

You see his theme. He is God is a God of comfort, a God of mercy, a God of grace, who is to be praised and to be exalted.

The Ministry of the New Covenant←↰⤒🔗

Then as he describes the sufferings of the Christian in general, but then he moves on to talk about his own self, he contrasts the ministry of the new covenant in (chapter 3)—the ministry of the apostles and the ministry of the ministers and the preachers, the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers—[and says it] is greater than the ministry of the old covenant.

Although Moses saw the glory of God, his face waned in that glory. He covered his face with a veil! And although we do not see that glory of God upon a mountain, Paul says our gospel and our ministry is so much more glorious! Moses saw the glory of God and his face was glowing by the presence of God, and that ministry was “a ministry of condemnation” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Moses was a preacher of the law, after all. He preached the gospel, but he was a minister of the law, Paul says. If that ministry was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of Christ's apostles, the new covenant? Although we do not see Christ in that glorious state, although we have not seen a mountain burning with fire, we have not received upon tablets of stones God's finger itself writing the words, our ministry is more glorious and greater!

Jars of Clay←↰⤒🔗

And then he says this in 2 Corinthians 4, as we move into our text. Of course, they were saying, “Well, you suffer, you are being afflicted, your body is weak, you have been beaten, you have been tortured, you have been kicked out of synagogues…how can you say that the ministry of the gospel is so much more glorious?” So he describes the gospel in 1 Corinthians 4:7: “We have this treasure” (that is the gospel) “in jars of clay,” (that is the minister, the person; that is Paul). “We have this treasure in jars of clay…” Why? “To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

It is not about the super-apostles and their excitement. It is not about your personality, he says. It is not about your ability to conjure up feelings and emotions and crowds and excitement. Our gospel is glorious because it is housed in jars of clay, which are fragile and broken. Notice then that the immediate context of our text is that very word “jars of clay.” He goes on to say this:

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 may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.2 Corinthians 4:8-12, ESV

Despite that, he says in verse 16: “We do not lose heart.” “Despite our bodies being jars of clay,” he says to these super-apostles, “We do not lose heart.” “We are always of good courage” (2 Corinthians 5:6), despite suffering and affliction.

Longing of the Languishing←⤒🔗

Here is where the theme that we want to think about comes from: heaven is the longing of the languishing. Heaven is that treasure, that pearl of great price, for those who dwell in jars of clay. It is the unseen reality for those who only see the reality that exists in front of them. Why does God allow life to be so hard? That is a question we want to think about. Why doesn't God take us right into heaven, like Enoch? Why must we die? Why doesn't he simply take us out of the world, rapture us out into heaven? Wouldn't that be a glorious ministry? You talk with your neighbour, you talk with your father, your brother, your sister, your cousin, whoever it might be who does not know Christ, and you speak about heaven. You talk about how you have been redeemed of your sins, and he or she does not believe you, and then all of a sudden God takes you to heaven…wouldn't that be proof enough that heaven exists and that it is real? That life and death are real truths which we must face?

But God wants us to know what agony is that we might appreciate the ecstasy of heaven. He wants us to languish on earth that we might long for heaven. This is part of what he means when he says in 2 Corinthians 5:7 (which we will get to next week): “We walk by faith, not by sight.” We must struggle, we must suffer, we must live in jars of clay, but yet in those jars God puts his surpassing treasure and his glories within us.

So notice our text, as Paul the apostle—the suffering apostle, the jar of clay apostle, the apostle who was beaten and struck and who was given over to death, persecuted, who languished in this life—did not lose heart. He was always of good cheer. And notice how our text then describes how Paul can say that and how we can say that. It is because of heaven. It is because of the reality of eternity, which faces us and which is before us.

So he describes the longing of the languishing in terms of three contrasts in our text. In the first place, he describes present renewing despite destroying. He describes eternal glory despite momentary misery. And he describes reality despite lacking visibility. Those are our three points that we want to look at.

Inner Renewal despite Outward Decay←↰⤒🔗

We do not lose heart in this life. We are of good courage. Because heaven itself—its eternal reality, its principle, its power—is presently renewing us. It is working within us already. The beginning of everlasting life has already been given to us, despite our constant decaying outwardly. That is verse 16: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

Here we want to think about what that means—‘outer’ and ‘inner’. Paul uses two Greek words, ‘exo’ and ‘eso’. We use ‘exo’ for, for example, exoskeleton on a bug or a beetle. That is the outward thing of that insect. He contrasts the exo (that is, the “outer” nature, as our translation says; the NIV says “outwardly”) with what is going on within that exoskeleton which we see. That is the stuff that we are. Our humanity; our fallenness.

Notice he is describing here our visible, physical reality. He is a jar of clay; so are we. He talks about suffering in the body (1 Corinthians 4:10). He talks about his “mortal flesh” (vs 11). And it is wasting away; it is decaying. Can't we all see that? Those of us getting older, we know this. Our hair is getting grey. Wrinkles are setting in. We fight it. I just saw a commercial this afternoon as I was preparing for a certain product that promised that if you used it for thirty days it would take ten years off of your appearance. They might be able to take off the appearance of ten years, but they cannot take away ten years off of who you are! You are a jar of clay. You are mortal. You are wasting away. You are decaying, he says.

This word ‘decaying’ is used all throughout the ancient Greek world of rust that corrodes metal or moths that eat away clothing. It is even is used in one place to describe the physical body as it withers from starvation. If you have ever seen pictures of the concentration camps, that is what he is saying. We are decaying and wasting away.

Now, he is not contrasting the body and the soul in the sense that the ancient Greeks did or as the Gnostics in the early Church did, who said that the body is bad and the soul is good. He is saying that our body, which is fallen, is wasting away [under] the effects of sin. We will die. And before that moment of death we are moving towards that death. Wasting; dying; decaying. Because who we are is a part of this fallen world.

But yet there is something else about us. Paul calls it the ‘eso’, the inner part of us. Inwardly we are being renewed. Christ has begun a new creation within us. And that part of us belongs to the age to come. It will one day be renewed and it will be resurrected with our bodies. Our body one day as well will belong to the age to come, but Paul is describing the intermediate state. When we die, our body will become dust (“dust to dust, ash to ash”). Our soul will immediately be taken up to Christ our head, our Catechism says. It is being renewed. The body is passing away, decaying, but the inner is being renewed day by day.

Heaven itself has practical and personal and present effects within us, and that is what he is talking about here. We are jars of clay. We do not see that inner renewal. We do not see it in so many words. We see its effects sometimes, but we do not really feel it most of the time. We do not see it. We see the body decaying and we think our entirety is decaying, but we are being renewed, he says. This word he uses for being ‘renewed’ day by day, this particular form of the verb ‘renewing’ is only used one other time in the entire New Testament, in Colossians 3:9-10. What does he mean by this “inner self,” this “inner nature”? “Inwardly we are being renewed day by day”? He describes it elsewhere in Colossians 3:

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self [that is the inner nature; that is what Christ is doing within us] which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.Colossians 3:9-10, ESV, emphasis added

The image of God which was marred and effaced and erased, smudged on a piece of paper, Christ is renewing that within us day by day. Despite what you see and feel and experience, and despite what you fear about yourself in that decaying experience and seeing, you are being renewed day by day. Despite your obvious physical, emotional and mental decline, Christ has begun a new creation. Heaven is not just what will be; heaven is something that already is. It is already working within us. It is not a pie in the sky. It is daily living for the glory of Christ.

Eternal Glory despite Momentary Misery←↰⤒🔗

Then notice that as he continues contrasting in the first place the outward decay with the inner renewal, he then secondly describes heaven by describing its eternal glory despite our momentary misery. Despite languishing, despite your being one who is a jar of clay and who is decaying every single day, that decaying is only a momentary affliction. Did you notice the language here? That very clear contrast? He says in verse 17, “This slight” (meaning very light in its weight, not very heavy) “momentary affliction…” It is not heavy and it does not last forever.

And Paul is saying this! Beaten! struck down! Notice what he says later on in this book in 2 Corinthians 11, that famous text where he is contrasting himself with the super-apostles, and he says, “In reality, my sufferings are the mark of my apostleship.”

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.2 Corinthians 11:24-27, ESV

And Paul says it is a “light momentary affliction.” And that light momentary affliction is contrasted with something far greater. Something that is glorious. ‘Glory’ comes from a Hebrew term which speaks of weight and heaviness. Our affliction is light, like a feather; the glory of heaven is like a ton of gold. Our affliction is momentary. When we are in eternity we will see it as a dot on the timeline of history. But the glory and the weight of heaven is for eternity; it is an eternal glory.

“This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 17). Here Paul is stretching human vocabulary to make the point that your life and its suffering is miniscule compared to what is awaiting us when we shall step into eternity into that weighty glory of heaven! When he says “beyond all comparison,” this is in English the best we can do to translate the term. It is trying to get a grasp of how he is saying it and saying it in a way that we might understand it.

He describes in 2 Corinthians 4:7 that we are “jars of clay,” and the reason for that is that God might show the surpassing power. The Greek term is the term that we get in English as ‘hyperbole’. A hyperbole is an exaggeration. It is a figure of speech. When Jesus says, “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” (Matthew 5:29), that is hyperbole. It is overstating the case; it is exaggerating it. [It is like saying], “You didn't see it! There were like a million guys running after me!” [Or like saying], “Did you see what happened?” and then you go on to describe in enormous terms something that really was certainly not enormous at all, but very basic and simple.

Our bodies are jars of clay to show this hyperbole of “the surpassing power of God. We cannot even describe it. Paul uses the term to simply express that in a sense it is an exaggeration for us to understand it. And now he describes our light and our momentary affliction as compared and contrasted with the eternal weight of glory. And the eternal weight of glory that awaits you, brothers and sisters, is not just a hyperbole, but he uses the term twice! It is “surpassing” and “surpassing surpassing”! Not only is heaven beyond our comparison to our slight affliction of this life; it is beyond and beyond comparison! Not only is heaven beyond comparison to our momentary affliction of this life; it is beyond and beyond, surpassing and surpassing comparison!

Do you get the point? There is no human way for us to describe this. There is nothing we can say in human language that can describe what Paul says here about heaven. That is why he says in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor ever has entered the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.” There is nothing analogous to it! Nothing we can see to make a comparison! Nothing you have ever heard! Nothing you can think of! To paraphrase the great medieval theologian Anselm, who described God as “that than which nothing greater can be conceived,” heaven is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. You cannot do anything in human terms to describe it. That is how amazing heaven is. That is how glorious and eternal it is, the apostle Paul says, for us.

And when he says this, he is speaking (and as I speak as a pastor) truly. For there is no way for me to describe for you what it is like! There is nothing that I can say to comfort you in your sorrows but simply to point you to Christ. Heaven itself is. We will be there. Christ is there preparing a place for us. All those metaphors we saw last Sunday evening that Jesus uses of heaven (the barn, the kingdom, the table, the house) can only give us a faint glimpse of the greatness of the glory that awaits us in heaven! Despite your sufferings, Paul says, there is an eternal glory that awaits us.

Reality Despite Lacking Visibility←↰⤒🔗

Then he says this finally. With that in mind about heaven, he describes this reality despite our lacking visibility. We do not see that. I told my wife a few days ago, “This is absolutely impossible to preach. There is nothing I can say and there is nothing that I can do to make it real.” When Paul is describing for us heaven and how we live in the light of it, it does seem like pie in the sky! It does seem so far off. This stuff, I admit, it does not resonate with us—especially those of us who are young. You really have to go through death—you have to see someone die or yourself have to die, or to be persecuted or to suffer—to really appreciate this.

So what does “a light and momentary affliction” mean for us who live such a blessed life? What does it mean for us when Paul describes “the things that are unseen are eternal” and how that contrasts with “the things that are seen are transient” (2 Corinthians 4:18)? But yet he says it. We do not see the eternal reality of heaven. What we see is life. We see struggle; we see death; we see the “vanity of vanities” of Ecclesiastes (remember the first sermon in the series). We see the work of our hands, the labour, and we see it all and it is all worthless and pointless, because we are going to die eventually anyway. That is what we see.

But yet Paul says, “We do not look to the things that are seen” (that is the afflictions he is describing) “but we look to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient,” (they will die, they will perish, they will end) “but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Having a vision of heaven is what Paul is speaking about, for those who languish in this life—who suffer, who struggle, who are weak, who are jars of clay, who are decaying, who are like pieces of iron being eaten by rust, pieces of clothing being riddled with holes by moths, starving corpses, emaciated and dying. But yet despite that, Paul says we are being renewed! Despite that, the Apostle Paul describes eternal glory! And despite that, he describes reality as it is, despite us not seeing it.

Let us join the Apostle Paul in longing for that which alone can give us hope and stability and guidance: heaven, which is that fixed reality which we do not see. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). It is there, and it is the longing for those who do languish. For it was our Lord Jesus Christ who languished under sin, who languished under a sin-cursed life, so that we might enter heaven. May that be our hope and may that be our confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ.