SUMMARY
PaulThe Apostle Paul, originally known as Saul of Tarsus, was the author of several New Testament letters and the founder of many Christian communities. More trusts in God, even as he speaks about the distress he is experiencing. His hope lies in his knowledge that the one who raised the Lord JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. More will also raise him, along with everyone else, so that graceGrace is the unmerited gift of God's love and acceptance. In Martin Luther's favorite expression from the Apostle Paul, we are saved by grace through faith, which means that God showers grace upon us even though we do not deserve it. More might continue to expand to more and more people.
ANALYSIS
If Paul had used the “ministry of death, chiseled on stone tablets” to introduce the “how much more” of the “ministry of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:7-8), then in this passage he renders how, according to Scripture, that same “Spirit of faith” actually works in our lives, even amidst the death and difficulties we might face (2 Corinthians 4:13). He does so by quoting a psalmA psalm is a song of praise. In the Old Testament 150 psalms comprise the psalter, although some of the psalms are laments and thanksgivings. In the New Testament early Christians gathered to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. More in which God delivered an individual from extreme “distress and anguish,” including the “snares of death” (Psalm 116:1-9). While undergoing these difficulties, the psalmist continued to trust God, even while also affirming at the same that, “I am greatly afflicted” and “Everyone is a liar” around me (Psalm 116:10-11). By quoting this psalm, Paul concisely depicts how, along with the witnesses of Scripture, we too might “trust” and also “speak,” even if in our speaking we name the very difficulties we are calling on God to help us with (2 Corinthians 3:7-8).
What gives Paul the confidence to trust in God, even as he continues to experience the very things he is calling on God to help him with, is that he knows that “the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:14a). As he indicated at the beginning of 2 Corinthians, this hope in the resurrection of the dead, when God’s mercyMercy is a term used to describe leniency or compassion. God's mercy is frequently referred to or invoked in both the Old and New Testaments. More and justice would ultimately be vindicated, was central to his understanding of ministry (2 Corinthians 1:9-10). But the resurrection had also been a point of controversy with the Corinthians, since they appear to have understood their spiritual gifts to be an indication that they had already reached spiritual perfection (1 Corinthians 15:12-20). Moreover, influenced by Paul’s rival apostles, it appears that they were looking for the same kind of perfection and mastery in Paul and thus were troubled by his poor speaking skills and weak bodily presence (2 Corinthians 10:10).
What troubles Paul the most, however, is that they think the experience of God’s presence is primarily a matter of personal mastery devoid of a sense of God’s mercy, which means that God is the power at work in us, and God’s righteousness and justice, which always links our encounter with God with our having just and merciful relationships with one another. Thus, Paul’s hope in the resurrection is not simply about an individualistic salvationSalvation can mean saved from something (deliverance) or for something (redemption). Paul preached that salvation comes through the death of Christ on the cross which redeemed sinners from death and for a grace-filled life. More of one’s own soul. Rather, it is about the fact that we will be presented together with one another into the presence of the Lord Jesus, which means that our hope in the resurrection can never be severed from our intrinsic connection with and accountability to one another (2 Corinthians 4:14b; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:22). Thus, as Paul affirms, all of this is “for you,” so that “grace,” as it continues to expand to more and more and people, might overflow even more with thanksgiving to God’s glory (2 Corinthians 4:15; cf. 2 Corinthians 1:11; 2 Corinthians 9:13-15).
RELATED PASSAGES
Psalm 116:1-9 — On Trusting and Speaking
1 Corinthians 15:12-16 — Why Christ’s Resurrection from the Dead Matters