A Meditation on Extreme Faith in God

"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure (huperbole, that is, a throwing beyond), above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead (II Cor. 1:8-9)."


Paul carried the extreme message of the intrinsic necessity of the Iesous into the world.  He knew that to herald the work of the Iesous would be at great personal cost.  How could it be otherwise?  The old anthropology of persons doing horrific acts of moral depravity upon themselves and upon others found Paul's word of the Iesous offensive.

Paul found that the redemptive word caused some to bristle and seek to harm him.  He was placed under great and unrelenting pressure at times in his ministry.  He, and the disciples with him in Asia, found themselves pressed out of measure, above the power or ability to handle their circumstances from their own devices.  They were pushed to the limits of endurance and then beyond any reasonable expectation of survival.

"We despaired even of life..." at an utter loss.  Where was Theos in this situation?  There are times in life when the Theos of all comfort must allow us to experience pressures that are divinely designed for us to step out of ourselves, our programs and even our abilities.

His ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.  We have a plan, but he has the plan - the blue print for our lives that he authored before he flung down the created order of space-time.  We do not often realize that our plans of self-will are in conflict with God's plan because they are forged upon the anvil of ambition and shaped by the hammer of desire.

He must undo what we have done to ourselves.  So he takes us to the boundaries of ourselves and allows us to look over the precipice and see that we are ultimately fragile.  Paul, however, discovers that out there on the edge of himself, where he despaired of life, something more was super-added to his estate.

"But we had (perfect participle) the sentence of death in ourselves."  How could he make such a statement?  He knows the power and love of the Iesous.  But Paul has been led to an experience of the Iesous that has produced the experience of the sacrificial death of the Iesous in his life.

This 'sentence of death' is a divine blessing.  "That we should not trust (perfect participle) in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead."  Here is the balance in life that faith must have as its yardstick.  The sentence of death is the blessing and reminder not to trust in ourselves.  Trust in ourselves is our intrinsic idolatry.

Paul will have none of it.  He wants what God wants for his life.  Are you ready for extreme faith?  Are you ready to stop trusting self and start trusting God alone?

For more information about Dr. Josiah Rich and his ministry, please visit his website.