Two ways of giving Divine Life
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There are at least two ways in which Divine Life could have been given to the believers in Corinth.
One way would have been for Paul, a successful minister enjoying the fruit of many years of study and experience, to preach Jesus to the Corinthians and then to pray that the Life of Jesus would come to them from Heaven above.
This is what happened when Peter preached to the household of Cornelius. The Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the Word of God.
Another method of communicating eternal resurrection life to the believers in Corinth, the method actually used by the Lord, was to crucify Paul through many afflictions, putting down Paul’s personality and then lifting Paul by Divine Life to such an extent that the Life spilled over to the Corinthians.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (II Corinthians 4:10)
The first way would permit the apostle (although this certainly was not the case with Peter!) to enjoy the good things of the world and yet preach in such a manner that eternal life was communicated to the hearers from an external source.
The second way required the crushing of the apostle until Divine Life was necessary in order for him to exist and minister. Paul had to decrease so Christ might increase.
Either method would have sufficed to bring eternal life to the Corinthians. In the first method Paul could have enjoyed his work, leading a normal existence. In the second method Paul had to endure the sufferings and death of Christ in order for eternal life to be communicated to the believers.
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