In 4:10 Paul says, “Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body.” In this verse Paul speaks of “the putting to death of Jesus.” Why does he use this expression here? To answer this question, we need to consider once again who Jesus is.
The origin, the source, of the man Jesus is God. Jesus is God incarnate, God conceived in a virgin’s womb. Outwardly, Jesus is a man, but inwardly He is God. Thus, Jesus is not simple. This Nazarene is a wonderful person. When He was on earth, outwardly He was lowly in every respect. He was born in a manger, and He grew up in the home of a poor carpenter in the despised town of Nazareth. Nevertheless, inwardly Jesus was glorious, for the most high God was in Him. Outwardly Jesus was a lowly man; inwardly He was the most high God. Truly Jesus is wonderful.
Now we must go on to see something concerning the death of Jesus. When many Christians mention the death of Christ, their understanding is limited to redemption. According to their concept, the death of Jesus was only for redemption. Often they quote the verse which says, “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). It is absolutely true that the death of Christ was for redemption. We believe this just as much as other Christians do, if not more. However, redemption is just one aspect of Christ’s death. His death also has many other aspects.
In 2 Corinthians 4 we see the aspect not of redemption and not of the imparting of life, but of destroying, consuming. According to this chapter, the death of Jesus is for the consuming, the wearing out, of our outward man. For this reason, Paul says in 4:16 that “our outward man is decaying.”
Although the man Jesus was God incarnate, God becoming a man, it was necessary even for His outward man to be consumed. According to the outward condition, the Lord Jesus was lowly. But in a spiritual sense, the Lord Jesus was not an insignificant man. On the contrary, Jesus equaled the entire old creation. When He was crucified, it was not only a man from Nazareth who died on the cross. When Jesus was crucified, the entire old creation, including all of us, was crucified also. The Lord Jesus died for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, not merely for the accomplishment of redemption.
The first goal in God’s eternal purpose is to terminate the old creation. The Lord Jesus, as God becoming man, was part of the old creation. It was not through incarnation that He became a man in the new creation. Rather, through incarnation He became a man in the old creation, a man who needed to be consumed.
At the age of thirty the Lord Jesus came forth to minister. During the three and a half years of His ministry, He was constantly being put to death. As a mature man of thirty, He was continually under the process of killing. Do not think that Jesus was crucified only for the six hours He was on a material cross. No, for at least three and a half years He was crucified daily. Every day He lived a crucified life.
The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross daily. Sometimes He was crucified by His mother. Other times He was crucified by Peter or some other disciple. Jesus was nailed to the cross even by His disciples’ love. For example, the more Peter loved the Lord Jesus, the more he crucified Him. Thus, before He was literally crucified by the Romans, Jesus had been repeatedly crucified by His mother, His brothers, and His disciples. In John 7 we have an example of the Lord’s being crucified by His brothers.
Actually, during the three and a half years of His ministry the Lord Jesus was not mainly living—He was dying. He was living a crucified life. This is what Paul means by the putting to death of Jesus. It is a slow, gradual, and continual crucifixion.
Now we can understand that the Lord Jesus was crucified not only during the six hours He was on a literal cross. For at least three and a half years, He was crucified continually, gradually, and slowly. In the words of Paul, this gradual crucifixion is the putting to death of Jesus.