OUR GLORIOUS PRESENTATION

A day is coming when we will be presented before the throne of God, perfected by His grace and completed by His power. The God who raised Jesus will raise us to stand before Him in His royal court. Paul expresses our expectation when he writes, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you (2 Corinthians 4:14). Raised with Jesus we are presented together as His perfect re-creation, fully sanctified at last we stand as one in Christ for all eternity.

The verb translated "will present" (παραστήσει) means to present in a formal, even legal, context BAGD, p. 627-628). For example, Jesus' parents presented the infant to the Lord in consecration at the temple in accordance with the Mosaic law following the days of purification (Luke 2:22). We, too, will be presented in consecration to the Lord at the resurrection of all believers. The predictive future can be either a simple assertion or a future promise (Burton, Moods and Tenses, p.34), but here Paul asserts the fact more than he promises the future. It will happen!

God will present "us with you," Paul writes. The "us" (ἡμᾶς) is carried over from the previous clause. God will raise us (ἡμᾶς) "with Jesus" (σὺν Ἰησοῦ) and will present us "with you" (σὺν ὑμῖν), Paul tells his readers. All believers, leading apostles, and normal Christians will be presented together as one glorious church raised with Jesus to eternal glory. Paul has absolute confidence that we will all experience the consummation together. No one runs ahead of anyone in the quest for glorification, and no one stands above anyone in the presence of God Almighty.

The New Testament commonly uses the verb with a strong sense of service (TDNT, 5:840). Who do we serve? Paul uses the same word to show us that we must not present our bodies to serve sin but we should present our bodies to serve righteousness resulting in sanctification (Rom. 6:13,19). In this life, we wrestle with that question, but there is coming a day when God will present us to perfectly serve Him forever finally freed from the presence of all sin. We will serve our King alone. The word was used to picture servants as standing in a position of honor before kings in the ancient world. We will stand before the King of Kings in His royal court as honored servants following the resurrection.

The verb can have a legal connotation meaning to stand before a judge (TDNT, 5:840). There is, perhaps, a hint of judicial review in the imagery of this verse since the context of the presentation following the resurrection leads to our standing before the Judgement Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10) where we are finally and irrevocably glorified (Meyer, Commentary, 6:500). Christ saves us to present us (Colossians 1:22) blameless and beyond reproach. The Judgment Seat of Christ is ultimately a purifying process - the end of our sanctification (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). All the dross is burned off and what remains is perfect. We become perfect servants to the King of Kings on that painfully glorious day.

Our goal as leaders is, like Paul, to present others to Christ perfect and pure (Colossians 1:28). We, like Paul, are jealous with a godly jealousy for those we lead to Christ because we want to present them to Christ as a father presents his pure virgin daughter to her husband (2 Corinthians 11:2). On that glorious day, the church - the bride of Christ - will be presented spotless to Christ, our groom. We will all finally be the gloriously pure bride Jesus came to save!

AN UNPOPULAR FAITH

Clever words can be used to produce superficially successful ministries. Modern sophists, like ancient sophists, framed their message to maximize popular appeal. They were successful. Paul was unimpressive, suffering, persecuted, and unpopular. After listing his afflictions, he writes: But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed, therefore I spoke," we also believe, therefore we also speak (2 Cor. 4:13).

The verse opens with the participle translated "having" (ἔχοντες). Although a bit awkward, it is best to take the participle as connected to the verb "we also believe" (πιστεύομεν) later in the verse (Robertson, Grammar, p.1134). Everything in between the participle and the main verb is a parenthesis explaining the participle - having all this, we believe! Both the participle and the main verb are in the present tense indicating the action of having and the action of believing are simultaneous actions (Burton, Moods and Tenses, p.54). They are actions in progress.

What do we have? We have "the same spirit of faith" (τὸ αὐτὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πίστεως). The pronoun αὐτός is an attributive pronoun meaning "same" (MHT, Grammar, 3:194). Is Paul's spirit of faith the same as the Corinthian Christians or the psalmist he is quoting? Paul is testifying that his faith is the same as the psalmist who experienced the same struggle and victory over suffering and death (Martin, 2 Corinthians, p.89). The faith of the Corinthians was weak and success oriented while the faith of the psalmist was strong in the face of rejection.

Is the spirit the Holy Spirit or the human spirit - a big "S" or a little "s"? Grammatically it could go either way. Many take it as a small "s" referring to the human spirit or disposition of faith (Hughes, 2 Corinthians, p.147). The word "faith" (πίστεως) would be taken as a subjective genitive meaning faith stimulates the attitude or disposition we use to face adversity. It is probably better to take "Spirit" as a Big "S" referring to the Holy Spirit (Meyer, Commentary, 6:499). Faith would be understood as an objective genitive meaning the Spirit stimulates faith in God as we face adversity. We can have confidence in God just like Paul, and his Old Testament hero had confidence because the Holy Spirit produces in us a trust in the Lord that transcends our circumstances.

Paul quotes from the Greek translation (LXX) of Psalm 116:10. The psalmist expresses praise to God for helping him through a time where he was brought low. You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling (Ps. 116:8). The psalmist proclaims his trust in God to see him through this trial, and then the psalmist says, I believed there for I spoke. Paul has this same Spirit induced faith which leads him to say - in the midst of his own sufferings - we also believe therefore we speak. The connective translated "therefore" (διὸ) combines the preposition διά with the neuter relative pronoun ὅ to form the strongest inferential connective in the New Testament (Dana & Mantey, Grammar, p.245).

Speaking comes from believing. Our confession with our mouths is closely connected to the faith in our hearts (Rom. 10:9). Faith produces boldness of speech. We say what we believe even if what we say results in suffering and death. The sophists of Paul's day were mesmerizing the Corinthians with their clever words. They hid behind a politically correct style of speaking to make the message palatable to people so they could be successful just as many sophists do today. Paul is no sophist. He says what he believes although his message might be unpopular and his ministry unsuccessful in human terms (Witherington, Conflict & Community, p.389).

Real faith is unpopular. Say it anyway!