2 Corinthians 4:10, “…always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”
Because of the Christian’s union to Christ in the Spirit, Paul can interpret all Christian suffering that is endured in faith as a fellowship with Jesus in His death….and yet, the disciple bears this “death” while still living in hope because of Jesus’s resurrection (which ensures their own, v.14). This dynamic of suffering the death of Jesus even as we are sustained by hope in the resurrection of Jesus causes the believer to become a living, embodied witness to the present reality of the Risen Christ. Faithful suffering in hope….joining in Christ’s death and being upheld by the sure reality of His—and our—resurrection….this is one of the ways that the Body of Christ (as a community and as individuals) carries the Name of Jesus—and so of the Father—before the eyes of a watching world (Acts 9:15-16).
