Where God Loves to Dwell
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. Mark, 2 Corinthians is really the Apostle Paul's most personal and emotionally raw letter. We have a front row seat to observe a pastor navigating through significant challenges and crisis, and it's therefore very good for pastors to be familiar with. It will serve us. And you have a resource you want to recommend about 2 Corinthians, and you want to share that with us on this episode.
Mark Prater:
I do. 2 Corinthians has been a letter I've been studying more in recent years for a lot of reasons. As you just said, it's his most autobiographical letter — if you really want to get to know Paul, read that letter. But I've found it really helpful for pastoral ministry. So I've looked at this, I've read a couple of commentaries I found helpful: Murray Harris's commentary on 2 Corinthians, and Paul Barnett — I found Paul Barnett's commentary very helpful. And I was recently just talking with C.J. about my study and interest in 2 Corinthians, and he recommended a book that I've since read by Dane Ortlund. It's called Ministry in the New Realm: A Theology of Second Corinthians. It's in a series entitled New Testament Theology, edited by Tom Schreiner and Brian Rosner. It's a shorter book than a commentary — about 145 to 150 pages — and yet very helpful, not just theologically but practically as well. Dane writes in such a way that I think this is a helpful resource for pastors in particular, but as I've read it I think it's also helpful for members of our churches. It's not too academic; it's very accessible. And there are themes in here that I find really, really helpful. So that's kind of what I want to talk about today — and I want to encourage guys in pastoral ministry to study that letter, because you'll be served by it for years to come.
Benjamin Kreps:
Nice, evocative name — and typical Dane Ortlund style. I like that: Ministry in the New Realm. Those of us who are familiar with Dane's writing can imagine some of what might be in the book. But why don't you share with us a bit of the flavor of the book and a little overview?
Mark Prater:
Let me give you just the theological overview — that's really what he starts the book with in the introduction. This is the very first paragraph:
"The overarching theological message of Second Corinthians is this: in the new realm that was inaugurated when Jesus ascended and the Spirit descended, life and ministry are flipped upside down, such that God's strength interlocks not with human strength and sufficiency, but with human weakness and pain."
That's a flip upside down. And that's what life and ministry is like in the new realm. There are two themes he really carries throughout the book theologically — the framework of it. The new realm comes from the theological concept of inaugurated eschatology: the already but not yet. That's one of the themes. And then the other theme that threads throughout the entire letter, besides inaugurated eschatology, is strength through weakness. Dane talks about that a little later in the introduction, saying these two primary emphases — eschatology and strength through weakness — thread through this entire book.
He goes on to say he takes Richard Gaffin's proposal for a center to Paul's theology as more broadly encompassing of the particular message of 2 Corinthians. And here's Gaffin's quote:
"The center of his theology is the death and resurrection of Christ in their significance."
And I think that's really, really true. That's what you see throughout 2 Corinthians — the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how life as a Christian, or certainly life as a pastor, reflects that death and resurrection each and every day as we serve in weakness and receive God's strength. So that's basically the theological overview.
Benjamin Kreps:
Sounds wonderful. My interest is piqued. You were sharing some of the chapter titles before we started recording — also very compelling. Give us a couple of chapters you want to highlight and talk about.
Mark Prater:
I'd like to point out two chapters. But let me just list the chapter titles quickly first. Chapter one: "Inaugurated Eschatology: The Framework of New Realm Ministry." Chapter two: "Jesus Christ: The Launcher of New Realm Ministry." Chapter three: "The Spirit: The Sign of New Realm Ministry." Chapter four: "Satan: The Enemy of New Realm Ministry." Chapter five: "Friendship: The Method of New Realm Ministry" — that one stopped me when I read the table of contents. Friendship. I wouldn't have necessarily expected that. Chapter six: "Heaven: The Hope of New Realm Ministry." And then chapter seven: "Strength through Weakness: The Secret to New Realm Ministry."
So a couple of chapters I want to point out. The first is the one on friendship — because of how he gets at it, it's very much a part of how he thinks. He says:
"I want to explore the evidence in Second Corinthians for how Paul thought about Christian fellowship and friendship. A word of definition: I am using friendship in this chapter quite broadly, to speak of healthy Christian fellowship. The reason I am not using a word such as fellowship or community is that these blander terms lack the connotation of collegial camaraderie and affection that friendship invokes."
I like that phrase: collegial camaraderie. That's why he uses the term friendship. And he goes on to look at Paul's ministry throughout the New Testament. He goes to the book of Acts and talks about how Paul was always traveling with others who were essentially his friends, and then had fellowship with them. He also points out that in only five of his 13 letters does Paul identify himself as the sole source of the letter. And three of those five — 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus — are written to a single individual, so it makes sense that he's the solo author. So Paul really wrote his New Testament letters with friends.
And he talks about what you see in 2 Corinthians specifically — because as you pointed out, Ben, this is Paul's autobiography in many ways. He's very raw emotionally in this letter, and you experience the heart of Paul as he both has to defend himself to some in Corinth, and yet has this great affection for the Corinthians. It comes through so, so clearly. This is a man who had friends in Corinth that he was writing to. He talks about this painful letter — we don't have it on record — that he wrote them, which caused him great pain. It affected him that it had caused them pain, even though it was very necessary for him to write. He just clearly treasured friendship and did ministry with his friends.
Just one more quote from this chapter:
"Most deeply, Paul views his relationship with his churches as one of spiritual union and solidarity."
What Ortlund is pointing to there is union with Christ — that's where Christian friendship is different, because we are united in Christ. And there's a solidarity in that that marks friendship. So a good chapter.
And then the last chapter I just thought was outstanding: strength through weakness. If you've ever read 2 Corinthians, that's not a surprising theme throughout the letter. But I just want to reference what he says. He talks about how the Christian life portrays the death and life of Jesus Christ, and he references 2 Corinthians 4 — "We have this treasure in jars of clay" — just to show that this all-surpassing power does not come from us but from God. And then in 2 Corinthians 4:10–11, he says:
"Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh."
He's talking about ministry being like that — a life of dying, so that the death of Christ is manifested, and the life of Christ is manifested because of His resurrection power. And this is what Ortlund says:
"In a sentence in which he repeatedly lifts up the opposites of life and death, Paul writes that we appropriate Jesus' physical death in our own mortal flesh for the purpose of the manifestation of Jesus' life. This is critical: there is a direct causal connection between the human experience of 'death' and the manifestation of divine life. Paul's point, in other words, is not merely that both can co-exist, but that one indeed leads to the other. To put it most strongly: it is impossible to experience the life of Jesus without experiencing the death of Jesus."
That's a well-written sentence. And of course there's application in pastoral ministry, but I think there's application for the Christian life as well — another reason why I think this book is good for members to read too.
And then, of course, most people are familiar with the power through weakness so clearly portrayed in 2 Corinthians 12 — the thorn that is not taken away, and verse 9: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Ortlund defines what he means by grace in that context. He says:
"When Paul uses the word grace, he is using it in a broader sense — not talking about saving grace, but it is shorthand for the presence of God sustaining, empowering, calming, supporting, comforting, emboldening, and satisfying his people. 'My grace is sufficient for you' means 'I, Jesus Christ, am sufficient for you.'"
And then he makes one more sentence I want to read:
"Our weakness attracts, not repels, God's own power. Our loneliness and incapacity, which we naturally fear and flee, is precisely where God loves to dwell."
That's good news. That's good news for the Christian. That's good news for the pastor. Because that's what ministry and the Christian life is about — our loneliness and our insufficiency. And that's where God loves to dwell. There are more quotes from that chapter I could read, but those were the ones I wanted to point out. It's a book I would recommend — I found it very helpful.
Benjamin Kreps:
Well, thank you for the recommendation. I will certainly be picking that up — that sounds wonderful. I just saw Matt Smethurst post on X recently, referencing an article that said only 1 in 40 pastors who start in vocational ministry will finish their working career in vocational ministry. Because it is so hard. And some of the things you're talking about — pastors checking out the podcast know exactly what you're referring to. But it is where we have the grace of Christ for our insufficiency. And furthermore, we have that collegial camaraderie in Sovereign Grace. Just thinking about that as you were talking — I'm so glad that we get to do ministry as friends.
And even as we're looking forward — we're just weeks away, as we're recording this, from the Pastors and Leaders Conference. That's right. We get to experience all kinds of wonderful things to help and sustain us. But thank you for recommending Dane Ortlund's book to us as an expression of your care for us. And thank you everyone for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.