It is the result
of God’s grace that we have been entrusted with this ministry of the new
covenant, and we do not lose heart. And it is important for my readers to
understand that I have renounced secret, and shameful ways. My agenda is not to
deceive you, nor will I distort the Word of God. On the contrary, I always
attempt to preach the simple truth, and allow each man to judge my intent, and
morality.
If our Gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to those who have yet to come to a saving knowledge of the
Truth, and are on the verge of dying. The god of this world has veiled the
minds of them who refuse to believe, so that they are unable to perceive the
light of the Gospel, the blessed glory of the Christ; who is the tangible image
of the invisible God.
For what we teach
and preach has little or nothing to do with us, and everything to do with Jesus
Christ our Lord. And we ourselves are His slaves and your servants for the sake
of the Gospel message. For it is God who caused the light to fill up the
darkness, and also caused the flame of the Gospel to shine in our hearts. And
we have been afforded the wherewithal to fill up the darkness in the souls of
men, as we share this glorious Gospel, and steadily look into the glorious face
of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
But this treasure
with which God has entrusted us is hidden in common jars of clay, as it were,
in order to prove that this incomparable power originates with God, and not with
us. We are confronted on every side, but are not crushed, perplexed, but are
not depressed, persecuted, but not abandoned, knocked down, but not demolished.
We always carry
around in our mortal bodies the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus; so
that both his death and his resurrection power may be seen by those whom God
has set in our pathway.
For we who are
alive are always under threat of death for the sake of Jesus, so that His life
may also be revealed in our mortal bodies. So then, death is at work in us, but
life is at work in you.
As it is written, “I believed.
Therefore, I have spoken your Word.” Since we have that same Spirit of faith,
we also believe and we also speak; because we know that the One who called the
Lord Jesus back from the dead will also raise us up with Him, and present us
faultless, with you, to Himself. All of this is for your benefit, so that the
grace that works in us cannot help but result in great praise and thanksgiving.
Therefore,
we are never dejected. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet our inward man
is renewed with each new day. For our light and fleeting circumstances are
achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs these momentary
afflictions which we must endure.
So,
my dear readers, I admonish you to fix our eyes not on what you can see with your
eyes, but on that which is invisible and untouchable; since what we see now is
rapidly passing away, but what we are unable to see now is everlasting.
by William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from The McDonald Paraphrase of the New Testament. Copyright 2018
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