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“Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:10–11 (NASB)
“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.”
— Romans 6:5 (NASB)
The central truth of this song is one of the most profound and least understood principles of the Christian life: life comes through death. Not physical suicide. Not a morbid obsession with suffering. But a spiritual principle ordained by God: the only way to experience the resurrection life of Jesus is to accept identification with His death.
The modern church often emphasizes blessing, power, and victory. All of those are biblical. But the route to them is not self-exaltation. It is co-crucifixion with Christ. Paul states it plainly: we carry about “the dying of the Lord Jesus,” so that “the life of Jesus” may be manifested. No dying, no life. No cross, no resurrection.
Let us look carefully at what the Word of God says.
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### 2 Corinthians 4:10–11 – Paul under pressure
The words in 2 Corinthians 4 come from the apostle Paul, a man who knew suffering in a way few Christians today can imagine. In this letter, Paul is defending his ministry against false apostles and critics who questioned his authority because of his weakness, his afflictions, and his hardships.
In chapter 4 he explains how he can carry an unspeakably glorious treasure in a very fragile container:
> “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”
> — 2 Corinthians 4:7
These “earthen vessels” are our mortal bodies—weak, limited, vulnerable. And then he describes his own experience:
> “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
> persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…”
> — 2 Corinthians 4:8–9
Paul is not speaking from an armchair. He has been beaten, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, hungry, cold, rejected. In that context, he says:
> “Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus…”
He is explaining why his life looks the way it does. The continual exposure to death, weakness, and suffering is not an accident. It is part of the mystery of ministry in the New Covenant: the more the servant is weak and dies to self, the more the life of Jesus flows out to others.
That is why he adds, just a few verses later:
> “So death works in us, but life in you.”
> — 2 Corinthians 4:12
Ministry that truly imparts life to others will cost you. It will work death in you that life may work in them.
### Romans 6:5 – Union with Christ
Romans 6 is Paul’s great explanation of how we are set free from sin. He is not talking about feelings, but about facts—facts accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
He tells us that as believers, we have been baptized into Christ Jesus and therefore baptized into His death (Romans 6:3). Then he continues:
> “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.”
> — Romans 6:5
Here, Paul is not describing some special mystical experience for extra-spiritual believers. He is describing normal Christian salvation. To be saved is to be united with Christ—joined to Him—in His death and in His resurrection.
Romans 6 answers this question: “How can a sinner be delivered from the power of sin?” The answer is not self-improvement. The answer is death. God’s cure for the old nature is execution. And that execution has already taken place—in Christ, on the cross. Our role is to accept and reckon that His death is our death.
So 2 Corinthians 4 shows us the outworking of this principle in daily life and ministry. Romans 6 shows us the legal basis in our union with Christ.
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Let us consider two key expressions: “united with Him” (Romans 6:5) and “dying of the Lord Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:10).
### 1. “United with Him” – *symphytoi* (σύμφυτοι)
Romans 6:5:
> “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death…”
The Greek word is *symphytoi*. It comes from *syn* (together with) and *phyo* (to grow, to bring forth, to produce). It carries the picture of two things growing together into one, like two branches grafted so tightly that you can no longer separate them.
So this is not a loose association with Christ. It is an organic union. His story has become your story. What happened to Him is reckoned as having happened to you.
This is far more than mere imitation of Jesus. It is participation in Jesus.
### 2. “The dying of the Lord Jesus” – *nekrosis* (νέκρωσις)
2 Corinthians 4:10:
> “Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus…”
The Greek word is *nekrosis* from *nekroō* — to make dead, to put to death, to render inoperative. It is not the final state of death (*thanatos*), but the process of dying, the ongoing working of death.
Paul is not saying, “Once, long ago, I died with Christ,” although that is true in principle (Romans 6). He is saying that in his daily life and ministry there is an ongoing process: circumstances, pressures, and trials that constantly bring him to the end of himself. This continual “death” is what makes room for the continual manifestation of the life of Jesus.
So we could paraphrase:
The lyrics echo these truths: carrying the dying, so that the resurrection life may be shown forth.
---
The lyrics essentially restate the Scriptures, which is a very safe and powerful way to sing.
> “In my body I carry about the dying of the Lord Jesus,
> so that the resurrection life of Jesus also may be shown forth through my body.”
There is a divine order in these phrases:
1. Carry about the dying of Jesus.
2. So that the life of Jesus may be manifested.
We would often like to reverse this order. We want resurrection life without crucifixion. We want power without pruning. But that is not the way of the cross.
### A. “In my body I carry about the dying of the Lord Jesus…”
Paul speaks specifically of “my body.” This is not just a mystical idea in the realm of theory. It touches practical areas:
In 2 Corinthians 1:8–9 he describes such an experience:
> “…we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;
> indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.”
The “sentence of death” is God’s way of bringing us to the end of all self-trust, all self-reliance. The old “I can manage” must be brought to the cross. That is the dying of Jesus at work in us.
This is parallel to Romans 6:
> “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
> — Romans 6:6–7
Here we see the objective fact: our “old man” (old nature, Adamic self) has been co-crucified with Christ. But in 2 Corinthians 4, we see that this spiritual fact is worked out in daily experience: God allows pressures that continually expose the old nature, press it to the cross, and render it inoperative.
### B. “So that the resurrection life of Jesus also may be shown forth through my body.”
The purpose of the dying is not spiritual masochism. It is not that God delights in our pain. The purpose is manifestation of life—the life of Jesus Himself.
Notice: not just “life,” but the life of Jesus. This is specific. It is His patience, His purity, His power, His love, His endurance, His obedience.
Paul says this life is to be “shown forth” or “manifested” in our bodies. That means:
Philippians 3:10 expresses Paul’s longing:
> “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
Here again is the divine order:
1. Fellowship of His sufferings.
2. Being conformed to His death.
3. Knowing Him and the power of His resurrection.
The power of His resurrection is not given to bypass the cross. It is given to those who accept conformity to His death.
### C. “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake…”
The lyrics continue:
> “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake,
> so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal bodies.”
Here is another important phrase: “being given over to death.” Who is giving us over? Ultimately, it is God.
This same expression appears in Romans 8:36:
> “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
And it echoes the pattern in the life of Jesus Himself: the Father “gave Him up” (Romans 8:32) for us all.
Paul recognizes that his hardships are not random. They are under the sovereign hand of God, with a clear purpose: “for Jesus’ sake” and “so that the life of Jesus may be revealed.”
There is also a contrast: “we who are alive” … “being given over to death.” We are already spiritually alive in Christ, yet in our experience we undergo repeated “dyings”—situations in which our own strength, wisdom, and resource come to an end. Each time we yield to God in those situations, the old nature is further set aside, and the life of Jesus shines out more clearly.
This is spiritual warfare at a deep level. Satan’s aim is to destroy your faith, embitter your heart, and make you draw back. God’s aim, using the very same circumstances, is to kill the self-life and reveal the life of Jesus.
### D. “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we will also in His resurrection…”
This is the foundation for everything else. The song rightly joins 2 Corinthians 4 with Romans 6:5.
Romans 6:5 is both a promise and a pattern:
The “likeness” (Greek *homoioma*) does not mean a vague similarity. It means a corresponding form. Our death with Him is not identical to His, but it is truly participation in His death.
This rules out all human pride. There is no room for boasting. We did not raise ourselves. We did not improve ourselves. We died and God raised us.
Colossians 3:3–4 says:
> “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
> When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Notice: “Christ, who is our life.” Not Christ gives life, though that is true; Christ is our life. That is the ultimate fulfillment of this song’s theme: the life of Jesus shown forth through our mortal body, until, finally, our mortal body itself is transformed in resurrection glory.
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These truths are not theoretical. They must be applied. Let me give you several clear steps.
### 1. We must accept God’s verdict on the old nature.
God’s verdict on the old Adamic nature is not education, not rehabilitation, but execution. Romans 6:6 states a fact:
> “Our old self was crucified with Him…”
This is not something you feel. It is something God declares. You do not crucify yourself. God has already done it in Christ. Your role is to agree with God’s verdict.
A practical step is to say, by faith and out loud:
> “My old man was crucified with Christ. God’s solution for my old nature is the cross, and I accept that solution.”
The more you align your mind with this truth, the less hold sin will have on you.
### 2. We must yield our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.
Romans 6:11–13 shows us what to do with this truth:
> “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
> Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts…
> but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
There is a twofold action:
The dying and the life both touch the body. You do not say, “I am dead to sin,” and then yield your eyes, your tongue, your hands to sinful use. You consciously present them to God:
This is how “the life of Jesus” becomes manifested in your mortal flesh.
### 3. We must embrace divine pressures as opportunities for death to self and release of His life.
Many believers misinterpret the pressures of life. They assume that every hardship means God is angry or that something has gone wrong. But Scripture shows us another perspective.
2 Corinthians 4:17 says:
> “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison…”
Affliction, under God’s hand, is producing something. When you find yourself:
you have a choice. You can resist, complain, and harden your heart. Or you can say:
> “Father, I recognize this as a working of the dying of Jesus in me. I lay down my self-defense, my pride, my insistence on my own way. I yield to You. Let the life of Jesus be manifested through me in this situation.”
Every time you do this, death works in the self-life, and life in the Spirit.
### 4. We must make scriptural proclamations that align us with death and resurrection.
In my ministry, I discovered the power of proclaiming the Word of God aloud. With these particular Scriptures, you can turn them into confessions of faith that re-align your inner man.
Here are some examples you can use:
These are not positive-thinking slogans. They are declarations of what God has already said. As you proclaim them in faith, the Holy Spirit applies their power in your life.
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### Proclamation of Faith
Say this aloud, deliberately, as an act of identification with Christ:
> “In my body I carry about the dying of the Lord Jesus,
> so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in my body.
> I am one who lives, yet I am continually being given over to death for Jesus’ sake,
> so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in my mortal flesh.
> I have been united with Christ in the likeness of His death;
> therefore I shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.
> My old self was crucified with Him.
> I consider myself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
> The life I now live in this body is no longer my life;
> it is Christ who lives in me.
> His death works in my self-life, and His resurrection life flows out through me
> to touch others for the glory of God.”
### Prayer
“Lord Jesus Christ,
I thank You that You did not avoid the cross, but embraced it in obedience to the Father. I confess before You today that my old nature has nothing good in it, and that Your verdict over it is the cross.
I choose to agree with You. I accept that when You died, I died with You; when You were buried, I was buried with You; and when You rose, I rose with You to walk in newness of life.
Holy Spirit, apply the dying of Jesus in every area of my life where self still rules—my thoughts, my emotions, my will, my ambitions. Bring to death everything in me that resists the will of God. And in each place where death works, release the resurrection life of Jesus—His purity, His love, His power, His endurance.
Father, when pressures come, when I feel weak, rejected, or at the end of myself, remind me that this is not meaningless. Teach me to yield, not to rebel; to trust, not to murmur. Let the life of Jesus be shown forth through my mortal body, so that others may see not me, but Christ in me, the hope of glory.
I present my body to You as a living sacrifice. Let death work in all that is of self, and let the life of Your Son flow through me without hindrance. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.”
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