2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry,as we have received mercy,we faint not;
What is the ministry that Paul is writing about? Reading through 2 Corinthians chapter 3,we see that we have a ministry of showing Jesus Christ in our lives and telling others about Jesus Christ. God has granted all people mercy in allowing them to continue to live even if they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour and it through God’s grace that a man can be saved. What a marvelous thing God’s grace truly is:the fact that God took a wretched man like me and saved me and blessed me and has placed me where He has is astounding. He did not have to save me,but because of His love,He offered up His Son,Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sin and resurrected Him three days later. Jonathan Edwards wrote about Jesus Christ love for His creations:
“His delight in the prospect of the eternal salvation of souls more than countervailing the dread He had of His extreme sufferings. Many waters could not quench His love,neither could the floods drown it,for His love was stronger than death;yea,than the mighty pains and torments of such a death.”
“The Scripture every where represents it,as though the great things Christ did and suffered,were in the most direct and proper sense from exceeding love to us.”
God’s mercy allowed us to remain until we accepted God’s grace for salvation. People only have mercy from God because of His great love for man. His love is shown to be all the more greater because God loves mankind despite what mankind has become. Thus He loves people and saves them not because of some sort of merit and because of their good deeds,but because He loves us. Why does God love us? It is certainly not because of our dashing good looks or intellect.
“No man loves God in a worthy manner or as the law commands (Deut. 6:4,5;Matt. 22:37),nor is there a man who glorifies God in every thought,word,and deed (1 Cor. 10:31;Romans 1:21). All men prefer self to God (2 Tim. 3:2-4),and all acts of altruism,heroism,civic duty,and external religious good are prompted by the love of self or the love of other men,but not the love of God. Furthermore,the mind of man is hostile toward God,cannot subject itself to the will of God,and cannot please God (Romans 8:7,8). Therefore men are inclined to greater and greater moral corruption,and this moral deterioration would be incalculably more rapid than it is were it not for divine intervention which restrains man’s evil. Finally,man cannot free or recuperate himself from his sinful and depraved condition. He is spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1-3),morally corrupt (Psalm 51:5) and cannot change himself (Jer. 13:23)” [Paul Washer].