Earthen Vessels

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthern vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

It was a fine day in California, USA. A couple, John and Mary, were walking together on their property. It was a large property of many acres, filled with hills studded with boulders and trees bent over with age.

On one of their many walks, they had noticed a particular tree on a hill. This tree was decrepit with exposure to the harsh environment, cracked with age. But what made this tree stand out from all the others was something unnatural in it – there was a tin, hanging from one of the branches. They had not put it there. No one seemed to know why there was a tin hanging from the branches, in fact, the tin had been hanging from the branch for so long that the tree had begun to grow around it.

This day was like every other day – they were out walking again, this time they were passing that that tree again with the rusting tin slowly being engulfed by the tree.. On this walk, however, something happened. Mary noticed something sticking out of the ground covered with some moss by the trail. It had an shape that was unnaturally uniform for the surrounds. She poked at it and as she pushed away the moss, a spark of excitement shot through here. It was something man-made, a rusty tin.

A well of curiosity sprung up inside as they examined the tin. It’s end was still sealed. They tried to pull it out of the ground but it was too secure to be done by hand. John grabbed a stick and began to loosen the soil around it until it was freed.

It was quite heavy as they began to take it back to the house, surmising about what could be in there. “It must be full of lead paint,” said John. No sooner had he said this, that the edge of the lid cracked from the strain placed on its rusty structure. Light pierced into the darkness of the tin for the first time in many years, and gleaming back at them was the rib of a golden coin.

Their excitement was reaching a crescendo. Was it possible that they had stumbled upon a hidden cache of gold? Hidden inside this rusty tin, its form barely discernable after so many years in the elements – corrupted beyond repair. But within was a treasure – a fortune that made this tin despite its worthlessness in itself – so much more precious than any of the other tins they possessed.

This treasure discovery would become known as the Saddle Ridge hoard. Over the following months, they would discover close to this tree with the tin hanging from it, several more tins, all filled with gold coins worth millions of dollars.

In 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul tells us we have a treasure. This treasure is in earthen vessels. Before we discuss the treasure, let’s discuss the vessel.

Earthen, literally – terra cotta. Clay vessels. So fragile. A sharp blow can shatter it beyond repair. Limited in use, made from the earth, much as man, made from the dust of the ground.

These earthen vessels are you and me. Throughout the Bible time and again we are likened to vessels.

2 Ti 2:21 – If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour.

Acts 9:15 – But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, . . .

1 Th 4:4 – That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour

1 Pe 3:7 – Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel

These vessels are made of the ground. The basest of all things. So fragile. If a clay pot breaks, what do we do? We throw it out. It’s not worth fixing – it cannot be fixed.

The earthen vessel is prone to collapse – to degradation and corruption. Just as our bodies slowly decay. We are all dying. Every moment that passes by, you are one step closer to the grave – the earthen vessel.

Even if we were to refine the earth from which we made the vessel so that we made it iron, it too would slowly corrupt. As the tins in which the gold was buried slowly rusted till they were all but gone – our bodies will slowly corrupt until our time on this earth is no more.

The earthen vessel is a fitting analogy for us as humans. For what is our worth? Who is man that the Creator of the universe should give him any attention? In our day and age, we try so hard to ‘self-affirm’. Crackpot psychology attempts to help the individual find self worth, self esteem, self, self, self. I hate to break it to you, but you, on your own are worthless. All the achievements in the world, mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. You can look for it and name it and do it, but it will come to nothing in the end.

Solomon already did the experiment for us. He wrote in Ecclesiastes: Vanity of vanities. ALL is vanity.

What is it then that makes an earthen vessel precious? The value of the vessel is found in what it carries! How much were those rusty tins in California worth? Not even a penny. But if they still had the gold inside them? They were worth millions!

What treasure can we as earthen vessels carry? What was the treasure that Paul was referring to? For there is a treasure that worthless earthen vessels such as we are can carry that can transform us from worthless to priceless.

The start of verse 7 is a ‘but’. It tells us that it’s connected to what was said before.

2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

What is the treasure? The knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Or if we were to shorten the sentence – the knowledge of God in Christ.

Thank God for the day God gave light in your darkness and you could comprehend that God was in Christ! Thank God for the day that you could see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

It is written, ‘To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.’ The price for your sin and mine was paid on Calvary, but don’t take what was written out of context. The sin of the world was paid for at Calvary. The sin of the whole world throughout all time was paid at Calvary. When Jesus cried out on the cross, My God, why have you forsaken me? It was at that moment, that all the sin of the world that has ever been came upon a sinless man – and there in the God man, God met sin face to face and destroyed it.

With all that said, the sin of the world being paid for does not automatically mean that all are saved. The debt we owed is paid in Christ. The only way you don’t pay for your sin is to be IN Christ, for he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM.

That’s why we insist you must be baptized in the name of Jesus. The only way that the sacrifice of Calvary can touch you and I is by us being IN Him. We die to ourselves and we are buried with him so that when he returns, we too can rise in newness of life. Not because the vessel itself was worthy, but what was inside the vessel – the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

There is more to this glory of God in Jesus Christ. From the early days of the Church there has raged an argument that continues to this day: who is Jesus Christ? Indeed, before the Church was born, this argument was already going. Some said he was Elias, some said one of the prophets. Who is Christ?

Today the argument is how much of God is in Christ? Some say he’s an angel, the most powerful spirit being ever created. Some say he’s just a man. The first perfect man, but a man nonetheless. Some will say he’s God the Son in the flesh, sent by a Trinity to redeem mankind. And yet some will say, he’s God – all of God – in the flesh. If you understand the last one, you are special. You are privileged. That doesn’t come from man but from God.

Paul writes in 1 Co 12:3, No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. If you’ve been given the revelation of the Oneness of God, then you ought to thank God for the moment that God shined the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

It might not feel like it matters, but it does in so many ways. It’s the very heart of the greatest commandment – to love God with all. How can you love what you don’t understand?

If you understand that the One God is in Christ, then you understand something precious. We don’t see just humanity. We are not looking at an angel. We are not looking at the second person of the Godhead with two others whom we are yet to meet. In Christ we see all that God is. For in Him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily. In Christ we see God the Father! In Christ we see El Shaddai. In Christ we see the Comforter. In Christ we see Jehovah Nissi, Jireh. In Christ we see the invisible God who no man has ever seen nor can see – save in the face of Jesus Christ.

When we look into the face of Jesus, we don’t see one sent on behalf of another. Some would read John 3:16 and say, look, how does a loving God send someone else to die? If you understand that it’s God in Christ, we know that God didn’t send someone else. The Creator didn’t send someone else. He came himself.

This is the mystery that Paul speaks of in 1 Timothy 3:16 – without controversy. Without parallel. Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.

The mystery is not how God sent someone else. It’s not how God exists in three persons throughout eternity. The mystery is how God, the eternal. God the Creator. God the infinite. God became flesh. Flesh that is mortal, flesh that is created. Flesh that is finite.

Jesus Christ: fully God and perfect man, fused not confused in order to become the substitute for you and I.

 You might understand it simply. You might understand it more complexly. If you’re ministry, I certainly hope you’re studying to learn it complexly. But if you have it, don’t let go of it. Don’t sell it. There’s no knowledge more precious that you can carry in your earthen vessel.

Unlike the rusting tins from Saddleback Ridge, the treasure of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is transformative to the vessel. When the coins were taken out of those tins, they were discarded as having no value – but when God puts His Spirit in you, the Spirit of Christ, there’s a transformative effect, for long after these mortal bodies have decomposed and nothing remains, there will come a day when the last trumpet will sound and every one of these earthen vessels, if they have held onto this treasure will rise again. Every one of the redeemed, filled with the Spirit of God, on that day, somehow every atom and molecule will come together and this vessel will be restored. Not only restored, it will be transformed, from mortal to immortal. From corruptible to incorruptible. It all starts with a knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This knowledge is so precious, yet it is kept in earthen vessels.