2 Corinthians 1:9

Sentence. Literally, “answer.” Paul thought God willed for him soon to lay down his life. They had the “answer” of death in themselves; that is, the inward answer they gave to the question of their fate was that they would die. The tense of the Greek verb implies that the vivid recollection of the death experience made it still seem real as he wrote.

Not trust in ourselves. The experience through which Paul had recently passed had impressed this lesson upon him. The same truth was evident to him as he prayed for the removal of his “thorn in the flesh” (ch. 12:7-10). Paul learned to rely on the “comfort” he had found in God (see on ch. 1:4).

All men have a strong tendency to trust in themselves, a tendency that is most difficult to overcome. It took “the sentence of death” and “a thorn in the flesh” before Paul overcame it. Israel’s experiences on the way from Egypt to Canaan were designed to teach Israel this fundamental lesson. God often permits His people to experience dire straits in order that they may come to realize their own insufficiency and be induced to trust and hope in His sufficiency.

Trials are requisite to Christian experience (Acts 14:22). It is fundamental to man’s salvation that he learn to rely wholly upon Christ. Confidence in God is an essential factor in day-by-day Christian living. It is often in the fiery furnace that men learn to walk side by side with the Son of God (see Dan. 3:25). Only those who “hunger and thirst” for the things of God may expect to be “filled” (see on Matt. 5:6). A sense of need is ever prerequisite to receiving the gifts of Heaven (see Vol. V, p. 209; see on Mark 1:44; Luke 7:41).

Raiseth the dead. For Paul’s comment on the certainty of the resurrection see 1 Cor. 15:12-23, 51-55; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17.