I think it is common for Christians to wonder how the gospel can be true in light of our frail, meager bodies and minds. How can the new creation hope of Christ actually be true now when we are all so fragile and weak? 2 Corinthians offers unique wisdom in answer to this question.

The wisdom has two parts. First, Paul explains his gospel teaching on analogy to God’s first act of creation, when he spoke light into darkness (2 Cor 4:1–6; Gen 1:3). With that analogy in place, he says two things relevant to our question. Paul describes Christians as “jars of clay” (2 Cor 4:7), a common container in the ancient world, I suppose, but not in mine. When I think of everyday containers, I think of Amazon boxes or tin cans. Paul says that for the time being, the gospel is communicated through everyday tin cans like ourselves (1) so that no one will mistake the messenger for the message. Our frail bodies don’t mean the gospel isn’t true. Our frail bodies make clear that we are not the focus of the message. We are not the point. Jesus is the point, and this leads directly to the second part of Paul’s answer.

The gospel is communicated through everyday tin cans like ourselves (2) because that matches what God did in Christ. God became a tin can like us to usher in new creation and so it makes sense that he would carry his work forward through us and our frail, meager bodies, minds, and words. We all recognize that we are weak and frail. That doesn’t mean the gospel isn’t true. It just means God has chosen to use us for a purpose that seems too good to be true. Let me explain where I’m seeing this in 2 Corinthians 4.

Gospel Teaching like “Let there be light!”

In 2 Corinthians 4:1–6, Paul says teaching the gospel is like what God did in Genesis 1:3, when he said, “Let there be light!” Why do some reject the gospel as foolish, absurd, or irrelevant? The “god of this world” blinds people’s eyes (2 Cor 4:4), just as he did Adam and Eve in the garden. But darkness and blinded eyes do not change the fact that the brightness of the gospel is shining. In the light of the gospel people see the glory of Christ, and he is much more than a just another great human being. He’s the image of God himself (2 Cor 3:4).

Jesus is the verbal content of the gospel (2 Cor 4:5), and through the proclamation of Jesus in the words of the gospel, God does a work in human hearts that parallels God’s work in creation. In Genesis 1:3, God caused light to shine into darkness by speaking, and so by the speaking of the gospel the glory of God in Christ shines into hearts, bringing new creation and new, eternal life to and through jars of clay (2 Cor 4:6–7).

Why are we still so weak?

How can the Gospel be true if our bodies and minds are still so frail? Paul’s answer is given with another analogy: The gospel is a treasure, and we are everyday Amazon boxes or tin cans, “jars of clay” (2 Cor 4:7).

One reason for this dichotomy between the treasure of the gospel and our meager existence: It’s “so that the greatness of the power might be from God and not from us” (2 Cor 4:7). Our weakness makes clear that God is the one who saves. No one will mistake me — a chipped, fractured clay jar — as kingdom come itself. Nevertheless, through my words they can see the light of Jesus’s glory and grace.

Second: It’s fitting because our weakness displays the dichotomy present in the way Jesus brought the kingdom. He brought salvation and new creation by suffering and dying. Why should it be any different for us? Though Jesus was a model human being who never sinned, he still became a tin can, a jar of clay. People looked at Jesus and said the same thing that our doubts and fears say about us, “How can this be kingdom come? There’s no way.” And so it is fitting that the kingdom would be carried forward through meager, weak people like you and me.

Conclusion

The dichotomy between our weakness and the glory of the gospel we spend our lives teaching doesn’t mean that the gospel isn’t true. It means God has chosen to use us in ways that seem too good to be true. In God’s wisdom, he has chose to use us, his very flawed imperfect disciples, to spread his kingdom. We are right to recognize that we are not fit to be used for such a purpose — “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor 2:16). This is part of the point: “God’s foolishness is wiser, and the God’s weakness is stronger” (1 Cor 1:25). We’re weak and foolish, but the wisdom shines through nonetheless.

As clay jars, we will indeed fall and break, but 1 Corinthians 15 is true, too. Dishonorable, weak cans will be raised in glory and power. “Normal” will give way to the truer, more real Spirit that lives within us (1 Cor 15:42–49). Regardless of our clay, “the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).