Sermon XXVII.1 The Christian’s work of dying daily.
“I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” 1 Cor. xv. 31.
These words have a great vehemency and emphasis in them, and discover an uncommon earnestness upon the spirit of the apostle when he wrote them; and indeed they carry a greater appearance of such a vehemency in the original than in our translation. For the words we put in the last place, “I die daily,” are the first in the original: Καθ ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκω, “I die daily;” Νὴ τὴν ὑμετέραν καύχησιν ἢ ἔχω ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, — “Yea, I do so by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And there is no expression used by the apostle that hath a greater ardour of spirit in it than this hath.
The special reason of using it in this place is, to evidence the stability of his faith about the resurrection of the dead. That, you know, is the dispute he is upon. And he proves here that it was not an opinion that he had; but a firm-rooted faith, that carried him through all difficulties and sufferings. “Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.” “I do evidence my faith,” saith he, “of the resurrection, by my readiness to suffer all things in the confirmation of the truth of it.” And it is the great duty of ministers to be ready at all times to evidence the stability of their own faith in the things which they preach to others, by a cheerful suffering for them.
There are two things in the words: An assertion; and the confirmation of it. The assertion is this, “I die daily.” The confirmation of it, “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There are two or three difficulties in these words. I shall very little trouble you with conjectures, but give you what I think the sense of the Holy Ghost in them.
The one is from the ambiguous signification of the word καύχησις, which we render here “rejoicing.” But in other places it is rendered sometimes by “confidence,” sometimes by “boasting,” and sometimes by “glorying.” “Gloriation” is the word: I would use, if our language would bear it. “And your gloriation;” — which is an exultation of joy.
There is another difficulty, in the transposition of the words, such as are not in the Scripture again. “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus.” This hath afforded variety of conjectures unto many; but plainly the sense of it is this, “By the rejoicing which you and I have in the Lord.” And I could give instances of the like trajections in the Greek tongue, from one person to another, if it were to your education.
There is yet a third difficulty. The particle νὴ here is a note of an oath, or swearing; as much as בְּ in the Hebrew tongue; or in our language, “by;” yet sometimes it is used as a note of strong asseveration. And we have chosen to express it by a middle word, “I protest.” If it be a note of an oath, then the word is used to denote the object, “I swear by your rejoicing in the Lord;” that is, “by the Lord in whom you rejoice.” As it is said expressly, “Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac;” that is, “by Him whom his father Isaac feared.” But I rather take it here as a note only of vehement asseveration; and so, says he, “It is as true as that you and I do glory in Christ, and rejoice in him, I die daily.”
It may have a double sense, “I am every day, by reason of preaching the gospel, exposed to dangers and death.” For he doth speak both before and after of the dangers he underwent in the work of preaching the gospel. “I die daily;” or, “ ‘I die daily,’ by continually preparing myself to die; I am always in a preparation to die; through the faith of the resurrection, I am always prepared to die cheerfully and comfortably, according to the will of God.” And this is the sense I shall fix upon. And it being in a necessary duty, I may raise a general rule from a special instance, in this example of the apostle.
Observation. It is the duty of all believers to be preparing themselves every day to die cheerfully, comfortably, and, if it may be, triumphing in the Lord.
Observe only this, that there may be a dying safely, where there is not a dying cheerfully and comfortably. Every believer, whoever he be, shall die safely; but we see many believers do not die cheerfully and comfortably. I do not speak of the first, how all persons may come to die safely; but of the latter, how believers may die comfortably and cheerfully.