How can we as believers not lose heart (2 Corinthians 4:16)?

"Is any afflicted, let him pray." Let him draw near to God and stay his soul upon has word, for his recompense and his reward are there, even God Himself. And here we must come back to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians and read afresh of his confidence and hope. "For this cause," he says, "we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." What great and abiding substance is here, but mark the condition on our part, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

“Is any afflicted, let him pray.” Let him draw near to God and stay his soul upon Has word, for his recompense and his reward are there, even God Himself. And here we must come back to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians and read afresh of his confidence and hope. “For this cause,” he says, “we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” What great and abiding substance is here, but mark the condition on our part, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Verse 16. "For which cause we faint not," etc. Fainting is not for those who joy in such a prospect; the mercy which he had received, and the hope for which he waits, alike forbid it. Yet he had fainted had he not believed (Ps. 27:13); for the pressure on his flesh was hard, he died a daily death. But there is in every believer an inward man which daily comes to life. Corruption and renewal mark respectively the old and new in that wonderful and complex being the regenerate man. Nature decays, but grace revives; the undying Christ being evermore within His suffering saints, the hope of glory (Rom. 6:9-11, 8:10-11; Col. 1:27). And with a change of life there is a change of language also, for faith sits triumphantly above all natural facts and experiences, and contradicts them by the voice of God; as in the following words:

Verses 17, 18. "For our light affliction," etc. The second of these verses is the argument of the first; for it is only while looking by faith on things unseen that burdens, in themselves of overwhelming weight, can be accounted light. But as all creatures when compared with their Creator are as nothing, so faith's anticipations have ever a diminishing effect on the temporary experiences, whether joyous or grievous, of the believer. We have two things to consider in the passage now before us; first the apostle's doctrine, and secondly the language in which it is expressed. What is here clearly affirmed is the existence of a positive relation between the tribulation which is the common calling of God's saints while in the flesh, and the glory which they are to have. The latter is declared to be a resulting effect of the former; "the light affliction works for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The extremes are here brought into comparison, the intermediate effect of tribulation on the exercised heart of the believer being patience (Rom. 5:3).

(V. 16). Thus if the glory of God was secured through the trials of the Apostle, he did not faint. Nevertheless, the outward man — the man in touch with this scene — is wearing away under the stress of trials, persecution, infirmities, and age. The inward man — the man in touch with spiritual and unseen things — is renewed day by day. There is spiritual growth in the inner man. The very trials and infirmities that weaken and wear the body become the occasion to strengthen and renew the spirit.

(V. 17). Seeing then that in trials and afflictions the inner man is renewed, the Apostle counts the present afflictions but "light," and only lasting "for a moment," and working for good. These momentary trials will have an eternal answer. The afflictions are temporal, light and humiliating, but they work an "eternal weight of glory."

It is, however, only as we look, not at things seen, but at the things which are not seen, that we are sustained without fainting in the midst of trials. Things seen are only for a time; the things not seen are eternal.

Later on Paul would rightly say to those Corinthians who had been causing him so much affliction: “Having this ministry, as we have had mercy shown us, we faint not” (2 Cor. 4:1). Deeply conscious of the grace granted to him to be a servant of the Lord, the apostle was persevering. He further says, “We faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day ... while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen” (v.16-18). Daily inner renewal is necessary for us to persevere. Our gaze must not linger over our earthly trials, but be directed towards what is beyond, towards the things that are not seen and are eternal.

The apostle said, "will present me with you," for, he adds, according to the heart and mind of Christ towards His own, "all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God." And therefore it was that he did not allow himself to be discouraged; but on the contrary, if the outward man perished, the inward man was renewed day by day. For the light affliction, which was but for a moment (for such he esteemed it in view of the glory — it was but the temporary affliction of this poor dying body), worked out for him an eternal weight of glory which was beyond all the most exalted expression of human thought or language. And this renewing took place; and he was not disheartened come what might, in that he looked not at the things that are seen, which are temporal, but at the things that are not seen, which are eternal. Thus the power of the divine life, with all its consequences, was developed in his soul by faith. He knew the result of everything on God's part.

This renewal of the Holy Spirit spoken of in Titus 3:5 is still going on; but if a man professed the faith of Christ and apostatised, we are told in Hebrews 6:6, it is impossible to renew him again to repentance after he has outwardly partaken of the great benefits spoken of in verses 4 and 5. The fact is he was never a true believer at all, and his own course proves it. Those, however, who are true children of God are to make progress in the direction which the Word of God indicates by the renewing of their minds. The Apostle Paul tells us that notwithstanding all the labours and afflictions which were his, he experienced a daily renewal. “Though our outward man perish,” he writes, “yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16); and what he says immediately after gives us the secret of this: “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The latter engrossed his attention, for Christ is the Centre of them all.

And not only is there resurrection in the future but also a work of renewal in the present. "Our outward man" is the material body with which we are clothed. "The inward man" is not material but spiritual — that spiritual entity that we each possess, and which (since we are believers) has become the subject of God's new creation work. The current usage of this phrase in the world is a total misapplication of it. A man speaks of paying attention to "the demands of the inner man" when he means having a good meal to satisfy his stomach; and thus even the inner man is turned into a part of the anatomy of the outward man. This of course is symptomatic of the fact that the spiritual does not come within the range of the natural man.

The outward man is subject to all kinds of buffetings and wear and tear, yet it may in the mercy of God receive a certain amount of renewal, which may stave off for a time that ultimate perishing which we call death. The inward man IS renewed day by day. This renewal is doubtless produced by the gracious ministry of the Spirit of God, who indwells us.

"Wherefore we fail not; but even if our outer man is consuming, yet the inner is being renewed day by day. For the momentary lightness of our affliction works out for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory: while we have the eye not on the things that are seen, but on those not seen, for the things seen [are] temporary, but those not seen, eternal." (Vers. 16-18.)

On such divine ground the apostle repudiates all thoughts of succumbing, and declares for moving on undauntedly. Enjoyment, ease, honour, are out of the question as a present thing; nay, pain, tribulation, detraction, contempt, opposition, all that can wear away the outer man are sure as the path of Christ is trodden. But in all these things is the life of the Spirit. Grace turns to our account by Christ, and this, even now, the things which seem most contrary to man's life in this world. Be it that it perishes, yet the inner man is renewed day by day. (Ver. 16.) It is not that the saint becomes more meet for partaking of the inheritance of the saints in light, for this rests on Christ and His redemption; but there is growth spiritually, a new nature and sure judgment of things around us, there is less value for what once attracted, and a more undivided deepening joy in the Lord and His objects here as well as in heavenly things. The babe becomes not a young man only, but a father. (1 John 2) Christ is more unwaveringly the attraction and the standard of thought, feeling, conduct, everything; while flesh and world not only sink, but are judged unsparingly, as one passes through all that would otherwise disappoint and torture, now regarded with calm and even thanksgiving.

This is so true that the apostle does not hesitate to designate so withering and pitiless a storm of trial, ever repeating itself in fresh blows and continual grief, as "the momentary lightness of our affliction." Yet who ever beheld, yea conceived, such suffering, save in the One with whom none can compare? And His grace it is that so works, and strengthens thus to reckon. Lightness of affliction! in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in death often. But why recite what no reader of feeling can have forgotten? Momentary! in him who scarce knew cessation of unexampled perils, inflictions, and labours. Yet was he full of good cheer. "For the momentary lightness of our affliction works out for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory." (Ver. 17.) To this he looked onward, reaping withal no small return of blessing even now, and thus binding together what was spiritual along the way with the end in the presence of the Lord by-and-by, in words which labour for adequate expression of the truth.

We must not lay unfounded stress on the "while" which introduces the last verse in our tongue. It is not here the expression of time emphatically, as if the blessing were only going on during the soul's regard of the things set before our faith, however important it may be that our regard should go on unbrokenly. The apostle says no more than that such is the due object for our contemplation, our heed paid not to the things that are seen, but to those that are not seen; with the explanation or reason assigned, "for the things that are seen [are] temporary, but those that are not seen [are] eternal." (Ver. 18.) Who does not own, save the basest of sceptics, that deliverance from the present and fleeting is true power? Who feels as he ought the simplicity with which Christ, as now revealed to us, and revealing the unseen and eternal things, makes good this mighty work in those who believe? How ought not the Christian to appreciate the gospel of His glory?

If the outer man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day, (but only) while we look to that which is unseen; and while we look to that which is unseen, the hand is open to let slip that which is seen. I want, and my prayer is for, more heavenlymindedness, and therewith less of minding of things present. Suffer, beloved, the word of exhortation from an aged one, who has been 52 years a would-be pilgrim and stranger, as you are down here.