Bible Study - Clay Jars - 2 Corinthians 4:7 - December 14, 2025

 

Bible Study – Clay Jars – 2 Corinthians 4:7 – December 14, 2025

2 Corinthians 4:7 - Treasure in Clay Jars

Now, we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.

Have you ever considered yourself as a clay jar?”

The Apostle Paul did, as we read in 2 Corinthians 4:7.

What is the treasure in these clay jars? THE TREASURE is beyond human imagination and that treasure can only come from The ONE TRUE GOD, YHWH, as the result of placing our faith in GOD’S only SON, JESUS and HIS passion.

That treasure is the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Let’s consider what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:3-14 - God’s Rich Blessings

³ Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.^[c] 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

When did GOD choose us to be adopted into HIS eternal family?

“Before the foundation of the world!”

The question is, “Do we choose HIM through faith in HIS only SON, JESUS?”

GOD chooses all humans to BE IN right relationship with HIM, but GOD gives all humans the freedom of choice.

The question is “How do you choose?”

GOD breathed into the nostrils of the first human, the breath of life and finished completing earth for HUMANS to sustain human life upon earth.

GOD focused not only upon earth life, which is finite but also eternal life, which is infinite, like The Trinity (GOD, THE FATHER, THE SON, JESUS, and THE HOLY SPIRIT).

GOD PROMPTS HUMANS TO LOOK AROUND. WHERE DID YOU COME FROM? Your parents or via insemination. You were given human life. So, what is next? Death? That does not seem fair.

GOD created the heavens, earth, and all that is in it, including humans.

What next? Life has a limit and the next step is death, but GOD offers eternal life, through faith in HIS only SON, JESUS.

THE CHOICE TO ALL HUMANS.

First GOD gave the Law and then at the right time, HE sent HIS only SON, JESUS, who did not sin but lived a sinless life and HE gave HIS sinless life upon the cross to pay, in full, for all sin.

Did JESUS accomplish HIS mission? YES!!!

How do we know that HE did?

GOD, HIS FATHER, raised HIM from being dead on the third day to eternal life. JESUS revealed HIMSELF for 40 days to prove to those alive then that GOD resurrected HIM from the dead.

This is a foreshadow of the eternal assurance for all who place their faith in JESUS as their SAVIOR.

THE QUESTION is, “Is there life after death for humans?”

JESUS replied to such a question as recorded before HS Passion as recorded in John 3:1-21:

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

³ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again,^[a] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴ “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. ⁸ The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹ “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰ “Are you a teacher^[b] of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. ¹¹ “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.^[c]

¹⁴ “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him may^[d] have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God loved the world in this way:^[e] He gave^[f] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it,^[g] so that his deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But anyone who lives by^[h] the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

We are to come to JESUS, WHO is the LIGHT.

Doing so takes a step of faith, and all humans have an enemy – Satan, who desires to confuse and capture humans, is active in our world. Satan will become more active as we get closer to the second coming of JESUS.

Based upon world events do you think things are waxing worse?

But as Spirit born Christians keep in your minds as recorded in

1 John 4

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every

spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world. ...

In Ephesians 1:7-14:

⁷ In him (JESUS) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸ that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.^[d] 9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the right time^[e]—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.

¹¹ In him (JESUS) we have also received an inheritance,^[f] because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, ¹² so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.

¹³ In him (JESUS) you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. ¹⁴ The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

Keep in mind that the Apostle Paul studied under the Jewish teacher, Gamaliel before he encountered JESUS on the road to Damaskus to arrest and kill, if necessary, these new followers of JESUS called “THE WAY.”

Acts 22:3: He (Paul) continued, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictness of our ancestral law. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

Did the Apostle Paul get the idea of “Clay Jars” form Genesis 2:7?

Let’s read in Genesis 2:7:

Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man (Adam) became a living being.

What did GOD use to make the first human? “Dust from the ground.”

So, we have the ingredients for clay jars that makes all of us humans “dust from the ground.” When we ask JESUS to forgive us for our sins and for JESUS to come into our hearts that is the power that can change the human from a clay jar to a Born-again eternal Child of GOD.

GOD breathed the “breath of life” into his nostrils! WOW!!!

I have heard of some obstetricians saying that the first breath of a newborn baby is a special, powerful, exhilarating moment.

When we, who are “born again” Spiritually and breathe our last breath, we will be face to face with JESUS and in the presence of GOD! YES!!!

If you care to read about an encounters I had with a lady leaving earth and walking with JESUS before the doctor pronounced her body dead, while I was driving on I 85. Look up actsclass.blogspot.com and in the upper left corner of the blog there is a blank. Type in the name Mrs. Green.

Another special moment is written in my blog - Friday, December 04, 2020

Bible Study - Emotions (1) - Walking in Grief - Psalm 116:1-9. 15-17 - December 6, 2020

Or when you access my blog – actsclass.blogspot.com – in the left blank typed in the words I hate death.

Back to our study ----

Earth was rich with building rich and special material suitable for GOD to use to create what was needed to make, create and sustain all forms of life upon earth. Forming Man/Adam was GOD’S joy.

But hold on ladies, let’s stick with Adam and the other inhabitants of earth for the moment ----

GOD took a part of Adam and made a masterpiece----

Adam -is Singler, thus is the first male human. Then what? GOD made livestock, wild animals, birds – Adam named them all.

Do you think GOD was keeping Adam busy? I think so, however when GOD had completed HIS work to make all the animals, Adam had a need that the animal world did not provide.

In Genesis 2 ²⁰ The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man^[k] no helper was found corresponding to him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. ²² Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ And the man said: WOW!!!

-- then GOD took a body part from Adam’s side, not his head or his feet but his side. GOD had made man complete, but GOD chose to make Adam a helpmate. GOD did not use another batch of dust! NO!

GOD took a body part or a section from Adam’s side, a rib and used it to make Adam a helpmate – Woman.

How did Adam react when he laid eyes on GOD’S handiwork?

In essence, “It was WOW!!! This is what I have been wanting. HIS excitement was like a number of men who have expressed when their bride begins her walk down the aisle.

Most men need companionship and Eve was just what Adam needed to be complete. Ladies, we need you to make us complete, as humans but we both need YOU, through faith in JESUS to make us complete as YOUR CHILDREN, through the miracle of Spiritual Birth.

Adam said, This one, at last, is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,”
for she was taken from man.

Notice GOD did not use more dust to make Eve but a body part from Adam. We cannot say “GOD used something else to make woman.” Woman is a special part of man with the intention of unity.

We now have two humans: One male and one female, the origin of the human race designed, by GOD, for the male and female to be made complete in marriage. The two are ONE!!!

²⁴ This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. ²⁵ Both the man and his wife were naked yet felt no shame.

When I first read about GOD taking Adam’s rib, I asked the obvious question, “Does man have one less rib than woman? The answer was and is “NO,” but it does raise the question, “What body part did GOD use to form woman?” It was a rib. It was from the side of Adam.

What can we learn from that fact?

GOD intended for woman to complete man and to be man’s help mate. The body part taken from the first man, Adam, was taken from Adam’s side. This gives us a clue regarding GOD’S intent for taking a body part from man to make woman. Woman is to come along by the side of man – not his head, neck, or foot. Woman is to help complete man, and both are to be used for GOD’S purposes.

The two are to act together as one.

GOD did not make Adam and Eve robots, but HE gave them freewill to choose. The question is, “How do you choose?”

What choice do we have? Heaven, through faith in GOD’S only SON, JESUS and HIS Passion or follow other paths such as following the Evil One, Satan/the devil. Satan entices us to follow our flesh desires.

Keep in mind that GOD made humans to be free thinkers. Think wisely. I pray for all who read this. It does take a step of faith.

I pray for all who read this to choose wisely and place your faith in JESUS.

Sorry, I took a side trip.

GOD used dust to form man. GOD’S plan was that man and woman would be made from identical dust. The same dust was used to form man also became woman.

GOD had already breathed the breath of life into man. It was GOD’S breath that brought or breathed life into man. Adam became the first living and breathing human. Eve was the second human person GOD formed. Man was elated that GOD made Eve.

I have been blessed with a God fearing and loving wife for 66 years and four wonderful GOD loving children, 10 grands, 8 great grands.

Now, onto the rest of our study ----

In essence, all humans are Jars of Clay and need the breath of GOD for them to go from Jars to Spirit Born persons for GOD.

The Apostle Paul’s life reveals what a life committed to serving JESUS looks like serving GOD as a born-again believer.

It is the presence of the Holy Spirit, through the miracle of Spiritual birth makes a JESUS follower a ‘Born-again” person, which results in “Eternal life.”

How does a “Spirit born” person know that he or she has been “born again” Spiritually and is an eternal child of GOD?

John 14:26

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you. This takes place the instant a person asks JESUS to forgive him or her for all of their sins and for JESUS to forgive him/her of his/her sins and for JESUS to come into his/her heart.

That is salvation and changes a person’s eternal destination from Hell to Heaven. Their citizenship is in Heaven, and they are Ambassadors for GOD.

At physical death, the “born-again” or “Sprit-born” person will never experience the death of his/her physical body but will be in the presence of GOD and JESUS moments before the physical body dies.

Now, that is good news and available to all who pray to receive JESUS as their Savior. It is not complicated ----

Dear JESUS, I have done things in my life that did not measure up to YOUR teachings and have disappointed GOD. I ask YOU to forgive me for all of my sins and for YOU to come into my life. FATHER, I want to be YOUR SON or DAUGHTER and live eternally in Heaven with YOU and JESUS. I ask YOU to fill my heart with YOUR presence and teach me the wonders of being Born again in my Spirit and learning from the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Welcome Home. I pray for each person who prayed this prayer or something similar. It is not saying the right words. It is all about a person’s heart.

If you are not already in a Bible believing and teaching fellowship or church, then pray and ask JESUS to lead you to a fellowship or church that teaches HIS WORD.

YES!!! It is done!!!

Blessings!!!