God in the Vessel

"The sentence of death." 2 Cor. 1:9
The power of His resurrection. " Phil. 3:10
These two passages present two principles which the vessel of God's choice must practically learn. They are not confined to the Christian interval alone. They have been the lessons variously taught, and more or less intelligently learned by the elect, at all times and in all dispensations, though the clear, doctrinal meaning was not known until New Testament times.
They are, as we may speak, in a certain sense correlative. The vessel is taught experimentally the first of these, and in the same way he finds the second working in him. What has "the power of His resurrection" to do with anything but a dead man? Surely nothing! Therefore if death works in him, life works also in him in the power of resurrection. This power is of God alone.
These are the great lessons set for every saint while here. The measure in which they are learned is quite another matter, as is also the soul's apprehension of the lesson. But what conscious power is found as the soul learns to hold the cross to every motion of human life which works in his body! And the soul learns to bear about in himself the sentence of death, morally or physically, that he should not trust in himself, but in God who raises the dead. Then death works in him and life towards others.
The former principle, "we have the sentence of death in ourselves" is preparatory to the desire "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection."