…the power may be of God and not from (ἐξ) ourselves; (2Cor 4:7)

…the power may be of God and not from (ἐξ) ourselves; (2Co 4:7 NAS)

 The little genitive preposition, ἐξ, translated as “out of” or “from” has several different nuances.  The context marks a very clear the distinction that the power of the gospel is foreign to natural man and originates from a different source or person.

3. marker denoting origin, cause, motive, reason, from, of

    c. to denote derivation  come, derive from someone or someth. 2 Cor 4:7 (BDAG)

The heart that possesses this gospel treasure will be drawn into a spiritual battle with the flesh that will take him or her to the edge of being crushed, the point of despair, the thought of being forsaken, and the peril of being destroyed (2 Cor 4:8-9)! The key to the manifestation of God’s truth is found through the renouncement of the flesh (2 Cor 4:2)! The Christian who suffers from a lack of God’s power may be struggling with their inability to deny their flesh in their own power. The power of the flesh is so strong that the treasure bearer must not only deny his flesh, he must die to it daily to be successful in his quest to follow Jesus (Lk 9:23)! 
 

^“always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Cor 4:10).

This ongoing process of dying to self  is the “Calvary road” of sanctification that gives life in our mortal flesh, and is what enabled Paul to say "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain". (Phil.1:21)

 ¹¹ For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake  that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Cor 4:10-11).