2 Corinthians 3:7-13

2 Corinthians 3.7-13

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One of the many great things about reading Paul’s letters is the way that they demonstrate God’s providence in using for good what Satan intended for evil; so often God uses human shortcomings and failure to produce something wonderful. In this case He used the afflictions of Paul and the political turmoil (produced by ambitious men) in the Corinthian church to produce this amazing discourse on the ministry of the new covenant.

Paul uses the treachery of those me to demonstrate that whereas, the ministry of the Old Covenant (the Law of Moses) is the ministry of death because “the letter kills” -verse. 6; this ministry in which we now live (the ministry of the Spirit) gives life; and not just life, abundant life; and not just abundant life, eternal abundant life; and not just eternal abundant life, but eternal abundant life in the empowering presence of Spirit.

The word Paul uses for ministry is actually the word we translate as deacon. There are two types of deacon therefore: 1) deacons of death and condemnation because they are bound to the letter of the Law which condemns and 2) deacons of the Spirit and Righteousness because they are liberated by the Law of the spirit which produces justification.

I don’t think that in calling the Old Covenant the ministry of death in v. 7 and the ministry of condemnation in v. 9 that Paul is in any way degrading the value of the Old Testament because, as he says, it came in glory.

Glory is always associated with the presence of God and his radiance of splendour, honour, glory and might. Let’s not forget that the Law was written by the very finger of God.

The glory of the giving of the Law is described in Exodus 34: in verse 10, when He gave the covenant and the Ten Commandments, God said to Moses,
“Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

And later in that chapter, after spending forty days and forty nights in the presence of God receiving the Law, Moses returned to his people and the Bible says… (Read Exodus 34:29-35).

The problem with the Law was not that there was an imperfection in the Law; the Law is our tutor- it brings us to Christ. The problem therefore is not with the Law, but with those who try to keep it in their own strength in order to earn their own righteousness- they do it in the flesh and the flesh has no power because it is dead. The reason that the Old Covenant is a ministry of death is because it is perfect and no imperfect fallen man can ever fulfill it and therefore it is like mirror that reflects our defects and justly condemns us when we try to place ourselves under it for salvation.

That’s not to say that the ministry of the Spirit is easier to fulfill because it makes room for our wandering sinful hearts and that’s why we should prefer it.

In fact, rather than being easier than the Old Covenant, the New Covenant rules are intensified so that, (for example) whereas in the Old Covenant adultery was punishable by stoning, in the New Covenant just looking at someone with lust is punishable with eternal condemnation. Or, whereas under the Law murder was sin; under the gospel, hate is an equal sin to murder. But the gospel frees us from condemnation by bringing us under the Law of the Spirit which is fulfilled not by us, but Christ.

So the Law of the Spirit is intensified because our motives are different. Under the Law our motives were self-love: to escape punishment. Under the Spirit our motives are still love, but not love of self, love of God (with our whole hearts, strength and mind) and love of neighbour as ourselves (i.e. to help them to escape punishment by telling them the good news). We are no longer keepers of the Law to escape punishment; we are fulfillers of the Law because we have escaped punishment.

So the Law of the Spirit is not better because it’s easier, it’s better because it is perfect and because it has been fulfilled by the only one who can keep it perfectly: Jesus Christ. And by keeping it in life and suffering under it in death, Jesus has taken the punishment that was due us and imputed to us the righteous reward that was due him. And the only way we can receive that righteous reward is by being united to Christ through the Holy Spirit. (In other words, it is impossible- though many try- to be united to Christ through the flesh). And anyone who does not have the Spirit is in the flesh and spiritually dead and under condemnation because they are disregarding the work of Christ as useless and living according to the Law in their own strength as though they were more able then the son of God to fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law.

Paul purpose in writing about this is not because he wants to give us a lesson on systematic theology and the doctrine of soteriology and dispensationalism. The reason is much more practical, much more personal, indeed, much more urgent than that. He is underlining the importance of the ministry of the spirit because the church of Corinth has come under the control of deacons of death -the so-called super apostles who are nothing more than demon possessed men who used their slander of Paul in order to bring the weak minded Corinthians under bondage to a Law of their own making with their epistles of condemnation (v. 1).

Whenever men try to bring the church into the captivity of man made rules, they are carrying out the deaconry of death. And in do so they (either willingly or unwittingly) rob the church of its victory in Christ with a false security in man-made rules; they bring people into condemnation and powerlessness by deadening our ability to preach the gospel and rendering our testimony impotent through self-righteousness.

Paul concludes v. 7 by reminding the Corinthians that the ministry of the Law written on stones was glorious- but its glory was a fading glory. It comes from the initial joy and excitement of learning that there is a holy God who reveals Himself and his nature and holiness to men so that there is hope for us to be holy too. But it fades when we discover just how onerous and impossible it is to fulfill the letter of the Law.

In fact, all that the does is to show us that the only hope we have is for someone to fulfill it for us- and that person would have to be perfectly holy and infinite- only the God-man Jesus Christ could have solved this problem. So the sun sets on the Law just as it begins to rise on the gospel!

v. 8: So if the ministry of the death was glorious (although impermanent and impossible to fulfill); it begs the question, “How will the ministry (or deaconry) of the Spirit be even more glorious?”

The word Spirit is used interchangeably here with a couple of other words: First, it is used as an antonym to death. In other words, if the Old Covenant was a ministry of death, then it stands to reason that the Covenant of the Spirit is a ministry of Life! And it’s a ministry of life by the very nature of the fact that it is the ministry of the Spirit, not of the flesh. The ministry of the New Covenant is a ministry of the Spirit of God (not man’s flesh, nor man’s spirit) that brings us into liberty and justification.

All of this ought to produce an constant state of joyful praise and worship in the church. We ought to greet one another as men and women who have just been spared from a most horrific death (because that is exactly what has happened to us).

I remember watching the news footage from a plane in Thailand that had crashed on the runway and many of the passengers had barely escaped with their lives. I was fascinated by the joyful wonder in their eyes of knowing that they had been given a second chance when many others had not. They had been literally inches away from a brutal death. If they had sat in another seat, or made a different decision during those critical seconds after the plane crashed, their bodies would be lying on the plane along with the others. To see the survivors as they greeted one another and related how they had escaped and thanked the ones who had help them to escape the inferno was an amazing thing. That’s what church should be like every Sunday. That’s what every waking hour of the Christian life should be.

The ministry of the Spirit (the ministry of life) is also synonymous with the ministry of righteousness. That does not mean a ministry of self-righteousness or of doing righteous things; it is the ministry… the deaconry of the justified- those who have been set free from the just condemnation due our sin in order to carry out the works of those who have nothing to add to their righteousness.

Paul chooses to call it the ministry of the Spirit because for Paul the idea of the Spirit is packed with meaning. The word Spirit carries with it the idea of Pentecost, the fulfillment of the promise to pour out the Spirit of God on all flesh. It is a ministry of the Spirit because it is a ministry for all believers and it is a ministry of the Spirit because it is a ministry in power (dare I say it is a charismatic ministry)! He purposely contrasts the ministry of death not with the ministry of life but the ministry of Spirit because spirit implies not just life but empowered, enabled and strengthened life.

And it is glorious!

Notice that Paul says it is a glory that is ever increasing or exceeding much more in glory (NKJV) in v.9? Paul could have just said that it was exceeding but he actually says it is exceeding much more in glory. Paul is intentionally using unnecessary verbiage and excessive adjectives to describe the surpassing glory of the ministry of the Spirit in order to (in limited human words) underline this important eternal truth regarding the distance between the fading glory of the Old Covenant and relentlessly increasing glory of the New Covenant. It is a glory that far exceeds that of Sinai because it is mounting and compounding exponentially every milli-second of the day into infinity. It is inconceivable and beyond our understanding and yet (by grace) we are partakers of it thanks to the cross.

This partaking of the infinite glory begins for us at the point of our salvation and from glory to glory it increases without bounds. It is available to us as we meditate on the glories of God and the wonders of the cross. There is no limit to the glory that is reserved for us in eternity and even now we can taste. We catch glimpses of it. And all around there are hints of it. It may seem only limited now, but it is infinite glory. In this life we grasp for it as a dying man grasps for his last breath but in the life to come it will be the very air that we breath and the light that shines all around us without limitation.

And so “what remains” verse 11 is nothing but the consummation of God’s plan and purpose for our salvation in eternity.

Conclusion:
Therefore (v. 12)… Paul gives us one important application: unlike Moses who walked around with a veil on his face to hide the fading glory of the Old Covenant, “we (on the other hand) use great boldness of speech.” We unveil the exceeding glory of the ministry of the Spirit rather than veil it by preaching the message to those whose eyes are veiled.

It is a very liberating feeling to share in the ministry of life by telling people the good news of the gospel. Nothing brings me closer to Christ than bringing Christ close to the lost. I experienced this in Delhi walking the streets of Connaught Place (a tourist shopping area)… I wasn’t interested in buying anything; I just wanted to experience the culture and the life of the people.

You know, one of the most exciting things about the time in which we live: is that no matter where you travel, you can always find people who speak English. And India is no exception; next to Hindi, English is the second most commonly spoken language so that you can go there and share the gospel quite freely.

Unlike Canadians who are so inebriated by our materialism and acquisition of things and to feed our self-centeredness- the Indian people are very open to spiritual conversations. So I decided to talk to street vendors who took turns following me. They would try to steer me to their stores by asking me what I am looking for, so I would respond by telling them what they were really looking for- God! I had some of the most fascinating conversations with Hindus and Moslem who were more than willing to give up and opportunity to make a sale in order to hear more about the Christian God.

The Ministry of the Spirit gives us great boldness of speech.