2 Corinthians 3--Ministers of the New Covenant

2 Corinthians 3
English Standard Version

Ministers of the New Covenant
3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

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This seems to be the hinge-point in the book of 2 Corinthians as Paul seems to change from talking about the people needing encouragement to actually starting to give them encouragement by reminding them who they are in Christ.  Remember our discussions in the past that our "root" determines our "fruit" and that our identity determines our destiny.  Paul seems to believe that the bad fruit that he's been seeing in the Corinthian church is a result of them forgetting their root identity--who is that God has called them to be?  If they get the "being" part right, then the "doing" part should naturally follow.  So, Paul spends much of this book encouraging them to be who and what God has already made them and called them to be.

Paul starts this section in an odd way saying that his goal is to encourage them, he seems to start laying into them again.  Apparently there was more silly and foolish talk about Paul's qualifications as an apostle.  We more than covered that in the letter that is called 1 Corinthians, but instead of Paul pointing to all the things that have happened to him in his life to make him "qualified" (the beatings, the nakedness, going without food or water, the persecution, etc) he takes a different approach this time saying that the changed lives of the Corinthians are all the "letters of recommendation" that he needs.  All Paul should need to do is point to each and every one of them to say "See the power of the true gospel?  See how it changed each and every one of them?"  They are an epistle (letter) not from the apostle Paul, but from Christ Himself to be a living message of what it means to be born of the Sprit and walk by the Spirt.  The message of the New Covenant that's written on our hearts and lives should be as clearly read as the message of the Old Covenant that was written on the stone tablets (we only think of the Ten Commandments, but it was the entire covenant that was written on these tablets).

Paul is now going to start calling them "ministers of a new covenant."  This should bring back memories of Leviticus (which we just studied) as this was the same wording ("ministers of the covenant) that described the Levitical priesthood.  The Levitical priests were elected by God no different than we were (chosen from among all of Israel who were chosen from among all the nations and peoples of the world), but some would think that the priests were something special because they were descendants of Aaron and that was something for them to brag about.  We've seen this kind of pride and the divisions that it causes in 1 Corinthians.  No, we are to give all glory to God for what Christ has done in and through us.  We are completely and totally insufficient except for His total sufficiency  Because we take on His nature and identity that He has given to us, we know stand before God as sufficient--holy and blameless in His sight as we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  These are our priestly garments that we wear that are covered in the blood of the atonement of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but they are also the vestments of a royal priesthood who will one day reign with Christ (we'll get to the part about receiving a crown later.  Remember that the crown was part of the priestly garments in the book of Leviticus).

Now for a flashback to what happened in the book of Exodus as Moses went up the mountain to meet with God and receive the Old Covenant (what we usually refer to as The Law of Moses or The Law).  When he came down to speak to the people, they could not stand to look at him, because his face shone with the glory of the Lord and the people said that it was too much for them to bear and they could not look upon Moses and insisted that he veil his face because the "weight" or "glory" was too heavy for them to bear.  This glory would wear off, but every time that Moses would go to meet with God and would come out of the Tent of Meeting, he would again have to veil his face as the glory of God would "rub off" on Moses as he was in communion with God.  Paul argues from lesser to greater to ask how much more then will our glory be when we live forever in the presence of God in the place that we call heaven, for we will know be like Him when we see Him face to face.  (See 1 Corinthians 13:12 and 1 John 3:2).  So this glory that we will receive in that Day is far more glorious and will be permanent.

This is our hope (remember that is something that is certain that is promised in the future that we know will happen because we know that God keeps His Word), and that sure hope allows us to be bold.  We don't have to hide who we are like Moses did, but we are to let our light shine before men that they may see your good works (the evidence of your transformation) and give glory to God the Father (Matthew 5:16).  Paul uses the metaphor of the veil to say that to this very day the gospel message in the Law is hidden to those who are in darkness and perishing, but by the work of God who has quickened our hearts and made us alive and removed the "veil" that was causing us to be blind has allowed us to see the fulness of the gospel, even that which was once hidden and concealed in the Law.  Remember that at the time of Christ's death, the veil that the glory of the LORD lived behind in the temple was removed as now it is no longer seen in the items that were in the Ark of the Covenant (the Law, the manna, and the budding rod of Aaron), but in the changed lives of those of us whom God has saved.  We have become the Temple of God (that's something else we'll talk about later in 2 Corinthians) and the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant are now our hearts so that they contain God's Law, Provision and Power, but in a way that is more visible to those around us than it was when they were kept in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies inside the Tabernacle and later the Temple.

The next verse is where my college I went to, Liberty University, got its name.  "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."  That statement pretty much summarizes the entire book of Galatians, but in the context of these verses here we are now free to live out the identity of who we are and be who we are called to be without feeling the need to veil ourselves for the sake of others that say that it's too much for them and we need to cover ourselves up or hide ourselves.  Ever notice how the words says they are happy to let us have our "freedom of worship" inside the four walls of our churches, but they don't want us to have our "freedom of religion" to live our lives as we are called to be in our every day lives--they want us to veil ourselves by separating "secular" and "sacred" so that the glory of God doesn't shine through when they are looking and cause them to feel the weight of their sin in light of the holiness of God that is reflected from us.

Then comes one of the greatest encouragements as we are being changed from one kind of glory (the temporary) to another kind (the permanent) and this is happening as we are being made more and more into the very image of the Son of God.  One day we will bear his very likeness as mentioned before, and all this is the work of the Spirit, to sanctify us here and now, but also to deliver us to heaven on that Day as the spotless Bride of Christ and to bring about that change in identity and nature so that one day we will live in His presence and be able to fully and perfectly reflect that fullness of His glory.