The Spirit, Not The Letter
May 20, 2020
Commentary
Paul could go through what he did because he knew that it was not in vain; he knew that it was to bring others to Christ. When a man has the conviction that what is happening to him is happening literally for Christ’s sake, he can face anything. Paul was a brilliant and well-educated man; yet he did not depend on his own adequacy and gave all the glory to God and not himself. Paul’s opponents were legalists who told the people that if they obeyed the law, they would become spiritual. This legalistic type of ministry dulled the eyes of the people and made them think they were sufficient in themselves.
Paul goes on to draw a contrast between the covenant of the law granted to Moses and the covenant of the gospel established by Christ. While both the law and the gospel were glorious, they differed radically from each other. Paul did not deny the glory of the Old Testament law, but he makes it plain that the New Testament of grace is far superior, and he gives the following reasons:
1. Because it brings spiritual life and not death (vv. 7-8). The best the law could do was condemn the sinner, but the spirit gives life.
2. Because it produces changed lives and not just condemnation (vv. 9-10). The law was not given for the purpose of salvation but was like a mirror to help man see his sinful condition.
3. Because it is permanent and not temporary (v. 11). When the Veil in the temple was rest as Christ died on the cross, the law and the Jewish religious system ended (vv. 13-16).
Application
It is so easy for me to try to measure spirituality by what I do and what I don’t do. My spirituality cannot be measured by whether I go to church every time the doors are open or become a deacon or Sunday school teacher, but by what kind of a person I am on a day-to-day basis.
2 Corinthians 3:4– 11 (NET)
4 Now we have such confidence in God through Christ. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 But if the ministry that produced death—carved in letters on stone tablets —came with glory, so that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (a glory which was made ineffective), 8 how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory! 10 For indeed, what had been glorious now has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it. 11 For if what was made ineffective came with glory, how much more has what remains come in glory!