2 Corinthians 03
A Living Letter
3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we?
Paul's opponents followed him from town to town, carrying letters of recommendation, so that they could discredit Paul and his teachings. They also accused Paul of not possessing these letters, meaning that he was a fraud. Paul was asking the Corinthians if he needed one of these letters of recommendation from his employer or maybe from God himself? Paul answered "no", he does not need one of these letters.
3:2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone,
Paul's letters of recommendation were the Corinthian believers who were walking the streets.
3:3 revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.
The ink that Paul used was the Holy Spirit.
3:4 Now we have such confidence in God through Christ.
A new convert needs apologetics. A mature Christian does not, because he has poured through its pages and found out that the Scriptures are alive.
3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
Paul could not have confidence in the Word of God by his human intellect because it was depraved and evil. Paul received his confidence from the Spirit of God.
3:6 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.
In the Old Testament, the letter of the law kills. Those letters on the Ten Commandments sent all men to the Lake of Eternal Fire, because no one could keep them. Moses received the Law, yet he could not keep it, because he was a murderer. David was a man after God's own heart, but he was an adulterer. Jesus said that if you look at a woman with lust in your eyes, you are an adulterer. One lustful thought condemns one to Hell.
The new covenant, or the New Testament, is much better. If one believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, then he is saved for eternity. If he breaks the Law, the price for that sin has already been paid.
The Greater Glory of the Spirit’s Ministry
3:7 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),
The Ten Commandments were glorious, as they came from God. However, no man could keep them, so it was a ministry that produced death. The Law was so glorious that it made the face of Moses shine with the Shekinah Glory. However, this shine quickly disappeared.
3:8 how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be?
If the Mosaic Law was a killer that brought glory to God, then how much more glory will the ministry of the Holy Spirit bring to God? If the Old Testament brought glory to God, then how much more glory will the New Testament bring to God?
3:9 For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory!
The Mosaic Law was glorious, as there was no equal to it. However; no one could keep it so it condemned every man to the Lake of Fire. The New Testament brought the righteousness of Christ, so it was even more glorious.
3:10 For indeed, what had been glorious now has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it.
The Mosaic Law is no longer glorious, because it has been replaced by a better covenant.
3:11 For if what was made ineffective came with glory, how much more has what remains come in glory!
Christ died and fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant, making it ineffective. The new covenant is much more glorious!
3:12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we behave with great boldness,
The Mosaic Law was glorious, but there was no hope in it, because no one could keep it. The new covenant contains hope because all believers are promised an eternal life that they cannot lose.
3:13 and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from staring at the result of the glory that was made ineffective.
Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God. On his way down the mountain, Israel had already broken the first two laws. Moses broke the laws and did not deliver them, because God would have to exterminate Israel. Moses returned back to the mountain and received new commandments. These commandments provided a sacrificial system, so that when Israel sinned, their sins would be temporarily covered.
3:14 But their minds were closed. For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away.
Israel is now blinded. A veil has been placed over their mind so that they cannot see Christ as the fulfillment of the law.
3:15 But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds,
When they read the Mosaic Law, they actually think that they can keep it.
3:16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
When one believes in Jesus, then the veil is removed and they can see Christ as the fulfillment of the Law.
3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom.
Everyone has a veil over his eyes. No one can see Christ unless the Holy Spirit removes the veil. Once the veil is removed, then the individual can see that the Law cannot save, but it can lead them to the One who does save.
3:18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit unveiled our faces so that we can see the glory of the resurrected Christ. Once we see Christ, then we may seek Him to know Him. (John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God). We can't know Christ if we don't know the Word. We may be saved be we don't really have the relationship that He wants with us.