Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from 2 Co 3:1 and following. Indeed, men judged the doctrine preached by Paul after the march of the Corinthians. They were his living “letter of recommendation” or rather that of Christ whose name had been written on their hearts. All Christians are letters from Christ that God addresses to those who do not read the Bible so that they may have before their eyes a gospel lived. Unfortunately, these letters are often tainted or indecipherable instead of being known and read by all (v. 2). Let us therefore ensure that there is no veil on our faces that prevents our Christian influence: veil of concern, selfishness, worldliness… But let there first be no veil over our hearts (v. 15: for example, a bad conscience) to intercept the rays we have to receive from the One who is love and light. Hide a shrub under a tarpaulin or screen; it will wither. On the contrary, expose it normally to the sun and rain and here it will grow from one season to the next to bear the fruits you expect. So it is with our souls. Maintained in the presence of Christ, there is thus a gradual (but unconscious) transformation in them, from progress to progress, in the likeness of the moral perfections of the One whom we contemplate in his Word (v. 18).
The rather long time that has elapsed since our last interview gives me the opportunity to return a little to the thoughts contained in the first two chapters of our epistle. The latter presents a particular subject, the Ministry, its functioning, the task incumbent upon it, and the qualities indispensable to being a minister of Christ, principles of which we will be ever more penetrated, as we deepen this subject. It is necessary to point out that the ministry has, in this epistle, a very extensive character. It is not only the apostolic ministry or ministry of the Word; for the word translated here as “ministry” translates elsewhere as “service”. Indeed, we all have a ministry. If we do not all have the ministry of the Word, to each of us the Lord has entrusted a service, and often the smallest service in the eyes of men is of great importance in the eyes of God. Later, in chapters 8 and 9, the apostle elaborates on the pecuniary service to the saints, shows how to exercise it, and considers himself happy to participate in it himself. Let us therefore penetrate well into this truth: if we do not have a gift of the Spirit for the Benefit of the Assembly or for the world, we all have a particular service to which we must go as carefully as a public service. If the latter has more appearance in the eyes of men, it also offers more dangers for the one who exercises it.
Considering the first chapter, we can conclude that our service to the Lord, when he combines himself with trust in ourselves, will always be struck, not by nullity—for there is not one of us who does not have to pass, in the course of his service, through the gradual and detailed judgment of himself—but at least struck by weakness in proportion to the importance we are willing to attribute to ourselves. As we have seen, the greatest of the apostles said, “That we may have no confidence in ourselves”; “I who am less than the least of all the saints”; and again: “I who am nothing.” It is to the extent that this truth is realized that Christian ministry is blessed. This absolute judgment of oneself, the apostle exercised it to be an example to his brothers and sisters and encourage them in this way.
At the end of chapter 1, we saw that the object of the ministry is Christ; so the apostle is busy bringing out his glories. He then shows that to present Christ one needs power, that one must be anointed and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more miserable than to present to souls the truth of God as a matter of intelligence, or as a result of our studies, because in this way the action of the Word on consciences is annulled, the Spirit of God alone being able to give it effective. In chapter 2, the ministry is not only intended to present Christ, but also has an action in the Assembly for the purpose of discipline; only it is in love that discipline must be exercised. Without love, it is only a legal judgment that has nothing to do with the Spirit of God. At the end of the chapter, the ministry is the presentation of Christ’s victory to men and the presentation of the fragrance of Christ to God; immense responsibility for us, but also for those who reject our testimony!
We thus come to the beginning of chapter 3, where we find a new function of the ministry. The purpose of the latter is not only to present the perfume of Christ in the world, but to address there a letter of Christ known and read by all men, The Corinthians were undoubtedly the letter of recommendation of the apostle, but, for Paul, this letter was absolutely identical with the letter of recommendation of Christ. Paul had not written his own name on the hearts of the Corinthians, but only on the hearts of Jesus. How many ministers of Christ, instead of following the example of the apostle, have, unfortunately as a sad function, to write a man’s name, or the name of the sect to which they belong, or anything else, on the hearts of believers!
The Lord had provided Paul with the instruments necessary to write the letter of Christ, and he had faithfully carried out his task. His tablets were the flesh tables of the heart, not the stone tables of the law; his pen and ink, the Spirit of God; his letter, the Church; its subject, Christ—Christ, one name, and nothing else, but a name that contains in one syllable the eternal counsel of God, all his thoughts, and all his glories! Like the Corinthians, we are the fruit of the apostle’s ministry, which is contained in the Word of truth; and, like them, we are called to be the letter of recommendation of Christ, known and read by all men; but, mind you, the ministry of the apostle is called here, not to form individuals, but as a whole. The apostle does not say: You are letters, but you are the letter of Christ, though it is perfectly true that every Christian, individually, must commend Christ before the world. Such was the importance of the Church, of the Assembly of Christ, in Paul’s eyes.
At the end of this chapter, he entrusts the Corinthians with the secret that will allow them to be this epistle of Christ, a simple and elementary secret, if ever there was one. It is necessary that all of us, because this is always the whole of Christians (v. 18), have as our object the contemplation of the Lord. This contemplation gradually transforms us into His glorious image, so that the world can see only Him in its Assembly. This same chapter 3 presents us with another equally important function of Christian ministry. He has a teaching in sight. This is why the apostle summarizes the whole of Christian doctrine in the parenthesis that extends from v. 7 to v. 16. This doctrine is in stark contrast to what the law had taught until then. Now, among Christians today who claim to know grace, how few really understand it and separate it entirely from the law!
So here we find the difference between the ministry of the letter, that is, of the law, and the ministry of the Spirit. The apostle begins by showing that the ministry of the law is a ministry of death. The law promises, no doubt, life to the one who will obey it, but is a man capable of obtaining life, even promised? What makes it impossible for him is sin. But sin is nothing other than man’s own will and disobedience. Thus the law, while promising life, is a ministry of death. She condemns the one who did not follow her and convinces him of sin. Every man under the law is therefore under a ministry that kills him by pronouncing the death sentence on him. This is the subject of chapter 7 to the Romans. The law annihilated, once and for all, every claim of man to settle with God and obtain life in this way.
The apostle goes on to say, “What remains will subsist… in glory” (v. 11). What remains is the very character of God. There is nothing more to add to what God has revealed to us of Himself. What God is, His entire glory, has shown Itself in the work He has done on the cross for us. This work remains forever in glory. At the end of this passage it is said (v. 17): “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” As we have already seen, to have full freedom to enter before Him is to possess the secret by which one can truly be before the world a letter of Christ. Considering the glory of the Lord gradually transforms us – from glory to glory – in His likeness. This transformation is partial, because we have not achieved perfection and will never reach it here on earth.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- The Seven Promulgations of Divine Law:
-1st: Ps 19:2 written in nature: The heavens tell of the glory of God, And the expanse manifests the work of his hands.
-2nd: Rom 2:15 written in the conscience: they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, their conscience by bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing or defending themselves in turn.
-3rd: Ex 24:12 written on the stone tables: The Lord said to Moses: Go up to me on the mountain, and remain there; I will give you stone tables, the law and the ordinances I have written for their instruction.
-4th: Jn 1:14 Christ the living Word: And the word was made flesh, and it dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we contemplated his glory, a glory like the glory of the Only Begotten Son from the Father.
-5th: Rom 15:4 All the scriptures: Now, everything that has been written in advance has been written for our instruction, so that, by patience, and by the consolation that the Scriptures give, we may possess hope.
-6th: He 8:10 written in the heart: But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel, After these days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, I will write them in their hearts; And I will be their God, and they will be my people.
-7th: 2 Co 3:2-3 Christians as living letters: It is you who are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men. 3 You are obviously a letter from Christ, written, by our ministry, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on tables of flesh, on hearts.
- Writing on the heart:
Pr 3.3 May goodness and faithfulness not abandon you; Lie them to your neck, write them down on the table of your heart. Pr 7:3 Lie them on your fingers, write them on the table of your heart. Jer 31:33 But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel, After these days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, I will write it in their hearts; And I will be their God, and they will be my people; Hel 8:10 But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel, After these days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, I will write them in their hearts; And I will be their God, and they will be my people.
- New Covenant 2 Co 4:1 Therefore, having this ministry, according to the mercy that has been given to us, we do not lose heart.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, where I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah; Mt 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread; and, after giving thanks, he broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying: Take, eat, this is my body. Rom 11:27 And this will be my covenant with them, when I take away their sins. Heb 8:8:10 For it is with the expression of blame that the Lord says to Israel: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, Where I will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah A new covenant, 10 But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel, After these days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, I will write them in their hearts; And I will be their God, and they will be my people. Heb 12:24 of Jesus who is the mediator of the new covenant, and of the blood of sprinkler who speaks better than that of Abel.
- The Holy Spirit gives life
Jn 6:63 It is the spirit that vivifies; the flesh serves no purpose. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. Rom 8:11 And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 2 Co 3:6 He has also made us capable of being ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit vivifies. 1 P 3:18 Christ also suffered once for sins, he just for unjust things, in order to bring us to God, having been put to death as to the flesh, but having been made alive as to the Spirit,
From all the above we note that in contrast to the ministry of death, the apostle speaks, not of the ministry of life, but of that of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit, when he acts, brings life into the soul. On the other hand, the Ministry of Law is a ministry of condemnation, while the Ministry of the Spirit is a Ministry of Justice; but this is not human and legal justice, for the Spirit has come to proclaim to us the righteousness of God. This is the very content of the Gospel, and that is why the Apostle places such great importance on it. It shows how God was able to reconcile His hatred for sin (a righteousness that must condemn sin) with His love for the sinner. God’s righteousness is thus a justifying justice and not a justice in condemnation. This reconciliation of two irreconcilable things was found only at the cross of Christ where justice and peace intersected. There was no such thing before the Christian ministry of which the apostle was the representative. This ministry is the summary of all of God’s thoughts toward men. It is through him that we come to know God in all his glory, in all the perfection of his nature and character. For the law was a ministry of slavery which rendered man incapable of approaching God; then grace introduces us into His presence, and we can contemplate without veil the person of the Lord Jesus who has become god’s righteousness for us. Our prayers accompany you all, in the name of Jesus.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may be shining in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby watering point to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow: on “the Gospel is veiled for some and revealed for others.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.