Wednesday,
July 29 –
It’s
mid-week, a Wednesday, and we continue our reading thru the New Testament in a
year. Today, our reading is in 2
Corinthians 3:6 – 4:18. It’s not as long
as you think! After you have finished
reading, I’d invite you to return to this page, and we’ll walk through it
together.
The theme Paul begins to unfold is the glory of the New Covenant in Jesus. Jesus announced the New Covenant, and in His
death and resurrection, the Covenant was established. Now the Covenant continues by the work of the
Holy Spirit in our lives. The
behind-the-scenes reason for this long doctrinal and theological explanation is
to contrast the difference between the Gospel of the New Covenant and the false
gospel of the teachers Paul had written were “peddlers of God’s word.” Paul wants to expose the error of these
charlatans who are trying to change the Gospel back into obedience to the Law
apart from faith in Christ Jesus alone.
The New Covenant was prophesied by the Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah,
31:31-34. If you’re not familiar with
the promise, I will urge you to look it up and read it. It was Jesus on the Passover evening when he
instituted the Lord’s Supper, who said, “This cup which is poured out for
you is the New Covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20). Paul begins to explain why the New Covenant
replaced the Old Covenant and why the Gospel is a New Covenant fundamental
doctrine.
The
contrast – as he had done in 1 Corinthians – is a contrast between different things
– “light and darkness” and “letter (Law) and Spirit,” as well he
adds, “the letter kills, and Spirit gives life” (3:6). To highlight the majesty of the New Covenant
under Jesus, in the verses that follow, 3:7 – 11, Paul used the word “glory”
ten times. The Greek word for glory is “doxadzo”
(dox odd zo). Can you see the word “doxology” in it? One of the early church’s songs many churches
still sing is the Gloria Patri –
“Glory be to the Father and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning,
is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Glory has to do with the manifestation of God. We can think of light or the sun, but it is
much more than that. What Paul is declaring
is that the Old Covenant with its Glory (coming from God), is set aside by the
greater Glory in Jesus Christ. The Old
Covenant glory was a “ministry of condemnation,” while in Jesus and the
Gospel, the New Covenant is a “ministry of righteousness” (3:9). When he
adds in verse 10, “...what once had glory has come to have no glory at all,
because of the glory that surpasses it, we only have to think of what
happens to the night time sky of stars when the sun comes up. The sun’s rays make the light of the stars
disappear. So also does the New Covenant
make the Old Covenant no longer in effect – “For if what was being brought
to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory”
(3:11).
The
“confidence” Paul spoke of at the beginning of the chapter (3:4) is not through
any human-derived ministry, gifting, or message. In 3:12-16, He contrasts how the Old Covenant
does not bring about freedom from Sin, but instead, keeps the hearts
hardened. It is only through the Gospel,
the preaching of Christ, that the power of the Old Covenant – that which
imposed duty and obligations to be in effect – is taken away as the Gospel is
received. The freedom from religious
works, duty, and keeping the law could not be more in contrast to in the Gospel
– “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord
is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 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” (3:16-18). The Gospel is a message
of liberation through the sufficiency of Christ and the power of the Holy
Spirit. The work of the Spirit is “transformation”
(3:18). It is God, through his Son Jesus, who can regenerate the soul of
any human being who “turns to the Lord” (3:16). It is the Spirit of God who progressively
makes that happen in our lives. We are
not what we were, and we are not what we will be, but we are being changed through
the work of the Spirit in us. I
mentioned it yesterday – this is a work of God in time.
The
line is drawn in the sand. The so-called
false Apostles have a ministry of death, condemnation in a covenant that has
been replaced by God through His Son.
The Gospel is not “Paul’s Gospel,” it is the Gospel of the New Covenant
in Jesus Christ. The so-called false
Apostles were peddlers of the word – charlatans seeking to lead the Corinthian
church back to law. As chapter 4 begins,
Paul says, “therefore” to remind us that what follows is connected to
what he had just contrasted – the two covenant ministries – “Therefore,
since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use
deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth
the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight
of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are
perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so
that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus
Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God,
who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of
Christ” (4:1-6). The Gospel
opponents did not want to believe that the Old Covenant was set aside by the
New Covenant in Christ.
Was the
New Covenant Plan B, because the Old Covenant failed? No. The
Old Covenant failed because it was never meant to succeed. God’s plan – from eternity past – was to
reveal his glory in His Son. The Law was
never meant to do what the Spirit alone could do in the heart of those who turned
to Christ. The deception is that there
is a way outside of Jesus Christ. Paul
points out that the distortions of Jewish law and Greek license are both the
work of the “god of this age” – not a force, or different philosophy,
but a person who is behind the deception.
He says we “set forth the truth plainly” – i.e., the message was
not twisted, distorted, or manipulated. It was a message that simply said, “Jesus
Christ is Lord.”
The
passage that follows and ends this is beautifully poetic and brims with faith
and hope. Paul makes no pretense to
being the best Apostle that ever lived, nor that the Corinthians as believers
are the greatest believers, instead he describes his own humanity, and their
own pressures in beautiful language – “But we have this treasure in jars of
clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in
despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life
of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are
always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be
revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is
at work in you” (4:7-12).
Who are
we who have been born from above, saved by Jesus, indwelt with God’s Spirit? We are pots of clay holding heaven’s
treasure. We are not immune from trouble;
in fact, because we believe in Christ alone, trouble seems to find us. Why is this our lot? To show us, and the world, “that this
all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” To be a saint is not to
be a super-human. It is to appreciate
God’s ability to work through our human weakness. “ We always carry around in our body
the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body”
(4:10). Paul’s ministry was one that
would ultimately lead to his death, but it was a life given to the Gospel that
those who believe might live. Paul understood
that God’s power was “made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). It is why we are filled with hope and not
despair knowing that God is at work in us, not through our greatness, but through
our weakness.
Look
again: the glory of the New Covenant is
in Jesus. It means the plain and straightforward
proclamation is that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord. To those who “turn” to the Lord, the Holy Spirit
is given as a gift, a down-payment by God (2 Cor. 1:22). It is the Spirit that gives us the ability to
do God’s work in our humanity, weak tho it be.
What should the motivation be for living and declaring Christ
Jesus? “It is written: “I believed;
therefore, I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also
believe and therefore speak” (4:13). The message of our faith, of the
church, is “written and then believed.”
It is not our message; it is
the message of God’s word. We who have
faith have that faith by Grace, in Jesus Christ alone. Our ragamuffin lives are God’s only army to
“make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19).
What we
have is a testimony of what Jesus Christ has done in our lives. No superiority in that story. Grace is the house that we live in, and faith
is the food we feed on. We will get old,
we will get weary, and someday we will die, but we have Jesus Christ and the
Spirit of Christ at work within – “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though
outwardly, we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal
glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is
seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal” (4:16-18). Do you see it? “light, momentary troubles” are
nothing compared to “eternal glory that outweighs them all.” What motivates you to live for Christ, to
serve Christ, to share Christ with others?
The temporary is nothing compared to the eternal. Keep on, keep on, “do not be weary in well
doing for we will reap if we do not faint” (Galatians 6:9). The best is yet to come.
Peace
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