2 Corinthians 3:1-3
The company I work for in my 'tent-making' job makes ingredients for food products. When we are ready to fill a tanker truck for our customer, it is checked to assure it is washed clean. Once it is certified clean, the tank car is carefully filled; then, then it is closed up and sealed with a steel seal. All the seals are of the same kind, but each one has a unique number assigned to that tank car. This seal is the security and mark of authenticity from us, the maker; with that seal comes expectations of quality that offer a testimony of what kind of manufacturer we are. This becomes a sort of epistle in regards to the contents.
As believers, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit; He's the same for all of us; yet each of us are uniquely and personally sealed. This is our mark of authenticity; with this seal comes assurance and a testimony or our re-manufacture. We were re-made, born again, renewed by the Spirit of God. With this sealed there are expectations that come from our maker.
At the end of chapter two Paul envisioned the life of the apostles and disciples as a great Triumph and asked the question, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Who of us is qualified to serve the Lord? Who of us deserves to be in ministry with Him? Who of us qualify to do anything in the eyes of God? None of us, not a one, but we are serving Him and we do ministry in His name. Not because we are sufficient, but because we find our sufficiency in Him and in His word.
Paul said he wasn't peddling the word. He wasn't a traveling salesman, although there were many doing just that; traveling around peddling their message. Sometimes the message these peddlers brough resembled Christianity, sometimes not. That's not much different from today.
Paul said he wasn't like them. What he spoke, he spoke with sincerity as if he stood before the Lord. And the response from somebody or a group of somebodies from Corinth might have been, says who? Who sent you Paul? Where is your authorization? Who are you sanctioned by? Who determined you are sufficient?
Paul was constantly attacked by these false apostles and false teachers in this way. They stirred up a following at times and these questions were constantly being asked. In anticipation of these questions, Paul continued his letter in chapter 3 as a means of rebuttal to the attack on his credibility that he knew would come.
Paul began by asking them a question. Do we begin again? Is it necessary to start all over? Paul is asking them if they forgot who he was and what he had done for them. Had they lost their mind or their memory? Were they going to ask him for his papers; his qualifications and his resume' as an apostle? Was he going to have to give 3 references?
The false apostles traveled around and they carried papers with them. These papers were letters of commendation from churches or from other leaders. We saw Paul write some of these commendations with his epistles. He mentioned someone by name and told the church to receive them. This was direction to the church to take care of their needs. These people were then received in and fed, clothed and otherwise taken care of because Paul had given his letter of commendation to them.
These false apostles traveled around with these letters saying that they had been sent by an apostle or some church. They showed their papers at Corinth and the people did what they thought they were to do; they took them in and took care of them. These are some of the men causing trouble in the church. They followed Paul to many places teaching a different message from Paul. They showed up in Jerusalem, Antioch, and now Corinth, each time calling Paul's apostleship into question. And because these men came bearing papers, someone asked Paul about his letter of commendation.
Paul's answer to the questions was simple. He had something better than a parchment printed with ink. He had the testimony of a church in Corinth. They were Paul's epistle. Paul's authenticity as an apostle was written on the hearts of the believers in that church. Their very existence in this evil culture were Paul's commendation. There were problems in Corinth, sure, but the majority of people there were followers of Christ. They were a fellowship of born-again believers in Jesus Christ. That was Paul's epistle. That was his letter of authenticity.
In verse two Paul called them an epistle written in their hearts, known and read by all men. This verse turned out to be very prophetic. These two books of the bible tell us all about these people and their ministry. As well as what was going on in the church in that culture and that time. And it is known and being read by all me.
The church of Corinth was authentic. It was very real; it was gritty; full of problems. But it was also alive and breathing and giving testimony in a fallen world. The existence of this fellowship testified that Jesus is the Lord of Lords and the king of kings. He is the only God, Creator and Sustainer of all things. Their existence pointed to Christ and glorified him, in essence saying, "Look what He's done with a wretched bunch of Corinthians like us!" They were a mark of authenticity to Paul's apostleship and the message he carried.
And these people had no idea their actions would be recorded for all time to be used by every church to battle the sins of worldliness as they creep into the church and its people.
Did Paul need to commend himself? No, the church of Corinth commended him. Paul said later in 2 Corinthans 10:18:
18 For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.
This word 'commend' is used 10 times in second Corinthians. It was common practice among the itinerant ministers of that day to commend themselves. The false teachers stepped forward and unrolled a scroll presenting their commendation to the church. It was written with a pen (actually something similar). It was paper and ink to be read by men and it gave authenticity to the one bearing the letter, to other men. But Paul said Corinth was his epistle. An epistle is a just a letter. Corinth was Paul's letter of commendation. That fellowship said all that needed said about Paul. For this epistle of Corinth, Paul was the pen, the holy spirit was the ink and the hearts of the christians of Corinth were the tablets. The Christians at Corinth had regenerated hearts. Their hearts had the word of God written on them. Paul was the means by which this message came to them and by which the Holy Spirit wrote on their hearts.
It became abundantly clear that the epistles of men could easily falsified by men with an agenda. However, the epistle of Paul could not be. It was an epistle written by the Living God on the hearts of men. These hearts were changed right before the eyes of all men. And those hearts said God had saved them through the message brought to them by this man, Paul.
Many of these false apostles at that time were teaching that you couldn't be saved unless you kept the Ten Commandments. That's why Paul said the epistle is not written on the tablets of stone. The tablets of stone refer to the Ten Commandments and the Law. These saints in Corinth weren't saved by keeping the Commandments. No, the commandments were written on their heart when they were changed supernaturally from the inside. Their hearts were changed by trusting in Christ and repenting of their sins.
Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11 And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. [NKJV (Deut 9:10–11). (1982). Thomas Nelson.]
The law, known as the Old Covenant, was written on tablets of stone. But the New Covenant, available by way of trusting in Christ, is written on our heart.
Let not mercy and truth forsake you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart,
[NKJV (Proverbs 3:3). (1982). Thomas Nelson.]
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts;
[NKJV (Hebrews 8:10). (1982). Thomas Nelson.]
2 Corinthians 3:4-6
If we put ourselves in Paul's shoes, most of us would back up and say no, no, no; I'm not ready to do what Paul did, I'm not qualified or good enough to do those God things. I don't know all there is to know. God can't use me that way because I'm insufficient. Every prophet and man of God feels insufficient because they understand their place before God. Of course, you're insufficient. Our sufficiency is in Christ alone. That's exactly the thing that should have driven you to the cross in the first place. You are insufficient to save yourself from your own sins.
There is no good in us. We survive and are still standing and breathing because of the mercy and grace of an amazingly holy God. No, we're not sufficient because if we are relying on our sufficiency in any way then we aren't relying on the Lord's sufficiency. Not only is our sufficiency in Christ, there is responsibility that flows from that. If God so loved you, do you not so love Him as to push past our pride-based insecurities?
How many times in life have each of us seen a need and yet we didn't step up because we didn't feel sufficient to meet that need? I wish I could go back and fix all the times I passed up a chance to be obedient and serve the Lord. How many times do we find ourselves looking on a situation and saying, "someone needs to pray for that person" or "they need someone to talk to. They need help." That's a call for you to be that person. Are we not being called to step up and stand in the sufficiency of Christ. We don't need papers to do that.
God made them ministers, not of the law but of the Spirit. These false apostles were preaching the law. They were saying you had to keep the law to find your salvation. The letter of the law was not for salvation, it was to lead us there. The law was to show us our need and our insufficiency.
God's standard is perfection; it's the perfect laws of God. None of us can keep them. The law doesn't grade on the curve or give extra credit for trying. The law sets the bar infinitely high and no man can clear that bar. Try as we may it is not possible. We might keep most of the law for a little while but somewhere along the line we'll fall short. Somewhere along the line every man has already fallen short. At the point of missing that high standard we become a lawbreaker. We can never shake off that label until the penalty is paid. That penalty is death.
That's why Paul says the letter kills. The law shows us that we deserve death but the Spirit gives life. When we trust in Christ who paid that penalty the law required, we are given this Holy Spirit that lives in us. That Spirit is the law written on our heart. The Spirit is our guide and our conscience. Our response to the Spirit is making every effort not to break God's laws.
By the letter we come up short. We are burdened by the letter and it leads to death. When we are saved by Grace, where Christ fulfilled the law, the spirit in us writes the law on our hearts and we respond in obedience by living a life that honors the one who saved us.
2 Corinthians 3:7-11
The Old Covenant was the law given by God to Moses on the mountain. The law had the specifics about the temple, the priests, sacrifices and feasts. The Old Covenant was God revealing his Holiness to the people. It was the revealing of that standard to the world. Those who couldn't meet the standard of God then had to atone for their sin by the shedding of innocent blood. The priest killed animal sacrifices and atoned for your sin before the throne of God. The law told how the priests in great detail how they prepared themselves for this. The law gave details of the animal to be sacrificed. Not just any animal would do. The law was specific of how the priest sacrificed the animal and how it was laid on the altar. And then how the entire body and blood was dealt with. There was a sanctified and holy way of doing all of this. Anything less was unholy and defiled. That's the Old Covenant.
The New Covenant is when Jesus Christ came as the one sacrifice for all the sins of men. Because he was fully man, tempted in all ways as we were, yet He remained sinless. He was the perfect sacrifice. Just like the Old Covenant there was the shedding of innocent blood for the forgiveness of sin. Except this was done once for all men, for all sins. Jesus being fully God set the standard of holiness. Then he came to bridge the gap for men. Since we all fell short of that standard, he imputed his righteousness to us. He was God the lawgiver, He was the sacrifice, He is the high priest that offered His blood before the throne of God for the atonement. And soon, He will come again as Judge.
Paul calls the Old Covenant the 'ministry of death.' It was glorious, given by God on the mountain. We can only imagine what that must have been like when the Glory of God; the Shekinah settled on the mountain. It was so awesome that the people at the base of the mountain were in fear of their life. The glory of God shone on the mountain and Moses was up there with God. He received the law and when he came down, that glory shone from the face of Moses so brightly that the children of Israel couldn't look upon him. But that glory quickly faded.
The Ministry of condemnation had glory. That is to say the law had its glory. The ministry of righteousness is a greater glory. Paul's point was that if this ministry of death was glorious even as it passed away, how much more glorious would the ministry of the Spirit be? That ministry would never pass away. That is to say the ministry of justification by faith is greater. What originally appeared to be glorious by the law is now so far exceeded in glory by the New Covenant that it no longer appears glorious. The glory of the Old Covenant was passing away but the New Covenant glory is forever.
The ministry of condemnation had a job to do. That job was to condemn and convict us as sinners; it was to drive us to the cross. The law said this is the standard of God's holiness, how do you measure up? The law said, not so well. You Fail! You are a sinner and a lawbreaker and in dire need of a savior. The law showed us the need and gave us the desire to be washed, filled and sealed.
The law couldn't save you; it only pointed you to the need for a savior. The New Covenant can save you. So, the glory of the ministry of condemnation would pass away having completed its purpose in a man. The ministry of condemnation was successful in preparing the way for the messiah. So as the glory of the law passed away, there is no temple, there are no priests sacrificing at the temple before presence of the Lord in the holy of holies. At the passing of the law, what remained was the New Covenant, that glory of the righteousness from the New Covenant is everlasting.
2 Corinthians 3:12-18
We have a hope in this amazing glory of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant revealed our separation from God (there was a veil at the entrance of the holy of holies separating God and man). The New Covenant paid the lawful penalty for our sin and offers us life. The New Covenant brings us back to God. The New Covenant removed the veil
Everything is still veiled to the Jews. The glory of the Lord was hidden behind the veil of Moses in that day and it remains hidden to them today. The Jews can't see the glory. It's as if the veil of Moses were still in place. Their hearts are veiled; they still look to the law in this Covenant of Death. The result of sin puts in place a veil of separation, but when a person turns to the Lord the veil is lifted. Suddenly we understand as the Holy Spirit removes the veil.
With the veil lifted, there is a new understanding of the Old Covenant. We see that the law was a big signpost pointing the way to the Messiah. The glory that was concealed in the Old Covenant was revealed in the New Covenant by Jesus Christ. The same glory that was veiled in the giving of the law is unveiled by grace.
Just like it was the same glory concealed by the veil and revealed in Jesus Christ, it is the same Holy Spirit in us that was on that mountain. Because the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We have liberty from that law. It worked its purpose in each person who is saved. The law brought condemnation from sin, showed us our need for Jesus Christ, then the law was done. After having served its purpose, it fades in glory and we have liberty from the law.
In Corinth, the false apostles had put their paperwork on display and proceeded to teach that one had to keep the law to be saved. The false teachers put a heavy burden and a yoke on the people. This teacher was veiled himself and he was teaching that all men should have that veil firmly in place and living in blindness. They were offering a gospel that wasn't even good news, it was the covenant of death. All the while Paul was preaching the extremely good news of the covenant of righteousness, and life and liberty.
As the veil is lifted and we are justified by our faith, we stand boldly before the Lord clothed in His righteousness. We reflect the glory of the Lord as if we were a mirror. Daily, we are each being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. From glory to glory; from the glory of the condemnation to the glory of righteousness.
Official messages were sealed by a wax seal, impressed with the emblem of the sender. It said this message came from the sender is authentic and bears all the authority and power of the sender. The seal testified of the authenticity of the word of the sender. Should the seal be found broken or missing, the authenticity was in question. The message would be doubted.
When you reach the end of your destination, will you be found sealed? Is it obvious to those around you they read your epistle? Do they know what's inside of you? We have an enemy that is always trying to break our seal and defile the contents of our life. We have the power and authority, by God's Spirit to prevent that. Don't let others tell you that you're emply and fill you with legalisms or false teaching. We are the salt and light of this world; don't let the world season you and give you darkness. Our sufficiency is found in Christ; we can speak this boldly as we enjoy our adventure in triumph with Christ.
©2006, 2010, 2016, 2022 Doug Ford, Calvary Chapel Sweetwater
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