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Thank you for listening to First Day.

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

In Macedonia Paul has learned that the Corinthian church has repented and is seeking to fully embrace their life in Christ. Paul has sent Titus with this letter back to them. Here, Paul asks if he needs credentials to prove that truly represents the gospel of Christ. Perhaps there were those on his painful visit that questioned him in this regard; perhaps those people are still around. In verse two, Paul tells the Corinthians that they are the only proof for his apostolic calling that they need. Likewise, they are the only proof that Paul needs to have confidence in his call.

But these are not the only two ways that the Corinthians serve as proof:

“You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us [me], not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Paul says that the church is also Christ’s credential that is read not through some statement of creed or written declaration but read through their actions and the intentions of their hearts. How we allow the Spirit to operate in our lives acts as a witness for God.

4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

Without the presence of the Spirit, nothing that we would do would be sufficient, effective, or lasting. If Paul—or the Corinthians or us, today—preach the gospel through our own power for our own purposes, it would not measure up. The work we do in only “adequate” when it arises from deep in the heart of God.

What Paul says in verse six is something that should cause pause in the Church as it surely was intended to do in the Corinthian church.

6 He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Do as I say. And those who do not do as I say, they are right out. Here is your list of don’ts and do’s. Behave, follow the letter, and you will be okay. The is the ministry of the letter—or at least one way of taking Paul’s meaning here and applying it today. Following the letter of a law or code is not competent ministry and cannot make the new covenant effective. The letter cannot bring life, only death. Only the new covenant—the Spirit—brings life because it is written upon our hearts. And what it writes is the very life of God!

Another way to apply this in our Church today is to understand that no amount of programming, no belief statement, no change in worship form, no change in church-governance will bring life. If what we do is for the sake of numbers, for the balance sheet, it will not bring to our Church lasting life. Only when a church submits to the Spirit—commits to being what God has called it to be in Christ—only when it chooses to begin being Christ’s credential to its community—will it find life.

7 Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. 10 In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was set aside was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

Here Paul refers to Exodus 34:

29 As Moses descended from Mount Sinai—with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain—he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord.30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! They were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 and the Israelites would see that Moses’s face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord. (25-39)

This glory was externally applied like glowing paint that letter of the law had coated Moses. But it is not so with the glory that has been implanted into the human heart by the ministry of the Spirit. It doesn’t fade like that applied to Moses but it radiates out of the Law of God that has been written upon our hearts by the Spirit through Christ.

In the movie Casino Royale James Bond and Vesper are dressing in their finery for the big poker game in which 007 is about participate. Bond picks up the jacket that Vesper has laid out for him to wear and looks at her most puzzled. “But I have a dinner jacket.” She responds, “There are dinner jackets, and there are dinner jackets; this is the latter.”

12 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness. 13 We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside, 14 but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.

“Since…we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.” What is this hope if it is not life in Spirit and glory of Christ that endures? The Corinthians can live their faith boldly because of the enduring glory of God that remains with them.

The veil prevents the Israelites from not only witnessing the fading of glory, but it is also a constant reminder of Israel’s shame—a constant reminder of their failure. They couldn’t understand that the law had not come to save them but to bring the penalty of death. The veil reminded them of this death. Only through the presence of Christ and His work can the veil that separates us from the glory of God be lifted. Only with his presence can we live freely and without shame.

15 Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, 16 but whenever a person turns to...

2 Corinthians 3: Beyond the Veil

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