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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8-9, 17-18; 4:4, 6-7, 16; 5:17; 10:1; 11:10
In 2 Corinthians 3:3 Paul says that the Corinthian believers were a letter of Christ ministered by the apostles, “inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh.” In 3:6 Paul goes on to say, “Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The Greek words rendered “made us sufficient” may also be translated “enabled us,” “qualified us,” “made us competent.” God made the apostles competent, sufficient, as ministers of the new covenant, not of letter but of the Spirit who gives life.
The Spirit in verse 6 is the Spirit of the living God, with whom the apostles minister Christ into the believers to make them His living letters. The apostolic ministry for the New Testament is not of dead letters like the Mosaic ministry for the Old Testament. Rather, the apostolic ministry for the New Testament is of the living Spirit, the Spirit who gives life.
The Spirit, who is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God, as a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) imparts the divine life, even God Himself, into the believers and apostles, making them ministers of a new covenant, the covenant of life. Hence, their ministry is one constituted of the Triune God of life by His life-giving Spirit.
We should not think that only the apostles are sufficient as ministers of a new covenant. We all are ministering ones, and God has made us competent to minister.
God has made us competent ministers not of a covenant of letters but of a covenant of the Spirit. Therefore, whatever we preach or teach should be a word constituted of the Spirit. For example, suppose a brother works in an office. His speaking to his colleagues about the Lord should not be a speaking apart from such a constitution of the Spirit. In his speaking he should give a testimony of what he has experienced of the Spirit, of how the Spirit has constituted him. Whenever we give this kind of testimony, we are ministering the new covenant, which is constituted of the Spirit. But if in our speaking we merely present doctrinal knowledge or theological teachings, what we are ministering may be compared to the Mosaic law, to a covenant without the Spirit.
We all need to have, and we all can have, a share in the New Testament ministry. Even the youngest among us may have such a ministry. In order to have this ministry, we need to have the experience of being constituted of the living Spirit. Then we will be ministers not of letter, doctrine, or theology; instead, we will be ministers of the living Spirit, writing Christ into others. This is a matter of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
In 2 Corinthians 3:8 and 9 Paul says, “How shall the ministry of the Spirit not be more in glory? For if there is glory with the ministry of condemnation, much more the ministry of righteousness abounds with glory.” The ministry in verse 8 is the apostolic ministry of the new covenant, a covenant of the living Spirit, who gives life. The glory in this verse is the glory of God manifested in the face of Christ, which is God Himself shining forever in the hearts of the apostles (4:6), surpassing the glory of the Mosaic ministry of the old covenant (3:10).
In verse 9 Paul speaks of the ministry of condemnation. The ministry of the old covenant became one of death (v. 7) because the old covenant brought in condemnation unto death (Rom. 5:13, 18, 20-21). Hence, it was also the ministry of condemnation.
In 2 Corinthians 3:9 Paul also speaks of the ministry of righteousness abounding with glory. The ministry of the new covenant is one of the Spirit who gives life, because the new covenant brings in God’s righteousness unto life (Rom. 5:17, 21). Hence, it is also the ministry of righteousness. The apostolic ministry of the new covenant not only has glory, but it also abounds with the glory of God. This glory surpasses that of the Mosaic ministry of the old covenant (2 Cor. 3:10).
In 3:8 and 9 we see that God has constituted the ministry of the Spirit in glory and of righteousness abounding with glory. In order to understand this, we need to consider Paul’s experience.
When Paul came forth to preach the gospel according to God’s New Testament economy, his way of preaching was different from the way that Moses received the decree of the law. Moses received the law, but he did not have any experience of what he received. According to the book of Exodus, God simply gave the tablets of the law to Moses. Paul’s situation, however, was different. When he was Saul of Tarsus, he was zealous for the law and for Judaism, and he was absolutely opposed to Christ. But one day the Lord Jesus appeared to him, and from that time onward Paul experienced Christ. Eventually, he experienced Christ to such an extent that he was fully constituted of Christ. As a result, his life was constituted a life of the gospel. When he received the commission to minister in the Gentile world, he did not go forth like Moses, who brought the tablets to the people in an objective way. On the contrary, when Paul went out to preach the gospel, the gospel had been wrought into his being. Therefore, what he spoke to others concerning the gospel was a testimony.
Paul was not a law-giver; he was a witness of Christ, for he had been constituted of Christ. He was also a living expression of the gospel and of God’s salvation. As one who was living Christ, his ministry was a ministry of glory, a ministry full of the Spirit.
In verse 9 Paul goes on to say that his ministry was the ministry of righteousness. This indicates that the ministry that is full of the Spirit eventually becomes a ministry of righteousness. If we would understand this, we need to see that if we are not full of life, we cannot be right. Righteousness is a matter of being right, and righteousness comes out of life. If we are full of the divine life, then we will be right, and we will have righteousness. Because the New Testament is a covenant of life, it makes people righteous. Therefore, the ministry of this covenant is a ministry not only of the Spirit but also of righteousness.
As a ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of the new covenant is in glory. But as a ministry of righteousness, it abounds with glory. To be in glory is the initial stage, but to abound with glory is to be with glory continually.
First, Paul’s ministry was of the Spirit. As he carried out this ministry of the Spirit, it became the ministry of righteousness. Hence, his ministry was in glory and also was abounding with glory.
The underlying thought in Paul’s writing here is related to dispensing. In his ministry Paul was a good dispenser. He was dispensing the elements of the Triune God, of Christ, and of salvation and redemption. Because Paul was such a dispenser, his ministry was a ministry of the Spirit in glory and a ministry of righteousness abounding with glory. His ministry caused others to be alive, and it enabled them to be righteous. No one receiving Paul’s ministry remained in a deadened condition, and no one continued to be unrighteous. Those under his ministry were enlivened and were made righteous, for his dispensing ministry was both a ministry of the Spirit and a ministry of righteousness.
Thus far, in chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians, we have covered three matters: the letter of Christ ministered by the apostles, inscribed with the Spirit of the living God (v. 3); God having made the apostles competent as ministers of a new covenant, ministers of the Spirit who gives life (v. 6); and God having constituted the ministry of the Spirit in glory and of righteousness abounding with glory (vv. 8-9). All these matters are related to the constitution of life and ministry. Now in verses 17 and 18 we will go on to consider the matter of transformation.
Concerning transformation, we need to see that the Lord is the Spirit. In verse 17 Paul says, “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” In chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians the Lord is the liberating Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, and the transforming Spirit. Life-giving, liberating, and transforming are all aspects of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. As the Spirit, the Lord is the divine Dispenser, and He is dispensing Himself into us.
In 3:17 Paul twice speaks of the Lord. According to the context of this section, which starts at 2:12, the Lord here must refer to Christ the Lord (2:12, 14-15, 17; 3:3-4, 14, 16; 4:5). This, then, is a strong word in the Bible telling us emphatically that Christ is the Spirit. “The Lord Christ of verse 16 is the Spirit who pervades and animates the new covenant of which we are ministers (v. 6), and the ministration of which is with glory (v. 8). Compare Romans 8:9-11; John 14:16, 18” (Vincent). Regarding the Lord being the Spirit, Alford says, “The Lord of verse 16 is the Spirit,...which giveth life, verse six, meaning, ‘the Lord’, as here spoken of, ‘Christ’, ‘is the Spirit’, is identical with the Holy Spirit...Christ, here, is the Spirit of Christ.” Furthermore, Williston Walker says, “All that transforming and indwelling Spirit is Christ Himself. ‘The Lord is the Spirit.’”
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul first tells us that the Lord is the Spirit, and then he goes on to speak of the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself, with whom there is freedom. The Spirit, who is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, was “not yet” in John 7:39, because at that time Jesus had not yet been glorified. He had not yet finished the process that He, as the embodiment of God, had to pass through. After His resurrection, that is, after the completion of all the processes, including incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, which the Triune God had to pass through in man for His redemptive economy, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This life-giving Spirit is called “the Spirit” in the New Testament (Rom. 8:16, 23, 26-27; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 6:8; Rev. 2:7; 3:22; 14:13; 22:17), the Spirit who gives us the divine life (2 Cor. 3:6; John 6:63) and frees us from the bondage of the law.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul continues, “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” The word but at the beginning of verse 18 indicates something further. First, the heart turns to the Lord so that the veil may be taken away (v. 16). Second, the Lord as the Spirit frees us from the bondage of the law (v. 17). Last, with unveiled face we, like a mirror, behold and reflect the glory of the Lord and are thus being transformed into His image from glory to glory.
According to verse 18, with an unveiled face we are beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord. Here unveiled face is in contrast to the veiled mind, the veiled heart, in verses 14 and 15. This means that our heart has turned to the Lord so that the veil has been taken away, and the Lord as the Spirit has freed us from the bondage, the veiling, of the law so that there is no longer any insulation between us and the Lord. Now we can behold Him and reflect Him. To behold is to see the Lord for ourselves; reflecting is for others to see Him through us.
Paul specifically says that we behold the glory of the Lord. This is the glory of the Lord as the resurrected and ascended One. As such a One, who is both God and man, He passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion and entered into resurrection, accomplishing full redemption and becoming a life-giving Spirit. Now as the life-giving Spirit He dwells in us to make Himself and all that He has accomplished, obtained, and attained real to us so that we may be one with Him and be transformed into His image from glory to glory.
When we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. In other words, He dispenses these elements into us. The result is that we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence. We are then transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. The words being transformed indicate that we are in the process of transformation. The “same image” in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. We are being conformed to the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ (Rom. 8:29); we are being made the same as He is.
Paul tells us that we are being transformed into the same image “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). This means that we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another degree. This denotes an ongoing process of life in resurrection.
In this verse Paul says that we are being transformed “from the Lord Spirit.” The Lord Spirit may be considered a compound title like Father God and Lord Christ. This expression again proves strongly and confirms the fact that the Lord Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Lord Christ. In this chapter this Spirit is revealed as the inscribing Spirit (v. 3), the life-giving Spirit (v. 6), the ministering Spirit (v. 8), the freeing Spirit (v. 17), and the transforming Spirit (v. 18). Such an all-inclusive Spirit is crucial to the ministers of Christ and to their ministry for God’s New Testament economy.
After speaking about the ministry of the new covenant, Paul continues to speak about the ministers of the new covenant. From verse 12 to 18, he first depicts the new covenant ministers as persons whose hearts have turned to the Lord, whose faces are unveiled, who are enjoying the Lord as the Spirit freeing them from the bondage of the law, and who are being transformed into the image of the Lord by beholding and reflecting Him. Through such a process of transformation, they are constituted to be ministers of Christ by the Spirit with the elements of Christ’s person and work. Hence, their person is a constitution of Christ, and their ministry is to minister Christ to others, infusing them with the all-inclusive Christ as the indwelling life-giving Spirit. All believers should imitate them to be the same kind of person and to accomplish the same kind of ministry.
In order to be transformed into the image of Christ, we need to behold and reflect His glory. As we behold Him, His element is transfused into us. This transfusion, this infusion, is altogether a matter of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
