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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:3, 21-22; 4:15; 8:9; 12:9; 13:14
In the foregoing chapter we pointed out that in the Epistles of 1 and 2 Corinthians we have the divine transmission, the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. In this chapter we will consider further Paul’s concept of this dispensing as expressed in 2 Corinthians.
In the book of 2 Corinthians Paul’s thought is very deep and rich. In this Epistle he presents a comparison of his ministry, the ministry of the new covenant, with that of Moses, the ministry of the old covenant. For example, in 3:7-9 Paul says, “Moreover if the ministry of death, engraved in stone in letters, came about in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, a glory which was being done away with, 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.” In verse 7 we have the ministry of the old covenant, a covenant of dead letters that kill. In verse 8 we have the apostolic ministry of the new covenant, a covenant of the living Spirit, who gives life.
Moses was used by God to give the law. God called Moses to the mountain, prepared the two tablets of the law, and gave these tablets to him. Then Moses brought these tablets of the law to the children of Israel. This was the decree of the law, the giving of the law. In the words of John 1:17, “The law was given through Moses.” We may say that Moses was a mediator, a middleman, used by God to give His law to His people.
According to our understanding, the gospel was preached by or through the apostles, just as the law was given through Moses. Actually, this understanding is not accurate. It is, of course, correct to say that the law was given through Moses. But, strictly speaking, the gospel was not preached through Paul or the other apostles. You may find such a statement surprising, even shocking. However, this statement is based on what is revealed in the book of 2 Corinthians.
Especially the first four chapters of this Epistle indicate that Paul actually did not preach the gospel. Here Paul tells us first what God did. In 1:21 Paul says, “The One who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God.” Here we see that God attached the apostles with the believers to Christ, the anointed One.
According to the Bible, God has anointed Christ. All of the divine ointment is upon this One. Therefore, as the anointed One, Christ becomes the source of the divine anointing. Apart from Him, there is no anointing, for God has poured out His ointment entirely upon Christ.
In 1:21 we see that God has attached us, the apostles and the believers, unto Christ as the source of the anointing. Paul indicates clearly that, as an apostle, he had been attached to Christ by God. Because we have been firmly attached to Christ, God has anointed us. Through our being attached to Christ, the anointing spontaneously comes from Christ to us. Now we also are anointed with the Spirit, or we may say that we are “oiled” with the Spirit.
In 1:22 Paul goes on to say that God “has also sealed us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.” How marvelous is this sealing and pledging of the Spirit!
It was a simple matter for God to give the law. In giving the law, God only had to call Moses to the mountaintop, prepare the stone tablets, and give them to Moses. Moses then gave the law to the people. That was the Old Testament ministry.
The New Testament ministry is very different from that of the Old Testament. We see this in the case of Saul of Tarsus, who was opposed to Christ. His intention was to damage the believers and the churches. But while he was on the way to Damascus, he was “caught” by the Lord Jesus. At that time God firmly attached Saul of Tarsus to Christ, the anointed One, the One full of anointing.
In a sense, we may compare this anointing to paint. As Paul became attached to Christ, the anointed One, the “painted” One, we may say that he also became “painted” with the divine ointment.
Furthermore, Saul was sealed with the Spirit, and he experienced the pledge of the Spirit in his heart as a guarantee and foretaste. As a result, this man became Paul and no longer was Saul; he was no longer the same as he had been. As Paul, he was one attached to Christ, anointed with Christ, and sealed with the Spirit.
As an illustration of what it means to be sealed with the Spirit, we may use the example of applying ink to a sheet of paper. As the ink is applied, it permeates and saturates the paper until the paper is soaked with ink. In a similar way, as one sealed with the Spirit, Paul was saturated with Christ. He was attached to Christ, he was anointed with Christ, and he was thoroughly sealed with Christ. Moreover, into his heart God put His Spirit as a pledge.
As a person anointed with Christ and saturated with Him, Paul could impart Christ to others. What does it mean to impart Christ to others? To impart Christ is to dispense Him. Many of those who came in contact with Paul received the divine dispensing through him. Christ was dispensed into them from God and yet through Paul. This is the proper preaching of the gospel, and this is altogether different from the Old Testament ministry.
While Moses was with the Lord on the mountain receiving the law, he also received some amount of the divine dispensing. The skin of Moses’ face was saturated by God’s element. Therefore, when Moses came down from the mountain, the skin on his face was shining. But, as Paul points out in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, with Moses the shining was only on his skin, but with us the shining is in our heart. Moses experienced an outward shining, but we experience an inward shining.
The glory of the ministry of the law was a temporary glory shining on Moses’ face. In this respect it was being done away, on account of the surpassing glory (3:10). Because of the glory of the new covenant ministry (which is the glory of God, even God Himself, manifested in the face of Christ forever, surpassing the temporary glory of the old covenant ministry shining on Moses’ face), the temporary glory of the ministry of the law disappeared and no longer existed.
In 3:13 Paul goes on to say, “And are not like Moses, who put a veil on his face so that the sons of Israel would not gaze at the end of that which was being done away with.” While Moses spoke the word of God to the sons of Israel, he kept his glorified face unveiled. After speaking, he veiled his face (Exo. 34:29-33) lest they should see the end of his ministry, which was passing away. He did not want them to behold the termination of the fading glory of his ministry of the law.
In 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul speaks of the shining in our hearts: “Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Here in “our hearts” is much deeper than on “the skin” of Moses’ face (3:7; Exo. 34:29-30). This presents a comparison between the glory of the apostolic ministry of the gospel and that of the Mosaic ministry of the law. In the heart is related to the inner life, whereas on the skin of the face has nothing to do with the inner life. The glory of the old covenant is on the surface, but the glory of the new covenant is full of depth.
The face of Christ in 2 Corinthians 4:6 is in contrast to the face of Moses. The glory of the gospel in the face of Christ is much superior to the glory of the law on the face of Moses. The former shines in the face of One through whom grace and reality came, issuing in righteousness and life (3:8-9); the latter shone on the face of one through whom the law was given, resulting in condemnation and death (vv. 7, 9). The shining of God in our hearts is to illumine us not that we may know the glory on Moses’ face but that we may know the glory in Christ’s face. The shining of God in our hearts is to enlighten us not that we may know the law of Moses of the old covenant but that we may know the gospel of Christ of the new covenant.
God’s shining results in the illumination of knowing the glory of God in the face of Christ; that is, in the enlightenment that causes us to know the glory of the gospel of Christ. The illumination that makes the glory of Christ’s gospel known to us issues from the shining of God in our heart.
Actually, 4:6 is an explanation of verse 5, where Paul says, “We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.” The apostles preached Christ as Lord and themselves as the believers’ slaves because the very God who commanded light to shine out of darkness had shined in their hearts. His shining in the universe produced the old creation. Now His shining in their hearts made them a new creation. Therefore, they were able to exalt Christ as the Lord in their preaching and conduct themselves as slaves to the believers in their service. What they did for Christ and what they were to the believers were the issue of God’s shining. God’s shining produces the new covenant ministers and their ministry.
God’s shining into our hearts is His dispensing of Himself into us. As an illustration, we may use the example of an iron bar that glows after it has been placed in fire. We may say that the fire dispenses itself into the iron so that the iron becomes permeated by and with the fire. As the result of this dispensing and permeating, the iron bar shines.
The illumination in 4:6 may be compared to fire. I believe that Paul’s thought here is that God’s shining, His illuminating, was like a fire burning. As God shines in our heart, we are saturated with the divine essence. Just as we could say that fire “saturates” an iron bar, we are saturated with the essence of God through His illuminating, through His shining in our hearts.
I can testify of this from my own experience with the Lord. When I stay with the Lord in prayer, often I sense an inner burning, an inner illumination. Using today’s term, I would call this an experience of the divine dispensing. The burning and illuminating I experience when I stay with the Lord is actually the illumination of the glory of God. This illumination is His dispensing.
Through such a dispensing, we are filled, saturated, and permeated with the Triune God. As a result, we have the intense desire to minister the word of God to others so that they also may experience the divine dispensing.
As we have pointed out, Paul uses other metaphors in chapters 2 and 3 to describe the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. In 3:3 he says, “You are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh.” A letter of Christ is one composed of Christ as the content to convey Christ and express Him. As Paul was writing a living letter of Christ, Christ was every letter, word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph. The “ink” used in this writing was the Spirit of the living God. While Paul was teaching the Word or preaching the gospel, he was inscribing Christ into others.
Today we all should be those who compose living letters of Christ by inscribing Christ into others. As we speak, we should inscribe Christ into others with the “ink” of the Spirit. As ink saturates paper, so we need to cause others to be saturated with the Spirit. This saturation is, once again, a matter of the divine dispensing.
In 2:14-16a Paul uses the metaphor of incense-bearers: “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing: to some a savor out of death unto death, and to the others a savor out of life unto life.” Because the apostles were permeated with Christ, they became a fragrance of Christ to God. We may say that they were permeated with Christ as the divine perfume. Wherever they went, God could manifest through them a sweet fragrance of Christ.
In chapter 2 we have the fragrance; in chapter 3, the divine ink; and in chapter 4, the light. We need to have the fragrance permeating us, the Spirit saturating us, and the light burning in us. This light dispenses God as a divine fire into our being. As the result of this dispensing, we become permeated and saturated with incense, the Spirit, and light. Then what issues out from us in our speaking becomes our ministry, a ministry of dispensing the Triune God. Whenever we speak in preaching the gospel or teaching the Word, we dispense the Triune God into others.
We need to be deeply impressed with what is revealed in the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians. In these Epistles we have a revelation of the Triune God. Here we have the Triune God as our enjoyment; the Triune God as our power; the Triune God as our wisdom; the Triune God as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; the Triune God as the gifts for our functioning; and the Triune God as the ointment to anoint us, as the fragrance to permeate us, as the Spirit to saturate us, and as the light to burn in us.
This experience of the Triune God in His dispensing is altogether different from religion. It is also different from mere doctrine and teaching and from efforts to improve ourselves or adjust ourselves. What is revealed in these books is the transfusing, the dispensing, the permeating, the saturating, of the Triune God in our being. This is the real enjoyment of the Triune God. As we will see in the next chapter, the last word uttered by Paul in 2 Corinthians concerns this divine dispensing, the dispensing of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
