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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:6, 8, 17-18; 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 6:63; 5:21
We have pointed out that in 1 Corinthians there is mostly the doctrine concerning Christ, but in the second Epistle there is the experience and enjoyment of Christ. In the previous chapter we began to speak about the aspects of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians. Whatever is spoken there concerning the Spirit is not in the way of doctrine but in the way of experience. It tells us something richer and finer than 1 Corinthians does.
In 1 Corinthians the Spirit is the revealing Spirit, the gift-dispensing Spirit, and the indwelling Spirit. But 2 Corinthians tells us first that the Spirit is the anointing Spirit (1:21). The anointing is richer and finer than the revealing. Suppose a mother just showed her daughter food and did not serve her the food. I prefer not the showing, the revealing, but the feeding. Whatever the Lord reveals, He anoints into us. The revealing is for seeing, and the anointing is for enjoying.
Today’s Christians are so much for knowing, for seeing. They like to listen to messages from good speakers. Paul said that when the decline of the church worsens, people “will not tolerate the healthy teaching; but according to their own lusts they will heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Tim. 4:3). Paul told the Corinthians that they might have ten thousand guides, or teachers, but not many fathers (1 Cor. 4:15). Teachers pass on knowledge; fathers impart life. What we need today is not teachers but fathers. Those with itching ears like to heap up teachers to themselves. They like only to know, to see.
But after the seeing in 1 Corinthians, we must come to the anointing in 2 Corinthians. The Spirit in 2 Corinthians is not the teaching Spirit but the anointing Spirit. The Holy Spirit anoints us with the divine essence, just like a painter paints a house with the essence of paint. The Spirit anoints us with the essence of God’s nature, with the substance of what God is. The more He anoints us, the more of God we have.
We have also seen that the Spirit is the sealing Spirit (1:22). The anointing brings in the essence, and the sealing shapes what the anointing brings in into a definite form and image. When you mark a piece of paper with a seal, there is a definite form, an image, on that paper. The anointing Spirit brings in the riches of God’s fullness. Then the sealing Spirit shapes them into a form which gives people an impression. When you are sealed by the Spirit, you have the image of God, the impression of God, and the likeness of God. The anointing Spirit brings in all the riches of the Godhead so that we have something substantial. Then the sealing Spirit follows to make this substance into a form so that we have the image, impression, and likeness of God.
Following this, the Spirit becomes the pledge, the foretaste, the earnest, the down payment, the first installment, the sample, for us to taste (v. 22). In the kitchen the sisters who cook have the foretaste of the things they cook. But when the food is put on the table, they have the full taste. Today the Holy Spirit who anoints us and seals us is for us to taste. This is more subjective. Still, what we are enjoying today is the small taste in the kitchen, not the full taste at the dining table. The dining table will come someday, and we all will be there tasting the Spirit in His fullness. But praise Him, today we have the foretaste! We need to taste the Spirit continually.
He is also the writing Spirit. We are the living letters of Christ composed with Christ as the content, and the Spirit is the writing ink (3:3). The Spirit is writing Christ into us. This is not an outward teaching or an objective revealing but an inward, subjective writing of Christ into our being.
Second Corinthians also says that the Spirit gives life. He is the Life-giver (3:6). God has made us the sufficient ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. People think that if they are going to be a minister, they have to go to seminary to be taught. But Paul said that he was a minister “not of the letter but of the Spirit.” What a difference in concept! The letter here refers to the written code or regulations. We can be outwardly regulated but with no life.
The Pharisees, the scribes, and the Jewish leaders at Jesus’ time knew all the right doctrines in the Old Testament. Herod called for the chief priests and scribes and asked them where the Christ was to be born. Right away they gave him the right doctrine by telling him that the place would be Bethlehem (Matt. 2:4-6). They had this doctrinal knowledge, but they would not go to Christ. The magi, however, went to contact Christ, not just according to the right teaching but according to the living star (v. 9). The Lord Jesus told the Jewish religionists that they researched the Bible, but they would not come to Him for life (John 5:39-40). The written code kills and deadens, but the Spirit gives life.
Life is the Triune God flowing Himself out. It is the living flow of the Triune God. The picture of this is in Revelation 22, where we see the throne of God and of the Lamb, and out of the throne flows the river of water of life (v. 1). In this river grows the tree of life (v. 2). Life is divine, eternal, flowing, and living. People may be bothered at the noise in our meetings, but the Bible tells us to make a joyful noise to the Lord (Psa. 100:1). The quietest place is the cemetery, the place full of dead people. The Christian life and the church life are not a matter of what is right or wrong but a matter of what is dead or living. The written code kills, but the living and flowing Spirit gives life. Today it is not a matter of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong. Today is the day of life, the day of the tree of life.
In John 5:21 the Lord said, “Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wills.” Thus, we see that the Father gives life, the Son gives life, and the Spirit gives life. Even the word spoken by the Lord gives life. He said that the words that He spoke were spirit and life (6:63). The word here is the living, instant, and present word, not the constant Word. The living, present word of the Lord is spirit and life.
Many times when you try to study the Bible, you are deadened because you get a lot of doctrinal knowledge without life. We need to study and read the Bible prayerfully with the exercise of our spirit. The mental reading kills, but the prayerful reading gives life. The more you read the Bible prayerfully, the more you have the deep sense that something within you is flowing, quickening, reviving, enlightening, and strengthening. The Concordant Literal New Testament translation of 2 Corinthians 3:6 says that the Spirit is “vivifying.” The more you read the Word prayerfully, the more you are vivified. When you read the Word mentally, you are mortified, but when you read the Word prayerfully, you are vivified. Whether you will be vivified or mortified depends upon the way you take to read the Bible.
Even the Bible can be a dead, written code to us if we do not come to Christ Himself to receive life. We need more life, not more knowledge. We need to be more and more vivified. We can be vivified by pray-reading the Lord’s Word. Life is what we need. The Spirit is not the Spirit of doctrine but the Spirit of reality, who is Christ Himself as life. The more we contact the Spirit, the more we are vivified.
The life-giving Spirit, the vivifying Spirit, is Christ Himself. Verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 3 says that the Spirit gives life. Darby puts verses 7 through 16 in parentheses, indicating that verse 17 directly continues verse 6. Verse 17 says that the Lord is the Spirit. Thus, the Spirit who gives life is Christ the Lord. Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).
I would like to point out what Henry Alford said concerning 2 Corinthians 3:16-17:
The Lord of v. 16, is the Spirit...which giveth life, v. 6: meaning, “the Lord,” as here spoken of, “Christ,” “is the Spirit,” is identical with the Holy Spirit... Christ, here, is the Spirit of Christ.
Let us also read what M. R. Vincent had to say about this passage of Scripture:
The Lord Christ of v. 16 is the Spirit who pervades and animates the new covenant of which we are ministers (v. 6)...
We may wonder how Christ, as Henry Alford pointed out, could be the Spirit of Christ. We may not be able to understand this, but we simply need to say Amen to what the Bible says. Hebrews 1:8 refers to Christ the Son as God, and then verse 9 says that God is His God. This is the mystery of the Divine Trinity. We cannot fully comprehend such a mystery, but we can accept it. The Bible says that Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit, that the Lord is the Spirit who gives life, and that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). This is not my teaching but my quotation of the Bible. This is not my invention but my discovery.
Now that we have seen the anointing Spirit, the sealing Spirit, the pledging Spirit, the writing Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit, let us go on to see the remaining aspects of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians.
The life-giving Spirit is also the ministering Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:8 speaks of the ministry of the Spirit. In this second Epistle, the gifts of the Spirit are replaced with the ministry of the Spirit. Balaam’s donkey received the gift of speaking in a human language, of speaking in tongues, but that was not a ministry. The donkey received such a gift suddenly, but a ministry takes time to be built up. A ministry is produced in a person because Christ has been wrought into him for many years, not just overnight. The ministry is produced through years of the Lord’s working, dealing, and building up bit by bit.
Sometimes when a saint speaks, you can realize that he is exercising his gift. But when another saint speaks, you realize that he has a real ministry because something has been built and wrought into his being through many sufferings over a period of time. Once something of Christ has been wrought into you, nothing can take it away. When you experience Christ through sufferings, the ministry of Christ with you is enriched, strengthened, and uplifted. Then what you speak comes out of your constitution, your very being. This is not a gift but a ministry.
When the apostle Paul ministered, he was not merely exercising his gift. Paul ministered Christ so richly because something of Christ had been wrought into him and built into him to become one with him. Actually, Paul was the ministry. Not only his word but also his person was the ministry. The ministry does not minister knowledge, doctrine, or the exposition of the Bible. It ministers the riches of Christ. The ministry of the Spirit imparts all that Christ is into us. If you listen to certain speakers, you may feel that you only receive knowledge without anything watering or feeding you. But you may listen to someone who is not so eloquent, yet you have the deep feeling that you are nourished, watered, and vivified. This is the ministry of the Spirit. This is the Spirit of life ministering Christ into you.
The Spirit is the reality of what Christ is. Christ is life. If you do not have the Spirit, you do not have the reality of life. Christ is light. If you do not have the Spirit, you do not have the reality of light. Christ is love. If you do not have the Spirit, you do not have the reality of love. Christ is everything. If you do not have the Spirit, you do not have anything. Instead, you have mere biblical terminology without reality. The reality of every item of Christ’s riches is the Spirit. The Lord said that all that the Father is and has was given to Him, and whatever He received was passed on to the Spirit of reality. Then the Spirit of reality passes on what He has to us (John 16:13-15). This means that He leads us into all the reality of what Christ is. He ministers Christ as everything into us.
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” The freedom mentioned here is the freedom, the liberty, from the letter of the law under the veil (Gal. 2:4; 5:1). The Spirit liberates us from the written code, the written regulations. The Judaizers knew the teachings and doctrines of the Old Testament, but these became layers of veils to them. They knew a lot, but they did not see anything.
We need an unveiled face to see the glorious Christ. What we need today is not more knowing but more seeing. We need to be liberated from the bondage of the deadening, blinding written code. Some of us have been overloaded with biblical knowledge. We need to be unloaded and emptied so that we can freshly receive Christ Himself in the newness of His living presence. When we have an unveiled face, we are liberated from religion, old doctrines, and traditions to behold and reflect the living Christ.
As we behold Christ face to face, we mirror Him, and we are being transformed into His image from one degree of glory to another degree. This is altogether from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). Thus, we have the liberation and the transformation.
First Corinthians tells us that Christ became a life-giving Spirit, but it does not tell us how He gives life. The details are in 2 Corinthians. The life-giving is the anointing, the sealing, the pledging, the writing, the ministering of Christ, the liberating from the bondage of religion and legal doctrines, and the transforming into the Lord’s image. Transformation is not an outward change but an inward, metabolic change by the discharge of our old element and the infusion of the Lord’s new element.
Second Corinthians concludes with Paul saying, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). This is not a benediction but a transmission. Love is the source, the fountain; grace is the course, the spring; and the fellowship is the river, the flow, to transmit all that Christ is with all the fullness of God into us. God is love, and this love is being transmitted as grace to us by the Spirit who is the Transmitter. All that God is as love is in Christ. Love is embodied in grace. Love is something in the heart, but grace is the expression of love. Grace comes out of love, and this grace is being transmitted into us by the Spirit. Love, grace, and fellowship are not three separate entities, but one thing in three stages. God is in Christ, and Christ is the Spirit. Christ is God’s embodiment, and the Spirit is Christ’s reality. The Spirit is the transmission of Christ, who is the embodiment of God. Second Corinthians concludes with the transmitting, communicating, and flowing Spirit.
May the Lord have mercy upon us. We need the experience of the Spirit which Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians. We need the anointing Spirit, the sealing Spirit, the pledging Spirit, the writing Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, the ministering Spirit, the liberating Spirit, the transforming Spirit, and the transmitting, flowing Spirit.
