6 The Competent Minister

(2 Corinthians 3:1–6)

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (3:1–6)

The pastoral ministry, more than any other profession, demands the best, the most spiritually qualified, and the most skilled men. The standards are high for many reasons: because the spiritual dimension of life is more important than the physical; because serving God is more demanding than serving anyone else; because His kingdom and glory are at stake; and because His servants face a more stringent evaluation of their service (Heb. 13:17; James 3:1).

So daunting is the challenge of the ministry that Paul asked rhetorically, “Who is adequate for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:16). Who is competent to take on the monumental and eternally significant duty of preaching the Word of God and leading the people of God? In this passage, he answers that question: “Our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate” (3:5–6). Only those whom God calls into ministry, gifts, and empowers are adequate; self-made ministers are inadequate and incompetent. Paul was a competent minister because God appointed him to preach the gospel. In Acts 26:16 he related how God had said to him, “For this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister.” To the Ephesians he wrote, “I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power” (Eph. 3:7). In the first chapter of Colossians Paul twice declared, “I was made a minister” (vv. 23, 25). Writing to Timothy he said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service. … I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. … I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher” (1 Tim. 1:12; 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11).

Paul addressed this issue because his own competency as a minister was under relentless attack by the false apostles who had come to Corinth. Painfully, all through 2 Corinthians, Paul had to defend himself against the lies his enemies told about him. The false apostles sought to discredit him so they could usurp his place as the authoritative teacher and then teach their damning, demonic lies to the Corinthians. To accomplish that goal, they not only viciously attacked Paul’s character but also challenged his competency as a minister.

As he replied to their scurrilous attacks, the apostle found himself in a delicate position. He was aware that no matter what he said in his defense, the false apostles would twist it around and accuse him of pride, egotism, and self-commendation. Nothing would have been further from the truth; Paul was not interested in mounting a self-serving defense designed to protect his prestige and reputation. Yet the apostle knew that it was crucial that he defend himself, because he was the apostolic channel through which God’s truth flowed to the Corinthians. If they succeeded in discrediting him, the false apostles would block the pipeline through which divine truth flowed to the church.

As he defended his spiritual adequacy, Paul revealed five marks of a competent minister of Jesus Christ—all of which he exemplified. A competent and effective minister has an established reputation for godliness, has been used in transforming lives, has confidence in his calling, has humble dependence on God’s power, and has a new covenant message.

AN EFFECTIVE MINISTER
HAS AN ESTABLISHED REPUTATION FOR GODLINESS

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? (3:1)

A useful and spiritually influential minister does not need to commend himself or depend on the secondhand testimony of others, because his virtuous, godly life is well-known. To defuse any allegation that he was commending himself, Paul made no overt claims in his own defense. Instead, he gently rebuked the Corinthians by asking them two questions, both of which demand a negative answer.

Paul began by asking, Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? The apostle used the editorial we, because it is a less threatening, humbler, more gentle approach than using the singular “I.” What may have prompted Paul’s question were accusations from the false apostles that he was in fact commending himself in a selfish, proud manner. They may have pointed to the occasions in 1 Corinthians when Paul asserted his apostolic authority (cf. 1 Cor. 4:15–16; 11:1; 14:18; 15:10). But in a letter filled with rebuke and correction, Paul’s appeals to his authority were necessary for the sake of the truth of God. In no way was the apostle motivated by self-exaltation—a truth he reiterates throughout 2 Corinthians. In 5:12 he declared, “We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart,” while in 10:12 he added, “For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.” In 10:18 Paul stated plainly that “it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.”

Paul’s disclaimers indicate that what he wrote was not designed to elevate himself in people’s thinking; it was simply to state the truth so as to protect the legitimacy of his ministry. Even his bold affirmation of a clear conscience, “For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you” (1:12) was not a braggart’s claim of self-vindication. In 1 Corinthians 4:4–5 he wrote,

For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.

Paul knew that the only commendation that means anything is the one that comes from God, not from others, nor even one’s own conscience.

Though he was a humble man, Paul was fully aware of his vital importance to the church as both a preacher of the gospel supernaturally given to him by God (Gal. 1:11–12) and an inspired writer of biblical revelation. Therefore, it was necessary for him to defend himself so that God’s truth would not be hindered. The sorrow and frustration of his heart over their fickleness came through when he wrote, Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? He was not trying to prompt the Corinthians to commend him, but to make them evaluate their attitude. One meaning of sunistan? (commend) is “to introduce.” After all they had gone through together, did Paul really need to reintroduce himself to the Corinthians? Did they not know him well enough by now? Was it really necessary for Paul to start all over again and prove to them what kind of man he was? After all the time they had known him, after he had ministered among them for at least eighteen months (Acts 18:11), how could they believe the false apostles’ lies about him? Surely they knew him better than that after all the teaching, preaching, fellowship, prayers, love, and tears they had personally experienced with him.

Paul drove home his point by asking a second question demanding a negative answer, Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? In their attempt to discredit Paul, the false teachers claimed that he lacked the proper official letters of commendation. Such letters were commonly used in the ancient world to introduce people to those who did not know them (cf. Neh. 2:7; Acts 9:2; 18:27; 22:5; Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 16:3). When the false apostles arrived in Corinth, they likely produced deceptive letters of commendation, possibly purporting to have come from the Jerusalem church (cf. Acts 15:24). They used those letters to help them gain acceptance by the Corinthians.

Not only did the false apostles present letters of commendation to the Corinthians, but they also sought them from the Corinthians. Because they were unregenerate, the false apostles’ lives were corrupt. Therefore, they could not remain long in one location before being unmasked. But before they moved on, they sought letters of commendation from those whom they had deceived. They then used those letters to enhance their credibility with their next victims.

But Paul was not like the false apostles. He needed no letters of commendation to prove his credibility to the Corinthians; they had firsthand knowledge of his virtuous, godly, sincere life and powerful preaching. For the Corinthians to demand letters of commendation from Paul was ludicrous. That they could be so foolish and deceived as to doubt what they knew was true about the beloved apostle was tragic. Paul’s blameless life and effective ministry was his letter of commendation.

AN EFFECTIVE MINISTER
HAS BEEN USED IN TRANSFORMING LIVES

You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (3:2–3)

Paul’s authenticity was evident not only from his blameless life but also from his impact on the lives of the Corinthians. As noted above, the false apostles relied on letters of commendation to gain acceptance. But Paul’s letter was far superior to those of the false apostles—it was the Corinthians themselves. God had used Paul to write that letter in the debauched, vile city of Corinth. The only testimonial the apostle needed to verify the divine source of his labor—apart from the obvious virtue of his life—was the reality that the Corinthians had been saved and were being sanctified through the truth he preached and taught.

Unlike the false apostles’ letters of recommendation, Paul did not carry his in his pocket or luggage; it was written in his heart. The apostle’s language conveyed the great affection that he had for the Corinthians (cf. 6:11–13). Because they were precious to him, he and those who served with him carried them in their hearts all the time. As he wrote later in this epistle, “You are in our hearts to die together and to live together” (7:3).

Paul’s letter of commendation was not private correspondence, hidden in hearts and therefore readable by only a few; it was known and read by all men. All who witnessed the transformed lives of the Corinthians had read it; it was continually being manifested or made conspicuous. C. K. Barrett writes, “The existence of the Corinthian Christians in Christ is a communication from Christ to the world, a manifestation of His purpose for humanity; this communication, incidentally, has the effect of commending Paul as a trustworthy bearer of the word of Christ” (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Black’s New Testament Commentary [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1997], 108).

The Corinthians were a living letter of Christ, because it is He alone who saves and sanctifies, through the preaching of His Word by faithful men like Paul. This introduces an essential and wondrous truth—that when a preacher proclaims divine revelation accurately, it is Christ speaking through him. Referring to believers yet to come through all the centuries of the church, Jesus said, “They will hear My voice” (John 10:16). In verse 27 He repeated that truth, saying, “My sheep hear My voice.” How have all the sheep heard His voice? When the preacher accurately proclaims the Word of God, it is not only the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) but also the very voice of the Lord of the church to His sheep.

Paul said saving faith always “comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17), and people cannot hear without a preacher (v. 14). It is then God’s plan to bring the voice of the Great Shepherd to His sheep by the means of faithful preachers. When Paul spoke, or any other preacher accurately handling the Word of Truth speaks, Christ has spoken—so that the results of the truth working are really a letter written by Christ. The apostle would never claim to be the author of that divine spiritual letter because he did not want his enemies to charge him with exalting himself. But Christ used Paul to minister to the Corinthians, and thus they actually did commend his ministry. The phrase cared for by us (from diakone?; “to minister,” or “to serve”) alludes to Paul’s role as Christ’s preacher; it was through his gospel proclamation that the letter came to be written. In the apostle’s analogy, Christ wrote the letter, and Paul delivered it through his ministry to the Corinthians.

Unlike the false apostles’ letters, Paul’s was written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. Human words written in ink are silent; they just sit fading on a page. Anyone can write a dead letter with ink, but only Christ, through the supernatural power of the Spirit of the living God, can write a living letter. Paul’s letter (the Corinthians’ transformed lives) was written by the supernatural power of the divine Spirit. That provided irrefutable proof that the apostle was a true servant of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2:4–5 Paul wrote, “My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God,” and he reminded the Thessalonians, “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 1:5).“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). Paul proclaimed the word of Christ, and the Spirit of God transformed the Corinthians. In the words of Peter,

For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23–25)

The result of such preaching by Christ through Paul was a living letter, known and read by all. Paul needed no further authentication of his ministry.

By way of further contrast, Paul notes that his letter of commendation was not written on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. With this statement the apostle directly confronted the false apostles, who preached a false gospel that mixed Christianity with circumcision, old covenant ceremony, and legalism. The tablets of stone were those on which God supernaturally inscribed the Ten Commandments (Ex. 31:18; 32:15–16). But the miracle of Sinai cannot match the miracle of salvation. At Corinth, God had written not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. In both cases God inscribed the same law; His standards of morality do not change. Some wrongly assume that because believers are under the new covenant they no longer have to keep God’s law. But that is not true. Being under the new covenant does not excuse believers from keeping the Law; it frees them and by the Spirit enables them to keep it. The Law written on the tablets of stone at Sinai was external; it confronted people with their inability to obey perfectly the holy, righteous, and good requirements of God and thus condemned them. But in the new covenant, God writes His law on the hearts of those He redeems. The power of the indwelling Holy Spirit enables them to keep that law, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to them by grace, covers all their violations of it.

The Old Testament prophets revealed that God would write His law on human hearts. Jeremiah recorded God’s gracious new covenant promise: “‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’” (Jer. 31:33). Similarly Ezekiel wrote, “I shall give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God” (Ezek. 11:19–20; cf. 36:26–27).

The false apostles at Corinth were clinging to the external Law written on tablets of stone, advocating salvation by works, rituals, and ceremonies. This, as always, is a damning message because no one can be perfect enough to keep the whole Law:

For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” (Gal. 3:10–13)

Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians applied equally to the Corinthians:

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly. … Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? … You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. (Gal. 2:21; 3:3; 5:4)

The false apostles, like all legalists throughout history, denied the continuity between the Law written on tablets of stone and that written on tablets of human hearts. (Ironically, so do their opposite numbers, the antinomians, who argue that salvation by grace abrogates believers’ obligation to the Law.) But God’s law written on human hearts does not nullify His Law written on tablets of stone. The Ten Commandments concisely summarize all of God’s moral law. Responding to a scribe’s question as to which was the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:30–31). Jesus’ answer summed up the two sections of the Ten Commandments: love for God, and love for man. Thus there is no discontinuity between the external Law written on stone and the internal one written on the heart. Both instruct believers to avoid offending God and other people. But the Law written on stone cannot save sinners because they shatter it. Salvation brings a new heart that loves the Law and longs to keep it (Ps. 119:97) and provides forgiveness for every failure.

Paul needed no letter of commendation written with pen and ink. The transformed lives of the Corinthians, and the reality that God’s law was written on their hearts, proved his authenticity.

AN EFFECTIVE MINISTER
HAS CONFIDENCE IN HIS CALLING

Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. (3:4)

Paul’s defense of his ministry was not designed to relieve any nagging self-doubt on his part. The apostle never questioned that God had called him to the ministry. That resolute confidence gave him the courage and boldness necessary for a very difficult ministry. No obstacle, persecution, or discouragement could make Paul question his calling. His confidence also narrowed his focus and gave him a single-minded, unswerving devotion to the ministry God had called him to. In 1 Co rinthians 9:16 the apostle wrote, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” Later in 2 Corinthians Paul likened himself to a clay pot containing the priceless treasure of divine truth (4:7). Then in 4:8–11 he listed the trials of the ministry:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

But none of that diverted him from carrying out his duty: “But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak” (4:13). Concerning his calling to the ministry, Paul had a one-track mind. There were no alternatives or compromises for him. God spoke, Paul believed, and unflinchingly he spoke. Though Paul saw himself as nothing more than a clay pot, the fact that God had called him to the ministry gave him resolute confidence.

The other apostles also ministered with the same high level of resolve that Paul possessed. As the hostile Sanhedrin “observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Facing the threat of persecution the apostles refused to back down, praying instead, “Now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence” (Acts 4:29).

Paul’s confidence was not brash, arrogant trust in his own abilities. It was not self-confidence but confidence through Christ toward God. To the Romans he wrote, “For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed” (Rom. 15:18). In 1 Corinthians he acknowledged, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). In Ephesians 3:7 he affirmed, “I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.” Paul accomplished his ministry not by his own abilities or talents, but through the power of Christ working in him.

The false apostles, in contrast, were self-confident and arrogant, trusting fully in their own cleverness. But they were in reality man-pleasing, insincere corrupters of the Word of God (cf. 2 Cor. 2:17). On the other hand, the goal of Paul’s ministry was, through the power of Christ, to please God. His Lord was both the source of the apostle’s ministry and its ultimate goal.

AN EFFECTIVE MINISTER
HAS HUMBLE DEPENDENCE ON GOD’S POWER

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate (3:5–6a)

As noted in the previous point, Paul was confident, bold, courageous, and resolute in his ministry. Lest anyone misunderstand him, he hastened to add the disclaimer, Not that we are adequate in ourselves. In his own strength and wisdom, he could accomplish nothing (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:5). Later in this epistle Paul wrote, “I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). His own inadequacy and lack of human resources allowed Paul to be a channel through which divine power flowed.

God does not look for the mighty and the noble according to human standards when He chooses men for the ministry (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26). “It is not great talents God blesses,” the godly Scottish pastor Robert Murray McCheyne reminded a young minister, “so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God” (Andrew A. Bonar, Memoirs of McCheyne [Chicago: Moody, 1978], 95). Though Paul had a brilliant and highly trained mind (Acts 26:24), he did not depend on it. Nor did the apostle rely on his oratorical skills (cf. Acts 14:12) to persuade people (1 Cor. 2:4). Paul did not rely on his natural abilities to carry out his ministry, but instead ministered “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 2:4; cf. 1 Cor. 4:20; 1 Thess. 1:5).

So little trust did Paul place in his human abilities that he made the remarkable confession that he was unwilling to consider anything as coming from himself. Consider is from logizomai, which means “to reason,” “to calculate,” or “to credit to one’s account.” Apart from God’s power and wisdom, Paul was not adequate to rightly assess or judge his ministry. Nor did he concoct his own plans but instead followed God’s leading (cf. Acts 16:6–10). He did not trust in anything coming from himself; on his own he was useless and powerless. Paul served humbly, in the Spirit’s power, fully acknowledging that his adequacy was from God, who alone was able to make him effective.

AN EFFECTIVE MINISTER HAS A NEW COVENANT MESSAGE

as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (3:6b)

Paul’s discussion of the qualities of a competent minister now turns from the messenger to his message; from the character of his ministry to its content.

The false apostles at Corinth were likely Judaizers or a closely related sect who had mingled in some popular philosophical fascinations from the culture. The Judaizers followed Paul throughout his ministry like a relentless plague. They were false teachers who basically at the core affirmed that salvation was through faith in Christ plus keeping the Mosaic Law (including its ceremonial aspects). They adopted whatever elements of their victims’ ideologies would give them a hearing, then sought to negate the gospel of grace and impose Jewish customs on Gentile believers. They were actually hucksters, guilty of “peddling the word of God” (2:17) to achieve their ends.

True ministers, however, are servants of a new covenant. They do not mingle the old (the Mosaic covenant of law) and the new covenant, because the new covenant alone saves. The wonderful reality of the new covenant is that no one has to come to God via external Judaism. Nor are Gentiles second-class citizens in God’s kingdom, but are “fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:6), “no longer strangers and aliens, but … fellow citizens with the saints, and [members] of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19). The revolutionary concept that Gentiles were spiritually equal with Jews shocked both believing and unbelieving Jews (cf. Acts 11:2–3).

To understand the glory and grace of the new covenant requires a brief review of the biblical covenants. There were two covenants that have no relation to salvation, the Noahic (Gen. 9:16) and the priestly (Num. 25:10–13). They expressed God’s promises never to destroy the world by water again and always to provide a priesthood for His people.

Two covenants related to salvation: the Abrahamic (Gen. 17:7; 18:10–19) and the Davidic (2 Sam. 7:12–16; 23:5). In the Abrahamic covenant, God promised Abraham a people, land, blessing, and, ultimately, the Messiah. In the Davidic covenant, God promised David a greater son than Solomon, who would be King over the glorious earthly kingdom of God and bring salvation and blessing to Israel and the world. The question is how those promises are to be received; Jews throughout history have waited for their fulfillment. In the Mosaic covenant (Ex. 24:7–8) God said that all covenant blessing in His kingdom is for the righteous— and the standard is perfect obedience to His law. But no one can keep that standard! So how are people to be saved, blessed, and enter the glorious kingdom? The new covenant has the answer. It alone provides the conditions for blessing, salvation, and eternal life (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 16:60; 37:26; Heb. 8:6–13). Anyone ever saved—from Adam to the last person saved before the destruction of the present heaven and earth—is saved on new covenant terms. Though not officially ratified until the death of Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice as the substitute for sinners paid in full the penalty of all the sins of all who would ever believe, the new covenant has always been in operation. Salvation comes to those who realize they are violators of God’s law, hopeless and unable to obey— they cry for grace, mercy, and a new heart (cf. Luke 18:13).

So the heart of the new covenant and the gospel message is the Cross. Recounting the words of the Lord Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, Paul wrote, “In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me’” (1 Cor. 11:25). The new covenant, unlike the old covenant, was not ratified by the blood of bulls and goats but by the blood of Christ:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (Heb. 9:11–15)

The competent minister, then, does not preach salvation by legalism, ritual, or ceremony—the “things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17). He preaches Christ crucified for believers’ sins (1 Cor. 1:23), risen for their justification (Rom. 4:25), and ever living to make intercession for them (Heb. 7:25). Entrance to God’s kingdom comes through faith in Christ alone (John 1:12; 3:18, 36; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 16:31; Rom. 3:21–22; 10:9). That is the message of the new covenant preacher; therefore Paul wrote, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

As a minister of the new covenant Paul was a servant not of the letter but of the Spirit. The contrast between the letter and the Spirit further distinguishes the new covenant from the old covenant. Mere external adherence to the letter of the Law will not result in salvation. Though “the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12), nevertheless “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20), because “a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom. 3:28; cf. Gal. 2:16). Salvation comes only through the “washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5; cf. John 3:5; Rom. 8:2; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Thess. 2:13).

The writer of Hebrews highlights the contrast between the external letter of the old covenant and the internal reality of the new covenant:

“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. 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 into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. (Heb. 8:8–13)

The difference between the old Mosaic, Sinaitic covenant and the new covenant is not a difference in moral standards. God’s moral law does not change, because it is grounded in His immutable holiness. But under the old covenant, the law was external, consisting of written commands; in the new covenant, it is internal, written on the heart by the Holy Spirit.

The letter kills in two ways. First, it kills through the living death of grief, frustration, unfulfillment, guilt, and shame that results from people’s inability to keep the Law. Paul wrote, “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Rom. 7:9–11). Second, the letter kills through eternal death (damnation in hell), the penalty for not keeping it. “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse,” wrote Paul, “for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them’” (Gal. 3:10).

But under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. In Jeremiah 31:33 God said, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” The Spirit enables new covenant believers to fulfill God’s law, so that they may say with the psalmist, “O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97; cf. vv. 113, 163, 165).

That does not mean that believers before the death of Christ lived in constant frustration, guilt, and remorse, never knowing the joy and peace of obedience. In Psalm 119:165 the psalmist wrote, “Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble” (cf. Ps. 19:7–11). In Psalm 32:1–2 David extolled the blessedness of forgiveness: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!” They had been saved on new covenant terms—repentance, grace, and faith (cf. Isa. 55:1–2, 6–7). They were regenerated by God and thus were able to love and keep God’s law because the Holy Spirit was operative in their lives (see the disussion in chapter 7 of this volume). The point is that the letter kills those who seek salvation through keeping the law whether they lived in Old Testament times or today! No one in any age could be saved by keeping the Law, since “whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). The Law was never intended to be a means to salvation but rather to be “our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24). Therefore a true minister of Jesus Christ proclaims the new covenant message of the gospel, which alone “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).

Who is adequate for such a ministry? To whom does God entrust the inestimable privilege of proclaiming transforming new covenant truth? To godly, effective, confident, humble, dependent men who preach the unadulterated truth of the gospel. From where does their adequacy come? “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17).

Amazingly, God’s infallible Word preached by fallible men gifted and taught by the Holy Spirit, rightly dividing Scripture and clearly proclaiming it, is the means God has chosen for the spread of the saving new covenant gospel. People cannot hear it without a preacher (Rom. 10:14). Even the saved could not understand the Scripture without a man to guide them (cf. Acts 8:30–31).