Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 3:4
And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
4. such trust ] Better, perhaps, with the Rhemish version, confidence (Vulgate and Calvin fiducia), i.e. the confidence which St Paul had above expressed (ch. 2Co 2:14-17) in the reality of his mission and work, or in the fact that the Corinthian Church is in itself a sufficient guarantee of his Apostolic mission ( 2Co 3:2-3). See also 1Co 15:10.
through Christ to God-ward ] So Tyndale and Cranmer. Calvin and Erasmus erga Deum. The Vulgate, which is followed by Wiclif, the Genevan and the Rhemish version, has, more literally, ad Deum. The words have been interpreted to mean (1) which will stand the test of God’s trial. (2) Which will be proved and rewarded in the judgment of God. (3) In our relation to God. Or the analogy of Joh 1:1 (“has His face continually directed towards the Eternal Father,” Liddon, Bampton Lectures) may lead us to conclude (4) that our eyes are directed towards God, the source of our confidence, and that it is through Jesus Christ alone that we possess the right thus to rely on Him. This interpretation is strengthened by a reference to Mat 19:8, where the preposition is equivalent to in regard to.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And such trust have we – Such confidence have we that we are appointed by God, and that he accepts our work. Such evidence have we in the success of our labors; such irrefragable proof that God blesses us; that we have trust, or confidence, that we are sent by God, and are owned by him in our ministry. His confidence did not rest on letters of introduction from people, but in the evidence of the divine presence, and the divine acceptance of his work.
Through Christ – By the agency of Christ. Paul had no success which he did not trace to him; he had no joy of which he was not the source; he had no confidence, or trust in God of which Christ was not the author; he had no hope of success in his ministry which did not depend on him.
To God-ward – Toward God; in regard to God ( pros ton Theon). Our confidence relates to God. It is confidence that he has appointed us, and sent us forth; and confidence that he will still continue to own and to bless us.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. Such trust have we] We have the fullest conviction that God has thus accredited our ministry; and that ye are thus converted unto him, and are monuments of his mercy, and proofs of the truth of our ministry.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We are not infallible in the case; but I tell you what confidence we have, hoping in God concerning you, through the merits of Jesus Christ.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. AndGreek, “But.””Such confidence, however (namely, of our ‘sufficiency,’ 2Co 3:5;2Co 3:6; 2Co 2:16to which he reverts after the parenthesisas ministers of theNew Testament, ‘not hinting,’ 2Co4:1), we have through Christ (not through ourselves, compare 2Co3:18) toward God” (that is, in our relation to God and Hiswork, the ministry committed by Him to us, for which we must renderan account to Him). Confidence toward God is solid and real, aslooking to Him for the strength needed now, and also for the rewardof grace to be given hereafter. Compare Ac24:15, “hope toward God.” Human confidence is unreal inthat it looks to man for its help and its reward.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And such trust have we,…. This refers to what he had said in the latter end of the foregoing chapter, and the beginning of this; as that they made manifest the savoury knowledge of God and Christ everywhere, and were the sweet savour of Christ to many souls; were sufficient in some measure, through the grace of Christ, to preach the Gospel sincerely and faithfully, and were attended with success, had many seals of their ministry, and particularly the Corinthians were so many living epistles of commendations of the power and efficacy of their ministry; such confidence and firm persuasion of the truth of grace on your souls, and of our being the happy instruments of it, we have
through Christ, the grace of Christ,
to God-ward: who is the object of our confidence and hope, and the ground thereof.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Through Christ ( ). It is not self-conceit on Paul’s part, but through Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Confidence. In the fact that he may appeal to them, notwithstanding their weaknesses and errors.
Through Christ to God – ward [ ] . Through Christ who engenders the confidence, toward God, with reference to God who gives us success, and to whom we must account for our work.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And such trust we have,” (pepoithesin de toiauten echomen) “and we have or hold such confidence.” The minister of God holds trust or confidence in God as his power-house for strength and achievement, as he approaches God and his work in prayer through faith in Christ, 1Jn 3:22; 1Jn 5:14.
2) “Through Christ to God-ward;” (dia tou Christou pros ton theon) “through Christ to or toward God;” Christians are taught that whatever they do, or attempt to do, for God, must be done in the name, or by the authority and sanction of Jesus Christ, Col 3:17.
CONFIDENCE
I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands–that I still possess.
-Martin Luther
“SUPPORT OF CONFIDENCE”
A ship was once tossing on the stormy seas; the angry waves dashed over the deck, and the captain said the danger of shipwreck was great, and that they must leave the vessel for the boat. But the boat looked a tiny thing to trust to, and many stout hearts feared. One of the first who ventured into it, as it lay alongside the reeling ship, and while the billows seemed to play with it as you might play with a shuttlecock, was a pale, delicate woman: with a child in her arms and another clinging to her dress. She did not cry nor scream, but was very still, and the children were still also; indeed, the baby slept. “Are you not afraid?” said a gentleman to the little quiet boy, who neither spoke nor sobbed. “I do not like the storm,” he said, “but mother is here.” “And are you not afraid?” asked the same gentleman of the child’s mother. She shook her head, and pointing upward, said, “God is ruling the storm, sir, and I am not afraid, for he is my Father.” The voice was scarcely to be heard amid the howling of the mighty wind and raging sea; but the gentleman was struck with the trust of the child in its mother, and the faith of the mother in God.
-S. S. Treasury
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
4. And such confidence As it was a magnificent commendation, that Paul had pronounced to the honor of himself and his Apostleship, lest he should seem to speak of himself more confidently than was befitting, he transfers the entire glory to God, from whom he acknowledges that he has received everything that he has. “By this boasting,” says he, “I extol God rather than myself, by whose grace I am what I am.” (1Co 15:10.) He adds, as he is accustomed to do by Christ, because he is, as it were, the channel, through which all God’s benefits flow forth to us.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Appleburys Comments
Pauls Glorious Ministry Under the New Covenant
Scripture
2Co. 3:4-11. And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 7 But if the ministration of death, written, and engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look stedfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which glory was passing away: 8 how shall not rather the ministration of the spirit be with glory? 9 For if the ministration of condemnation hath glory, much rather doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10 For verily that which hath been made glorious hath not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasseth. 11 For if that which passeth away was with glory, much more that which remaineth is in glory.
Comments
And such confidence have we.Despite the hardships which Paul faced at Corinth, his ministry is characterized by confidence and triumph. His confidence was through Christ, for he knew what Christ had done for him. He knew of His resurrection which demonstrated that He had conquered Satan. He had surrendered to the risen Christ on the Damascus road. He had committed himself wholeheartedly to the service of the Lord. He remembered that day when Ananias told him to get himself baptized that his sins might be washed away, because he had called upon the name of the Lord. He had been summoned as an apostle of God. He was convinced that the way of victory was through Jesus Christ. He was never ashamed of Him nor of His gospel, for he was confident that it was the power of God to save the believer, whether Jew or Greek.
our sufficiency is from God.That is, it is God who made him adequate for the task of preaching the Word that dealt with eternal life and eternal death. God had revealed the message through the Holy Spirit to the apostles and thus equipped them for the glorious ministry under the New Covenant. No one without that divinely revealed message could possibly undertake such a ministry.
How unfortunate that many who undertake the work of the ministry today seem called upon to substitute the wisdom of man for this divinely revealed message of God. Pauls confidence in this message is expressed in his word to Timothy, Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work (2Ti. 3:16-17). He did not hesitate to urge Timothy to preach the Word; to be urgent in season, out of season; to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. See 2Ti. 4:2. The same divine Word which Paul preached will equip the consecrated minister of today who has the courage to preach this message of eternal life and everlasting death.
ministers of the new covenant.A covenant is an agreement. When that covenant is between God and man, God Himself dictates all the conditions of the covenant as well as the blessings involved in it. Man agrees to the terms of the covenant in order to enjoy its blessings. In the case of the Old Covenant which was given at Mt. Sinai, God revealed the commandments to Moses. The people entered into the covenant relationship when they said all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. See Exo. 19:8. Subsequently, all who were born into the family of the Jews were parties to that Old Covenant. Under the New Covenant only those who are born of the water and of the Spirit are parties to the New Covenanta spiritual birth in contrast to a physical birth.
The New Covenant is the gospel of Christ that promises remission of sins and eternal life to the believer whose faith is expressed through obedience to the commandments of Christ. Every individual who comes into this New Covenant relationship with Christ through the new birth, publically and in the sight of God as he makes the good confession, promises to be obedient to its terms and pledges his allegiance to Christ. To say that I believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God is to endorse all that is involved in ones total relationship to God through Jesus Christ. As Christ, He is our Prophet. Through His prophetic office the message of the Bible was revealed from heaven. See Heb. 1:1-2. As Priest He shed blood for the remission of sins. Significantly, in instituting the Lords Supper, He blessed the cup and said, This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for the many unto the remission of sins. As King, He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God in fulfillment of the promise of God made to David. See Act. 2:25-36. He exercises His authority as well, as His watchcare over His people through the inspired Word spoken through the apostles. All of those who pledge themselves to keep the terms of the New Covenant must let the Word of Christ dwell in them richly in all wisdom and teaching. See Col. 3:16.
This New Covenant was given in promise to Abraham in the Scripture which says, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. See Gal. 3:8. It was given to Abraham some four hundred and thirty years before the covenant at Sinai, but was not annulled by that covenant. See Gal. 3:16-17. It came to its fulness with the preaching of the gospel on the Day of Pentecost. All those who accept its terms become sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. for as many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3:26-27). Furthermore, if you are Christs, then are you Abrahams offspring and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29).
God was a party to two covenants at the same time, but they were not in conflict because they served different purposes. One was with Abraham and Christ; the other, the Ten Commandments, was with Israel. It was added, Paul says, because of transgression. There was a time limit on it, for it was to last until the promised seed of Abraham should comethat is, Christ. It served in the capacity of a trusted slave who watched over a child until his majority, and as such held sin in check until Christ came. But since it was a law that could not make alive one who had died in sin, it was necessary that the promise to Abraham be fulfilled in Christ and be put into effect through the preaching of the apostles. On the Day of Pentecost, the apostles told those who were guilty of crucifying the Son of God to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins, for the promisethat is, the promise God made to Abrahamwas to them and to their children and all that were far off, as many as the Lord God should call unto Himself. See Gal. 3:19-22; Act. 2:38-39.
not of letter but of spirit.This expression is found three times in Pauls writings: once in this epistle and twice in Romans. The first instance in Romans is found in Rom. 2:29. There he uses letter as a symbol of outward conformity to the Law that had been written on the tables of stone. On the other hand, he uses spirit as a symbol of the inward life of the individual, Jew or Gentile, who actually carried out the provisions of the Law. Moses had written that the one who actually carried out the righteousness which is of the Law lived thereby. See Rom. 10:5. Paul had said that not the hearers of the Law but the doers of the Law shall be justified. See Rom. 2:13. Such persons showed the works of the Law written on their hearts, that is, they understood what was right in Gods sight and willingly complied with it. This was not, as some have contended, an impossible thing. Moses wrote, This commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, Who will go up for us to heaven that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say, Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it (Deu. 30:11-14). John says, This is the love of God that we keep this commandment: and his commandments are not grievous (1Jn. 5:3).
The second instance in Romans is found in 2Co. 7:6. The same basic idea is seen in this context. Newness of spirit refers to the new life in Christ which was characterized by intelligent, willing, loving obedience to Him. Oldness of letter, on the other hand, referred to the life under the jurisdiction of the Law. Because of violation of the Law, life was characterized by sinful passions that brought forth fruit unto death. In 2Co. 3:6, Paul uses letter as a symbol of the Old Covenant just as he had done in Romans, and spirit as a symbol of the life under the New Covenant. Keeping in mind Pauls use of these terms will aid in interpreting 2Co. 3:17-18.
Two further observations need to be made: (1) letter is not contrasted with the Holy Spirit. Verse three plainly indicates that the epistle of Christ had been written with the Holy Spirit, but in verse six spirit (spelled with a small s) is used as a symbol of the New Covenant; (2) There is no justification whatever for the assumption that letter and spirit refer to a literal interpretation of the Word of God as opposed to a so-called spiritual interpretation. All of Gods Word is spirit and life (Joh. 6:63).
The Word is directed to intelligence of man and it appeals to his heart. It shows the way to forgiveness and purity in Christ. It is life, for obedience to it brings the gift of life eternal.
for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.This unfortunately has led some to assume that an attempt to actually obey Gods Word results in death. How can such a view be harmonized with what James plainly says? Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deluding your own selves (Jas. 1:21-22). Why then did Paul say that the letter killeth? Remembering that letter stands as a symbol of the Old Covenant, we may read the Old Covenant killeth. The answer to the problem is clearly indicated in the Scriptures for Hebrews says that the Old Covenant gave place to the New because God found fault with those under the Old Covenant. He found fault with them because they continued not in His covenant. See Heb. 8:7. Paul shows that by the works of the Law no human being is pardoned in Gods sight. See Rom. 3:20. By works of the Law he has in mind those ceremonies such as the animal sacrifices which only served to remind the one who had broken Gods law that ultimately Christ would come providing the sacrifice that would actually blot out sin. See Rom. 3:25. He further states that if there had been a law given which would make alive then righteousness (pardon) would have been of the law. See Gal. 3:21. He also states that the law is not a matter of faith but he that doeth them shall live in them (Gal. 3:12). Spirit which stands for the New Covenant gives life. Under this covenant the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, actually cleanses the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. See Heb. 9:14. The testimony of the Holy Spirit is given in Jer. 31:31-34 and in Heb. 10:16 in these words: This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts and upon their minds also will I write them and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more. As sin reigned in death, even so grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:21).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(4) Such trust have we.The words carry us back to the expressions of 2Co. 3:2-3, perhaps, also, to the assertion of his own sincerity and sufficiency implied in 2Co. 2:16-17. He has this confidence, but it is through Christ, who strengthens him (Col. 1:11).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Such trust Rather, such confidence; namely, the bold assurance that they are his epistle. 2Co 3:4-5, are flung in as a softener of all apparent arrogance in his bold assurance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.’
And this is the confidence that he has, a confidence that he has through Christ as he looks towards God. His confidence is not in himself, or in his own resources, but in the fact that what has come, has come through Christ and what He has deserved. Thus as he looks towards God he has no doubts of what will result, for it is all of Christ.
So it is not that he looks to his own sufficiency. He and his fellow-workers do not look on themselves as sufficient (adequate). They have no high opinion of themselves. They make no claims of superiority for themselves. They do not look to their own resources. They are not boasters like others. Their sufficiency is from God, and it is He Who, having called them, has made them sufficient with His own sufficiency, as ministers of the new covenant.
In the background of this idea of sufficiency and adequacy may lie the question in Joe 2:11 (LXX), ‘who is sufficient (adequate) in it (the day of the Lord)?’ The answer is no one. In LXX it is God alone Who is ‘the Sufficient One’, for this is regularly the translation for El Shaddai (Rth 1:20; Job 21:15; Job 31:2; Job 40:2). Thus they recognise that any sufficiency that they have must come from Him.
And this new covenant (binding relationship with God) is not written in letters, it is totally of the Spirit, as He writes the covenant within their very beings. For the covenant given in letters was one that they were unable to fulfil. At first they received it with joy and gladly subscribed to it. But later, even as they read it, it condemned them and destroyed them. It withered their hearts. They had failed to live up to its demands. But in contrast the Spirit gives life. He makes them as those who love God and desire to keep His law (Rom 8:4). It renews their hearts. And He gives them life and makes them aware of that new life that they possess (Rom 6:4), because they have been accepted by God in Christ, and have received His very life within them (Gal 2:20; Eph 3:17). It continually renews their hearts.
‘For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.’ For a similar idea compare Rom 2:29; Rom 7:6. There was nothing wrong with the words of the old covenant itself. It was holy, and righteous and good (Rom 7:12). The wrong was in man’s heart and in his attitude towards it, and the description ‘the letter’ emphasises that wrong use. Man was taken up too much with the detail and failed to see behind it the graciousness of God and the need for a change of heart wrought by God. He refused to respond to God through it, thus bringing on himself the sentence of death. He relied on outward circumcision, and failed to recognise that he must be ‘inwardly circumcised’ (Rom 2:29). Thus the detail killed him. But the Spirit first gives life, revivifying the spirit, and as a result He brings about that response, so that man responds in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter which inhibits response (Rom 7:6). The same fragrance is wafted to all, but to one it brings life, while to the other it brings death (2Co 2:14-16).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The spirit contrasted with the letter:
v. 4. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward;
v. 5. not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God,
v. 6. who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. The work which Paul had done at Corinth as God’s servant was worthy of all commendation. And yet he avoids even the suspicion of self-glorification by writing: But such confidence we have through Christ toward God. That was the confidence, the quiet certainty, which Paul had, that the Corinthian congregation was his letter of commendation, that its condition in doctrine and life bore a continual testimony to his work. But this confidence was not the outgrowth of a false self-esteem, it was rather a persuasion to God, in respect to God, the Author of the work, and through Christ, in whose power he accomplished such great things in Corinth. “This boasting every preacher should have, that he be certain and that his heart also stand in that confidence and be able to say: This confidence and courage I have toward God in Christ that my doctrine and preaching is truly God’s Word. Thus also when he serves in other offices in the Church, baptizes a child, absolves and comforts a sinner, that, too, must be done in the certain confidence that it is the command of Christ.”
The words of Paul concerning the ministry of the New Testament condemn all pride, presumption, self-conceit, and false confidence, as Luther says, and ascribe all honor and glory to God: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to form any opinion as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. The very suggestion as though he were praising himself and lauding his own efforts, commending his success in Corinth as due to his own ability, is here rejected. On the contrary, he says of himself and of all ministers of the Gospel, not only that they lack fitness for the service of the Word, but that they are not even able to have the right opinions, to form the proper judgments in anything connected with the office, whether it be great or small, as of themselves. If any preacher of the Gospel is depending upon his own natural ability, his own accumulated wisdom, his own practical shrewdness, then he is still lacking entirely in that sufficiency which the Lord demands for the proper service of Him whose unvarying requirement is the acknowledgment of one’s own insufficiency and unworthiness. There is only one way in which a man may become sufficient, may gain the proper qualifications for the work of preaching the Gospel, and that is by the free gift of God. Everything that a preacher thinks, does, and carries out successfully in his office is given to him by God, is performed through him by God, to whom therefore all glory and honor must at all times be given.
Incidentally, however, God takes care of the work which He has entrusted to weak human hands, to infirm human minds: Who also made us sufficient, gave us the proper qualifications, as ministers of the New Covenant, as ministers, namely, not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. God must and does truly give the ability, the necessary qualifications, to those that are ministers, that serve in the work of the Gospel, provided they are servants of the Gospel in truth, and not in name only. He enables them to be ministers of the New Covenant, to devote their time and energy to its propagation, to the distribution of the New Testament gifts of grace. For the word “new” implies that the apostle is here contrasting the present ministry with that of the Old Covenant which was made with the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Of the former covenant he says that it was a covenant of the letter; of the latter, that it is a covenant of the Spirit; Be contrasts the Law and the Gospel. “For he uses the word ‘letter’ somewhat contemptuously of the Law (which nevertheless is also the Word of God) over against the office and preaching of the Gospel… For ‘letter’ is that which is called, and is, every form of commandment, doctrine, and preaching which remains only in the word or on the paper and in the letter, and nothing is done afterwards… Thus also the command of God, since it is not kept, although the highest doctrine and God’s eternal will, must yet suffer that men make of it a mere letter and empty shell, since without heart and fruit it does not bring life and salvation… On the other hand, there is an altogether different doctrine and preaching, which he calls the ministry of the New Testament and of the Spirit, which does not teach what you should do (for that you have heard before); but it indicates to you what God wants to do and give to you, yea, has done already, in this way, that he gave His Son, Christ, for us, because on account of our disobedience to the Law, which no man fulfills, we were under God’s wrath and condemnation, that he paid for our sins, reconciled God, and gave us His righteousness. ” This contrast is brought out by the apostle in one brief sentence: The letter kills: the Law is the instrument of death, Rom 5:20; Rom 7:9; Rom 8:2, because no man is able to fulfill its demands, and therefore every person is under its condemnation of death; the Spirit gives life: the Gospel brings us the glorious news of the free grace of God in Christ Jesus, of the complete fulfillment of the Law, of the payment of all guilt, of the appropriation of perfect righteousness, life, and salvation. And the Gospel brings the Holy Spirit into the hearts, its power is that of the Spirit, who works a new spiritual life in the sinner, gives him the joyful confidence to know God as his dear Father, and to live a life of thankfulness, righteousness, and purity.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
2Co 3:4-5. And such trust have we, &c. As if he had said, “But mistake me not, as if I boasted of myself. This so great boasting which I use is only my confidence in God, through Christ; for it was God who made me a minister of the gospel, who borrowed on me the ability for it; and whatever I perform in it is wholly from him.” , trust, is a milder term for boasting. So St. Paul uses it, ch. 2Co 10:7 compared with 2Co 5:8. See also Rom 2:19. The word , ch. 2Co 10:7 is used as here, [2Co 3:5.] for counting upon one-self. The clause should be rendered to reckon upon any thing as of ourselves: or, if the word should rather be thought to signify here to discover by reasoning, then the Apostle’s sense will run thus: “Not as if I was sufficient of myself,by the strength of my own natural parts, to attain the knowledge of the gospel truths which I preach; but my ability herein is all from God.” But, in whatever sense the word is here taken, it is certain that , which is translated any thing, must be limited to the subject in hand; namely, the gospel which he had preached to them. Dr. Heylin renders these verses, And we are assured of this, through Christ, before God, 2Co 3:5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to effect any thing by the strength of our own reason, but our sufficiency is from God, 2Co 3:6 who hath enabled us to be ministers, &c. See ch. 2Co 1:6.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Co 3:4 . is emphatic, and therefore precedes (otherwise in 2Co 1:15 ); confidence , however, of such a kind as is indicated in 2Co 3:2-3 ; for there Paul has expressed a lofty self-consciousness. Hence there is no reason for seeking a reference to something earlier instead of to what immediately precedes, and for connecting it with 2Co 2:17 (Grotius and others, including de Wette; comp. Rckert), or with 2Co 2:14-17 , as Hofmann has done in consequence of his taking in 2Co 3:1 as not interrogative. Brief and apt is Luther’s gloss: “Confidence, that we have prepared you to form the epistle .”
] through Christ , who brings it about in us: for in his official capacity Paul knows himself to be under the constant influence of Christ, without which he would not have that confidence. Theodoret says well: .
] in relation to God , as bringing about the successful results of the apostolic activity. It denotes the religious direction , in which he has such confidence (comp. Rom 4:2 ; Rom 5:1 ), not the validity before God (de Wette).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
Ver. 4. Such trust have we ] i.e. Such boldness of holy boasting. If Cicero could say, Two things I have to bear me bold upon, the knowledge of good arts and the glory of great acts; how much more might Paul!
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
4 11 .] His honour of his apostolic office was no personal vanity, for all the ability of the Apostles came from God, who had made them able ministers of the new covenant (4 6), a ministration infinitely more glorious than that of the old dispensation (7 11).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
4 .] The connexion with the foregoing is immediate: he had just spoken of his consciousness of apostolic success among them (which assertion would be true also of other churches which he had founded) being his worldwide recommendation. It is this confidence of which he here speaks. Such confidence however we possess through Christ towards God : i.e. ‘it is no vain boast, but rests on power imparted to us through Christ in regard to God, in reference to God’s work and our own account to be given to Him:’
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Co 3:4-6 . HIS SUCCESS IN THE MINISTRY OF THE NEW COVENANT IS ALTOGETHER DUE TO GOD.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
2Co 3:4 . . . .: and such confidence have we through Christ towards God ( cf. Rom 4:2 ; Rom 5:1 for a like use of ). That is “ we are sufficient for these things” (see 2Co 2:16-17 ); but he hastens to explain the true source of his confidence.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 2Co 3:4-6
4Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6who 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.
2Co 3:4 “confidence” This is another Pauline term used mostly in 2 Corinthians . It comes from the same Greek root as faith, trust, believe (i.e., peith and pistis, pisteu). It basically means trust, confidence, or reliance.
1. positive context:
a. Paul’s travel plans, 2Co 1:15
b. Paul’s confidence in God through Christ, 2Co 3:4
c. Paul’s confidence in Titus, 2Co 8:22
d. Paul’s confidence in Christ, Eph 3:12
2. negative context:
a. Paul wants to be gentle with them, 2Co 10:2
b. Paul’s reluctant comparison of his credentials with the false teachers, Php 3:4
2Co 3:5 “Not that we are adequate in ourselves” The Greek term hikanos is common in the NT and is used in two senses.
1. as a large number of something (cf. 2Co 11:30), even time
2. fit, appropriate (cf. 2Co 2:6), competent, qualified, able, or adequate
The second sense is used here. Paul expresses his sense of unworthiness using this term in 1Co 15:9. He also asserts that gospel ministers are not worthy in themselves in 2Co 2:16; 2Co 3:5.
Yet, even as we are inadequate in ourselves, God has called us and empowered us as His representatives (cf. 2Co 3:6; 2Ti 2:2). We are adequate in Him (cf. Col 1:12).
“to consider” This is the term logizomai, which is used thirty-four times by Paul, but less than seven in the rest of the NT (cf. 2Co 3:5; 2Co 5:19; 2Co 10:2; 2Co 10:7; 2Co 11:5; 2Co 12:6). It reflects Paul’s logical presentation of truths and then as encouragement to think through the issues clearly.
The term is a major theological word because of:
1. its use in the Septuagint for personalized truth (cf. the New International Dictionary of NT Theology, vol. 3, p. 823)
2. its use in Gen 15:6, which Paul uses to justify OT righteousness based on a free gift of God through faith (cf. Rom 4:3)
3. it may have been a technical term used by Sophists in their rhetorical presentations (see Bruce W. Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists)
Modern believers should also carefully consider what they believe about the faith and why. Our mental and verbal abilities are part of the image of God in mankind. We must worship God with our minds (cf. LXX Deu 6:5; Mat 22:37). We need to be able to give an account of the hope that is in us (cf. 1Pe 3:15). We must think through our faith beliefs for our own stability and for evangelism. See the video “Why I Trust the NT” online at www.freebiblecommentary.org , click on “Biblical Interpretation Sermons,” then on Video Seminar, Dallas, TX, 2009″ and then on the right side of the screen at lesson 3.
2Co 3:6 “servants of a new covenant” See Special Topic: Servant Leadership at 1Co 4:1.
“not of the letter but of the Spirit” There is a series of comparisons.
1. written versus spiritual, 2Co 3:3; 2Co 3:6
2. letter versus Spirit, 2Co 3:6
3. old service versus spiritual service, 2Co 3:7
4. the service connected with condemnation versus the service connected with right-standing, 2Co 3:9
5. what has passed away versus what is permanent, 2Co 3:11
6. the veil remains unlifted versus the veil is removed, 2Co 3:14
Paul is contrasting the old and new covenants, but really heart faith (cf. Rom 2:29; Rom 7:6) versus head faith (i.e., legalism, human performance, self-righteousness).
“the letter kills” This seems to relate to the primary purpose of the Mosaic law. It was given not to give life, but to accentuate and reveal our sinfulness (cf. Rom 7:9-11; Gal 3:10). The Law brings condemnation (cf. Rom 5:13), wrath (cf. Rom 4:15), and death (cf. Rom 7:19; 2Co 3:6). See George E. Ladd’s A Theology of the New Testament, pp. 495-510. The place of the law is also clearly seen in Rom 3:20; Rom 5:20; Rom 10:4; Gal 3:24-25. The relationship between the NT believer and the OT Law has been a greatly confused issue. It seems to me, based on all the passages of the NT, that the Christian is not under OT law (cf. Rom 6:14; Gal 5:18). This is not because the OT law has passed away, but because the NT Christian fulfills the OT law in God’s love relationships with us seen in believers’ love for others (cf. Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:14). The purpose of the law is to bring fallen mankind to Christ, so as to redeem them. However, just because the OT law is not a means of salvation does not mean it is not God’s will for humanity in society (cf. Mat 5:17; Rom 8:4). See SPECIAL TOPIC: PAUL’S VIEWS OF THE MOSAIC LAW at 1Co 9:9.
“the Spirit gives life” This context does not provide a hermeneutical method! This paragraph does not relate to the historical-grammatical method of biblical hermeneutics versus the allegorical method. It relates primarily to the distinction between the purpose of the OT and the purpose of the NT.
Even more to the point, the role of heart-felt faith in God’s resources (cf. Joh 6:63) versus trusting in human resources (i.e., knowledge, works, racial standing). The key is God’s love, Christ’s work, and the Spirit’s enabling. Notice that both the killing of the letter and life-giving of the Spirit are both present active indicatives.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
trust = confidence. Greek. pepoithesis. App-130.,
through. Greek. dia. App-104.
Christ = the Christ.
to God-ward = toward (Greek. pros. App-104.)
God.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
4-11.] His honour of his apostolic office was no personal vanity, for all the ability of the Apostles came from God, who had made them able ministers of the new covenant (4-6), a ministration infinitely more glorious than that of the old dispensation (7-11).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Co 3:4. , trust) by which we both determine and profess to be such as are here described. The antithesis is, to faint, 2Co 4:1.- , through Christ) not through ourselves. This matter is discussed, 2Co 3:14, at the end, and in the following verses.- , toward God) This is discussed, 2Co 3:6, and in the following verses.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Co 3:4
2Co 3:4
And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward:-What Christ had thus written on his heart by the Spirit caused him to have such trust or confidence in God for them. [Paul had expressed great confidence with respect to what had been accomplished at Corinth through his instrumentality, and he had claimed it as an evidence of his apostolic power. He owed this strong and joyful confidence entirely to Christ; for it was Christ whom he served and under whose influence he accomplished everything he did; and it was therefore through Christ that he had such confidence in what he could do; but this confidence was that God had appointed him, and sent him forth; and confidence that he would still continue to own and bless him.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
such: 2Co 2:14, Phi 1:6
God-ward: Exo 18:19, 1Th 1:8
Reciprocal: Mat 13:52 – scribe Rom 15:17 – whereof Phi 4:13 – can
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Co 3:4. Having described the situation in the preceding verse, Paul affirms his confidence in the correctness of that description in the present verse.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Co 3:4. And such confidence have we through Christ. .. not that we are sufficient of (from) ourselves to account anything as from (out of) ourselvesas though we were the source of our own success; but our sufficiency is from God;
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, How the apostle encourages himself, from the experience he had of the present success of his ministry, to hope for the favour of farther and future success: Such trust or confidence have we, through the grace of Christ, of the constant efficacy of our ministry, that he will still own and honour it, succeed and bless it.
When God has rendered our labours acceptable and successful amongst a people, either for conversion or edification, it should encourge us to trust in God for the efficacious assistance of our ministry, and render us yet more successful amongst them, and a greater blessing to them.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward:
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 4
Such trust; such confidence.–Through Christ to God-ward; in God through Christ.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
3:4 And such {d} trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
(d) This boldness we show, and thus may we boast gloriously of the worthiness and fruit of our ministry.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The old and new covenants 3:4-11
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Jesus Christ had given Paul confidence that the changes that the gospel had produced in the Corinthians validated his apostolic credentials. That confidence was not merely the product of Paul’s imagination.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 9
THE TWO COVENANTS.
2Co 3:4-11 (R.V)
THE confidence referred to in the opening of this passage is that which underlies the triumphant Sentences at the end of the second chapter. The tone of those sentences was open to misinterpretation, and Paul guards himself against this on two sides. To begin with, his motive in so expressing himself was quite pure: he had no thought of commending himself to the Corinthians. And, again, the ground of his confidence was not in himself. The courage which he had to speak as he did he had through Jesus Christ, and that, too, in relation to God. It was virtually confidence in God, and therefore inspired by God.
It is this last aspect of his confidence which is expanded in the fifth verse: “not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.” This vehement disclaimer of any self-sufficiency has naturally been taken in the widest sense, and theologians from Augustine downward have found in it one of the most decisive proofs of the inability of man for any spiritual good accompanying salvation. No one, we may be sure, would have ascribed salvation, and all spiritual good accompanying it, entirely to God with more hearty sincerity than the Apostle; but it does seem better here to give his words a narrower and more relevant interpretation. The “sufficiency to account anything,” of which he speaks, must have a definite meaning for the context; and this meaning is suggested by the words of 2Co 2:14-17. Paul would never have dared, he tells us-indeed, he would never have been able-on his own motion, and out of his own resources, either to form conclusions, or to express them, on the subjects there in view. It is not for any man at random to say what the true Gospel is, what are its issues, what the responsibilities of its hearers or preachers, what is the spirit requisite in the evangelist, or what are the methods legitimate for him. The Gospel is Gods concern, and only those who have been capacitated by Him are entitled to speak as Paul has spoken. If this is a narrower sense than that which is expounded so vigorously by Calvin, it is more pertinent, and some will find it quite as pungent. Of all things that are done hastily and inconsiderately, by people calling themselves Christian, the criticism of evangelists is one of the most conspicuous. At his own prompting, out of his own wise head, any man almost will both make up his mind and speak his mind about any preacher with no sense of responsibility whatever. Paul certainly did form opinions about preachers, opinions which were anything but flattering; but he did it through Jesus Christ and in relation to God; he did it because, as he writes, God had made him sufficient, i.e., had given him capacity to be, and the capacity of, a true evangelist, so that he knew both what the Gospel was, and how it ought to be proclaimed. It would silence much incompetent, because self-sufficient, criticism, if no one “thought anything” who had not this qualification.
The qualification having been mentioned, the Apostle proceeds, as usual, to enlarge upon it. “Our sufficiency is of God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of letter, but of spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” At the first glance, we see no reason why his thought should take this direction, and it can only be because those whom he is opposing, and with whom he has contrasted himself in 2Co 2:17, are in some sense representatives of the old covenant, ministers of the letter in spite of their claim to be evangelists, and appealing not to a competency which came from God, but to one which rested on “the flesh.” They based their title to preach on certain advantages of birth, or on having known Jesus when He lived in the world, or perhaps on certification by others who had known Him; at all events, not on that spiritual competence which Pauls ministry at Corinth had shown him to possess. That this was really the case will be seen more fully at a later stage (especially in 2Co 10:1-18. ff.).
With the words “ministers of a new covenant” we enter upon one of the great passages in St. Pauls writings, and are allowed to see one of the inspiring and governing ideas in his mind. “Covenant,” even to people familiar with the Bible, is beginning to be a remote and technical term; it needs to be translated or explained. If no more than another word is to be used, perhaps “dispensation” or “constitution” would suggest something. Gods covenant with Israel was the whole constitution under which God was the God of Israel, and Israel the people of God. The new covenant of which Paul speaks necessarily implies an old one; and the old one is this covenant with Israel. It was a national covenant, and for that, among other reasons, it was represented and embodied in legal forms. There was a legal constitution under which the nation lived, and according to which all Gods dealings with it, and all its dealings with God, were regulated. Without entering more deeply, in the meantime, into the nature of this constitution, or the religious experiences which were possible to those who lived under it, it is sufficient to notice that the best spirits in the nation became conscious of its inadequacy, and eventually of its failure. Jeremiah, who lived through the long agony of his countrys dissolution, and saw the final collapse of the ancient order, felt this failure most deeply, and was consoled by the vision of a brighter future. That future rested for him on a more intimate relation of God to His people, on a constitution, as we may fairly paraphrase his words, less legal and more spiritual. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.” This wonderful passage, so profound, so spiritual, so evangelical, is the utmost reach of prophecy; it is a sort of stepping-stone between the Old Testament and the New. Jeremiah has cried to God out of the depths, and God has heard his cry, and raised him to a spiritual height from which his eye ranges over the land of promise, and rests with yearning on all its grandest features. We do not know whether many of his contemporaries or successors were able to climb the mount which offered this glorious prospect; but we know that the promise remained a promise – a rainbow light across the dark cloud of national disaster-till Christ claimed its fulfillment as His work. It was His to make good all that the prophets had spoken; and when in the last hours of His life He said to His disciples, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins,” it was exactly as if He had laid His Hand on that passage of Jeremiah, and said. “This day is this scripture fulfilled before your eyes.” By the death of Jesus a new spiritual order was established; it rested on the forgiveness of sin, it made God accessible to all, it made obedience an instinct and a joy; all the intercourse of God and man was carried on upon a new footing, under a new constitution; to use the words of the prophet and the apostle, God made a new covenant with His people.
Among the Christians of the first age, no one so thoroughly appreciated the newness of Christianity, or was so immensely impressed by it, as St. Paul. The difference between the earlier dispensation and the later, between the religion of Moses disciples and the religion of believers in Jesus Christ, was one that could hardly be exaggerated; he himself had been a zealot of the old, he was now a zealot of the new; and the gulf between his former and his present self was one that no geometry could measure. He had lived after the straitest sect of the old religion, a Pharisee; touching the righteousness which is in the law he could call himself blameless; he had tasted the whole bitterness of the legalism, the formality, the bondage, in which the old covenant entangled those who were devoted to it in his days. It is with this in his memory that he here sets the old and the new in unrelieved opposition to each other. His feeling is like that of a man who has just been liberated from prison, and whose whole mind is possessed and filled up with the single sensation that it is one thing to be chained, and another thing to be free. In the passage before us, this is all the Apostle has in view. He speaks as if the old covenant and the new had nothing in common, as if the new, to borrow Baurs expression, had merely a negative relation to “the old,” as if it could only be contrasted with it, and not compared to it, or illustrated by it. And with this restricted view he characterizes the old dispensation as one of letter, and the new as one of spirit. Speaking out of his own experience, which was not solitary, but typical, he could truly speak thus. The essence of the old, to a Pharisee born and bred, was its documentary, statutory character: the law, written in letters, on stone tablets or parchment sheets, simply confronted men with its uninspiring imperative; it had never yet given any one a good conscience or enabled him to attain to the righteousness of God. The essence of the new, on the other hand, was spirit; the Christian was one in whom, through Christ, the Holy Spirit of God dwelt, putting the righteousness of God within his reach, enabling him to perfect holiness in Gods fear. The contrast is made absolute, pro tem. There is no “spirit” in the old at all; there is no “letter” in the new. This last assertion was more natural then than now; for at the time when Paul wrote this Epistle, there was no “New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” consigned in documents and collected for the use of the Church. The Gospel existed in the world, not at all in books, but only in men; all the epistles were living epistles; there was literally no letter, but only spirit.
This, doubtless, is the explanation of the blank antithesis of the old covenant and the new in the passage before us. But it is obvious, when we think of it, that this antithesis does not exhaust the relations of the two. It is not the whole truth about the earlier dispensation to say that, while the new is spiritual, it is not. The religion of the Old Testament was not mere legalism; if it had been, the Old Testament would be for us an unprofitable and almost an unintelligible book. That religion had its spiritual side, as all but utterly corrupt religions always have; God administered His grace to His people through it, and in psalms and prophecies we have records of their experiences, which are not legal, but spiritual, and priceless even to Christian men. Nor would Paul, under other circumstances, have refused to admit this; on the contrary, it is a prominent element in his teaching. He knows that the old bears in its bosom the promise of the new, a sum of promises that has been confirmed and made good in Jesus Christ. {2Co 1:20} He knows that the righteousness of God, which is proclaimed in the Gospel, is witnessed to by the law and, the prophets. {Rom 3:21} He knows that the law, even, is “spiritual.” {Rom 7:14} He knows that the righteousness of faith was a secret revealed to David. {Rom 4:6 f.} He would probably have agreed with Stephen that the oracles received and delivered by Moses in the wilderness were “living” oracles; and his profound mind would have thrilled to hear that great word of Jesus, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Had be lived to a time like ours, when the Gospel also has been embodied in a book, instead of using “letter” and “spirit” as mutually exclusive, he would have admitted, as we do, that both ideas apply, in some sense, to both dispensations, and that it is possible to take the old and the new alike either in the letter or in the spirit. Nevertheless, he would have been entitled to say that, if they were to be characterized in their differences, they must be characterized as he has done it: the mark of the old, as opposed to the new, is literalism, or legalism; the mark of the new, as opposed to the old, is spirituality, or freedom. They differ as law differs from life, as compulsion from inspiration. Taken thus, no one can have any difficulty in agreeing with him.
But the Apostle does not rest in generalities: he goes on to a more particular comparison of the old and the new dispensations, and especially to a demonstration that the new is the more glorious. He starts with a statement of their working, as dependent on their nature just described. One is letter; the other, spirit. Well, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. A sentence so pregnant as this, and so capable of various applications, must have been very perplexing to the Corinthians, had they not been fairly acquainted beforehand with the Apostles “form of doctrine”. {Rom 6:17} It condenses in itself a whole cycle of his characteristic thoughts. All that he says in the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians about the working of the law, in its relation to the flesh, is represented in “the letter killeth.” The power of the law to create the consciousness of sin and to intensify it; to stimulate transgression, and so make sin exceeding sinful, and shut men up in despair; to pass sentence upon the guilty, the hopeless sentence of death, -all this is involved in the words. The fullness of meaning is as ample in “the spirit giveth life.” The Spirit of Christ, given to those who receive Christ in the Gospel, is an infinite power and an infinite promise. It includes the reversal of all that the letter has wrought. The sentence of death is reversed; the impotence to good is counteracted and overcome; the soul looks out to, and anticipates, not the blackness of darkness for ever, but the everlasting glory of Christ. When the Apostle has written these two little sentences-when he has supplied “letter” and “spirit” with the predicates “kill” and “make alive,” in the sense which they bear in the Christian revelation-he has gone as far as the mind of man can go in stating an effective contrast. But he works it out with reference to some special points in which the superiority of the new to the old is to be observed.
(1) In the first place, the ministry of the old was a ministry of death. Even as such it had a glory, or splendor, of its own. The face of Moses, its great minister, shone after he had been in the presence of God; and though that brightness was passing away even as men caught sight of it ( is partic. impf.), it was so resplendent as to dazzle the beholders. But the ministry of the new is a ministry of spirit: and who would not argue a fortiori that it should appear in glory greater still? Both the (“rather”), and the future () in 2Co 3:8, are logical. Paul speaks, to use Bengels expression, looking forward, as it were, from the Old Testament into the New. He does not say in what the glory of the New consists. He does not say that it is veiled at present, and will be manifested when Christ comes to transfigure His own. Even the use of “hope” in 2Co 3:12 does not prove this. He leaves it quite indefinite; and arguing from the nature of the two ministries, which has just been explained, simply concludes that in glory the new must far transcend the old.
(2) In vv. 9 and 10 {2Co 3:9-10} he puts a new point upon this. “Death” and “life” are here replaced by “condemnation” and “righteousness.” It is through condemnation that man becomes the prey of death; and the grace which reigns in him to eternal life reigns through righteousness. {Rom 5:21} The contrast of these two words is very significant for Pauls conception of the Gospel: it shows how essential to his idea of righteousness, how fundamental in it, is the thought of acquittal or acceptance with God. Men are bad men, sinful men, under Gods condemnation; and he cannot conceive a Gospel at all which does not announce, at the very outset, the removal of that condemnation, and a declaration in the sinners favor. Perhaps there are other ways of conceiving men, and other aspects in which God can come to them as their Savior; but the Pauline Gospel has proved itself, and will always prove itself anew, the Gospel for the sinful, who know the misery of condemnation and despair. Mere pardon, as it has been called, may be a meager conception, but it is that without which no other Christian conception can exist for a moment. That which lies at the bottom of the new covenant, and supports all its magnificent promises and hopes, is this: “I will forgive their iniquities, and 1 will remember their sins no more.” If we could imagine this taken away, what were left? Of course the righteousness which the Gospel proclaims more than pardon; it is not exhausted when we say it is the opposite of condemnation; but unless we feel that the very nerve of it lies in the removal of condemnation, we shall never understand the New Testament tone in speaking of it. It is this which explains the joyous rebound of the Apostles spirit whenever he encounters the subject; he remembers the black cloud, and now there is clear shining; he was under sentence then, but now he is justified by faith, and has peace with God. He cannot exaggerate the contrast, nor the greater glory of the new state. Granting that the ministry of condemnation had its glory-that the revelation of law “had an austere majesty of its own”-does not the ministry of righteousness, the Gospel which annulled the condemnation and restored man to peace with God, overflow with glory? When he thinks of it, he is tempted to withdraw the concession he has made. We may call the old dispensation and its ministry glorious if we like; they are glorious when they stand alone; but when comparison is made with the new, they are not glorious at all. The stars are bright till the moon rises: the moon herself reigns in heaven till her splendor pales before the sun; but when the sun shines in his strength, there is no other glory in the sky. All the glories of the old covenant have vanished for Paul in the light which shines from the Cross and from the Throne of Christ.
(3) A final superiority belongs to the new dispensation and its ministry as compared with the old-the superiority of permanence to transiency. “If that which passeth away was with glory, much more that which remaineth is in glory.” The verbs here are supplied by the translators, but one may question whether the contrast of past and present was so definite in the Apostles mind. I think not, and the reference to Moses face does not prove that it was. All through these comparisons St. Paul expresses himself with the utmost generality; logical and ideal, not temporal, relations, dominate his thoughts. The law was given in glory ( , 2Co 3:7) -there is no dispute about that; but what the eleventh verse makes prominent is that while glory is the attendant or accompaniment of the transient, it is the element of the permanent. The law is indeed of God; it has a function in the economy of God; it is at the very lowest a negative preparation for the Gospel; it shuts men up to the acceptance of Gods mercy. In this respect the glory on Moses face represents the real greatness which belongs to the law as a power used by God in the working out of His loving purpose. But at the best the law only shuts men up to Christ, and then its work is done. The true greatness of God is revealed, and with it His true glory, once for all, in the Gospel. There is nothing beyond the righteousness of God, manifested in Christ Jesus, for the acceptance of faith. That is Gods last word to the world: it has absorbed in it even the glory of the law; and it is bright forever with a glory above all other. It is Gods chief end to reveal this glory in the Gospel, and to make men partakers of it; it has been so always, is so still, and ever shall be; and in the consciousness that he has seen and been saved by the eternal love of God, and is now a minister of it, the Apostle claims this finality of the new covenant as its crowning glory. The law, like the lower gifts of the Christian life, passes away; but the new covenant abides, for it is the revelation of love-that love which is the being and the glory of God Himself.
These qualities of the Christian dispensation, which constitute its newness, are too readily lost sight of. It is hard to appreciate and to live up to them, and hence they are always lapsing out of view, and requiring to be rediscovered. In the first age of Christianity there were many myriads of Jews, the Book of Acts tells us, who had very little sense of the newness of the Gospel; they were exceedingly zealous for the law, even for the letter of all its ritual prescriptions: Paul and his spiritual conception of Christianity were their bugbear. In the first half of the second century the religion even of the Gentile Churches had already become more legal than evangelical; there was wanting any sufficient apprehension of the spirituality, the freedom, and the newness of Christianity as opposed to Judaism; and though the reaction of Marcion, who denied that there was any connection whatever between the Old Testament and the New, went to a false and perverse extreme, it was the natural, and in its motives the legitimate, protest of spirit and life against letter and law. The Reformation in the sixteenth century was essentially a movement of similar character: it was the rediscovery of the Pauline Gospel, or of the Gospel in those characteristics of it which made Pauls heart leap for joy-its justifying righteousness, its spirituality, its liberty. In a Protestant scholasticism this glorious Gospel has again been lost oftener than once; it is lost when “a learned ministry” deals with the New Testament writings as the scribes dealt with the Old; it is lost also-for extremes meet-when an unlearned piety swears by verbal, even by literal, inspiration, and takes up to mere documents an attitude which in principle is fatal to Christianity. It is in the life of the Church-especially in that life which communicates itself, and makes the Christian community what the Jewish never was, essentially a missionary community-that the safeguard of all these high characteristics lies. A Church devoted to learning, or to the maintenance of a social or political position, or even merely to the cultivation of a type of character among its own members, may easily cease to be spiritual, and lapse into legal religion: a Church actively engaged in propagating itself never can. It is not with the “letter” one can hopefully address unbelieving men: it is only with the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the heart; and where the Spirit is, there is liberty. None are so “sound” on the essentials of the faith as men with the truly missionary spirit; but at the same time none are so completely emancipated, and that by the self-same Spirit, from all that is not itself spiritual.