Verse By Verse Devotional On 2 Corinthians By Pastor Jack #73

A Ministry of Righteousness Abounding in Glory

3:7-11 "But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it . For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory."

Why is the new covenant called a ministry of righteousness in contrast to the old covenant which is a ministry of condemnation? The old is called a ministry of condemnation because without the Spirit of Christ, God’s law can only condemn us, because of our sinful inability to obey it. The new is a ministry of righteousness because Christ fulfilled the law and declares those righteous who are united with Him through faith. Then by His Spirit He empowers us to live righteously, obeying His law, which is now "the law of liberty" (James 2:12) and "the perfect law that gives freedom" (James 1:25). Thus, the new covenant is a ministry of righteousness.

But what does it mean that this ministry of righteousness (the new covenant) abounds in glory (compared to the old covenant)? We have already seen that the new is more glorious than the old in that it provides righteousness in Christ and power to live righteously in the Holy Spirit. But there is much more than this. In the old the glory of God was revealed in the face of Moses. But though Moses was a great man of God, Moses was a sinner. The greatest expression of the glory of God was found not in the face of Moses but in the face of Christ:

"For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." (2Cor.4:6)

"He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses." (Heb.3:3)

Not only is the new covenant more glorious because of the fuller glory of Christ, it is also more glorious because it is a ministry of sonship as opposed to a ministry of slavery. Even though the old covenant people of God were sons/heirs of God, they were treated like slaves:

"As long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father." (Gal.4:1-2)

These "guardians and managers" include the old covenant law, which is filled with "childish" provisions that gave the impression that some created things (like foods, days, places, ethnic groups, etc.) were intrinsically holy or unholy. But now it has been revealed to us that "all things are pure" (Titus 1:15) and “everything created by God is good" (1Tim.4:4). Even though God declared that all created things were "very good" in Gen.2:7, until Christ came the people of God lived under a false impression. Christ made clear that the creation of God is not sinful, but that it is man’s heart that is sinful. Sin flows from within. There is no sin out there in the physical creation:

"Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." (Mark 7:18-23)

As Paul says in Rom.14:14, it is Jesus Christ that made this truth plain:

"I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself."

We have now been freed from these old false conceptions about the universe. We now know, for instance, that we "should not call any man unholy or unclean" (Acts 10:28). And we know that there is no one place more holy than another for the worship of God, but that the whole world is the Lord’s and therefore "true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth... God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:23-24)

In addition to this, we have fuller revelation of God in the New Testament, a fuller revelation of His great day of glory that is coming, and many other facets of the new covenant that make it more glorious than the old which we don’t have the space or time to go into.

Great God of all the earth, I give praise to Your holy name. I praise You for the privilege of living in the day of the fullness of Your revelation in Your blessed Son. I praise You also for the precious gift of the Holy Spirit, who is my Helper, and who teaches me of Christ. I know that many longed to see this day but couldn’t. Help me never live as if I am deprived, but always as if I rich -- for truly in Christ I am.