2 Corinthians 3
The transformative work of the Spirit in the lives of the Corinthians is proof for all to see of Paul’s new covenant ministry, for which he has been divinely enabled. Although the Mosaic era of the law was divinely instituted, it has been surpassed in every way by the new covenant era of the Spirit.
Key Themes
- Paul has no need to commend himself or to be recommended by anyone; the changed lives of believers are proof of his apostleship.
- New covenant transformation is achieved not through obedience to an external written code but through the Spirit’s work on the human heart.
- God makes his servants sufficient for the tasks to which he calls them.
- The law could not produce the righteousness it demanded. On the contrary, it led to condemnation.
- The glory that accompanied the old covenant was limited and transitory.
- The glory accompanying the ministry of the Spirit is limitless and permanent.
v.1
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
v.2
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.
v.3
being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, ministered to by us, having been written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of hearts of flesh.
Although everyone would understand the idea of letters or laws written in human hearts, Paul’s language in 3:3 alludes especially to two biblical promises he regards as fulfilled in his day (cf. 1:20). First, in Ezek 36:26 (cf. 11:19), God’s Spirit would give his people hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone, so they would keep his commandments (36:27; cf. 11:20). (This explains Paul’s unusually positive use of “fleshly hearts” here, which the NRSV obscures by translating “human hearts.”) Whereas God’s finger had written the law in the stone tablets (Ex 31:18; 34:1, 4), God’s Spirit (Ezek 36:27) now inscribed divine life in their hearts (cf. Rom 8:2). Although “living God” is a common title, Paul wishes here to connect the Spirit of the “living God” with the giving of life (cf. 6:16; Deut 5:26).
v.4
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.
For a servant of Christ, proper confidence is not primarily a matter of having an optimistic, can-do approach to life’s challenges, but it is based on believing that God makes us sufficient for the tasks to which he calls us.
v.5-6
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Paul returns to the confident assertions of 2:14–17 and directly answers the question posed in 2:16: “Who is equal to such a task?” Paul’s point is that no one is equal to the task of new covenant ministry unless God makes them so.
v.7
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,
v.8
will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
v.9
If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
v.10
For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.
v.11
And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
v.12
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
v.13
We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.
v.14
But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
v.15
Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
v.16
But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
v.17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
v.18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
At the giving of the law from Sinai, Moses’s experience with God rather than Israel’s violation of it (and inability to endure Moses’s experience) modeled what new covenant life would be like (2 Cor 3:7–18; cf. Ex 32–34).