The Ministry of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3

Question 4144

In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul contrasts the old covenant carved in stone with the ministry of the Spirit, and he insists that the latter comes with a glory so much greater that the first seems to have no glory at all by comparison. The ministry of the Spirit is Paul name for the new covenant work that gives life, writes on the heart, and transforms those who behold the glory of the Lord.

Paul is defending his own apostolic service against critics, but in doing so he opens a window onto the whole character of the age in which we live. The letter kills, he says, but the Spirit gives life.

The setting of the contrast

Paul opponents in Corinth carried letters of recommendation and boasted in their credentials. Paul answers that his true letter of recommendation is the Corinthians themselves, a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. That image of writing on the heart sets up the whole chapter.

From there Paul contrasts two ministries. There is the old covenant, given through Moses, engraved on stone, and there is the new covenant, the ministry of the Spirit, written on the heart. He is not setting Scripture against the Spirit but the old administration against the new, the law that condemns against the Spirit who gives life.

The letter and the Spirit

Paul famous phrase, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life, is sometimes misused to excuse careless handling of the Bible, as though the plain meaning of the text were the deadly letter and our own impressions were the life-giving Spirit. That is the opposite of Paul intent. By the letter he means the law as a written code, demanding obedience it cannot empower, and so pronouncing death on the lawbreaker.

The ministry of the Spirit, by contrast, gives life. Where the law could only command and condemn, the Spirit writes God will on the heart and supplies the power to walk in it. This is the great promise of the new covenant foretold by the prophets, that God would put His Spirit within His people and cause them to walk in His ways.

A ministry of greater glory

Paul concedes that the old covenant came with real glory. When Moses received the law his face shone so brightly that the people could not look at him, and he had to veil his face. Yet Paul calls this the ministry of death and of condemnation, because the law, holy as it is, could only expose sin and pronounce judgement upon it.

If even that ministry came with glory, how much greater is the glory of the ministry of the Spirit. Paul reasons from the lesser to the greater. The covenant that condemned had a fading glory; the covenant that gives life and righteousness has a glory that surpasses and abides. The believer lives under the more glorious of the two, and ought to know it. The wider question of how the law relates to the believer is taken up in our articles on law and grace and whether Christians are under the Mosaic law.

The fading and the permanent

Paul makes much of the fact that the glory on Moses face was fading. The veil he wore was not only to shield the people from the brightness but, Paul suggests, to keep them from seeing that the glory was passing away. The old covenant was always provisional, a guardian for a season, pointing forward to something greater.

The ministry of the Spirit is not provisional in that way. Its glory does not fade, because it rests on the finished work of Jesus and the permanent gift of the indwelling Spirit. The believer is not living in the twilight of a passing order but in the full daylight of the covenant the prophets longed to see.

The veil removed in Jesus

Paul then turns the veil into a picture of spiritual blindness. To this day, he says, when the old covenant is read, a veil lies over the hearts of those who will not turn to Jesus. They hear the words of Scripture but cannot see the glory to which it points. Only in Jesus is the veil taken away.

When a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed, and they behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus. This unveiling is itself the work of the Spirit, who opens blind eyes to see what the ministry of the Spirit reveals. The Spirit of truth never works apart from the written word but uses it to show us the Son, a connection we explore in our article on the Spirit of truth in John 14 to 16.

Beholding and being transformed

The chapter reaches its height in a wonderful promise. We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, and this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. The ministry of the Spirit does not merely inform us; it changes us into the likeness of the One we behold.

This is how Christian transformation actually works. We are changed not by straining to improve ourselves but by gazing upon the glory of Jesus in the gospel, and the Spirit uses that beholding to reshape us. Sanctification is the steady work of the Spirit conforming us to the image we contemplate, which is why our piece on how the Spirit sanctifies us belongs alongside this chapter.

The ministry of the Spirit and the gospel minister

Paul began this chapter defending his own service, and he wants every gospel minister to understand what they are part of. To preach the new covenant is to share in the ministry of the Spirit, a work that no human eloquence can perform. The minister speaks, but it is the Spirit who writes on hearts, and so the fruit of a true ministry of the Spirit is changed lives rather than admiring crowds.

This gives both confidence and humility to those who serve. Confidence, because the ministry of the Spirit carries a glory that surpasses anything the old covenant possessed, and its results endure. Humility, because the power belongs to the Spirit and not to the speaker, and the same apostle who could say the ministry of the Spirit has surpassing glory also confessed that he came in weakness and fear and much trembling.

It also sets the standard by which any ministry should be judged. A ministry of the Spirit will exalt Jesus, rest on the finished work of the cross, and produce holiness in those it reaches. Where a ministry trades instead on spectacle, personality, or the wisdom of the age, it has departed from the pattern Paul describes, whatever glory it may seem to have for a season.

For the ordinary believer this is an encouragement to value faithful teaching of the word above clever performance. The thing to look for in a church is not excitement but the quiet evidence that the ministry of the Spirit is at work, hearts being changed, sins being forsaken, and the Lord Jesus being loved. That work is often unspectacular, yet it carries the surpassing glory of the new covenant.

There is a steadying comfort here for anyone discouraged by how slow and hidden the work of God often seems. The ministry of the Spirit rarely advances by dramatic leaps, and yet it never finally fails, because it rests on the finished work of Jesus and the abiding gift of the Spirit. What He has begun under this more glorious covenant He will surely carry on and complete in His people, however unspectacular the daily progress may appear to us.

So, now what?

If you are in Jesus, you serve under the more glorious covenant, the ministry of the Spirit. The law could only tell you what to do and condemn you when you failed. The Spirit writes God will on your heart and gives you the power to walk in it. Live as one who belongs to the covenant of life and not to the covenant of death.

When you long to be changed, remember how change comes. Do not turn first to grim self-effort but to the face of Jesus, beholding His glory in the gospel and in the word. The Spirit uses that gaze to transform you from one degree of glory to another, often more slowly than you would wish but surely.

And read your Old Testament with the veil removed. Every page of it points to Jesus, and the Spirit delights to show Him there. Come to the whole of Scripture asking the Spirit to unveil the glory of the Son, for that is the heart of His new covenant ministry.

“Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory… will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?” 2 Corinthians 3:7-8