OCTOBER 17, 2021
PAUL’S FITNESS FOR HIS CALLING AS A MINISTER OF THE NEW COVENANT
INTRODUCTION:
1. In his second Epistle, Paul has again found it necessary to defend the integrity of his ministry.
2. As for the Corinthians themselves, he could argue that god had through his ministry worked grace in them authenticated by the seal of the Holy Spirit. (Ch. 1:21, 22) Surely the Spirit of truth would not put His seal upon that which was false.
3. Besides this, God had by him made manifest “the savour of His knowledge,” that is the Gospel of Christ, not only there in Corinth, but in every place. (Ch. 2:14) To those whose hearts were opened, it was ‘a savour of life unto life.”
But, to the unbelieving, and sin-lovers, it was “a savour of death unto death,” only further hardening their already hard and impenitent heart. (Ch. 2:16)
4. Although the concluding verses of the preceding chapter contained so strong an assertion of Paul’s integrity and fidelity, he says it was not written for the purpose of self-commendation.
5. He needed no such commendation, and he gives the reason why.
I. THE CORINTHIANS THEMSELVES WERE HIS COMMENDATION. (VERSES 1-3)
A. THE OPENING QUESTION IS ASKED, ANTICIPATING THE ACCUSATION OF HIS CRITICS. “DO WE BEGIN AGAIN TO COMMEND OURSELVES?” (VERSE 1a) This was often Paul’s method. He would anticipate the objections of false teachers and frame their question for them.
1. In writing this Epistle, Paul’s mind was filled with conflicting feelings. On the one hand, he was filled with gratitude to God and love to the saints for their faith and obedience; and on the other hand, with feelings of indignation at the wickedness of the false teachers, who were watching to turn everything against him.
2. Although he entertained no spirit of self-commendation in his former thanksgiving and assertion of his sincerity (Ch. 2:14-17), yet he knew that his enemies would put that construction on what he had said. He can hear them saying, “he was promoting himself.”
3. Of course, their charges were untrue. It is sadly the case with some ministers that they like to “toot their own horn,” so to speak. However, when Paul spoke of his sufferings, or of the success of his ministry, or of his abundant labors, it was never for self-commendation.
B. THE SECOND QUESTION IS ASKED IRONICALLY, FOR HOW COULD AN APOSTOLIC MISSION SO WELL AUTHENTICATED NEED FURTHER RECOMMENDATION? (VERSE 1b) “Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you…”
1. It is here implied that the false teachers had gained access to them on the strength of certain letters of recommendation.
2. If they were to go elsewhere, they were so little known, that they would have needed letters from the Corinthians. “…or letters of commendation from you.”
3. It was God Who opened doors unto Paul, (Ch. 2:12) and after that, it was his faithful stewardship that provided his commendation.
C. THE CORINTHIANS IN THEIR CONVERSION WAS AN EPISTLE OF CHRIST AUTHENTICATING PAUL’S MISSION AND FIDELITY. (VERSE 2)
1. What better letter of commendation than one written by Christ, which the Apostle asserts that these converts were. (I Cor. 9:2)
2. Not only were these believers’ letters written by Christ, but they were written in Paul’s heart. Thus, he speaks of it as a certainty and as an inward knowledge.
3. This letter was not only known by the Apostle inwardly, but it was there to be read of all men. We as believers read such letters of Christ with joy and affection. However, they are a written witness of God’s grace in salvation to all men. There is no greater testament to the truth of the Gospel than a genuine convert.
D. THE FACT THAT THE CORINTHIANS WERE TO PAUL AN EPISTLE OF COMMENDATION IS HERE CONFIRMED. (VERSE 3)
1. The conversion of the Corinthians was the work of Christ, affected by the ministry of Paul.
2. Considered as a letter, they were the letter of Christ written by the hand of Paul as Christ’s instrument.
3. The superior worth of this epistle is that it is not written with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God. Anyone can write with ink, but Christ alone can write with the Holy Spirit.
4. This is a figurative way of expressing that true conversions are a divine, supernatural work, and therefore the irrefutable proof that Paul was the minister of Christ.
5. This great work speaks of the great New Covenant blessing. Christ in saving sinners, writes His Law, that was before written on tables of stone, in the fleshly tables of the heart. (Jer. 31:31-33; Heb. 8:10)
II. PAUL’S SUFFICIENCY AS A MINISTER OF THE NEW COVENANT WAS DUE IN NO MEASURE TO HIMSELF, BUT TO GOD. (VERSES 4-6)
A. HIS CONFIDENCE IN HIS DIVINE MISSION AND HIS APOSTLESHIP HE HAD FROM CHRIST, AND IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. (VERSE 4)
1. It was confidence so humble, and yet it did not whither in the presence of God.
2. This confidence he had through Christ.
3. It was not self-confidence, but a conviction of the truth of the Gospel and of the reality of the vocation which he had received from Christ.
4. His confidence was that God had called him and that God’s callings also included His enablements.
B. HE HAD NO MISGIVINGS ABOUT WHAT WAS NOT, AND WHAT WAS THE SOURCE OF HIS SUFFICIENCY. (VERSE 5)
1. He was not in and of himself sufficient to think anything. He was not the source of his sufficiency.
2. What he disclaims is the ability in himself to think anything right or good. His fitness for the work, whether consisting in knowledge, or grace or fidelity, or efficiency, did not arise out of anything he was in or of himself.
3. The word is to be taken in its simplest sense, to think. Certainly, it is easier to think good than to do good. In this Paul confessed that he was powerless and empty. “Our sufficiency is of God” (I Cor. 15:10)
C. HE AFFIRMS THAT IT WAS GOD WHO MADE HIM AN ABLE (SUFFICIENT) MINISTER OF THE NEW COVENANT. (VERSE 6) This verse clearly confirms what that sufficiency was of which he had been speaking.
1. He says not that God had found, but made us able. (sufficient)
2. Paul here declares that God made him an able minister of the New Testament, or covenant. (Greek – diathekes)
3. The covenant formed between God and His people Israel at Mount Sinai is called the Old Covenant. The Gospel dispensation as distinguished from the Mosaic is called the New Covenant. (Matt. 26:28; I Cor. 11:25; Heb. 8:8; 9:15)
4. However, as Charles Hodge remarks, “As the promises of the Gospel, and especially the great promise of redemption by the blood of Christ underlay both the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, the plan of salvation, or the covenant of grace, is also called the New Covenant, although older than the Mosaic covenant, to distinguish it from the covenant of works formed with Adam”
5. It is not always easy to determine whether the term “new covenant” refers to the Gospel dispensation introduced by Christ, or to the covenant of grace inaugurated in the first promise made to our fallen parents. And neither is it always easy to decide whether the term “old covenant” designates the Mosaic covenant, or the covenant of works. The context must in every case be our guide. In the present case it is plain that by the New Covenant the Apostle means the Gospel as distinguished from the Law; the Christian, as opposed to the Mosaic dispensation.
6. The Apostle declares himself a minister of the New Covenant, the nature of which is by contrast, “not of the letter, but of the spirit.”
a) The words “letter” and “spirit” as here used mean the law and the Gospel. This we know because it is these that he proceeds to compare. This understanding is consistent with his use of these terms elsewhere. (Rom. 2:27; 7:6; Gal. 3:3)
b) The ground of these designations lies in the fact the Law is something written and that it is written as something external and objective. It was not an inward principle or power. It held up rule of duty, but it could not impart ability. On the other hand, the Gospel is spiritual. It is the power of God unto salvation. (Rom. 1:16)
7. Note the contrast.
a) “For the letter killeth.” How so? It demands perfect obedience. It says, “Do and live.” It says cursed is everyone that fails. (Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:10, 12)
b) “The spirit giveth life.” Or, “the Gospel giveth live.” The Gospel in the letter of it shows the way of life, and in the hand of the Holy Spirit gives life.
III. THE NEW COVENANT AND ITS MINISTRY FAR EXCELS IN GLORY THE OLD COVENANT AND THE MINISTRY OF MOSES. (VERSES 7-11)
A. THE ONE WAS A MINISTRATION OF DEATH, AND THE OTHER OF LIFE. (VERSES 7, 8)
1. That the Law was glorious was evident in Moses the Mediator, whose shining face reflected the majesty and glory of God manifested in that Law. (Verse 7; Exod. 34:29, 30) Yet it was a ministration of death, because it had no power in it to give life; it could only condemn.
2. There is, however, a more excellent glory in the Gospel, for it gives life. It demands no less than the Law, but what it requires it also provides. (Verse 8)
B. THE ONE WAS THE MINISTRATION OF CONDEMNATION, BUT THE OTHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. (VERSE 9)
C. THE TRANSCENDENT GLORY FO THE GOSPEL HAS FOREVER ECLIPSED THE GLORY OF THE LAW. (VERSE 10)
D. THE GLORY OF THE ONE WAS TRANSIENT, WHILE THAT OF THE OTHER IS ABIDING. (VERSE 11)
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