Raise you up from evil's wings, Bind you on the breadth of dawn, All right, what's up? Chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians is where we are. Thanks for joining us, Chester A.R.P. Church Devotional Podcast. Clint Davis, your host. Let's jump in. Verse 1 of chapter 3, 2 Corinthians. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ our God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses has read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And 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. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Now that's the entirety of chapter 3. Paul begins really kind of a section in this letter where he wants the Corinthian readers to understand that he and his companions are ministers of a new covenant in God's grace. Now, to help us understand this a little bit fuller and what Paul means by this, we have to think about the understanding of the Old and New Testament in terms of covenant. The Old Testament of the Bible is the story of what we call the Old Covenant, the Old Testament people of God, the Jewish people, the Israelites. It starts in the book of Genesis, obviously, and Genesis 1 through 11 are historical events that build us up to Abraham. Abraham shows up in chapter 12 of the book of Genesis and when Abraham comes on the scene God begins to work through Abraham through a sign of circumcision and Abraham's descendants to develop a people for himself on this earth. All the way through the book of Genesis God brings the people through the patriarchal period. And then by the time we conclude in the book of Genesis, they've moved to Egypt, living in the land of Goshen, and Joseph is in control of the land of Egypt. The book of Genesis ends in chapter 50, and then the book of Exodus begins. And of course, the book of Exodus is the story of how God delivers his people from captivity, from slavery. at the hand of the pharaohs after they had lived in Egypt for 400 years. And God brings them out through the plagues and then through the Red Sea. And then Paul references the face of Moses, the glory of God, the stone tablets. And so we have the Abrahamic covenant in chapter 12 of the book of Genesis. That's a significant covenant. And now we have another covenant in the book of Exodus 19 and 20 and following that we know is the Mosaic covenant. So we have to think about how God relates to his people in the Old Testament through covenants, making agreements with them. And the old covenant that Paul speaks of here is the covenant of Moses, the Mosaic covenant, where Moses goes on the mountain, Mount Sinai, receives the divine law of God, the Ten Commandments, and all that would follow. Moses' face is bright and shining brightly. because he's in the presence of God, and God wrote on the tablets that Moses had the law by his own hand, and Moses brought those down, of course, broke them when he saw the golden calf, went up and got another set of tablets, and those tablets became the governing document, the constitution, as it were, of the people of God. And then, of course, when they get into the Promised Land, they're there for some period of time, then they decide they want a king, and Saul comes in with David, and then God makes a covenant with David. And so now we have a Davidic covenant that someone in David's line will sit upon the throne of Israel for all of eternity. That's the old system, the Old Testament. And so Paul's talking about that Old Testament was there. Now we move into the New Testament. The new covenant comes in the Lord Jesus Christ. He fulfills all the promises of the old. He does everything perfectly. He lives morally perfect. He is the perfect sacrifice. He is the perfect son of David who becomes the king of all creation. And now in Jesus Christ we have the privilege of living in a new covenantal relationship with God. The old covenant was a covenant that of division and brokenness where they had to come in through the law, but the law brought death to them because it showed them their sin. Now we come in through life. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, the Apostle John would say. And so we are thankful for the fact that we live in this new covenant period. We have to understand the scriptures, right, covenantally, in relationship. Old Testament people of God, Old Covenant. New Testament people of God, New Covenant. Relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. Old Testament sign of the covenant, circumcision. New Testament sign of the covenant, baptism. And so now Jesus is saying here, I mean, excuse me, Paul is saying here, now we are ministers of this New Covenant. We are ministers of the new covenant in Jesus Christ. Those who are still laboring under that old way, the Jews, they'll never see Jesus. It is only through coming to faith in Jesus that your eyes are opened and realize he fulfilled all of those promises and now in Christ Jesus we have the benefits of being the people of God that are eternal. And so Paul's saying we're ministers of this new covenant. And so he's setting himself up here to basically say now you need to listen to what I have to say from this point forward. He again is defending his position to a group of people who are constantly being challenged on the authority of the Apostle Paul. Is he really who he says he is? But thanks be to God, you and I have the privilege of living in a New Testament, New Covenant era through Jesus Christ. We have a perfect and wonderful relationship with God that will be eternal in his glory and his grace. Take advantage of that. You guys take care, God bless you. ♪ Raise you up from the evil's wings ♪ O come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant ♪