Daily Devotional Sunday 12th March 2023
by William Moody2 Corinthians 3
Ministers of the New Covenant
3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our1 hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 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 tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.2
4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 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.
7 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, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one3 turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord4 is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,5 are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.6 For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Footnotes
[1] 3:2
Some manuscripts your
[2] 3:3Greek fleshly hearts
[3] 3:16Greek he
[4] 3:17Or this Lord
[5] 3:18Or reflecting the glory of the Lord
[6] 3:18Greek from glory to glory (ESV)
Some preachers brought elaborate letters of recommendation to prove their worth and some in Corinth who apposed Paul may have been thinking he needed such letters. Paul’s response is that their converted lives were his letters, written by the Holy Spirit (v1-3).
Paul move son to speak of the privilege of being a minister of the new covenant. He contrasts this ministry with the old covenant which through the law revealed people’s guilt and how they deserved death. The new covenant is about new life in the Spirit (v4-6).
Paul highlights the glory the new covenant by saying, if the lesser old covenant had such glory, so that Moses had to hide his face when coming from God’s presence, how glorious must the new covenant be (v7-11).
Part of what Moses’ face being covered with the veil hid, was that the glory on his face was fading as the glory of the old covenant was (v12-14). The Jews failed to see this as they failed to see the glory of the new covenant granting new life in the Spirit (v15-18). Do you know the power of this new life in the Spirit? Take time to pray about this.
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