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Bible Study
Making Changes
2 Corinthians 3:1-18
Pastor Tom Fuller
In chapter 1 of 2nd Corinthians we talked about finding God’s direction in ministry. In chapter 2 we looked at how the enemy can trip us up in that quest and how to model ourselves after the character of Jesus when dealing with others.
This week in chapter 3 we take up the subject of change – how do you know what you are doing for the Lord and in the Lord is having an effect? The bottom line to it all is this: things done in people’s lives bear witness to the Spirit’s actions – things done in the flesh will have self promotion and artificiality written all over them.
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
Letters of recommendation were commonplace in the day Paul wrote this letter. It was how people knew you were okay. Unfortunately, the false teachers in Corinth had fabricated their own letters and had used them to worm their way in to home churches and pervert the gospel.
Paul is saying, rhetorically, we have no need to puff ourselves up or have you or anybody write us a letter of recommendation – we’ll get to why in a moment. But it brings up a good point – on the one hand it works well for Christians who have been involved in ministries elsewhere to get some kind of recommendation from that ministry – especially if it’s a trusted source.
But what can happen is that the recommendation becomes the goal, not the working of ministry. We start believing our own press clippings – looking for status instead of looking for opportunities to serve. Power becomes the focus instead of channeling the Spirit’s power out into others lives. So just be careful.
Paul says, we don’t need a letter on paper because:
2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
In other words – the things God’s Spirit has done through us in your lives speaks much louder than any letter could. Instead of sound bites it’s real life. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to see members of our fellowship grow in the faith.
Without mentioning names there are a number of you whom I have had the privilege sharing with, encouraging, leading to the Lord – baptizing. It’s an awesome thing to see God’s Spirit move on a life.
We shouldn’t look to what we’ve done – the building projects or ministries built or money brought in or program stats – what we should look at is what the Spirit is doing in changing lives.
Now when things are going well what happens? We see God’s Spirit move and we think “wow, I did that.” But nothing could be further from the truth.
4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He 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.
Another way to translate this would be: “God has given us the ability to do what we need to do.”
Jesus said in Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
The word “power” is the Greek word dunamis. It literally means the “ability” to do something. While the word “competent” in 2nd Corinthians means to “make something fit.” So God takes the power of His Spirit and makes us fit to use that power in people’s lives – that’s our competence.
Too many times we use other things to give us competence: our education, our experience, our innate abilities, our personality, what people say about us, even the tools we use. I use a computer program to help me study the Word – PC Study Bible – I recommend it, it’s great. But when I start thinking that PC Study Bible gives me the competence to teach the Word, I am mistaken.
We must always pray for the Spirit’s dumamis in whatever we are doing.
This is so central and so often ignored. We go off on our own and wonder why things don’t happen.
Now at the end of verse 6 Paul talks about the “letters kills but the Spirit gives life,” and he’s referring to the difference between the Old Covenant Law and the New Covenant Spirit.
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, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
On the surface this might seem a little strange. For some context we need to go back into the Old Covenant to:
Exodus 34:29-35 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.
We don’t know why Moses’ face radiated from being in God’s presence but it did, and Paul uses it as a way to show the differences between the Old and New Covenants. The Old Covenant brought a certain glory – God’s presence in the Tent of Meeting, the miracles, the sacrifices – even the Law. But it all pointed to a greater glory – Jesus Christ.
Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant, His ministry surpassed it – did what the Old Covenant could not do, and that was actually save men. Paul says the Old Covenant’s glory was “fading” – meaning that it wasn’t going to last, wasn’t meant to be the “be all and end all” of faith in God. The Law can’t last because its power was to condemn, to show us that we have sinned. But the Spirit brings us life everlasting!
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 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. 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. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Moses knew the Law was not the end – in fact he knew there was a Prophet coming.
John 5:46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
But the people couldn’t see it – it was “veiled” or hidden from them. Even to this day the Jews cannot see that the Law has been superceded by Christ Jesus – all they can see is the veil and what they suppose is the glory beneath.
But in Jesus the veil is lifted away and they can see that the Lord’s Spirit is where the surpassing glory is – where life is.
And I love how this chapter ends:
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 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.
Moses reflected the glory of the Lord and a system that was fading. But as we turn our eyes towards Jesus and rely on His Spirit we also reflect His glory – and not only that, we are changed – the more we spend time with Him the more we become like Him.
See here’s the deal – the Law cannot make changes in your life. Rules and Regulations can’t make you a better person. What makes you different is the Spirit of God working in your life as you turn to Him, rely on Him, take Him in.
John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
John 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.
You see if we try to please God in our flesh it won’t work – but Jesus said “love me” and He’d send His Spirit into our hearts crying “Abba, Father” – a Spirit that gives life and actually changes us.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (KJV)
Conclusion
If you want to make changes in your life:
1. Don’t look to yourself (it’ll only disappoint you)
2. Don’t look to others (they’ll only mislead you)
3. Don’t look to fulfilling some law (it’ll only condemn you)
Instead:
1. Look to Jesus – the “author and finisher” of our faith
2. Rely on the Spirit to bring life
3. Pray for His power, and to make you “fit” for what He’s called you to do
4. The more time you spend with God, the more you give to Him, the more you let Him have access to what is important to you – the more you’ll look like him.
