2 Corinthians, 3:6-11
Jim Pool · Aug 8, 2004
2 Corinthians (2004-05), No. 06
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826231125523

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

verses 6 down through verse 11. I want to start off by starting in verse 5, because verse 6 really picks up with the end of verse 5 there. So let's start in verse 5 there. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

But if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed, what had glory in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. So what you'll see at the top of your first handout there is we're going to look at these verses and we're going to see that Christ's life and ministry is not legal, but it's spiritual and glorious. That's kind of what we're going to be. The theme of this section of verses that we're going to be looking at this morning is exactly that.

So I think it's important for us just to start off by asking simply the question is, and you already see the answer there on the handout, but who is the word who referring to? starts off in verse 6, who, which is, who also made us adequate as servants. So, who is that word who referring to? Who has made us adequate? Or, who has made us able? I think King James uses the word able there. Sufficient. Okay. Is it able? I thought it was able there. Okay. So, obviously the answer is God. And it's very important that we We understand that.

Who has made us able? Have we made ourselves able? No. We can never, ever make ourselves able. Has the church leadership made us able? Or has our spouse made us able? Or has a good friend made us able? No. Only God, only the Lord is the person who has made us able, or who has made us efficient, which is the word that the NAS uses. So I want to talk about this section here for a little bit, this phrase, made us able. Because we're saying God has made us able, or the NAS uses the word adequate. I think that the word able is really a better translation there. Qualified? Yep, exactly. That's good. Good translation there.

Now when we look at the thought here of made us able or made us sufficient or adequate or qualified, we see that's all one word in the Greek. And it's in the Aries, active indicative, telling us that it was a one-time action that was in the past completed by the subject. So, if it's a one-time action completed in the past by the subject, who's the subject here? Well, look at it carefully.

God is. Right. See, that's why we needed to establish that. Who made us able? Well, the who is God. So, if it's a one-time action in the past, completed by the subject, the subject is being God. So, God has completed this action. So, God is the one who has made us able. God in the past has made believers able, which I think is something that's very important for us to understand. We go through our daily lives and we come across situations and circumstances in our lives where we might not feel able to do something. I know I do.

It's already happened this morning. Rachel isn't feeling very well, and Henry's not feeling very well, and there was a point where I was actually running late. And there was that kind of tension there. Was I going to just drive super fast, coming north up 25? No, relax. It's okay. God is in control here. God has made me able. It's okay. Take it easy. Relax. It's fine. And I know all of us can share a situation, circumstances, like that, that we also have.

And Jack, you mentioned the word qualified, which is exactly the word that is used in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 12. Let's go there. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 12. At least that's the word that it uses in the NAS, New American Standard. The same word, and this is the only where this exact same word is used here in the scriptures. It says that, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints and light. What word does the KJV use here?

Made us fit. So, giving thanks to the Father. And see, God is the one who made us able, as we saw back in 2 Corinthians 3. So, giving thanks to the Father, God is the one who has made us fit or who has qualified us. So, right off the bat, we're seeing here that the focus is on God and His work in the life of the believer. Now, let's continue on.

It says, who has made us able or adequate as servants. So, He's kind of telling us what He's made us adequate for or adequate to do, and it's actually the same word that is oftentimes translated deacon. So the NAS uses the word servants, I think that the KJV uses the word ministers. So God has completely, 100% made us able as servants or has made us able as ministers. Now it's important that we ask the question, what has He made us able servants or ministers of? And this is really very interesting as we get into what it is that He has made us able servants and ministers of.

He's made us able servants and ministers of this new covenant this new agreement or this new contract when we think about the word covenant there it's the place between two parties so as to bind them together as in the example of marriage I totally pulled that definition right off of when Hal taught major Bible themes with Roger, I don't know if any of y'all were in that elective, I think it was two years ago, something like that, far before we arrived here. He taught a class on, one of the lessons in that major Bible themes class was on the covenants and their different relationships. So this is talking about the new covenant, this agreement or this contract binding the two parties together. So God has made us, we didn't make ourselves, God has made us able ministers or servants of this new agreement or this new arrangement. So we need to find out about this new agreement or this new arrangement to know what it is precisely that God has made us able ministers of. So the question is, who is this new binding and agreement between? Who is this new covenant this new binding or this new agreement, who is it between? Yes, it's here on your handout. We asked the questions that have already been answered.

But it's been made between Christ and believers. It's an agreement, it's a contract, it's this binding relationship between Christ and believers. Now this is very interesting stuff here. I'm just going to read right off of the This binds believers to the death and the resurrection of Christ as is referred to the believer's identification with Christ. We use that term a lot here. I've been here seven months now, and I hear it a lot, and I'm familiar with using it myself, and it's a wonderful truth of God's word of the believer's identification with Christ, as explained in Romans 6, 7, and 8.

But that's what this new covenant or this new relationship, contract, agreement is about. The believers being binded together, bound together with Christ in His death and in His resurrection. Now this new covenant being mentioned here is not the new covenant written about in Jeremiah or in Ezekiel between God and Israel.

It's very important that we make that distinction. could tend to get that confused. Now Hal made mention of that last week to make sure we're clear about that. So what I want to do is let's refer to Hal's chart on the covenants and it should be the very back page of your handouts. The back page or, yeah, there it is. So what we see is that God made an agreement with Israel, Israel's covenants, and God made an agreement with Israel and He has a new covenant for them that is talked about in Jeremiah and talked about in Ezekiel. We read some of that last week.

Now that is not what we're talking about here when we talk about the new covenant in 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 6. What we're talking about here is the church's new covenant. Here it's referred to, and you have it on your handout, 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 6. So we want to make a clear distinction. A lot of people tend to get this a little bit confused and they tend to say that the church is partaking of some of Israel's new covenant and they get that a little bit confused and that's not the case at all and we want to be just very clear about that. We're not talking about Israel's new covenant between God and Israel but we are talking about the church's new covenant made between Christ and believers. So let's head back to our original handout there, page 2.

So God has made us able servants or ministers of this new agreement, which is the fact that believers have been identified with Christ. And now I'm just going to read here. Ministers or servants of a new covenant means that Christians are now ministers of the life of Christ living in them.

That's an incredible thought, if you think about that. that He has made us ministers of this new arrangement, and because of our identification with Christ, we're dead to sin, we know that, and we're what? Alive unto God. Dead to sin and we are alive unto God. So God has made us able servants and ministers of the fact that we have His very life.

And as I was thinking about this, I mean, I hardly could believe it. And as I was trying to find words, to describe it, that was coming up short because of the magnitude of what it is that God has done here for us. Incredible. God has made believers able servants of the life of Christ being lived out in and through them and the believer's responsibility is to what? Simply? Believe and to walk by faith. Got that exactly right. Yeah.

Let's look at page 3 here. continuing on in verse 6 tells us not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter kills but the spirit gives life so he said that he's made us able as ministers, servants of this new covenant not of the letter what's the letter referring to there? what's that talking about? talking about the law.

Now, if we look solely at that verse, it's a little bit difficult to decide, well, what's the letter? And I looked up the letter, and it's used like seven different times, using different words translated into English. But, if we look at verse 7 there, it helps to clarify. So, let's read verse 7.

But if the ministry of death and letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, that's clear, okay? when we read verse 7, clearly the letter there in verse 6 is talking about the law, the Mosaic law that was given to Moses and then to Israel. It also can be termed the Old Covenant, the old agreement between God and the nation of Israel. So, this new agreement that we have with God isn't of the letter, because the letter kills. And then he contrasts these two things. Notice what he continues on here. He says, It's not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

I think this is very key that we hone in here. But of the Spirit who gives life. See? So to kind of get the flow of what's happened here, God began the whole thing. He made us able, as ministers, of this new life that He's given to us because of our identification with Him. It's not of the letter, which kills, but it's of the Spirit, who does what? Gives life. So, what I saw there was that the Spirit is the one who is the source of this new relationship, this new agreement, this new covenant that we have with God. Now, the Spirit gives life. As I was thinking about that, the Spirit gives... what does it mean by life there? What do you think that means? What are your thoughts? Yeah, that's right. Eternal life, yeah, sure. Right. Yeah.

So if we say that the New Covenant is our identification with Christ, where we have His very life, and then it's of the Spirit who gives life, how about if we phrase it this way, it's the second line there, let me pull this down, on your handout, second line there, under the big bullet, it says, one can say that the Holy Spirit is reproducing in believers' life the life of Christ. Because do we, as believers, in and of ourselves, live out the life of Christ? No. It's something that God does in and through us. See?

And it says, this is of the Spirit, but the Spirit gives life. So, I like to think that the Holy Spirit is reproducing in us the life of Christ. Because see, the Holy Spirit never draws attention to Himself. You never see that. In Scripture, it's a whole other study. that we could take some time and we could do. But the Holy Spirit is always focusing people towards Christ. It's always showing and manifesting the life of Christ.

So we could say that the Holy Spirit is reproducing in the believer's life the life of Christ. So Paul is telling the readers that their ministry is not in the Old of the letter which kills. But it is of the new, of the life of Christ, walked by faith in the Spirit. And we know if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And that's a whole other study as well, just walking in the Spirit.

Incredible. If we just think about the flow there, the completeness of what it is that God has done. It started out with God being the subject, who did the complete work of making us able, of this new agreement, where we've been identified with Christ, given the life of Christ, and then he brings in the Holy Spirit, which lives out that life in and through us as we walk by faith. You guys see that? Kind of the pieces of the puzzle there? Tremendous what it is that the Lord has done for us. Humbling as well, that we think that boy, God's done this and we're just simply recipients of it, and we need to walk by faith and trust God for sure, absolutely.

But the completeness and the totality of what it is that God has done there, and that's only focusing on verse 6. You know how we finished last week with verse 5, that our adequacy doesn't come from ourselves, but it comes from God. Boy, talk about a package, talking about the position in which Christ has placed us, incredible. Verse 8, just kind of jump ahead here just a minute, it communicates this even clearer.

How will the ministry of the Spirit fill to be even more with glory? So, it's the ministry of the Spirit. It's not my ministry, it's not your all's ministry that we're trying to crank out for ourselves or in our own abilities or in our own strength at all, but it's clearly the ministry of the Spirit. Alright, let's...

We'll continue on in the next couple of verses here. We could definitely develop that more there, but we'll have to move on. So what we see next is that Paul contrasts the glory between the old and the new. through the next several verses. Now what's interesting is I was just reading it and just making simple observations. You know, when it comes to the Bible study, the first thing you want to do is observe. Observation, interpretation, observation. Observe the text.

What is he jumping now, leaping off the page at us? Well, one thing that I noticed and you would have as well, maybe you did as you've been reading through this passage, is that the word glory is used ten times just in these five verses. So clearly, Glory is one of the big central themes of what's going on in these verses. And God, through his words, is comparing the glory of the old with the new. Comparing the glory of the old with the new. So, let's just read through it again. Verses 7-11, we'll kind of hear the comparisons of the old and the new coming out here.

But if the ministry of death and letters engraved on stones came with glory, So that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed, what had glory in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory." Did you hear it? Can you just hear the word glory coming out of those verses?

It was loaded. Alright, so let's compare the two here. It's very clear, and I might have overlooked a few things. If you see some things here, characteristics of the old and characteristics of the new that I didn't see and didn't grab, just speak up and let us know. So what we see are the characteristics of the Old. First of all, it's old.

We saw in verse 6 that it's of the letter. We see in verse 7 that it brings death. Also in verse 7 that it's engraved on stones. And then in verse 7 it came with glory. It caused the people not to be able to look at the face of Moses. In verse 8 it's the ministry of condemnation. It has no glory in light of the New Covenant. mentioned in verse 10, and then in verse 11, simply that it fades away. So let's look at what the New Covenant, characteristics of the new.

Now the new, obviously it's mentioned as new. The source, as we mentioned, is of the Spirit in verse 6. Verse 8 said that it came with more glory. The old came with glory, but the new came with even more glory. And verse 9 is the ministry of righteousness.

And what was the old? The ministry of what? Death. Death, exactly right. This is the ministry of righteousness. This, in verse 9, abounds in glory. Could you put righteousness and life there as synonyms? I think so. Ministry of life. Ministry of death and ministry of life. Good point. That's right.

In relationship to the old, it abounds in glory, in verse 9. Glory that surpasses that of the letter, in verse 10, and simply is in glory, verse 11. How can we say that it's in glory? Because it comes from Christ. And where is He? He's in glory. Yeah. Bob? Yeah, what are you thinking? I'm not, what are your thoughts? Okay.

Do you think this passage is restricted to the Old Testament Jew and or the New Testament Jew in the sense that the Jew is still living under this? Does this have more broad applications? I think it has broader applications. The Gentile presumably was never under the letter of the law, correct?

Yeah. I haven't given that, I don't have to think that through. Yeah, to respond. I mean, don't you think that this, you know, really is a global ethic of God's, you know, letter to man through the Jews? I mean, you know that the Gentile is a law unto himself, right? Sure, sure. The letter to Rome is one truth there.

Right. But it seems to be pretty targeted about a, not a law system, but more the Mosaic. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Right, right, right. Yeah. It's easy, though, for... Well, let me back up. The purpose of the law was to show man their sinfulness. And I think God uses that with believers today, to show believers their need for God. We mentioned, you kind of referred to that. So that's a general principle that I think is there in Scripture. And even though someone trusts Christ as their personal Savior might say, hey, I'm not under this mosaic legal system.

We all would probably agree to that. We all probably would have no problems agreeing with that. It's easy for us to put ourselves under some kind of self-imposed law. I think we all have a tendency, naturally, to do. So I think, seeing that we're not of the old, but of the new, even the overarching principle there, I think it's helpful for us to, as believers, to cause us to walk in grace, and to cause us to walk by faith, and allowing Christ to live His life in and through us, not to be under legalism, or the old way.

Exactly. Right. That's right. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Many people say, boy, it's easier for me to see a list of things that I can do and I know that if I do these things that I'm okay. Many people say, boy, it's so much easier for me to live that way as opposed to walking by faith, allowing Christ to live His life in and through me. Bob? So, in a sense, this passage is very, very directed towards Mount Sinai. I mean, I was just poking your thoughts. Yeah, I do think that the potential of the application is absolutely. Yeah. There's these overarching principles here that are in place for for for everybody. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So we see that the operating system between the old and the new is completely different.

We can see that simply by comparison and comparing and contrasting. as we saw there in verses 7 down through verse 11. But you know it's interesting that in verse 8, no I'm sorry, verse 7, but if the ministry of death and letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses, so this ministry of death did come with glory. Isn't that interesting? That something that God describes as being a ministry of death, coming from the letter which kills, did come with glory.

So, let's explore this just a little bit. Let's go back and let's look at Exodus. I think it will help us to see and appreciate more clearly the surpassing glory of the new, if we look at the glory that the old had. So let's look at this, Exodus chapter 24 and verse 12. Now this is the dialogue between Moses and God when he went up to Mount Sinai. So Exodus 24, 12, down through verse 18. and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction. So Moses arose with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. But to the elders he said, Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a legal matter, let him approach them.

When Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain, The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud, and to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like the consuming fire on the mountaintop. Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. So verse 16 we see that the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and then verse 17, "...to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop."

So we're getting this picture here of the glory that was around this situation, this time of God and Moses interacting when he was receiving the Ten Commandments. Let's go over to chapter 33 and verse 18. While Moses was up on the mountain, getting the Ten Commands from God, we all know what happened when he was there down in the foothills of the mountain there.

They made the golden calf and began to worship it because they weren't sure what had happened to Moses and what the deal was there. So Moses came down, he got very angry, threw the stone tablets down and they broke. Here we pick up the story, Moses intercedes for the people, God was very angry with him, Moses intercedes, and here we pick the story up again.

Let's start in verse 17, kind of catch it a little bit. So the Lord said to Moses, I will do also the things of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name. Verse 18. Then Moses said, I pray you show me your glory.

And he said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you. So Moses asked, show me your glory. And he says, I will make all my goodness pass before you. That's a study in and of itself, that he says, show me your glory. And God says, I'm going to make my goodness pass before you, in light of answering your question, to show me your glory. But it's an interesting answer to the question, isn't it? I myself will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.

But he said, You cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live. Now think about the glory of God here. He's telling Moses, You can't see my face, for nobody can see my face and live. Then the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand there on the rock, And it will come about, while my glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face shall not be seen."

So we're getting a picture here of the glory of God. There was thunder, and there was a cloud, and there was lightning about the mountain, and the glory of God is so great that Moses can't look directly at Him. So as God puts Moses in the corner, So as God walks by, he puts his hand there so that Moses can't see him, and then as his back comes, he lets his hand go down so he can just see his back. That's the magnitude of the glory of God that we're seeing communicated here.

So, continue down to verse 6. The Lord passed by in front of him, talking about Moses, and proclaimed, The Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren on the third and fourth generations." Over to verse 29, same chapter there, "...and it came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai, and the two talents of the testimony We're in Moses's hands.

He was coming down from the mount a second set now They got you know God give them a second set and Moses did not know that the skin of his face Shown because it because of his speaking with him His his skin was shiny because he had experienced in a physical real way the glory of God So we're seeing here and verse 30 when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses Behold the skin of his face shown and they were afraid to come near him Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and the rulers in the congregation turned to him, and Moses spoke to them. Afterward, all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to them on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take off the veil until he came out, and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him."

Meaning God. So there we get a picture of this glory that we're talking about here in 2 Corinthians 3. The glory of the Old. So let's return back to 2 Corinthians 3. So it says there, verse 7, "...but the ministry of death and letters engraved in stones came with glory." So we just saw what the glory is that he is talking about. So the glory of the old was visual and only showed certain aspects of God's glory. But we've seen in the comparison of this that the new is in a greater glory.

So a couple characteristics of God's glory there, that it's holy, He's righteous, He's just, He's infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. His love, His grace, mercy, He's immutable and He's sovereign. It's just a few. I'm sure that there are some that you all know of that I don't have on that list there. Hal and I actually talked about this list. I'm sure that there's more. But, the point is that the glory of the old was visual and only shows certain aspects of God's of God's glory. Now, very interesting what we see here. Next page there. Page 6. With the old, there was a far-off relationship with God. Because remember, how close could the people come to Mount Sinai? And what happened if they came too close? They died. If they came too close, They died.

So it was this kind of aloof relationship that the people had with God, with the old. What kind of a relationship do we have with God and the new? Is it one that is far off? No. Very personal. It is so personal we can't even describe it. We're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We're indwelt by God Himself. That is so different. The comparison is incredible that we have. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12, verse 18 through 24. Hebrews 12, 18 through 24.

For we have not come to a mountain that can be touched into a blazing fire, into darkness and gloom and whirlwind. And to the blast of a trumpet and to the sound of words which sound as such, that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, if even a beast touches the mouth and it would be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling.

Verse 22, but you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, and to the general assembly, and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, to the judge of all, and to the spirit of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of the evil. Awesome comparison. They're describing the difference.

When God brought on the old, in a sense, He became unapproachable. They could only go so far in approaching God. But God has not made us able ministers of the old, has He? He has made us able ministers of this new, where we're actually identified with Christ.

To say the word that God is approachable is an understatement. But He is, don't get me wrong. very approachable, we can come boldly before the throne of grace with God, and I'll talk about that. In Hebrews, I think it is. To say he's approachable is an understatement, but the access and the intimacy and the relationship that we have with him is incredible.

Notice the words describing the new in relationship to the old. Go back to 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 9. The ministry of righteousness abounds in glory, showing the difference there between the old and the new. It abounds. It is so much greater.

Now verse 10, it says, for indeed that which had glory in this case has no more glory because of the glory that surpasses it. So there's the word surpasses used there in verse 10. And then verse 11 uses the word much more, at least in the NAS, for it had For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory." And this is talking about our relationship and our access and our new operating system that we have with God. It abounds, it surpasses, and it is much more than what there was in the Old Testament. Now, verse 10 uses the strongest word here. And Vern explained this word to us in much detail when he was going through Ephesians chapter 1 there.

Huparbalo is the word surpasses. And hupar means over and balo means to throw. And so to throw beyond the usual mark or to surpass or to exceed. Same word used there as you see in those references mentioned. I won't take the time there to look that up because Vern did an excellent job exegeting that for us when we were going through Ephesians 1 and I think you hit it in chapter 2 as well.

So the idea here is that the new overthrows that of the old in relation to, in the context of its glory. Now I was thinking about how to kind of compare this and something that we might understand and we all know that Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France or was it two Sundays ago, they finished it up, right?

So, think about him. Seven years ago, he had testicular cancer, right? For him, just simply to recover from that cancer was pretty amazing, that he would just, that he would recover 100%, in a sense, be cured of that, okay? Was that pretty glorious, that pretty awesome, that that would be true of him? Yeah, absolutely. Do you think in light of that, that it was pretty awesome, pretty glorious that he won one door? That a guy who recovered from cancer of that condition won one? Yeah. What if he went to win two, and three, and four, and five, and six? That's like exceeding over the top. See? Way! Who would have ever dreamt or imagined that he would have That's kind of the idea of what we're getting at here. The new far oversees that of the old. We have five minutes left, I think, with that ringer. So let's go to the final page. I thought that it would be important for us to consider a few questions of application in light of this passage that we have looked at this morning.

So are we living in light of the power of the older or the new? Now, a good point that Bob brought up, we weren't born Jews, we weren't born under that ethnically, but there's a principle there that I think is overarching in scripture. I think it's a question that needs to be asked. Are we living in light of the legal system? Or are we living in light of God's new system? where He has given us the very life of Christ, and we're walking by faith. See?

A couple of things here. The law begins by asking the question, what must man do? I think I got these from William, though I can't remember having these for not so long. I might need to give credit to this, but I'm not sure where it came from. Anyways, disclaimer there. So, does that make sense? The law begins by asking the question, what must man do?

But grace, on the other hand, begins by asking the question, what has God done? When we get up in the morning, how are we living our daily lives? In light of what must I do to please God? Or am I living my life in light of what has God done to enable the Christian life to be a reality today? Questions I think we need to ask ourselves.

Under grace, see the people, they had to do in order to be blessed. We could study that, we don't have the time to this morning. Under the law, I said under grace? Okay, under the law, Yeah, people were to do in order to be blessed. But under grace, believers are blessed in Christ so that they can do. You guys see that? Pretty clear, but pretty awesome type stuff that God has made us able ministers of this new. We're identified, He's given us the Spirit to live His life in and through us, reproducing us the life of Christ.

What self-imposed laws do we put ourselves under? That's a good question, I think, that we need to ask ourselves. Because we could probably say, well, you know, I'm not... I know that I'm not under that legal system of 613 laws anymore. I know that I don't have to do that in order to please God. But what little bitty self-imposed laws do we put ourselves under to think that we need to please God?

See? I think all of us have a little bit of that in our lives. If I do this, I ought to be just a little bit more pleasing to God. Wow. We're already accepted in the beloved because God has made us able. He's already placed us there. He's already done the work.

1 Corinthians 15 and 56 says the strength of sin is in the law. It's incredible to me, people that are going to put people under the law and allow what this verse says. The strength of sin is in the law. We're going to operate under this law, legal principle, or put somebody else under this law, legal principle, which is the very thing that it says is the source of sin. And then we wonder why people get caught in sin. Does that make sense? It baffles me. I get so baffled when I see that or when I get caught in it myself. Boy, it's incredible.

Romans chapter 6 verse 14, turn there, I'm sure it's a very familiar verse. Romans 6 verse 14 says, For sin shall not be mastered over you, for you are not under the law, but you are under grace. Grace is God working for man. We're not under the law, but we're under grace, and because of that, sin does not have to be matched for us anymore. And then let's go to chapter 7, and let's look at verse 4, down through verse 6.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit to death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter." See the similarities there?

We serve in the newness of what? The Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. It's exactly what 2 Corinthians chapter 3 was talking about. God has not made us able ministers of the old letter, but of the new source in the Spirit, the very life of Christ. And through our death with Christ, we are separated from the law, separated from the legal system having to perform for God. We're under this new way of the very life of Christ indwelling us.

Let's pray. Father, thank You for our time. Thank You for Your Word. And we pray that Your Spirit would bring things to remembrance, as it is His job to do that. So we trust that will happen today and this week. And that Your Spirit will continue to lead us and to guide us into all truth. And just be with the rest of the morning, this morning, and Vern's Word and the service, and the rest of our Sunday afternoon, might it be fellowship, just centered in You, focused in You, glorifying You, in Your name we pray, Amen.