Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Christ’s Epistle

II Corinthians 3:¹ Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

II Corinthians 3:² You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

• Let us examine ourselves so that those who read the glorious gospel see its light through our lives.

II Corinthians 3:³ clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

• Engraved and Sealed by the Spirit.

The Spirit, Not the Letter

II Corinthians 3:⁴ And we have such trust through Christ toward God.

II Corinthians 3:⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

II Corinthians 3:⁶ who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

• The letter is the law. The Spirit is grace and mercy.
• The old covenant is the old testament. The new covenant is the gospel.

Glory of the New Covenant

II Corinthians 3:⁷ But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,

• The law is the ministry of death, engraved on stones, hard and unforgiving, yet glorious. It demands perfection because God is Perfect.
• The face of Moses is the law, whose glory is passing away.
• James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, HE IS GUILTY OF ALL!

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II Corinthians 3:⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

• The ministry of the Spirit leads believers to become Christ-Like, not to be free to be marinated in immorality.
• The baptism of the believer confirms a burial into “death to self” to rise out of the waters in order to serve God and others and not one’s own appetite for sin. This is the baptism which Jesus allowed for Himself by the hands of John the Baptist.

II Corinthians 3:⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

II Corinthians 3:¹⁰ For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.

II Corinthians 3:¹¹ For if what is passing away (the law) was glorious, what remains is much more glorious (to live like Christ).

II Corinthians 3:¹² Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—

II Corinthians 3:¹³ unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.

II Corinthians 3:¹⁴ But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is (only) taken away in Christ.

• The veil of Moses blinds, but blindness is removed by Christ. The veil of the Bride of Christ replaces the veil of Moses.

II Corinthians 3:¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.

• Dead in Spirit, Blind of heart, – the Walking Dead.

II Corinthians 3:¹⁶ Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

• Light and Life rush into the darkened soul of death with the renewing of the Holy Spirit into eternal life.

II Corinthians 3:¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

• The law without the Spirit is captivity. There is no Spirit without Jesus.
• The Spirit is able to discern between love and duty. The law is duty, the Spirit is Love.
  The greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus loved every man as much as He loved Himself by giving His own life for the world.

II Corinthians 3:¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

• From the Glory of the Law to the Glory of the Spirit!
• From glory to GLORY!