2 Corinthians 3:7-11 – The Surpassing Glory of Christ
If you’ve been out on a nice starry night, you’ve known what it’s like to look up at the stars and see how glorious they are. But can you see them during the day? No, because there’s something much more glorious up in the sky. The sun has risen, and its brightness washes out that which was really very glorious the night before. In this passage, Paul makes a comparison between something that was glorious before and something that is much more glorious now.
There were ministers that were coming into the church that said that along with the gospel of Jesus Christ, there were certain Old Testament rites and ceremonies that must be kept. They were known as the Judaizers, and they said that not only do we have Jesus Christ, but we need to keep the Jewish laws that God had given. They made those laws to be superior over Jesus Christ. It’s these individuals that Paul is answering. Paul takes the approach of setting out the surpassing glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ over and against the teaching that the Old Testament law is superior or must be added in as a way of salvation.
The Gospel is superior because it is the ministry of the Spirit as opposed to the ministry on the stone tablets – the ministry of death. Why does Paul call it a ministry of death? The law was never meant as a way of salvation after sin – we can’t keep the law. The law stands as condemnation against us. But Israel had come to trust in their outward obedience to the tablets of stone. So Paul has characterized it as a ministry of death. But Paul says something interesting here. He says that period was glorious. The ministry of death was glorious. Paul doesn’t dismiss the Old Covenant as being a different dispensation. He doesn’t say that the law has passed away. He doesn’t even say that God tried to save through this covenant, and that didn’t work, and so he’s given something new and something better. Paul says that was a glorious giving of the covenant. It was so glorious that Moses’ face shone because of the presence of the Lord. If that Old Testament law was glorious, and it was, isn’t the giving of Christ that much more glorious? The Spirit makes our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. The Spirit takes what was external and makes it internal – what was promised real. We have the ministry of the Spirit so that we come into the presence of the Lord through Jesus Christ and that law is written on our hearts.
Question
- What is Paul comparing here?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks for the gloriousness of the Gospel.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.