Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we... epistles of commendation? 2 Corinthians 3:1-5 A pastor's claim S. Martin, D. D. 1. The voluntary relations of men are founded upon mutual confidence, and even those which are involuntary require reciprocal reliance. The parent who does not duly trust his children will soon ruin them, and the child who does not rely upon his parents will certainly become prodigal. Distrust in a master will make him a tyrant, and want of confidence in a servant will produce miserable eye-service. The suspicious prince is always cruel, and the distrustful subject is a revolutionist; and the functions of the ministry are nullified by distrust in the Churches and in the world. 2. This confidence is easily disturbed and soon destroyed. A whisper "on 'Change" against the credit of the successful merchant will sometimes gather force and sweep him into ruin. A question addressed in an incredulous tone to a master about the fidelity of an honest servant will make him watch that servant with an eagle's eye. In like manner may the confidence of the Churches of Christ in their chosen pastors be impaired or crushed. Of the danger to which confidence in this case is exposed, these Epistles to the Corinthians afford illustration. Note — I. THE GROUNDS OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR'S CLAIM UPON THE CONFIDENCE OF THE CHURCHES. 1. There is a peculiar writing on the tablet of the Christian's soul. The old covenant was engraven upon slabs of stone, but the new covenant is written upon the sensitive and everlasting tablet of the heart. On this is written the good news that God so loved the world and spared not His own Son. There is other writing. Science writes. But science, beautiful writer though she be, and wise and useful, cannot write about the highest subjects, nor can she reach by her pen the fairest tablets of the human soul. 2. The writing on the tablets of the true Christian's soul is effected for Christ by the Holy Spirit. 3. In writing, the Spirit employs men — pastors and teachers — as pens. 4. Those upon whose hearts Christ has written are Christ's chief means of communicating with the outlying world. In plain language, the works of the true pastor bear witness of him, and establish his claim to loving confidence. We ask, then, firm and loving confidence for the proved ministers of Christ. To require this from their own converts is to ask a small thing. To no creature on earth or in heaven is a man so largely indebted as to the instrument of his conversion. But say that you have no such personal obligations to the true ministers of Christ, they may claim confidence for their work's sake. Give us your confidence for your own sake, for without it we cannot minister to your profit; for your children's sake, for, if they detect distrust, in vain do we try to help you bring them up; for our work's sake among the ungodly. I do not say that we cannot work without it, but I do say that we can work more hopefully with it. II. THE GROUND OF A PASTOR'S OWN CONFIDENCE WITH RESPECT TO HIS WORK. 1. The confidence of any worker with respect to his work is essential to his success. The basis of such confidence may be either his own independent resources or the help which he obtains from those stronger than himself. The latter is the foundation of the confidence of Christ's ministers. Their sufficiency is of God. To say God is sufficient is only like saying God is God, but to declare our sufficiency is of God is to exhibit a spiritual fact which among the children of men is exceedingly rare. This is not to sit talking of the Almighty God, but to walk leaning upon God's arm, and to work, God working with us. This is to take such advantage of the Divine resources as this special work demands. Without this, a man may be scholarly, eloquent, and popular, but in the sight of God he must be a failure. The work of the true pastor can only be done as God would have it be done, as our sufficiency is of God. 2. Why, then, are we not filled with the fulness of God? It may be that we prefer the cistern to the fountain, and that we cleave to it after it has become leaky, and it may be because of our many false gods. One thing is certain — we are always half mad about something which, however good, is not God. The organisations and associations, better psalmody, more ornate architecture, a denominational press, wealth, are the false gods after which we too often have gone a-whoring. Why are we not filled with the fulness of God? It may be that we do not sufficiently recognise the mediation of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Ghost; it may be because our sins have separated us from God. One thing is certain — we could do our work with God if everything external and circumstantial which now we have were taken clean away. The first preachers and teachers had none of our appliances, and yet succeeded, because their sufficiency was of God. 3. And now let me entreat you to commend your pastors in ceaseless prayer to the help of God. 4. Our sufficiency is also yours. ( S. Martin, D. D. )

Benson Commentary 2 Corinthians 3:1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others , epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? 2 Corinthians 3:1-2 . Do we begin again — While we thus speak and avow our integrity; to commend — Or recommend; ourselves — As some insinuate we do? Is it needful to do so? have we nothing but our own word to recommend us? St. Paul chiefly here intends himself, though not excluding Timothy, Titus, and Silvanus: or need we, as some others — Namely, the factious and false teachers, referred to 2 Corinthians 11:22-23 ; epistles of commendation — Recommendatory letters; to you — From other churches; or recommendatory letters from you — To others? As if he had said, Do I indeed want such recommendation? Nay, ye are our epistle — Our recommendatory letter, more convincing than any bare words could be, as being a testimonial from God himself. He means that the change which had been produced in their hearts and lives, in their dispositions, words, and actions, by his ministry, and that of his fellow-labourers, a change which could not have been effected except by the power of God, was a demonstration that God had sent them, and was present with them, giving efficacy to the word of his grace, a letter written in our hearts — Deeply engraven there, so that we never can forget it; known and read of all men — Who knew what immoral persons you once were, and observe what you are now. By speaking as the apostle does in this and the preceding verse, he intimates that his apostleship did not depend on the testimony of men, and that he could go to no church where he was not known to be an apostle of Christ, and to have been instrumental in converting many to the faith, and making them new creatures in Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 2 Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. 2 Corinthians 3:3-4 . Forasmuch as ye — Some of whom were once so immoral, but who are now so pious and virtuous; are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ — Which he has formed and published to the world; ministered by us — Whom he has used herein as his instruments; therefore ye are our letter also; written, not with ink — As epistles generally are; but with the Spirit of the living God — Influencing your hearts, and producing that variety of graces and virtues, which render many of you so conspicuous for holiness and usefulness; not in tables of stone — Like the ten commandments, which did so great an honour, and gave such authority to Moses; but in fleshly tables of the heart — To which no hand but that by which the heart was made could find access, in such a manner as to inscribe these characters there. The sense of this verse, as Mr. Locke justly observes, is plainly this; “That he needed no letters of commendation to them, but that their conversion, and the gospel written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of God in the tables of their hearts, by his ministry, was as clear an evidence and testimony to them of his mission from Christ, as the law written on tables of stone was an evidence of Moses’s mission; so that he, St. Paul, needed no other recommendation.” Such trust have we through Christ to God-ward — That is, we trust in God that this is so. This the apostle adds, and also what follows, to obviate all imputation of vanity or vain-glory, on account of what he had advanced in the two preceding verses. 2 Corinthians 3:4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 . Not that we are sufficient of ourselves — For this great work of converting sinners, and creating them anew; or so much as to think any thing as of ourselves — To form even right views of the gospel and divine things, much less to communicate such views to others, and less still to render them effectual to men’s salvation. But our sufficiency is of God — To whom we do and must ascribe whatever qualifications we have for our office, and whatever success we have in it; who also hath made us — His apostles and others whom he hath sent into the work; able ministers — Greek, ?? ???????? ???? ????????? , literally, who hath made us fit, or sufficient; ministers of the new testament — Or covenant, rather, as ??????? is generally rendered. See the Introduction to the New Testament, p. 3. That Isaiah , 1 st, Of the covenant of grace, made with man after the fall; a covenant which makes provision for pardoning his guilt, renewing his depraved nature, and strengthening his weakness; purposes for which the former covenant, that of justice, established before the fall, made no provision; man, while in innocence, not needing it: 2d, And more especially, the new covenant here means the last and best dispensation of the covenant of grace, that made through the Messiah come in the flesh, in opposition to the two former dispensations of the covenant of grace, the Patriarchal and Mosaic. Not of the letter — Not of the law, fitly called the letter, from God’s writing the best part of it on the two tables; but of the spirit — Of the gospel dispensation, written on the tables of our hearts by the Spirit. Or rather, the apostle means that the true ministers of Christ are not merely ministers of the letter even of the gospel covenant; they not only bear testimony to, and enforce the literal knowledge of it, or that which is in mere theory, but the spiritual or experimental knowledge of it: that is, they not only endeavour to communicate to their hearers just, clear, and full views of the gospel in all its parts, but to bring them to have a lively and operative faith in its doctrines, producing in them a change of nature; to possess its graces, enjoy its privileges, and practise its duties. For the letter killeth — The law, the Mosaic dispensation, seals in death those who still cleave to it; but the spirit — The gospel, instrumental in conveying the Spirit of God to those who receive it with a true and lively faith; giveth life — Both spiritual and eternal. Yea, if we adhere to the literal sense even of the moral law, if we regard only the precept and the sanction, as they stand in themselves, not as they lead us to Christ, they are doubtless a killing ordinance, and bind us down under the sentence of death. Nor is this all that the apostle means: but if we rest in the literal and merely notional knowledge of the new covenant itself, it not only will not justify and save us, but will condemn us to a greater death than that to which we were exposed by the sin of Adam: our condemnation will be aggravated, and our future misery increased through our misuse, or abuse rather, of so gracious a dispensation, a remedy provided in great mercy and love for the healing of our spiritual disorders and the saving of our souls. In other words, if we content ourselves with having right views of the gospel, of its truths and duties, privileges and blessings, and do not receive them in true repentance, living faith, sincere love, and new obedience; if we be satisfied with understanding the nature of the graces of God’s Spirit, and of justification, regeneration, and sanctification, and remain without the real possession and enjoyment of these blessings, the light we have, and our correct ideas of these things, will only render us the more inexcusable before God, and expose us to greater wrath than could have come upon us, if we had not been favoured with that knowledge and these advantages. On the other hand, the spiritual and experimental knowledge of the new covenant in all its branches, the knowledge communicated by the Holy Spirit, giveth life. It quickens the soul, before dead to God and divine things, dead in a state of guilt, depravity, and weakness; it justifies the ungodly, sanctifies the unholy, unites to God those who had been alienated from his life, stamps them with his image, communicates to them his nature, and renders them spiritually minded, which is life and peace. And while it imparts the life of grace, it gives a title to, a meetness for, and a foretaste of, the life of glory. To spread this spiritual, experimental, and practical knowledge of the new covenant, therefore, is the chief concern, and endeavour of every true minister of Christ; and for this work every such a one is qualified by being savingly made acquainted with its nature, excellence, and glory, in consequence of which he can and will not only speak justly and clearly concerning it, but with zeal, fervency, and deep concern, that his message may be properly received and obeyed by all who hear him. Understanding the doctrines, possessing the graces, practising the duties, and enjoying the privileges of this new dispensation himself, he speaks with sincerity and pathos; speaks what he knows, and testifies what he has seen, or experienced; and his words, proceeding from the heart, and uttered with feeling, seldom fail to reach the heart: while in the mean time, his spirit and conduct, his holy tempers, words, and actions, strongly recommend his doctrine, and powerfully enforce all his exhortations, the Lord Jesus, according to his promise, being with him in all his ministrations, and giving efficacy to the word of his grace. 2 Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2 Corinthians 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 2 Corinthians 3:7-8 . But — The apostle having signified that he and the other true servants of Christ were intrusted with the ministry of the new covenant, in opposition to the old, proceeds now to show the great superiority of their dispensation to that which had preceded it. This he does in three important particulars. If the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones — That is, the Mosaic dispensation, the most important part of which was engraven on two tables of stone, and which proved a ministration of death to those who preferred it to the gospel, and which still subjects such to death, pronouncing an awful curse upon all that in any respect violate it; was glorious — Was attended with a signal and undeniable glory, a glory even reflected on the face of its minister, in such a degree that the Israelites could not bear steadfastly to behold the splendour of his countenance; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit — The Christian dispensation, under which the Holy Spirit, in his gifts and graces, is much more largely communicated than it was under the law; be rather glorious — Since the operations and graces of the Spirit of God in the heart of a rational being are so much more important than any dead characters which could be engraven on insensible stones. To be a little more particular: — The law, even the best part of it, that engraven on stones, is here properly termed the ministration of death — Because, 1st, It condemned wilful transgressors in certain cases, (as sabbath-breakers, adulteresses, and those disobedient to parents,) to temporal death; so that they died without mercy under two or three witnesses attesting their guilt, Hebrews 10:28 . nding all dead, or doomed to die, temporally, it had no resurrection to announce or promise. 3d, Spiritual, as well as temporal death, having entered into the world by the first great transgression, and all being involved therein, namely, destitute of the favour of God, (which is life, Psalm 30:5 ,) of union with him, and a spiritual mind, ( Romans 8:6 ,) it could not quicken them, or make them alive to God. Its sacrifices could not procure men God’s forfeited favour, much less assure them of it. Its precepts, through men’s inability to keep them, could not introduce them to union with him, and its carnal ordinances and worldly promises could not render them spiritually minded. Thus the letter, that external, emblematical, and shadowy dispensation, killed such as adhered to it, and rejected the gospel; but the Spirit giveth life. As the Spirit of God is the grand promise of the new covenant, (see Isaiah 44:3 ; Isaiah 59:21 ; Joel 2:28 ; John 7:37-38 ,) so by this the gospel doctrines, precepts, and promises, are made spirit and life to us; repentance unto life and living faith are begotten in us, the favour of God is manifested, and union with God imparted, productive of a spiritual mind, which is life and peace. 2 Corinthians 3:8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 2 Corinthians 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 2 Corinthians 3:9 . If, &c. — The apostle now proceeds to the second particular; the ministration of condemnation be glorious — Attended with such great glory. The law, whether moral or ceremonial, however glorious, was, to sinful and guilty, weak and depraved man, in his fallen state, no more than a ministration of condemnation. Even the moral part of it, though holy, just, and good, yet, being spiritual and extensive in its demands, condemned all for having violated it in time past, for falling short of its demands at present, and as being unable to fulfil it in future. Here we see how much they are mistaken who suppose that the moral law, of which the apostle chiefly speaks, (it alone being engraven on stones,) requires no more than a sincere obedience, such as is proportioned to our infirm state. For if this were sufficient to justify us, then the law would cease to be a ministration of condemnation. It would become (flatly contrary to the apostle’s doctrine) the ministration of righteousness. This, however, even a ministration of righteousness, is the gospel or new covenant: for, 1st, It reveals the essential righteousness of God, ( Romans 1:16 ,) illustrating his perfections, and showing how holy and just he is, Romans 3:21-26 . 2d, It exhibits the meritorious righteousness of Christ, or his obedience unto death, the procuring cause of our justification. See on Romans 10:4 . 3d, It lays a foundation for, and is the seed of, the instrumental righteousness of faith, described Romans 4. and Php 3:9 . 4th, It imputes righteousness to us in our justification, Romans 4:3 ; implants it in us in our regeneration and sanctification, Titus 3:5 ; Ephesians 4:23-24 ; and provides for our practising it in love and obedience, shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts, the great source of all piety and virtue, and creating us anew to all good works, Ephesians 2:10 . Thus grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, Romans 5:21 . On this account also the gospel far exceeds the law in glory: for, 2 Corinthians 3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 2 Corinthians 3:10-11 . Even that which was made glorious — The law, especially at its first dispensation; had no glory in this respect, &c. — That is, none in comparison of the gospel, which has such a transcendent glory in it. The greater light swallows up the less. For if that which is done away — The law, and the whole Mosaic dispensation, which, being only typical and shadowy, of course ceased when the antitype and substance came. Hence its priesthood is changed, Hebrews 7:11-12 ; its covenant, Hebrews 8:6 ; its sanctuary and whole service, Hebrews 9:1-9 ; with all its privileges and blessings, they being generally of a worldly and carnal nature; much more that which remaineth — The gospel, which is to continue without any alteration to the end of time; is glorious — Its high- priest is consecrated for ever, and has an unchangeable priesthood, Hebrews 6:20 ; Hebrews 7:24 ; Hebrews 7:28 . Its law, or covenant, remains the same through all ages: its sanctuary, the visible church, is built on a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it: its spiritual worship and service are of perpetual obligation; and its privileges and blessings, being all of a spiritual and heavenly nature, though possessed in their first-fruits in time, shall be reaped in their full harvest in eternity. Such are the three particulars in which the glory of the new covenant far exceeds that of the old. 2 Corinthians 3:11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. 2 Corinthians 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 2 Corinthians 3:12-16 . Seeing then — Upon these grounds spoken of from 2 Corinthians 3:5-11 ; that we have such hope — Such confidence of the excellence of our ministry, or such an assurance that the gospel excels the law in its nature and tendency, in its glory and duration; we use great plainness of speech — In discoursing concerning it. Or, as ????? ???????? may be rendered, we use great liberty of address. And not as Moses — We do not act as he did; who put a veil over his face — Which is to be understood with regard to his writings also; so that Israel could not look steadfastly to the end of that dispensation; which is now abolished — The end of this was Christ. The whole Mosaic dispensation tended to, and terminated in, him. But the Israelites had only a dim wavering sight of him, of whom Moses spake in an obscure, covert manner. Macknight explains this more at large thus: “Here the apostle intimates that Moses put a veil on his face while he delivered the law, to show the darkness of the types and figures of the law, of which he was the minister. And as he veiled his face, that the children of Israel might not see the vanishing of the glory from his face, it signified that the abrogation of the law, typified by the vanishing of the glory, would be hidden from them. So the apostle hath interpreted these emblems, 2 Corinthians 3:14 . Further, to show that the gospel is a clear dispensation, and that it is never to be abolished, and that the ministers of the covenant of the Spirit were able at all times to speak plainly concerning it, they did not, while ministering that covenant, veil their faces like Moses.” But their minds were blinded — Besides the obscurity of that dispensation, there was evidently blindness on their minds. They rested in the outward letter, and did not understand or apprehend the spiritual sense of the law. For until this day — Notwithstanding the many extraordinary miracles that have been wrought, and the wonderful events which have taken place; remaineth the same veil on their understanding untaken away — ?? ??????????????? , literally, not folded back, namely, so as to admit a little glimmering light; in or during, the reading of the old testament — Which contains such distinct prophecies of Christ, and such lively descriptions of him, that one would think it to be impossible that he should not be immediately acknowledged and adored by all that profess to believe its authority. That is, in other words, “The thing typified by the veil on Moses’s face, hath taken place from that time to this day. For when the Israelites read Moses’s account of the old covenant of the law, a veil lieth on that covenant; its types, and figures, and prophecies, are as dark to them as ever; it not being discovered to them that they are fulfilled in Christ, and consequently that the old covenant itself is abolished by him. Further, as the apostle observes in 2 Corinthians 3:15 , a veil lieth also on the hearts of the Jews when they read Moses. Besides the natural obscurity of the old covenant, there is a second veil formed by their own prejudices and lusts, which blind them to such a degree, that they cannot discern the intimations which God in the law itself hath given of his intention to abrogate it by Christ.” Which veil — Of obscurity upon the old testament, and of prejudice and blindness on their own minds; is done away in Christ — By the knowledge of him, and the illumination of his Spirit, with respect to all that truly believe in him. Nevertheless, when it — Their heart; shall turn to the Lord — To Christ by living faith; the veil shall be taken away — Or rather, is taken away, and that from around their heart, as ???????????? , signifies; or is taken away entirely, and the genuine sense of the sacred oracles breaks in upon their minds with irresistible light, and they see with the utmost clearness how all the types and prophecies of the law are fully accomplished in him. And this, we may observe, not only will happen at the general conversion of the Jews, but actually does happen as often as any one of that nation is converted. In the expression, when it shall turn to the Lord, &c., there is a manifest allusion to Moses’s taking the veil off from his face, when he turned from the people to go into the tabernacle before the Lord, where by he received a new irradiation from the glory of the Lord. See Exodus 34:34 . 2 Corinthians 3:13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 2 Corinthians 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 2 Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 . Now the Lord Christ is that Spirit — Of the law of which I spake before, to whom the letter of it was intended to lead; and it is the office of the Spirit of God, as the great agent in his kingdom, to direct the minds of men to it. And where the Spirit of the Lord is — Enlightening and renewing men’s minds; there is liberty — Not the veil, the emblem of slavery. There is liberty from servile fear, liberty from the guilt and power of sin, liberty to behold with open face the glory of the Lord. Accordingly it is added, we all — That believe in him with a faith of his operation; beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, &c. — By the glory of the Lord here, we are to understand his divine attributes, his wisdom, power, and goodness; his truth, justice, mercy; his holiness and grace, and especially his love; these, and his other moral perfections, are his greatest glory. But these cannot be beheld by man immediately and directly, while he is in the body: they can only be seen as in a glass, or through a glass darkly; ( 1 Corinthians 13:12 ;) namely, 1st, In that of the works of creation, as the apostle states, Romans 1:20 , where see the note. Invisible in himself, he is “dimly seen In these his lowest works, which all declare His goodness beyond thought, and power divine.” 2d, In the dispensations of his providence, in which glass not only his natural, but also his moral attributes are manifested; his long-suffering in bearing with sinful individuals, families, cities, nations; his justice in punishing when they persist in their iniquities; his mercy in pardoning them when they break off their sins by repentance. 3d, In the work of redemption; a work in which divine goodness in designing, wisdom in contriving, and power in executing, are conspicuously declared; in which justice and mercy meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other: a wonderful plan! in which God demonstrates that he is just, while he is the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. See on Romans 3:25-26 . 4th, In the glass in which all these are united, and set in a clear point of view, namely, the Word of God, or the gospel of Christ, in which the divine character is clearly and fully delineated; as it is also still more manifestly, and in a more striking light, in his incarnate Son, the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person; the Word made flesh; God manifest in the flesh. But by whom is the divine glory beheld in these glasses? Only by those from whose faces the veil of ignorance, prejudice, and unbelief is removed; so that with open, ?????????????? , with unveiled face, and with the eyes of their understanding opened, they behold, view attentively, and contemplate this glory of the Lord. Now, observe the effect produced on those who behold this glory; they are changed into the same image. While we steadfastly and with open face behold the divine likeness exhibited in these glasses, we discern its amiableness and excellence, and the necessity of a conformity thereto, in order to our happiness here and hereafter. And hence arises sincere and earnest desire after that conformity, and an endeavour to imitate such perfections as are imitable by us. Add to this, the very beholding and meditating on the divine glories, has a transforming efficacy. For instance, by contemplating his wisdom, as manifested in his works and word, we are enlightened and made wise: by viewing his power, and by faith arming ourselves with it, we become strong; able to withstand our enemies, as also to do and suffer his will. The contemplation of his truth, justice, mercy, and holiness, inspires us with the same amiable and happy qualities, and knowing and believing the love that he hath to us, and all his people, we learn to love him who hath first loved us; and loving him that beget, we are disposed and enabled also to love all that are begotten of him; and even all mankind, if not with a love of approbation and complacency, yet with a love of benevolence and beneficence, knowing that he is the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and that the whole race of Adam are his offspring. Thus we become godlike, and put on the new man, which is renewed in and by this spiritual knowledge, after the image of him that created him, Colossians 3:10 . From glory to glory — That Isaiah , 1 st, As the light and glory of the moon and planets are by reflection from the sun; so from the unbounded, absolutely perfect, and underived glory of the Creator, when beheld and contemplated, results this limited, increasing, and derived glory in the creature: increasing, observe; for, 2d, this expression, from glory to glory, (which is a Hebraism, denoting a continued succession and increase of glory,) signifies from one degree of this glorious conformity to God to another: this on earth. But it implies also, 3d, from grace, (which is glory in the bud,) to glory in heaven, which is the ripe fruit. It is of importance to notice likewise the grand agent in this work, namely, the Spirit of the Lord. 1st, He hath prepared these glasses, particularly the two last mentioned, the Holy Scriptures, indited by his inspiration, and the human nature of Christ, formed by his agency in the womb of the virgin. And he causes the glory of the Lord to be reflected from them. 2d, He rends the veil from our minds, and opens the eyes of our understanding, that we may be enabled to behold the divine glory in these glasses. 3d, He causes the sight to be transforming, communicating his own renewing and sanctifying influences, and thereby imparting his likeness and nature. 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Corinthians 3:1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others , epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Chapter 8 LIVING EPISTLES. 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 (R.V) "ARE we beginning again to commend ourselves?" Paul does not mean by these words to admit that he had been commending himself before: he means that he has been accused already of doing so, and that there are those at Corinth who, when they hear such passages of this letter as that which has just preceded, will be ready to repeat the accusation. In the First Epistle he had found it necessary to vindicate his apostolic authority, and especially his interest in the Corinthian Church as its spiritual father, { 1 Corinthians 9:1-27 ; 1 Corinthians 4:6-21 } and obviously his enemies at Corinth had tried to turn these personal passages against him. They did so on the principle Qui s’excuse s’accuse. "He is commending himself," they said, "and self-commendation is an argument which discredits, instead of supporting, a cause." The Apostle had heard of these malicious speeches, and in this Epistle makes repeated reference to them. {see 2 Corinthians 5:12 ; 2 Corinthians 10:18 ; 2 Corinthians 13:6 } He entirely agreed with his opponents that self-praise was no honor. "Not he who commendeth himself is approved, but he whom the Lord commendeth." But he denied point-blank that he was commending himself. In distinguishing as he had done in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 between himself and his colleagues, who spoke the Word "as of sincerity, as of God, in the sight of God," and "the many" who corrupted it, nothing was further from his mind than to plead his cause, as a suspected person, with the Corinthians. Only malignity could suppose any such thing, and the indignant question with which the chapter opens tacitly accuses his adversaries of this hateful vice. It is pitiful to see a great and generous spirit like Paul compelled thus to stand upon guard, and watch against the possible misconstruction of every lightest word. What needless pain it inflicts upon him, what needless humiliation! How it checks all effusion of feeling, and robs what should be brotherly intercourse of everything that can make it free and glad! Further on in the Epistle there will be abundant opportunity of speaking on this subject at greater length; but it is proper to remark here that a minister’s character is the whole capital he has for carrying on his business, and that nothing can be more cruel and wicked than to cast suspicion on it without cause. In most other callings a man may go on, no matter what his character, provided his balance at the bank is on the right side; but an evangelist or a pastor who has lost his character has lost everything. It is humiliating to be subject to suspicion, painful to be silent under it, degrading to speak. At a later stage Paul was compelled to go further than he goes here; but let the indignant emotion of this abrupt question remind us that candor is to be met with candor, and that the suspicious temper which would fain malign the good eats like a canker the very heart of those who cherish it. From the serious tone the Apostle passes suddenly to the ironical. "Or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you?" The "some" of this verse are probably the same as "the many" of 2 Corinthians 2:17 . Persons had come to Corinth in the character of Christian teachers, bringing with them recommendatory letters which secured their standing when they arrived. An example of what is meant can be seen in Acts 18:27 . There we are told that when Apollos, who had been working in Ephesus, was minded to pass over into Achaia, the Ephesian brethren encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him-that is, they gave him an epistle of commendation, which secured him recognition and welcome in Corinth. A similar case is found in Romans 16:1 , where the Apostle uses the very word which we have here: "I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the Church that is at Cenchreae: that ye receive her in the Lord, worthily of the saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need of you: for she herself also hath been a succorer of many, and of mine own self." This was Phoebe’s introduction, or epistle of commendation, to the Church of Rome. The Corinthians were evidently in the habit both of receiving such letters from other Churches, and of granting them on their own account; and Paul asks them ironically if they think he ought to bring one, or when he leaves them to apply for one. Is that the relation which ought to obtain between him and them? The "some," to whom he refers, had no doubt come from Jerusalem: it is they who are referred to in 2 Corinthians 11:22 ff. But it does not follow that their recommendatory letters had been signed by Peter, James, and John; and just as little that those letters justified them in their hostility to Paul. No doubt there were many-many myriads, the Book of Acts says-at Jerusalem, whose conception of the Gospel was very different from his and who were glad to counteract him whenever they could; but there were many also, including the three who seemed to be pillars, who had a thoroughly good understanding with him, and who had no responsibility for the "some" and their doings. The epistles which the "some" brought were plainly such as the Corinthians themselves could grant, and it is a complete misinterpretation to suppose that they were a commission granted by the Twelve for the persecution of Paul. The giving of recommendatory letters is a subject of considerable practical interest. When they are merely formal, as in our certificates of Church membership, they come to mean very little. It is an unhappy state of affairs perhaps, but no one would take a certificate of Church membership by itself as a satisfactory recommendation. And when we go past the merely formal, difficult questions arise. Many people have an estimate of their own character and competence, in which it is impossible for others to share, and yet they apply without misgiving to their friends, and especially to their minister or their employer, to grant them "epistles of commendation." We are bound to be generous in these things, but we are bound also to be honest. The rule which ought to guide us, especially in all that belongs to the Church and its work, is the interest of the cause, and not of the worker. To flatter is to do a wrong, not only to the person flattered, but to the cause in which you are trying to employ him. There is no more ludicrous reading in the world than a bundle of certificates, or testimonials, as they are called. As a rule, they certify nothing but the total absence of judgment and conscience in the people who have granted them. If you do not know whether a person is qualified for any given situation or not, you do not need to say anything about it. If you know he is not, and he asks you to say that he is, no personal consideration must keep you from kindly but firmly declining. I am not preaching suspicion, or reserve, or anything ungenerous, but justice and truth. It is wicked to betray a great interest by bespeaking it for incompetent hands; it is cruel to put any one into a place for which he is unfit. Where you are confident that the man and the work will be well matched, be as generous as you please; but never forget that the work is to be considered in the first place, and the man only in the second. Paul has been serious, and ironical, in the first verse; in 2 Corinthians 3:2 he becomes serious again, and remains so. "You," he says, answering his ironical question, "you are our epistle." Epistle, of course, is to be taken in the sense of the preceding verse. "You are the commendatory letter which I show, when I am asked for my credentials." But to whom does he show it? In the first instance, to the captious Corinthians themselves. The tone of 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 . in the First Epistle is struck here again: "Wherever I may need recommendations, it is certainly not at Corinth." "If I be not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you: the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord." Had they been a Christian community when he first visited them, they might have asked who he was; but they owed their Christianity to him; he was their father in Christ; to put him to the question in this superior, suspicious style was unnatural, unfilial ingratitude. They themselves were the living evidence of the very thing which they threw doubt upon-the apostleship of Paul. This bold utterance may well excite misgivings in those who preach constantly, yet see no result of their work. It is common to disparage success, the success of visible acknowledged conversions, of bad men openly renouncing badness, bearing witness against themselves, and embracing a new life. It is common to glorify the ministry which works on, patient and uncomplaining, in one monotonous round, ever sowing, but never reaping, ever casting the net, but never drawing in the fish, ever marking time, but never advancing. Paul frankly and repeatedly appeals to his success in evangelistic work as the final and sufficient proof that God had called him, and had given him authority as an apostle; and search as we will, we shall not find any test so good and unequivocal at this success. Paul had seen the Lord; he was qualified to be a witness of the Resurrection; but these, at the very most, were his own affair, till the witness he bore had proved its power in the hearts and consciences of others. How to provide, to train, and to test the men who are to be the ministers of the Christian Church is a matter of the very utmost consequence, to which sufficient attention has not yet been given. Congregations which choose their own pastor are often compelled to take a man quite untried, and to judge him more or less on superficial grounds. They can easily find out whether he is a competent scholar; they can see for themselves what are his gifts of speech, his virtues or defects of manner; they can get such an impression as sensible people always get, by seeing and hearing a man, of the general earnestness or lack of earnestness in his character. But often they feel that more is wanted. It is not exactly more in the way of character; the members of a Church have no right to expect that their minister will be a truer Christian than they themselves are. A special inquisition into his conversion, or his religious experience, is mere hypocrisy; if the Church is not sufficiently in earnest to guard herself against insincere members, she must take the risk of insincere ministers. What is wanted is what the Apostle indicates here-that intimation of God’s concurrence which is given through success in evangelistic work. No other intimation of God’s concurrence is infallible-no call by a congregation, no ordination by a presbytery or by a bishop. Theological education is easily provided, and easily tested; but it will not be so easy to introduce the reforms which are needed in this direction. Great masses of Christian people, however, are becoming alive to the necessity for them; and when the pressure is more strongly felt, the way for action will be discovered. Only those who can appeal to what they have done in the Gospel can be known to have the qualifications of Gospel ministers; and in due time the fact will be frankly recognized. The conversion and new life of the Corinthians were Paul’s certificate as an apostle. They were a certificate known, he says, and read by all men. Often there is a certain awkwardness in the presenting of credentials. It embarrasses a man when he has to put his hand into his breast pocket, and take out his character, and submit it for inspection. Paul was saved this embarrassment. There was a fine unsought publicity about his testimonials. Everybody knew what the Corinthians had been, everybody knew what they were; and the man to whom the change was due needed no other recommendation to a Christian society. Whoever looked at them saw plainly that they were an epistle of Christ; the mind of Christ could be read upon them, and it had been written by the intervention of Paul’s hand. This is an interesting though a well-worn conception of the Christian character. Every life has a meaning, we say, every face is a record; but the text goes further. The life of the Christian is an epistle; it has not only a meaning, but an address; it is a message from Christ to the world. Is Christ’s message to men legible on our lives? When those who are without look at us, do they see the hand of Christ quite unmistakably? Does it ever occur to anybody that there is something in our life which is not of the world, but which is a message to the world from Christ? Did you ever, startled by the unusual brightness of a true Christian’s life, ask as it were involuntarily, "Whose image and superscription is this?" and feel as you asked it that these features, these characters, could only have been traced by one hand, and that they proclaimed to all the grace and power of Jesus Christ? Christ wishes so to write upon us that men may see what He does for man. He wishes to engrave His image on our nature, that all spectators may feel that it has a message for them, and may crave the same favor. A congregation which is not in its very existence and in all its works and ways a legible epistle, an unmistakable message from Christ to man, does not answer to this New Testament ideal. Paul claims no part here but that of Christ’s instrument. The Lord, so to speak, dictated the letter, and he wrote it. The contents of it were prescribed by Christ, and through the Apostle’s ministry became visible and legible in the Corinthians. More important is it to notice with what the writing was done: "not with ink," says St. Paul, "but with the Spirit of the living God." At first sight this contrast seems formal and fantastic; nobody, we think, could ever dream of making either of these things do the work of the other, so that it seems perfectly gratuitous in Paul to say, "not with ink, but with the Spirit." Yet ink is sometimes made to bear a great deal of responsibility. The characters of the ????? ("some") in 2 Corinthians 3:1 . were only written in ink; they had nothing, Paul implies, to recommend them but these documents in black and white. That was hardly sufficient to guarantee their authority, or their competence as ministers in the Christian dispensation. But do not Churches yet accept their ministers with the same inadequate testimonials? A distinguished career at the University, or in the Divinity Schools, proves that a man can write with ink, under favorable circumstances; it does not prove more than that; it does not prove that he will be spiritually effective, and everything else is irrelevant. I do not say this to disparage the professional training of ministers; on the contrary, the standard of training ought to be higher than it is in all the Churches: I only wish to insist that nothing which can be represented in ink, no learning, no literary gifts, no critical acquaintance with the Scriptures even, can write upon human nature the Epistle of Christ. To do that needs "the Spirit of the living God." We feel, the moment we come upon those words, that the Apostle is anticipating; he has in view already the contrast he is going to develop between the old dispensation and the new, and the irresistible inward power by which the new is characterized. Others might boast of qualifications to preach which could be certified in due documentary form, but he carried in him wherever he went a power which was its own witness, and which overruled and dispensed with every other. Let all of us who teach or preach concentrate our interest here. It is in "the Spirit of the living God," not in any requirements of our own, still less in any recommendations of others, that our serviceableness as ministers of Christ lies. We cannot write His epistle without it. We cannot see, let us be as diligent and indefatigable in our work as we please, the image of Christ gradually come out in those to whom we minister. Parents, teachers, preachers, this is the one thing needful for us all. "Tarry," said Jesus to the first evangelists, "tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" it is of no use to begin without that. This idea of the "epistle" has taken such a hold of the Apostle’s mind, and he finds it so suggestive whichever way he turns it, that he really tries to say too much about it in one sentence. The crowding of his ideas is confusing. One learned critic enumerates three points in which the figure becomes inconsistent with itself, and another can only defend the Apostle by saying that this figurative letter might well have qualities which would be self-contradictory in a real one. This kind of criticism smells a little of ink, and the only real difficulty in the sentence has never misled any one who read it with sympathy. It is this-that St. Paul speaks of the letter as written in two different places. "Ye are an epistle," he says at the beginning, "written in our hearts"; but at the end he says, "written not on tables of stone, but on tables that are hearts of flesh"-meaning evidently on the hearts of the Corinthians. Of course this last is the sense which coheres with the figure. Paul’s ministry wrote the Epistle of Christ upon the Corinthians, or, if we prefer it, wrought such a change in their hearts that they became an epistle of Christ, an epistle to which he appealed in proof of his apostolic calling. In expressing himself as he does about this, he is again anticipating the coming contrast of Law and Gospel. Nobody would think of writing a letter on tables of stone, and he only says "not on stone tables" because he has in his mind the difference between the Mosaic and the Christian dispensation. It is quite out of place to refer to Ezekiel 11:19 ; Ezekiel 36:26 , and to drag in the contrast between hard and tender hearts. What Paul means is that the Epistle of Christ is not written on dead matter, but on human nature, and that too at its finest and deepest. When we remember the sense of depth and inwardness which attaches to the heart in Scripture, it is not forcing the words to find in them the suggestion that the Gospel works no merely outward change. It is not written on the surface, but in the soul. The Spirit of the living God finds access for itself to the secret places of the human spirit; the most hidden recesses of our nature are open to it, and the very heart is made new. To be able to write there for Christ, to point not to anything dead, but to living men and women, not to anything superficial, but to a change that has reached the very core of man’s being, and works its way out from thence, is the testimonial which guarantees the evangelist; it is the divine attestation that he is in the true apostolical succession. What, then, does Paul mean by the other clause "ye are our epistle, written on our hearts?" I do not think we can get much more than an emotional certainty about this expression. When a man has been an intensely interested spectator, still more an intensely interested actor, in any great affair, he might say afterwards that the whole thing and all its circumstances were engraved upon his heart. I imagine that is what St. Paul means here. The conversion of the Corinthians made them an epistle of Christ: in making them believers through St. Paul’s ministry, Christ wrote on their hearts what was really an epistle to the world; and the whole transaction, in which Paul’s feelings had been deeply engaged, stood written on his heart for ever. Interpretations that go beyond this do not seem to me to be justified by the words. Thus Heinrici and Meyer say, "We have in our own consciousness the certainty of being recommended to you by yourselves and to others by you"; and they elucidate this by saying, "The Apostle’s own good consciousness was, as it were, the tablet on which this living epistle of the Corinthians stood, and that had to be left unassailed even by the most malevolent." A sense so pragmatical and pedantic, even if one can grasp it at all, is surely out of place, and many readers will fail to discover it in the text. What the words do convey is the warm love of the Apostle, who had exercised his ministry among the Corinthians with all the passion of his nature, and who still bore on his ardent heart the fresh impression of his work and its results. Amid all these details let us take care not to lose the one great lesson of the passage. Christian people owe a testimony to Christ. His name has been pronounced over them, and all who look at them ought to see His nature. We should discern in the heart and in the behavior of Christians the handwriting, let us say the characters, not of avarice, of suspicion, of envy, of lust, of falsehood, of pride, but of Christ. It is to us He has committed Himself; we are the certification to men of what He does for man; His character is in our care. The true epistles of Christ to the world are not those which are expounded in pulpits; they are not even the gospels in which Christ Himself lives and moves before us; they are living men and women, on the tables of whose hearts the Spirit of the living God, ministered by a true evangelist, has engraved the likeness of Christ Himself. It is not the written Word on which Christianity ultimately depends; it is not the sacraments, nor so-called necessary institutions: it is this inward, spiritual, Divine writing which is the guarantee of all else. 2 Corinthians 3:4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Chapter 9 THE TWO COVENANTS. 2 Corinthians 3:4-11 (R.V) THE confidence referred to in the opening of this passage is that which underlies the triumphant Sentences at the end of the second chapter. The tone of those sentences was open to misinterpretation, and Paul guards himself against this on two sides. To begin with, his motive in so expressing himself was quite pure: he had no thought of commending himself to the Corinthians. And, again, the ground of his confidence was not in himself. The courage which he had to speak as he did he had through Jesus Christ, and that, too, in relation to God. It was virtually confidence in God, and therefore inspired by God. It is this last aspect of his confidence which is expanded in the fifth verse: "not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God." This vehement disclaimer of any self-sufficiency has naturally been taken in the widest sense, and theologians from Augustine downward have found in it one of the most decisive proofs of the inability of man for any spiritual good accompanying salvation. No one, we may be sure, would have ascribed salvation, and all spiritual good accompanying it, entirely to God with more hearty sincerity than the Apostle; but it does seem better here to give his words a narrower and more relevant interpretation. The "sufficiency to account anything," of which he speaks, must have a definite meaning for the context; and this meaning is suggested by the words of 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 . Paul would never have dared, he tells us-indeed, he would never have been able-on his own motion, and out of his own resources, either to form conclusions, or to express them, on the subjects there in view. It is not for any man at random to say what the true Gospel is, what are its issues, what the responsibilities of its hearers or preachers, what is the spirit requisite in the evangelist, or what are the methods legitimate for him. The Gospel is God’s concern, and only those who have been capacitated by Him are entitled to speak as Paul has spoken. If this is a narrower sense than that which is expounded so vigorously by Calvin, it is more pertinent, and some will find it quite as pungent. Of all things that are done hastily and inconsiderately, by people calling themselves Christian, the criticism of evangelists is one of the most conspicuous. At his own prompting, out of his own wise head, any man almost will both make up his mind and speak his mind about any preacher with no sense of responsibility whatever. Paul certainly did form opinions about preachers, opinions which were anything but flattering; but he did it through Jesus Christ and in relation to God; he did it because, as he writes, God had made him sufficient, i.e., had given him capacity to be, and the capacity of, a true evangelist, so that he knew both what the Gospel was, and how it ought to be proclaimed. It would silence much incompetent, because self-sufficient, criticism, if no one "thought anything" who had not this qualification. The qualification having been mentioned, the Apostle proceeds, as usual, to enlarge upon it. "Our sufficiency is of God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of letter, but of spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." At the first glance, we see no reason why his thought should take this direction, and it can only be because those whom he is opposing, and with whom he has contrasted himself in 2 Corinthians 2:17 , are in some sense representatives of the old covenant, ministers of the letter in spite of their claim to be evangelists, and appealing not to a competency which came from God, but to one which rested on "the flesh." They based their title to preach on certain advantages of birth, or on having known Jesus when He lived in the world, or perhaps on certification by others who had known Him; at all events, not on that spiritual competence which Paul’s ministry at Corinth had shown him to possess. That this was really the case will be seen more fully at a later stage (especially in 2 Corinthians 10:1-18 . ff.). With the words "ministers of a new covenant" we enter upon one of the great passages in St. Paul’s writings, and are allowed to see one of the inspiring and governing ideas in his mind. "Covenant," even to people familiar with the Bible, is beginning to be a remote and technical term; it needs to be translated or explained. If no more than another word is to be used, perhaps "dispensation" or "constitution" would suggest something. God’s covenant with Israel was the whole constitution under which God was the God of Israel, and Israel the people of God. The new covenant of which Paul speaks necessarily implies an old one; and the old one is this covenant with Israel. It was a national covenant, and for that, among other reasons, it was represented and embodied in legal forms. There was a legal constitution under which the nation lived, and according to which all God’s dealings with it, and all its dealings with God, were regulated. Without entering more deeply, in the meantime, into the nature of this constitution, or the religious experiences which were possible to those who lived under it, it is sufficient to notice that the best spirits in the nation became conscious of its inadequacy, and eventually of its failure. Jeremiah, who lived through the long agony of his country’s dissolution, and saw the final collapse of the ancient order, felt this failure most deeply, and was consoled by the vision of a brighter future. That future rested for him on a more intimate relation of God to His people, on a constitution, as we may fairly paraphrase his words, less legal and more spiritual. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more." This wonderful passage, so profound, so spiritual, so evangelical, is the utmost reach of prophecy; it is a sort of stepping-stone between the Old Testament and the New. Jeremiah has cried to God out of the depths, and God has heard his cry, and raised him to a spiritual height from which his eye ranges over the land of promise, and rests with yearning on all its grandest features. We do not know whether many of his contemporaries or successors were able to climb the mount which offered this glorious prospect; but we know that the promise remained a promise - a rainbow light across the dark cloud of national disaster-till Christ claimed its fulfillment as His work. It was His to make good all that the prophets had spoken; and when in the last hours of His life He said to His disciples, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins," it was exactly as if He had laid His Hand on that passage of Jeremiah, and said. "This day is this scripture fulfilled before your eyes." By the death of Jesus a new spiritual order was established; it rested on the forgiveness of sin, it made God accessible to all, it made obedience an instinct and a joy; all the intercourse of God and man was carried on upon a new footing, under a new constitution; to use the words of the prophet and the apostle, God made a new covenant with His people. Among the Christians of the first age, no one so thoroughly appreciated the newness of Christianity, or was so immensely impressed by it, as St. Paul. The difference between the earlier dispensation and the later, between the religion of Moses’ disciples and the religion of believers in Jesus Christ, was one that could hardly be exaggerated; he himself had been a zealot of the old, he was now a zealot of the new; and the gulf between his former and his present self was one that no geometry could measure. He had lived after the straitest sect of the old religion, a Pharisee; touching the righteousness which is in the law he could call himself blameless; he had tasted the whole bitterness of the legalism, the formality, the bondage, in which the old covenant entangled those who were devoted to it in his days. It is with this in his memory that he here sets the old and the new in unrelieved opposition to each other. His feeling is like that of a man who has just been liberated from prison, and whose whole mind is possessed and filled up with the single sensation that it is one thing to be chained, and another thing to be free. In the passage before us, this is all the Apostle has in view. He speaks as if the old covenant and the new had nothing in common, as if the new, to borrow Baur’s expression, had merely a negative relation to "the old," as if it could only be contrasted with it, and not compared to it, or illustrated by it. And with this restricted view he characterizes the old dispensation as one of letter, and the new as one of spirit. Speaking out of his own experience, which was not solitary, but typical, he could truly speak thus. The essence of the old, to a Pharisee born and bred, was its documentary, statutory character: the law, written in letters, on stone tablets or parchment sheets, simply confronted men with its uninspiring imperative; it had never yet given any one a good conscience or enabled him to attain to the righteousness of God. The essence of the new, on the other hand, was spirit; the Christian was one in whom, through Christ, the Holy Spirit of God dwelt, putting the righteousness of God within his reach, enabling him to perfect holiness in God’s fear. The contrast is made absolute, pro tem. There is no "spirit" in the old at all; there is no "letter" in the new. This last assertion was more natural then than now; for at the time when Paul wrote this Epistle, there was no "New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" consigned in documents and collected for the use of the Church. The Gospel existed in the world, not at all in books, but only in men; all the epistles were living epistles; there was literally no letter, but only spirit. This, doubtless, is the explanation of the blank antithesis of the old covenant and the new in the passage before us. But it is obvious, when we think of it, that this antithesis does not exhaust the relations of the two. It is not the whole truth about the earlier dispensatio