As I begin to write this essay, I wonder how often the reader has either said or read the slogan, "after all, the letter killeth"? What does this statement mean exactly? I have found that it is most often said by those who would, ironically, downplay the authority of Scripture and cast doubt on its inerrancy. The statement comes from 2 Cor 3:6, in which Paul says, (KJV) "for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."
The statement is made to make the point that Paul advocated merely spiritual or supernatural knowledge of God -- and that those who take the written Bible as an authority are somehow "killing" rather than giving the life which comes through the Spirit. But the problem is this: Paul does not say that at all in this passage of Scripture. If we ignore the abject self-contradiction of using Scripture as an authority to downplay Scripture's authority, the remaining issue is that Paul is in fact making another case altogether. It is the same case he makes in Romans about the Law and its role in convicting men of sin.
Let us begin, then, in 2 Cor 2 to see what Paul is saying to his readers (NASB):
2 Cor 2: 12 Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord,
13 I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia.
14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
Paul is talking here about his missionary journeys, and that God is using himself, and his fellow workers, to spread the Gospel. That's not very controversial: Paul says that God always leads him (Paul) is a triumph for Christ, and that triumph results in people knowing God and Christ.
15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;
16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?
17 For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.
Now what is Paul denouncing here? He has just said that God leads the triumph in Christ, and manifests (through Paul and his fellow workers) the sweet aroma of knowledge of Christ. But there are plainly others who are doing something else: v. 17 says there are many "peddling the word of God" who are not speaking "in Christ in the sight of God".
Who are there "peddlers"? What are they preaching? Does Paul tell us at all? Let's read on:
2 Cor 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Paul says that the "letters of commendation" which should prove his worthiness are not letters from men, as if men could approve what is of God. He says that because the Spirit is manifest in the Corinthians -- and that Spirit only comes from God -- the work Paul did on behalf of God is thereby tested as worthy and approved.
But Paul says more than that here: he says that this "letter" is read "by all men", and not merely written on "tablets of stone". What can he mean by this? What letters would he be referring to that are written in stone, and why would they be contrasted against letters of approval written by the Holy Spirit?
4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
6 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.
So Paul presents his statement: he is made a servant of a new covenant not of the letter but of the Spirit by God, and adequate only because of God. He is clear that he is not adequate in anything he does but only in what God does through him. So what is the problem with saying, then, that "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" is Paul's way of saying that the Scripture is as impediment to the work of God?
Indeed, not: Paul is saying that the old covenant in the Law condemns men to death, and the new covenant in the Spirit brings life in spite of that death.
The problem for the person citing "the letter killeth" as we began this essay is two-fold:
7 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,
8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
The ministry of death is plainly the Law -- engraved in stone. The glory it came with was on Moses' own face when he delivered the tablets -- and he had to wear a veil to keep it from shining on men and humbling them with fear (cf. Ex 34:29-35). So Paul plainly says that this ministry -- this covenant had its own glory which humbles men. Moreover, Paul is actually citing Scripture to make his point -- citing its as historically and theologically true.
Paul's point, then, is exactly the same point he makes in Romans 2 & 3: all the world is guilty, and it is by the Law that we know we are guilty, either as Jews with the Law of Moses, or as gentiles who have a conscience which mirrors the Law. The ministry of the Law is to convict men of sin -- and point us thereafter to Christ for salvation.
We can also, by this clarification by Paul, answer the questions we have from 2 Cor 2:15-17 -- Who are there "peddlers" of the word of God, and what are they preaching? Paul says they are the ones demanding adherence to this letter, and in that are also collecting a price for what they teach. They are plainly the Judaisers who were demanding that one must keep the whole law and also accept Christ to be right with God. Paul, like Jesus before him, condemns these men for taking advantage of people by using the Law to benefit themselves and separate people from the Kingdom of God.
Nevertheless, Paul does not completely reject the ministry of the Law. Indeed, Paul is saying that the Law still convicts men of sin, but something astonishing happens because of Christ.
9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.
10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.
11 For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
The surpassing glory of the covenant of the Spirit supercedes the glory which came down through Moses. "The ministry of righteousness" is the covenant of the Spirit which Paul has so far said gives life. And furthermore:
12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,
13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
It is in Christ which one sees the glory of both the old covenant and the new covenant. The veil on the hearts of men which did not allow them to see the Law for what it was -- as symbolized by the veil on Moses' face -- is lifted when a person turns to the Lord in Jesus Christ.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
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 from the Lord, the Spirit.
Paul is here finally restating his point: we do not have to fear the Law because in Christ we are transformed from veiled lookers-on to unveiled men reflecting the Lord's own glory. Paul in no way disparages the written Word of God in the Scripture but, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, delivers the same message he gives to others in other epistles: the Law convicts men of sin, but Christ has come to save sinners from the consequences of sin.
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