>> Jen: Good morning, friends and faithful listeners. Today we're going to be reading 2 Corinthians 3, 1 - 11 and talking about the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. So stay tuned for all of that. This is my first time doing a video episode in a very long time. So for those of you on the podcast, I'm actually recording myself right now for video, and I'm gonna throw that up on
YouTube later on today. But I decided to do this because I haven't done one in, like, a year, because they're annoying to edit, so they're not my favorite things to do. But I haven't been keeping up with my YouTube channel the way I'd like to, so I decided to do a video episode. But I tell you, like, the second the video starts recording, I can't speak for the life of me. I, like, lose it. And I get really nervous because
I'm looking at myself on the screen. Maybe I should just, I don't know, make it so that I can't see myself on the screen. And maybe I would do better after that. But today we're going to be talking about 2 Corinthians 3, 1 - 11. And like I said, this is going to be talking about just the difference between the Old Testament law and the New Testament, or the New Covenant, rather.
So go ahead and grab your Bible out of the version that you prefer. I'm going to be reading out of the web, as I usually do. Once Again, this is 2 Corinthians 3, 1 - 11. Are we beginning again to commend ourselves, or do we need, as do, some letters of commendation to
you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men being revealed, that you are a letter of Christ served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh. Such confidence we have through
Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient 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 service of death, written engraved on stones, came with, uh, glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face which was passing away, won't service of the Spirit be with much more glory? For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For Most certainly, that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect,
but by reason of the glory that surpasses. For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. Okay, so verse one is talking about letters of commendation. It says, are we beginning again to commend ourselves, or do we need as some letters of commendation to you
or from you? Now, back in Paul's day, there would be these, like, traveling preachers that would have to go and get a letter of commendation from somebody because back before the age of cell phones and social media, people didn't know who was who. And so anybody could claim to be anybody. They could be like, yeah, you know, I was sent by Paul or I was sent by Peter to come and preach to you guys. And, uh, you know, my message is straight from their
lips. And they could be like some charlatan just claiming to, you know, be a follower of Paul or a great speaker or something. So what. What people would do back in these days, before you could just like, look somebody up online, is they would send a letter of recommendation along with this person. So m that people would truly know whether or not this preacher was a disciple of Paul or not. In fact, Paul did write
a letter of recommendation. I think in First Corinthians 16, he wrote one for Timothy because Timothy was going to travel to the Corinthian Church. And, uh, you'll remember that Paul was like, please accept Timothy with open arms. Don't scare him off. So that was a letter of recommendation that Paul sent along with Timothy. So Paul says, are we commending ourselves? Do we need, as some do, letters of commendation to you or from you? So Paul's like, we don't need any letters of
commendation. We don't need, um, them because we are witnesses of God Himself. And actually, the apostles, they kind of had a letter of commendation from God, because the apostles, one of the things you needed to be in order to be an apostle was you needed to be a miracle worker. And so the apostles did miracles. And that was almost like God's way of showing that Peter and Paul and the other apostles were truly
of him. Because these miracles would be done, and then people would know for sure, like, oh, you know, this person is performing a miracle. Only people that truly believe in God can really do miracles. So Paul didn't need a letter of recommendation from any human being. He had one from God Himself. Then he also says, you are our letter written in our hearts, known and read by
all men. And so that's another reason why Paul doesn't need a letter of recommendation, because the Corinthian Church was already a letter of recommendation. You're walking in the teachings that I taught you. You're doing the things that I told you to do. You're evangelizing to other people, and it's producing fantastic results, being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, not of Paul, but of Christ served by us, written not with ink,
but with the spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh. Now, when Paul mentions here the tablets of stone, of course he's talking about, um, the Ten Commandments. Back in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, when God first appeared to the Israelite people in the wilderness, and he spoke the Ten Commandments out of the sky, out of, like, the thunderous sky. And the people were
terrified. So they go to Moses and they're like, please make God stop talking to us directly or we will die. So the people were absolutely terrified. They did not want to talk to God at all. And so they told Moses, like, you need to talk to God for us because we can't handle it. So Moses was like, okay, I will go and talk to God for you. And then that's when Moses went up to Mount Sinai and wrote the Ten Commandments down on the tablets of stone. Actually, I think God wrote
them initially. God wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone for Moses to take down to the people. But then, of course, when Moses took the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments down to the people, the people were worshiping this, like, golden calf that they had made. And, uh, we're not worshiping Yahweh anymore. So Moses got so infuriated that he actually broke the
tablets that God had carved out. And then God was like, yeah, you know, I carved those, so you're going to have to carve them yourself next time. So the. But anyway, going back to verse three, though, you are a letter of Christ served by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh. So everything, uh, everything that Paul is doing with the Corinthian church is producing something good within their hearts.
So in other words, everything that is being done here with the Corinthians is being done from their hearts. Not necessarily, um, like an external kind of achievement, but their hearts specifically are being turned towards God. And that is what Paul is most excited about. You know, there's so many people nowadays that are always like, oh, you know, such and such has a degree in, you know, theology, a, uh, master's or a doctorate or something like that. They're really doing great things.
And, you know, people really appreciate the piece of paper that says that they have a doctorate or a master's or a bachelor's or something like that. But Paul's saying, you know, what really proves if you are doing something good for God is not a piece of paper or not some, you know, commendation you got from somebody, but by what lives you are truly helping. That is so much more special to Paul than any, you know, accolade or commendation or compliment that
he could get from any one person. Just the fact that the Corinthians are turning toward God. That is what he is the most appreciative of. But just to make sure that the Corinthians know that Paul is not saying that he did this on his own, he says in verse four, such confidence we have through Christ toward
God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who made us sufficient as servants of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. So Paul's like, yeah, you know, I am saying all this stuff, but I am not giving any credit to myself whatsoever. I am giving all credit to God. Because this is all God's doing. You know, we're just
servants, us apostles. We are doing nothing except just serving God and doing what we're supposed to be doing. But God is the one truly doing the heart work. God is the one who is truly changing lives. And we are just blessed to be able to participate in that as servants. So all of this is from God. He made us sufficient as servants of the new covenant, verse 6. Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. Now you can see, you can see why the Jewish people hated Paul so much. You can see it because, you know, they followed the Old Testament laws to a table. And even Paul at one point did as well. You know, he called himself like the. A true Israelite, I believe. A true, um, Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin. And Paul himself was a Pharisee, possibly also, um, of the Sanhedrin even. But Paul himself focused on, you know, following the Old Testament
law to the letter. And now Paul, who has become a Jesus follower, a radical Jesus follower. Well, you know, some people say he's radical. I would say no, he's probably what every Christian should aspire to be. So not really radical. But he became just a Jesus follower and started saying, like, the Old Testament law cannot save. And the Jews would get so mad because they'd be like, you used to believe this yourself, and, you know, you have become radicalized.
And, you know, you believe in this Jesus person. You believe in the Way they used to call it, the Way back in, in Paul's day. And, uh, they'd call it a cult. And so you could see why the Jewish people just hated Paul because he was truly challenging everything that they believed in.
Because what they believed in was not necessarily getting close to God, getting a relationship with God, but they believed in just following the Old Testament law and all these traditions that the rabbis used to do and the priests used to do. That is what they would follow. And they wouldn't really focus on having that heart change or having, um, a relationship with God at all. And so now Paul is saying the letter actually kills. The Old Testament law actually kills,
but the Spirit gives life. And you might be like, man. That seems kind of, um, blasphemous for Paul to call a whole section of our Bible, the Old Testament, something that kills. But he explains himself In Romans, chapter 7, Romans 7, 7 - 12. And I'm going to read the whole thing out of the web. It says, let me share this for the people on YouTube real quick. What shall we say then is the law? Sin?
May it never be. However, I wouldn't have known sin except through the law, for I wouldn't have known coveting unless the law had said, you shall not covet, but sin finding occasion through the commandment produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be
for death. For sin finding occasion through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me. Therefore, the law is indeed holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good. You know, if the Old Testament laws hadn't existed, like God just never gave them to his people, then the people could just keep on sinning and they'd have kind of like an excuse because they'd be like, well, I didn't know that I was sinning, and so
how, how can God, like, just send me to hell? Because He never told me that I was sinning, and so that would be an excuse for people to go on sinning. So God laid out the law literally and said, hey, this is a sin, this is a sin. This is A sin. All these things are sins. And so Paul says, you know, before I knew the law, I kind of had an excuse for sin. But now that I know the law, I know what sins actually are. And then because I know now what sins actually are,
it makes me want to sin even more. He says. For example, he gives, um, the example of coveting. Here he says, for I wouldn't have known coveting unless the law had said, you shall not covet. But sin finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. So Paul's like, yeah, I didn't know what coveting really was before I started
following the law. But then once I figured out, once I knew for sure what coveting was, that made me just want to covet even more, because I knew what it was. And it produced in me all sorts of types of covetous feelings, you know, when I would look at other people and see what they had or something like that. So Paul explains that the. The Old Testament law, even though it's glorious and it's good, it actually kills because the sinful nature inside of each of us now
understands sin even better. And then, uh, because we understand sin even better, it makes us want to sin. But then, of course, Paul continues in Romans 7 and says, well, is the law itself sin? You know, did God tempt us to sin by giving us the law? Of course not. He just showed us what sin actually was, and our flesh did all the sinning. So going back to 2 Corinthians 3, here he says, the letter kills, but the Spirit
gives life. But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face, which was passing away, won't service of the Spirit be with much more glory? For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
So Paul here is talking About Exodus chapter 34, when Moses was consistently talking with God and God was consistently giving Moses the law. Moses would go up to Mount Sinai and talk with God. And God would have, you know, Moses write all this stuff down. And then Moses would come back down the mountain, and his face would be glowing. So here, let me. Let me share that story with you guys. This is Exodus 34, 29 through
35. It says once again, out of the web, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets and the covenant, or, uh, of the covenant in Moses hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him or God. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold, the skin of his face shone. They were afraid to come near to him. So Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to
him. Moses spoke to them. Afterward, all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out. And he came out and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded. The children of Israel saw Moses face that the skin of Moses face
shone. And so Moses put the veil on his face again until he went to speak with God. So yeah, Moses face kept, um, kept glowing every single time he'd go up to Mount Sinai to speak with God. Because God's glory was just so radiant that Moses was kind of emulating part of that glory every single time he came down Mount Sinai. And so the people would see Moses face just glowing, and they'd be absolutely terrified. They'd be like, what the heck is this? And so they didn't
want to go near Moses. So Moses would have to put a veil over his face in order to speak to the Israelites. And then he'd take the veil off once he went to go see God again. And that just kept happening over and over. Now, of course, Moses face wouldn't just keep glowing. As we know if you keep on reading Exodus, Moses didn't always glow. It was just during the times
when he went up to Mount Sinai. So when Paul, going back to Second Corinthians 3, mentions that the glory of Moses face was passing away, that means that like I said, Moses face wasn't constantly glowing. It would glow for a little while and then it would pass away. It'd be done and gone as Moses was not communicating with God as much. So Paul says in the story of Moses face glowing, you know, that glory passed away. M. The law was extremely glorious. So glorious that Moses shone coming
down from Mount Sinai. But it passed away, that glory. And so the law, the Old Testament law is actually passing away. It's not gone yet. It's not going to be gone until Jesus comes again. Jesus actually himself said that, uh, not one jot or tittle out of the Old Testament law would be, um, would pass away until he came Again, and a jot and a tittle just means like the tiniest little marks in the Old Testament law. So they're still there. They're still here with us. We still have
the Old Testament law. We can still read it. And it's good for us to read it. It's great for us to read the Old Testament law as Christians, because we do understand what sin is when we look at the Old Testament law. In fact, when we read the Old Testament law, if you guys went with me through Leviticus and through Deuteronomy, you'll see that there are so many things that God considers to be sins. Basically, we sin quite often
multiple times per day. Even if you think that you're not, you are even in your thought life, in your heart, in just little things that you do throughout the day, you could potentially be sinning and possibly are sinning. And I wouldn't say we're sinning like non stop. I think we can choose not to sin, but it's hard to do that as human beings. Um, what was my point with that? I started rambling. I forgot my point with that. Um, oh, right.
It's good for us to understand the Old Testament law because it teaches us about sin. Yet the Old Testament law is passing away. It will pass away when Jesus comes again. But the new covenant, what we live under now, the covenant of grace is never going to pass away. It's never going to pass away. So Paul argues the new covenant is so much more glorious. He says in verse nine, for if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
And that righteousness is what Jesus through his sacrifice gave us. We now have righteousness because of Jesus gift for us. So that is so much more glorious, Paul argues, than the glory of the Old Testament. And like I said, you know, the people in Paul's day, the Pharisees would have been so angry hearing Paul talk about this stuff because they just absolutely held fast to that Old Testament law and believed that if they were good enough, if they lived up to every single Old Testament
law, that was, that was like done. If they just lived up to all those they could get into heaven. They believed that because they were Abraham's children, that they were automatically guaranteed a spot in heaven. And Paul's saying like, no, none of this is true. The law cannot save. The law just shows sin. The law shows how evil we really are. But the grace that Jesus gives us, that is what actually saves us.
Well, faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed today's episode and if you did, subscribe to my YouTube, uh, channel, and also, uh, check out the podcast more often if you would like to, and tell people that the Bible Explained podcast exists as well. As you know, we're going to be finishing up 1 Kings very quickly, actually. Let me see what chapter we're in in First Kings. Kings, I think we have. Yeah, I think we have only three more chapters in First Kings. So, yeah, we're really
moving through First Kings very quickly. Gonna move into Second Kings, um, soon as well. I believe in February is when Two Kings will roll around. So, faithful listeners, I hope you tune in tomorrow, 6am or whenever you choose to wake up and listen for an episode from First Kings. Happy watching, and God bless.