Much More Glorious
When I first married Sheila in 1986, I owned a small blue 1979 model Dodge Colt four-speed manual transmission with a white vinyl top. I enjoyed that little car, and it served a purpose for a time.
I would say to Sheila that when the day came that she was pregnant with a child, I would trade in that car for a station wagon. Well, that day arrived sooner than expected because one month after our honeymoon, we discovered she was expecting. I did exactly what I had said I would do. I parted with the Dodge Colt and got us a brown Oldsmobile station wagon.
Today, there are those who are still ministering a word that is rooted in a covenant that is obsolete and whose glory faded away long ago. It is sad to watch when it happens and even more sad to see how many people will flock to such a ministry.
2Corinthians 3:4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
Here, we discover that Paul was committed to the New Covenant ministry, which speaks of better things in Christ Jesus. Paul was not a teacher of the letter. He was an imparter of the Spirit. Paul knew where life flowed from.
I have sat with many over the years and found them struggling over verse 7, where the law is called the ministry of death. I have even had someone try to tell me they hated it when I referred to the law as the ministry of death. I had to tell them I was only saying what the Scriptures say.
But notice how verses 8 and 9 really bring into light the reality of the difference between the two covenants. That old ministry of death has no glory any longer; it had some glory in its day, but that glory has faded away. It started fading as soon as Moses came down the mountain.
But the New Covenant ministry of the Spirit and life is more glorious, and it moves in ever-increasing glory!
I traded in that Dodge Colt I had because it wouldn’t be able to contain the increase on its way in my life. It’s time that many handling the word of God today do the same regarding which covenant they will truly represent. The mixture needs to go, and a commitment to the New needs to be embraced. Let’s never forget that the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory! It can do that because the righteousness it ministers is God’s very own righteousness, which belongs to us only in Christ Jesus. It will never be administered to us through the law in any measure. It is a righteousness made ours through faith in Christ alone.
It is the pathway to experiencing the glory of God in ever-increasing measure! Christ, the hope of glory! There’s no other way! Jesus is it! Worthy is the Lamb!
