2 Corinthians 3
In this chapter the apostle describes what the Christian is, and reasons, in contrast with man's condition under the law of Moses, how he becomes such. It is a very simple statement of what the Christian is.
The evil in the Corinthian church had harassed Paul much, as we see in chapter 2:17: some were disputing as to his apostleship, and he was forced to speak of himself. He says, “for we are not as many which corrupt [or, deal deceitfully with] the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ;” and also in the first verse of this chapter 3, “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we as some others epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?” And this leads him to use an expression which shows well the character of the Christian, “Ye are our epistle;” he says—as it were— “if I want an epistle or letter of commendation, I have just to say, look at the Corinthians.” Ye are my epistle, “known and read of all men, forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ.”
The Christian is an epistle “known and read of all men” —verse third describes him as an epistle explanatory of Christ to the world— “manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ;” and this the Christian is—not what he ought to be, but what he ought to walk up to. And this is as true of and as applicable to individuals, as of the collective body of the church of God here spoken of, and ought to be plainly seen. Suppose for example, that a Chinese had heard a missionary preach in his land, had read the Bible, and wanted to see what Christians are, or what the body the church is, and were to come to this city for the purpose—the church ought to be so manifestly declared that he could find it at once. But if he saw men seeking money and pleasure and amusement, or even mere intellectual delight and entertainment, why he would just say, “We can do all this in China without being Christians,” and he would go back with a testimony in his heart against the gospel. He would road in their lives what they were.
In the Christian's life we should be able to read Christ, as well as the Jewish law could be read on the tables of stone; for on the heart of the Christian the Holy Ghost has engraved Christ, just as the finger of God engraved the Ten Commandments. “Ye are the epistle of Christ, written,” Paul says, “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” From God's point of view, as shown to us in His word; the Christian is he in whom we see Christ represented to the world. As a general thing the character and the tendency of a man's life show themselves; so that we know, speaking from an earthly point of view, a man's character from his life. The world judges pretty fairly whether or not Christ is the aim and object of a man's life, whether we are living Christ or not. Of course we may fail; but if Christ is produced to the view, not only hi the profession but in the main of a man's life, that is. a Christian; and the world generally is not very far wrong in this respect. If I am going eastward, it is clear to all around that I am not going westward. I may be traveling far more slowly than I ought, or may trip in the way; but still it is clear in which direction I am going.
Before ever lust came into the world, the beginning of man's departure from God was mistrust. Man distrusted the goodness of God, and thought that by doing his own will he would be better and happier than in doing God's; and then lust came in. Man saw.” the tree that it was good,” —that which he would like better, in doing his own will, than God's mind; but the beginning was distrust, his listening to Satan, who sought to persuade Eve that the prohibiting them from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was jealousy on God's part. This is what every natural man, every man in his unrenewed state, does. He distrusts God and His goodness, thinks his own will is better, and rushes to do it; and then lust comes in and gives him that to do which, in doing his own will, he will like. “All sinned,” so that we are now in every way far from God. “God drove out the man,” we read; and further on, when in Cain we see the awful effects of lust in his horrible sin, we read, “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.” He goes out into the land of Nod (i.e. flight or wandering), where God had made him a vagabond and a fugitive, and builds a city. They get instruments of music, and works in brass and iron]. They try in fact to make the world as happy and pleasant as possibly can be without God. Man in the world is still trying to do this. People begin, may be, with asking, What harm is there in this or that? The harm is not in the creatures of God, but in man's use of them to hide himself from God, or God from him, as Adam with the trees of the garden. The harm was not there at all. Thus, like Adam, do they distrust God's goodness, and soon get to a distance from Him; and then, being at a distance from Him, they try to be as happy in the world as they can without God. But this is vain; for man's nature was made for enjoying God. We are the “offspring” of God; but when the breath of an unconverted man goes forth from him, there is a being shut out from God—with a nature to which God is necessary, and yet shut out from Him forever: this is misery, utter endless misery.
In Christ we are brought back to trust God, to a position of nearness to Him. “As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” We are made fit to stand in God's presence by virtue of the blood of Jesus, and to have confidence in God in this position; but the praise is to the Lord (verse 5); “not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who hath also made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life” (verse 17). “Now the Lord is that spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Verse 17 should be read in connection with the 6th (from the 7th to the 16th inclusive being parenthetical). Verses 7-16 contain a contrast drawn between the law of Moses and the gospel.
The law is stated to “be glorified” and “with glory,” though a “ministration of death,” and a “ministration of condemnation.” In the law we get that which, if done by all, would make this earth a paradise. It shows man what he ought to be, to be perfect as man; in itself it is the perfect rule of what man ought to be as a child of Adam. But coming to a sinner, it shows what he ought to be but is not, and so it condemns him. Christ came “to redeem us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” But “as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly;” for While the “first man is of the earth, earthy, the second man is [the Lord] from heaven.” The law came in righteous requirement and gave condemnation; Christ came in grace to give righteousness, the righteousness of God.
“The ministration of condemnation is glory,” but “the ministration of righteousness doth much more exceed in glory.” The glory shone in grace, the second time Moses went up; but Israel was again placed under law, and thus he put a veil over his face.
He had no veil when he came down from the mount the first time; but when the Lord had “passed by” and proclaimed Himself to be gracious and long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,” the reflection of this glory merely mixed with grace was too bright to look upon. It was the expression of God's presence, accompanied by the requirement of the law. “The soul that sinneth will I blot out of my book.” Man may use the law for righteousness in his own mind; but when God's presence accompanies it in the conscience, he cannot stand before it. It becomes a ministration of death and condemnation. Can you, reader, bear its searching power? And note, Moses said, Peradventure I shall make atonement; but he could not.
Turn to Christ's life down here. He came in grace to win back the confidence of our hearts to God. He must do more than merely show that God was willing to receive us back. We could not get into God's presence covered with sins, as the righteous requirement of the law shows us to be. He died to put away the sin, and then, and not till then, are we able to see the extent of our debt; and in fact the deeper we see it to be then, the more it makes us praise the love and grace which paid it all. In earthly business, if I get very far behind, and owe a man a much larger sum than I am able to pay, I am afraid to look into my books. I cannot, I dare not, see the full amount of my obligations; as the full knowledge that I am unable to pay anything makes me wretched enough. But let me know that one has paid to my credit (or the debt) in full, and then the dread witness against me loses its terror. Such grace gives power to me, and with a lightened heart, and a conscience made easy, I can look my debt in the face and see in it the extent of the goodness of him who has paid it. The requiring payment and the paying refer to the same debt, and both own the claim, but are opposite principles. But the one in grace paying the creditor is as thoroughly righteous as the debtor paying the creditor, while displaying wonderful grace besides.
Christ came in the flesh to win our hearts back to God. He was God passing through this wilderness of wickedness, yet so pure in it that no taint of sin could touch Him; for He says, “which of you convinceth me of sin?” And so He could carry the love of God to every one, and win their hearts to Himself, that is to God, before even they knew their forgiveness, but assuring them (by this faith and confidence in Him) of the pardon of sins, in anticipation of His gracious payment of all our debt. The sinner who came into the house where He sat at dinner—strange place to venture into, but that Jesus alone was the object!—had confidence in Him, and so received His gracious assurance, “Thy sins are forgiven the;” while the man who was entertaining Him, and who thought himself in his heart far, far, better than this poor woman, receives but a rebuke. Christ ever unmasks every pretension to righteousness, ever shows that mere character, however good, is nothing in God's presence; but when the vilest is in truth of heart such as he is before Him, He never fails to bring in grace, though it only meets with the world's hatred.
In Matt. 5 we have Christ's own life depicted as all that was good, beautiful, and true; yet, at the conclusion of a virtual description of Himself, He says, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely” (ver. 11). What is this but man's natural hatred—the enmity of man fallen as he is—showing itself against God's grace? The same thing we see, and even more strongly, in the parable of the vineyard; for when the Son comes, the keepers say, “This is the heir; come let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.”
So, as we all know, in the person of Christ, God came in grace to the world; and man, as far as he was concerned and could do it, turned Him out and killed Him. What a solemn thought! Do we believe that we now are living in a world which did this—the same world? Do we believe that naturally we have hearts just the very same? It is so; but, blessed be His name, even man's deepest hatred cannot quench God's love, and the very worst he can do to God only shows His love shining the more fully. In the cross, the very place where man's sin and hatred to God were manifested, God's love was most manifested to the world. The cross was the grand testimony that man would not have God: man saying that he would not have God; and Christ, in the perfection of divine love, giving Himself for man. The very act which completed man's sin completed God's love and salvation. And, seeing this, we have confidence in Him; for He has purged away our sins, though in the very act which showed them to be of deepest dye. This both wins the heart, and sets the conscience at rest.
It is not enough merely to win the heart, to have even confidence perfect in God; but the conscience must be purged too. All was done at the cross—God's love fully manifested, and my sins entirely, absolutely, removed. The greater my sins were, the greater my love to God is now; for I can now see their extent. We are afraid thoroughly to look into sin till we understand it is put away, and not before God any more; for, when I am in the light, I can then only see how great my sin is. The moment I am brought to know the blessed fruit of the death of Christ, to know that Christ died for my sins according to the Scriptures, then I have peace. What is required is, not merely that I know I cannot do without Christ, but to trust in God (1 Peter 1:2121Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:21)). And what has become of my sins? They are clean gone, totally past, forever put away. Supposing I really believe in Christ, if this is not done already for me, it never can be; for if my sins were not put away on the cross, they never can be, because Christ can never die over again. It is done; and therefore we can stand before God with conscience purged. I believe in the death of Christ, and I have then perfect peace, and, as regards the work, my assurance is complete.
The work purges the sins, the gospel purges the conscience, to the believer. Resting on the blood, and looking up to God, I can say, “He sees the blood,” and He has promised, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” To rejects me would be despising the blood of His Son. But He has accepted Christ's payment of the debt as perfectly righteous; and what is the public witness of this? That Christ now sits in glory as the risen and accepted man. The glory of Christ now is proof of God's entire acceptance of His work; and as He got to the glory as a man, after having purged and by purging the sins, so, seeing His glory, I see the glorious witness that He has not left a sin on me. They are all gone; and a sight of that glory by faith gives me perfect rest, peace, and assurance.
And “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;” our souls get filled with Christ, and this is just what we need and want. “I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you” (John 14:2020At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20)). The glory seen in Moses' face, which was but a little reflection of God's glory when coming in righteous requirement, cannot be looked upon: a veil must be used. But we see Christ's glory with “open face,” without a veil; and every ray witnesses to our complete cleansing and justification; yea, contemplating it, and drinking it in, produce the image of what Christ is in us; and we become changed into the “same image,” into His image from glory to glory—the image showing forth Christ. And thus we are the epistle of Christ.
And now two earnest questions—Are we manifesting Christ? Are we the epistle of Christ known and read of all men? This will surely humble us by the thought of our shortcomings and feebleness in showing Him forth. But in the main and substance, is Christ manifested, as He is our life?
Are you manifested to God in Christ? If so, all is peace. We are reconciled to God in His Son; but if we have a question about this on either God's side or ours, there is not perfect enjoyment of it. But let this stablish us: we are presented according to what. Christ is to God. J. N. D.