         
• Key
Chapter 3
- The apostle shows, in opposition to his detractors, that
the faith and salvation of the Corinthians were
sufficient testimony of his Divine mission; that he
needed no letters of recommendation, the Christian
converts at Corinth being a manifest proof that he was
an apostle of Christ, 1-3.
- He extols the Christian
ministry, as being infinitely more excellent than that
of Moses, 4-12.
- Compares the different modes of
announcing the truth under the law and under the
Gospel: in the former it was obscurely delivered; and
the veil of darkness, typified by the veil which Moses
wore, is still on the hearts of the Jews; but when they
turn to Christ this veil shall be taken away, 13-16.
- On the contrary, the Gospel dispensation is spiritual;
leads to the nearest views of heavenly things; and
those who receive it are changed into the glorious
likeness of God by the agency of his Spirit, 17,18.
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Verse 1. Do we begin again to
commend ourselves
By speaking thus of our
sincerity, Divine mission, conciliate your esteem, or
ingratiate ourselves in your affections? By no means.
Or need we-epistles of
commendation
Are we so destitute of
ministerial abilities and Divine influence that we need, in
order to be received in different Churches, to have letters of
recommendation? Certainly not. God causes us to triumph
through Christ in every place; and your conversion is
such an evident seal to our ministry as leaves no doubt
that God is with us.
Letters of
commendation
Were frequent in the
primitive Church; and were also in use in the
apostolic Church, as we learn from this place. But
these were, in all probability, not used by the
apostles; their helpers, successors, and those who had
not the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, needed such letters
and they were necessary to prevent the Churches from being
imposed on by false teachers. But when apostles came,
they brought their own testimonials, the miraculous gifts of
the Holy Spirit.
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Verse 2. Ye are our
epistle
I bear the most ardent love to you.
I have no need to be put in remembrance of you by any epistles
or other means; ye are written in my heart-I have the
most affectionate remembrance of you.
Known and read of all
men
For wherever I go I mention you; speak
of your various gifts and graces; and praise your knowledge in
the Gospel.
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Verse 3. Manifestly declared to be
the epistle of Christ
Ye are in our hearts,
and Christ has written you there; but yourselves are the
epistle of Christ; the change produced in your hearts
and lives, and the salvation which you have received, are as
truly the work of Christ as a letter dictated and written by a
man in his work.
Ministered by us
Ye are the writing, but Christ used me as the pen;
Christ dictated, and I wrote; and the Divine characters
are not made with ink, but by the Spirit of the living
God; for the gifts and graces that constitute the mind
that was in Christ are produced in you by the Holy Ghost.
Not in tables of
stone
Where men engrave contracts, or
record events; but in fleshly tables of the heart-the
work of salvation taking place in all your affections,
appetites, and desires; working that change within that
is so signally manifested without. See the parts of
this figurative speech: 1. Jesus Christ dictates. 2.
The apostle writes. 3. The hearts of the
Corinthians are the substance on which the writing is made.
And, 4. The Holy Spirit produces that influence by
which the traces are made, and the mark becomes
evident. Here is not only an allusion to making inscriptions
on stones, where one dictates the matter, and another
cuts the letters; (and probably there were certain
cases where some colouring matter was used to make the
inscription the more legible; and when the stone was
engraved, it was set up in some public place, as monuments,
inscriptions, and contracts were, that they might be seen,
known, and read of all men;) but the apostle may
here refer to the ten commandments, written by the
finger of God upon two tables of stone; which writing
was an evidence of the Divine mission of Moses, as the
conversion of the Corinthians was an evidence of the mission
of St. Paul. But it may be as well to take the words in a
general sense, as the expression is not unfrequent either in
the Old Testament, or in the rabbinical writers. See
Schoettgen.
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Verse 4. Such trust have
we
We have the fullest conviction that God
has thus accredited our ministry; and that ye are thus
converted unto him, and are monuments of his mercy, and proofs
of the truth of our ministry.
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Verse 5. Not that we are sufficient
of ourselves
We do not arrogate to
ourselves any power to enlighten the mind or change the heart,
we are only instruments in the hand of God. Nor was it
possible for us apostles to think, to invent,
such a scheme of salvation as is the Gospel; and if we even
had been equal to the invention, how could we have
fulfilled such promises as this scheme of
salvation abounds with? God alone could fulfil these promises,
and he fulfils only those which he makes himself. All these
promises have been amen-ratified and fulfilled to you
who have believed on Christ Jesus according to our preaching;
therefore, ye are God's workmanship and it is only by God's
sufficiency that we have been able to do any thing.
This I believe to be the apostle's meaning in this place, and
that he speaks here merely of the Gospel scheme, and the
inability of human wisdom to invent it; and the words
λογισασθαιτι, which we translate to think any thing,
signify, properly, to find any thing out by
reasoning; and as the Gospel scheme of salvation is the
subject in hand, to that subject the words are to be referred
and limited. The words, however, contain also a general
truth; we can neither think, act, nor be,
without God. From him we have received all our powers,
whether of body or of mind, and without him we
can do nothing. But we may abuse both our power of
thinking and acting; for the power to
think, and the power to act, are widely
different from the act of thinking, and the act
of doing. God gives us the power or capacity to
think and act, but he neither thinks nor
acts for us. It is on this ground that we may abuse our
powers, and think evil, and act wickedly; and it is on this
ground that we are accountable for our thoughts, words,
and deeds.
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Verse 6. Who hath made us able
ministers
This is a more formal answer to
the question, Who is sufficient for these things?
προςταυτατιςικανος; 1 Corinthians
2:16. God, says the apostle, has made us able
ministers; ικανωσενημαςδιακονους, he has made us
sufficient for these things; for the reader will
observe that he uses the same word in both places. We apostles
execute, under the Divine influence, what God himself has
devised. We are ministers of the new covenant; of this new
dispensation of truth, light, and life, by Christ Jesus; a
system which not only proves itself to have come from God, but
necessarily implies that God himself by his own Spirit is a
continual agent in it, ever bringing its mighty purposes to
pass. On the words καινηδιαθηκη, new covenant,
see the PREFACE to the gospel of St. Matthew.
Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit
The apostle does not mean here, as
some have imagined, that he states himself to be a minister of
the New Testament, in opposition to the Old; and that it is
the Old Testament that kills, and the New that
gives life; but that the New Testament gives the proper
meaning of the Old; for the old covenant had its letter
and its spirit, its literal and its
spiritual meaning. The law was founded on the
very supposition of the Gospel; and all its sacrifices,
types, and ceremonies refer to the Gospel. The Jews
rested in the letter, which not only afforded no
means of life, but killed, by condemning every
transgressor to death. They did not look at the spirit;
did not endeavour to find out the spiritual meaning; and
therefore they rejected Christ, who was the end of the law
for justification; and so for redemption from death
to every one that believes. The new covenant set all
these spiritual things at once before their eyes, and showed
them the end, object, and design of the
law; and thus the apostles who preached it were
ministers of that Spirit which gives life.
Every institution has its letter as well as its
spirit, as every word must refer to
something of which it is the sign or
significator. The Gospel has both its
letter and its spirit; and multitudes of
professing Christians, by resting in the LETTER,
receive not the life which it is calculated to impart.
Water, in baptism, is the letter that points out
the purification of the soul; they who rest in
this letter are without this purification; and dying in that
state they die eternally. Bread and wine in the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, are the letter; the
atoning efficacy of the death of Jesus, and the
grace communicated by this to the soul of a believer,
are the spirit. Multitudes rest in this letter,
simply receiving these symbols, without reference to the
atonement, or to their guilt; and thus lose the benefit
of the atonement and the salvation of their souls. The whole
Christian life is comprehended by our Lord under the letter,
Follow me. Does not any one see that a man, taking up
this letter only, and following Christ through
Judea, Galilee, Samaria, city, temple, villages,
seacoast, mountains, part of the spirit; and might,
with all this following, lose his soul? Whereas the
SPIRIT, viz. receive my doctrine, believe my
sayings, look by faith for the fulfilment of my
promises, imitate my example, would necessarily
lead him to life eternal. It may be safely asserted that the
Jews, in no period of their history, ever rested more
in the letter of their law than the vast majority of
Christians are doing in the letter of the
Gospel. Unto multitudes of Christians Christ may truly
say: Ye will not come unto me that ye may have
life.
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Verse 7. The ministration of
death
Here the apostle evidently intends
the law. It was a ministration, διακονια or
service of death. It was the province of the law
to ascertain the duty of man; to assign his
duties; to fix penalties for transgressions, and
by it is the knowledge of sin. As man is prone to sin, and is
continually committing it, this law was to him a continual
ministration of death. Its letter killed; and it
was only the Gospel to which it referred that could
give life, because that Gospel held out the only
available atonement.
Yet this ministration of death (the ten commandments,
written on stones; a part of the Mosaic institutions being put
for the whole) was glorious-was full of
splendour; for the apostle refers to the
thunderings, and lightnings, and luminous
appearances, which took place in the giving of the law; so
that the very body of Moses partook of the
effulgence in such a manner that the children of Israel
could not look upon his face; and he, to hide it, was obliged
to use a veil. All this was intended to show the
excellency of that law, as an institution coming immediately
from God: and the apostle gives it all its heightenings, that
he may compare it to the Gospel, and thereby prove that,
glorious as it was, it had no glory that could be
compared with that of the Gospel; and that even the
glory it had was a glory that was to be done away-to be
absorbed, as the light of the stars, planets, and moon, is
absorbed in the splendour of the sun. See the notes on the 7th
chapter of Romans; and see those on Ex 19,20, and Exodus
34:29,
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Verse 8. The ministration of the
Spirit
The Gospel dispensation, which gives
the true spiritual sense of the law.
Be rather glorious?
Forasmuch as the thing signified is of infinitely more
consequence than that by which it is signified. The
THING bread will preserve a man alive; the WORD
bread can give life to nothing.
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Verse 9. The ministration of
condemnation
The law, which
ascertained sin, and condemned it to just punishment.
The ministration of
righteousness
The Gospel, the grand
business of which was to proclaim the doctrine δικαιοσυνης,
of justification; and to show how God
could be just and yet the justifier of him
who believeth in Jesus.
Exceed in glory.
For great, glorious, and awful as the law may be, in its
opposition to sin, which is a reproach to man, and a dishonour
to God; and in its punishment of sin; yet it must be vastly
exceeded by that system which, evidencing an equal
abhorrence of sin, finds out a method to forgive it; to
take away its guilt from the conscience, and remove all
its infection from the soul. That this could be done
the law pointed out by its blood of bulls and of goats:
but every considerate mind must see that it was impossible for
these to take away sin; it is the Gospel that does what
the law signified; and forasmuch as the performance of
a promise is greater than the promise itself, and the
substance of a man is greater than the shadow
projected by that substance; so is the Gospel of Jesus Christ
greater than the law, with all its promises, types,
ceremonies, and shadows.
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Verse 10. For even that which was
made glorious
The law, which was
exhibited for a time in great glory and splendour, partly when
it was given, and partly by the splendour of God in the
tabernacle and first temple; but all this ceased and
was done away; was intended to give place to the
Gospel; and has actually given place to that system; so
that now, in no part of the world is that law
performed, even by the people who are attached to it and
reject the Gospel.
The glory that
excelleth.
The Gospel dispensation, giving
supereminent displays of the justice, holiness, goodness,
mercy, and majesty of God.
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Verse 11.
For if that which is done away, another striking
difference between the law and the Gospel. The
former is termed τοκαταργουμενον, that which is
counterworked and abolished; the latter τομενον,
that which continues, which is not for a
particular time, place, and people, as the law
was; but for ALL times, all places, and all people. As
a great, universal, and permanent GOOD
vastly excels a good that is small, partial, and
transitory; so does the Gospel dispensation, that of
the law.
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Verse 12. Seeing-we have such
hope
Such glorious prospects as those
blessings which the Gospel sets before us, producing such
confidence, as the fulfilment of so many promises has
already done, that God will still continue to work for us and
by us;
We use great plainness of
speech
πολληπαρρησιαχρωμεθα. We speak not
only with all confidence, but with all imaginable
plainness; keeping back nothing; disguising nothing;
concealing nothing: and here we differ greatly from the Jewish
doctors, and from the Gentile philosophers, who affect
obscurity, and endeavour, by figures, metaphors, and
allegories, to hide every thing from the vulgar. But we wish
that all may hear; and we speak so that all may
understand.
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Verse 13. And not as
Moses
The splendour of Moses' countenance
was so great that the Israelites could not bear to look upon
his face, and therefore he was obliged to veil his face: this,
it appears, he did typically, to represent the types
and shadows by which the whole dispensation of which he was
the minister was covered. So that the Israelites could not
steadfastly look-could not then have the full
view or discernment of that in which the
Mosaic dispensation should issue and terminate.
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Verse 14. But their minds were
blinded
By resting in the letter, shutting
their eyes against the light that was granted to them, they
contracted a hardness or stupidity of heart. And
the veil that was on the face of Moses, which prevented the
glory of his face from shining out, may be considered
as emblematical of the veil of darkness and ignorance that is
on their hearts, and which hinders the glory of the Gospel
from shining in.
Until this day remaineth the same
veil
They are still ignorant of the
spiritual meaning and intention of their own law, called here
παλαιαδιαθηκη, the old covenant. See the word explained
in the preface to St. Matthew.
In the reading of the Old
Testament
Here is an evident allusion to
the conduct of the Jews in their synagogues: when they read
the law they cover their whole head with a veil, which they
term the tallith, veil, from talal, to cover;
and this voluntary usage of theirs, the apostle tells us, is
an emblem of the darkness of their hearts while they are
employed even in sacred duties.
Which veil is done away in
Christ.
It is only by acknowledging
Christ that the darkness is removed, and the end
and spiritual meaning of the law discerned.
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Verse 16. When it shall turn to the
Lord
When the Israelitish nation
shall turn to the LORD Jesus, the veil shall be taken
away; the true light shall shine; and they shall see all
things clearly.
There is an evident allusion here to the case of Moses,
mentioned Exodus
34:34. When he came from the Lord, and spoke to the
Israelites, he put the veil over his face; but when he
returned to speak with the Lord, then he took off
the veil. So, when the Israelitish nation shall
return to speak with and pray to the Lord
Jesus, the veil of darkness and ignorance shall be taken
away from their hearts; but never before that time. The
words seem to imply: 1. That there will be a conversion
of the Jews to Christianity; and, 2. That this conversion will
be en masse; that a time will come when the whole
nation of the Jews, in every place, shall turn to Christ;
and then the Gentiles and Jews make one fold, under one
Shepherd and Bishop of all souls.
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Verse 17. Now the Lord is that
Spirit
In 2 Corinthians
3:6,8, the word τοπνευμα, spirit, evidently
signifies the Gospel; so called because it points out the
spiritual nature and meaning of the law;
because it produces spiritual effects; and because it is
especially the dispensation of the Spirit of God. Here Jesus
Christ is represented as that Spirit, because he is the
end of the law for justification to every one
that believes; and because the residue of the Spirit is
with him, and he is the dispenser of all its gifts, graces,
and influences.
And where the Spirit of the Lord
is
Wherever this Gospel is received, there
the Spirit of the Lord is given; and wherever that Spirit
lives and works, there is liberty, not only from Jewish
bondage, but from the slavery of sin-from its
power, its guilt, and its pollution. See
John
8:33-36, and the notes there.
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Verse 18. But we all, with open
face
The Jews were not able to look on the
face of Moses, the mediator of the old covenant,
and therefore he was obliged to veil it; but all
we Christians, with face uncovered, behold, as
clearly as we can see our own natural face in a mirror,
the glorious promises and privileges of the Gospel of Christ;
and while we contemplate, we anticipate them by desire
and hope, and apprehend them by faith, and are
changed from the glory there represented to the
enjoyment of the thing which is represented,
even the glorious image-righteousness and true holiness-of the
God of glory.
As by the Spirit of the
Lord.
By the energy of that Spirit of
Christ which gives life and being to all the promises of the
Gospel; and thus we are made partakers of the Divine nature
and escape all the corruptions that are in the world. This
appears to me to be the general sense of this verse: its
peculiar terms may be more particularly explained.
The word κατοπτριζομενοι, catoptrizomenoi, acting on
the doctrine of catoptries, which we translate
beholding in a glass, comes from κατα, against,
and οπτομαι, I look; and properly conveys the sense of
looking into a mirror, or discerning by
reflected light. Now as mirrors, among the Jews,
Greeks, and Romans, were made of highly polished metal,
(See Clarke on 1 Corinthians
13:12.) it would often happen, especially in strong light,
that the face would be greatly illuminated by this
strongly reflected light; and to this circumstance the
apostle seems here to allude. So, by earnestly contemplating
the Gospel of Jesus, and believing on him who is its Author,
the soul becomes illuminated with his Divine splendour, for
this sacred mirror reflects back on the believing soul the
image of Him whose perfections it exhibits; and thus we
see the glorious form after which our minds are to be
fashioned; and by believing and receiving the influence of his
Spirit, μεταμορφουμεθα, our form is changed,
τηναυτηνεικονα, into the same image, which we behold
there; and this is the image of God, lost by our fall,
and now recovered and restored by Jesus Christ: for the
shining of the face of God upon us, i.e. approbation, through
Christ, is the cause of our transformation into the Divine
image.
DR. WHITBY, in his notes on this chapters produces six
instances in which the apostle shows the Gospel to be superior
to the law; I shall transcribe them without farther
illustration:-
- 1. The glory appearing on mount Sinai made the
people afraid of death, saying: Let not God
speak to us any more, lest we die; Exodus
20:19; ; Deuteronomy
18:16; and thus they received the spirit of bondage to
fear, Romans
8:15. Whilst we have given to us the spirit of
power, and love, and of a sound mind, 2 Timothy
1:7; and the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father! and to this difference the Epistle to the Hebrews
alludes, Hebrews
12:18-24.
- 2. Moses, with all his glory, was only the minister of the
law, written on tables of stone; the apostles are
ministers of the Gospel, written on the hearts of
believers. Moses gave the Jews only the letter that
killeth; the apostles gave the Gospel, which is
accompanied with the spirit that gives life.
- 3. The glory which Moses received at the giving of the law
did more and more diminish, because his law was to
vanish away; but the glory which is received from
Christ is an increasing glory; the doctrine and
the Divine influence remaining for ever.
- 4. The law was veiled under types and
shadows; but the Gospel has scarcely any
ceremonies; baptism and the Lord's Supper being
all that can be properly called such: and BELIEVE, LOVE, OBEY,
the great precepts of the Gospel, are delivered with the
utmost perspicuity. And indeed the whole doctrine of
Christ crucified is made as plain as human
language can make it.
- 5. The Jews only saw the shining of the face
of Moses through a veil; but we behold
the glory of the Gospel of Christ, in the person of Christ our
Lawgiver, with open face.
- 6. They saw it through a veil, which prevented the
reflection or shining of it upon them; and so this
glory shone only on the face of Moses, but not at all
upon the people. Whereas the glory of God, in
the face of Jesus Christ, shines as in a mirror which
reflects the image upon Christian believers, so that they are
transformed into the same image, deriving the glorious
gifts and graces of the Spirit, with the Gospel, from Christ
the Lord and Distributor of them, 1 Corinthians
12:5; and so, the glory which he had from the Father he
has given to his genuine followers, John
17:22.
It is, therefore, rather with true Christians as it
was with Moses himself, concerning whom God speaks thus:
With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even
apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the
similitude of the Lord (τηνδοξανκυριον, the glory of
the Lord) shall he behold; Numbers
12:8. For as he saw the glory of God apparently, so
we with open face behold the glory of the Lord: as he,
by seeing of this glory, was changed into the same
likeness, and his face shone, or was δεδοξασμενη,
made glorious; so we, beholding the glory of the
Lord in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians
4:6, are changed into the same glory.
Thus we find that in every thing the Gospel has a
decided superiority over the law and its
institutions.
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Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative of an
electronic edition prepared by GodRules.net.
Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary
on 2 Corinthians 3". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=2co&chapter=003>.
1832.
|
