When someone reads the Bible, it’s easy for him to misidentify the person or people a text may reference. For example, in today’s epistle reading, we heard the word “we.” Did that “we” refer to the Corinthian congregation? Does that “we” refer to you?
So, let’s take a moment to find out who that “we” is. If you go to the beginning of 2 Corinthians, you see that the Apostle Paul and Pastor Timothy co-wrote that epistle. They are the “we” in our epistle reading for today. If they wanted to refer to the Corinthian congregation, they would have used the word, “you.”
So, what did the Paul and Timothy want the Corinthian congregation to know? We find out a couple of verses later in our epistle reading. They wrote, “We are not qualified to claim that anything comes from us. No, our credentials come from God.”
Right there, they drop the mother lode: The Apostles, and the pastors who follow them, like Pastor Timothy, are not to deliver their word when they preach. For if they do that, then they would be bringing something that originates from them, not from God. That would be the exact opposite of what Paul and Timothy said they were doing.
And that’s still true today: Every pastor is to preach what comes from God, not from himself. If a pastor preaches what originates from himself, then he fails in his tasking.
Paul and Timothy then go on to say that God made them competent to be ministers. That started when Jesus called Paul to be His Apostle, which took place when He came to Paul in a blinding light as he was traveling to Damascus (Acts 3:3-9). That’s why Paul was an Apostle: Jesus directly called and sent him.
But God called Timothy through the Church, with other pastors then ordaining him (1 Tim 4:14, 2 Tim 1:6). That’s in 1 and 2 Timothy. That’s why Timothy was a pastor, but not an Apostle, for God called him to serve, not directly, but through His Church.
But it was God who made both Paul and Timothy competent, qualified, to be ministers. In that regard, there was no difference between the Apostle and the pastor. But “ministers of what?” Ah, ministers of a “new covenant.” And what is that? It’s a covenant “not of the letter but the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Minister means “servant.” Pastors are servants of a new covenant. Why? So through the Word that they preach, the Spirit will give life. That’s what Paul and Timothy meant when they said, “We are not qualified to claim that anything comes from us.”
If their qualifications came from them, then what they had to say wouldn’t give life. But, if their “credentials [came] from God,” then the Holy Spirit was working through them, “the Spirit [who] gives life.” And it’s the same today for pastors in the Church.
But what’s “the letter” that kills? That’s what we find out in the rest of today’s epistle reading. The “letter” is the ministry of death, which was “inscribed in letters of stone”—that’s the Ten Commandments. “Have no other gods. Remember the Sabbath, the Day of Rest. Don’t kill. Don’t adulter,” and so on. The Law tells us to love God fully, without ever messing up. But the Law even expects us to have such love for others.
So, if you want to do something good, then honor those whom God has placed in authority over you. Help others in their need. Be faithful to your spouse. Take no more than your share. Don’t slander your neighbor. Be content with what you have. Do this, and you will see that a single commandment of God’s Law has more in it than all the plans and schemes of fallen humanity.
Why do you come to Church? God tells us. You come to find rest in God. That’s what it means to keep the Sabbath. Sabbath means “rest.” So the purpose of the Sabbath is to rest in God. Within the thick of the Ten Commandments, God points His people to where He will give them what they need because they won’t be able to follow His Law!
How’s that for irony? Within the letter that kills, God still lets us know where we can find life in Him. So, if you come to Church and all you get is what you’re supposed to do or not do, you’re not resting in God. You’re only getting the works of the Law, which kills. That’s why Paul and Timothy tell us that God’s Law is a “ministry of death.”
Scripture calls the Law the “letter.” That’s because God had engraved it in letters on stone. “The letter kills.” It kills because it exposes what’s wrong with us. It kills because it reveals that we aren’t good enough. It kills because, even after trying to do all that God commands, to the best of our ability, it just leaves us there to die. “The letter kills.”
Now, true servants (pastors) of the new covenant know that the letter kills. How do they know that? You just heard that truth in Scripture! So, if I only preached what you’re supposed to do or not do, I would only be leading you to the grave. Now, every Sunday, I should bring you to the grave—but not leave you there! That would be the same as leaving Jesus in the grave, never to rise in newness of life.
Jesus told His Apostles that “preaching repentance into the forgiveness of sins is to be done in His name” (Luke 24:47). The pastor brings you to the grave. But that’s only to bring you to repentance, so you may rise with Jesus in new life, being brought into the forgiveness of sins.
So, why do you come to Church? You don’t come to hear how clever I am, which would be a disappointment if you did. You don’t come to hear me motivate you or inspire you to succeed in life. Maybe you need a life-coach. Maybe you need a motivational speaker. But that’s not what God wants to give you here.
You come to Church because you are dying and “the letter” that kills has made that clear to you. You come to Church because you have failed in living out what God demands of you in His Law. Based on what you do and don’t do, you’re dead. No amount of coaching or motivation will change that reality.
So, why come to Church? You come to find the Lord and Giver of life, the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father through the Son. And through the words of a mere man, with bone and blood like you, headed to the grave as you, and filled with sin like you, the Holy Spirit reveals and gives you life. That’s why you come to Church! You come to get eternal life, life in all its fullness.
What happened to Moses’ face after He brought down God’s words carved in stone? At first, his face shone with God’s glory. But that brightness and glory soon faded. Why was that? It was because God would bring the glory of the Law “to an end.”
The glory of the Law has to fade; it has to, for it can kill you, but it can’t give you life. “The law kills.” Oh, it’s true: The Law does show you what is right and wrong—but it doesn’t give you life. Oh, the Law does command you to be righteousness—but it still leaves you powerless to do that. Oh, the Law does let you know that you’re condemned—but then it leaves you there, dead in the dust, in that eternal pit.
But the Law doesn’t just condemn us; it also condemned Jesus. Oh, He was innocent, but He became the guiltiest sinner when He took all our sin into Himself. And so, when you see Jesus, you see both your sin and your salvation.
Jesus offered His life of obedience, for your disobedience, to the justice of Almighty God. He offered His innocence to bear your sin. He suffered and died for you. But what does that mean that Jesus died for “you”? It means that if you are in Christ, the Law can no longer condemn you. How can it? Jesus was already condemned for you. That’s why the glory of the Spirit replaces the glory of the Law.
It’s the glory of the Spirit because the Spirit points you to Jesus. The Spirit gives life because Jesus gives life. After all, Jesus sent the Spirit from the Father, so the Spirit would lead you back to Him, bringing you into His life and salvation.
That’s the Gospel of God’s Spirit, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The glory that shone from Moses’ face faded and grew dim. For the Law kills, but the Spirit gives life.
So, don’t trust in the Law, rely on it, or seek peace with God through it. Instead, seek God and find Him where He promises to give you life. And you get that life wherever He forgives you and sets you free by the Law-keeping of Jesus, who suffered and died for you because you couldn’t keep and follow God’s Law.
The Spirit gives life. But where and how? The Spirit gives life in all that Jesus commanded His Apostles to do. That’s why Jesus commanded the Apostles, the Church’s first pastors, to preach, teach, baptize, forgive sins, and celebrate the Supper.
Did you notice that Paul and Timothy said that God had made them “qualified to be ministers of a new covenant”? So, what they did as pastors came from God. But here’s where it gets good: What God gives pastors to do doesn’t depend on their qualifications. God makes pastors “qualified to be ministers of a new covenant.”
Do you realize what comfort that gives you? You can have a loser of a pastor—and it doesn’t matter! As long as he delivers to goods, God is still at work through him. For your pastor’s credentials are from God, not himself. God makes him qualified.
Oh, you still need a preacher because that’s how God has chosen to proclaim His Word to you. But beyond that, the pastor’s no big deal; but the Gospel he preaches, now that’s glorious! For when the pastor preaches Jesus and what He did and does to save you, the Spirit is there, who gives life. And that makes all the difference. Amen.
