8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” –
2nd Corinthians 3: 7-9
The Bible is an AMAZING book. When you get the Spirit of God dwelling on the inside (don’t know what this is? Ask God he will lead), and he opens The Book to you; it is an Amazing thing. It is filling, drawing, entertaining, enthralling. Far better than Call of Duty, that’s for sure. I love how something written a thousand some odd years ago can perfectly address a prevalent problem we have today…….astounding. “Huh? What on earth does the above text have to do with today?”………………
Ok. So, BACK IN THE DAY there was a group of folks called the children of Israel. They were chosen by God to be his people. They were descendants of one guy; Abraham. These people could NOT obey God; they tried, with all of THEIR might, but failed. (Are we so different? How far does YOUR resolve take you when it comes to obeying God?) So, they sinned (willfully disobeyed God) so much that God instructed Moses (their leader) to go up on a mountain and when he was on top of it, God would then write a law on some stone. Basically, it was a list of Do’s and Don’ts; and if you did the Don’t, then you would have to find a farm animal, and kill it to atone for your transgression. This is the “ministration of death, written and engraven in stones” and it was glorious. It was glorious in both its inception and in its practice; because those who practiced it were accepted with God! Now for all its glory it still could not address the sinful desire of the human heart. This is why I believe it is referred to in the text as the “ministration of condemnation”. Because no matter how hard they tried, they still would fall to their desire to disobey God; and the blood of the farm animal could atone, but it could not eradicate the condemnation that remained in their hearts.
Sound familiar? Anybody out there ever prayed and wept and begged for forgiveness, because of sin you committed; only to find yourself doing the same thing a few months later? Anybody plagued by guilt and constant discontentment? No peace, no joy, purposefully “busying up” your life so that you can ignore the issue that should be most prevalent in it i.e. the state of soul. It seems the thousand and some odd year old book; isn’t that old after all. I say to you on the faith of God’s word, that there is something far better than the “ministration of condemnation”; because there is a “ministration of righteousness”
True, Jesus died. True, Jesus died for the sin of mankind. True, he died to save us from all sin, but that doesn’t mean ALL sins one will ever commit: past, present, and future. My brother, my sister, his blood bought something far better than a preverbal rug that we can lay over the hideous stain of sin in the carpet of our own heart. He was not sent as a cloak to hide the sin, but sent as a sacrifice to PURGE it (Heb 9:14). ALL sin means the atonement for sins committed, and the abolishment of the very thing that caused you to commit it (carnality i.e. the “want-to” sin). It means righteousness; and it “exceed in glory”…….translation? “Buddy it’s so much better than sinning and repenting.”
So, to my original statement: “How does this text written long ago address an issue that is rampant now?” Then, they had people who would sin and repent- sin and repent- sin and repent - only knowing condemnation in their heart. We have the same problem, today, but the scriptures tell of a way more perfect; a way of true holiness, and perfect love. Paul wrote the answer way BACK IN THE DAY, and it is still true in this day. There is a better way……the “ministration of righteousness”; complete liberty.
“17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” – 2 Corinthians 3:17
Please reply to pgcollins65@gmail.com with any questions, comments, thoughts, etc. you may have. Also, please feel free to forward.
