THE GLORY OF GOD ( PART 24 )

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3322

THE GLORY OF GOD ( PART 24 )

From Glory to Glory ( Study 3 )

Second Corinthians 3:6 says, “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 

With these words, Paul summarizes the key difference between the Old and New Testaments: the first covenant was based on obedience to the written law (the “letter”), but the second covenant is based on the blood of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

The Old Testament Law, which is good and perfect (Psalm 19:7), reveals all people as law-breakers (Galatians 3:10). The law “kills” in that the penalty for breaking God’s law is eternal death in hell (Romans 6:23; Revelation 21:8). As God told Moses the lawgiver, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book” (Exodus 32:33). Even if you sin only once in your whole life, it is the same as breaking all of God’s laws (James 2:10), just as breaking only one link in a chain breaks the whole chain.

Abba Father, the written law—“the letter”—was chiseled in stone by the finger of God and is the unchanging standard by which all are judged. 

But the law cannot give us righteousness or eternal life in heaven (Galatians 2:16). It can only condemn us as sinners, and the sentence is death. Heaven is where perfection is required (Matthew 5:20, 48; 19:16–21), and “the law made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:19).

N.B. Tomorrow we shall study how Christ in the New Testatment is a better Mediator with God than the Law of Moses - hence a greater glory is revealed in Him - for only He can save us from our sin and the wages of sin which is death. The law cannot save us but only points us to Him who can and does as our Saviour.