2 Corinthians (Program #25) – The Essence of the New Covenant Ministry (2)

It’s always interesting and most often enlightening when we compare what’s become the common practice in the realm of Christian work to the Bible itself. It’s natural to take many things for granted, simply because it has become common or ordinary. But one of the things that we try to do on this program is to challenge the common and ordinary thought and to check ourselves and our concepts with the Bible.

For example today it’s quite common to speak of the varies ministries. In fact we all become comfortable with this or that Christian worker speaking about his or her ministry. But if you check carefully in the pages of the New Testament this thought is just not present.

Yes, there is such a thing as ministry but it is called the ministry or this ministry and only once in the entire New Testament do we find the term ministries. So what is this ministry and in what sense does the Bible refer to the plural term ministries?

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2 Corinthians (Program #24) – The Essence of the New Covenant Ministry (1)

The apostle Paul’s writings in the New Testament are rich with the use of metaphors. He frequently used metaphors to help convey the deep and profound meaning of the highest spiritual truths contain in scriptures.

Two such metaphors are found in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. In this chapter we, the believers are first liken to letters, letters of Christ been written or inscribed by the apostles with the Holy Spirit as the ink. How about that?

Later in chapter 3 we become mirrors that both behold and reflect the glory of the Lord. Metaphors like these inspired by the Spirit Himself do help unlock the unsearchable riches of Christ both in our experience and in the working out of God’s great plan, a full salvation.

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2 Corinthians (Program #23) – Transformed into the Image of the Lord by Beholding and Reflecting (2)

There are many marvelous word pictures or metaphors in the Bible. Without which the task of comprehending many of the deeper truths and thoughts of scriptures would be difficult indeed. But most of those whom were used by the Holy Spirit to bring God’s divine revelation to man were very adapt at the used of such metaphors and for those of us who love the Bible, the riches that it contains. We come to love the types and shadows and metaphors as well.

2 Corinthians, Paul’s autobiography in a sense is a book that is replead with such metaphors. And as we’ve seen in chapter 3 are among the most significant.

Listen once again to Paul’s word again in 2 Corinthians 3:

16 “But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

17 “And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

18 “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”

Just how is it that we can be transformed as spoken of in these verses?

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2 Corinthians (Program #22) – Transformed into the Image of the Lord by Beholding and Reflecting (1)

The teachings of Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher were quite outstanding in their moral and ethical standard. In fact many early missionaries in China commented that the teachings of Confucius were just like the teachings of the Bible. But to compare the Bible to the writings of Confucius or any other philosophical or religious writings is like comparing gold to brass or copper.

All the philosophy or religious teachings can do is to improve our human behavior. But the intrinsic focus of the Bible is not about modifying our behavior is about transforming us gradually into the image of Christ.  2 Corinthians chapter 3:18 says it,

“But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”

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2 Corinthians (Program #21) – Shining the Glory of the New Covenant (2)

Two items are marvelously connected in 2 Corinthians that you may have never noticed or linked before. These two things are the New Covenant and the shining of the glory of Christ.

The Old Covenant was a Covenant of law and of letters with the affect of bringing us into spiritual death. The New Covenant on the other hand has everything to do with the Spirit and life. And to be brought into the reality of the New Covenant is to be brought into the glory of the face of Jesus Christ.

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2 Corinthians (Program #20) – Shining the Glory of the New Covenant (1)

The Bible is very rich in the many titles that it describe to God. Of course He is the almighty, the God of glory, the all sufficient One and on and on. It opens in Genesis 1 with the Hebrew word, Elohim, meaning the creator of the heavens and the earth. But interestingly at the end of the Bible, in the final chapter, Revelation 22, God is called simply, the Spirit.  But along the way between these two great bookends of the Bible, we see the journey or the process, that God has passed through in time to accomplish His great eternal purpose.

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2 Corinthians (Program #19) -Competent of Christ as the Alphabets to Write Living Letters with the Life-giving Spirit of the Living Lord (1)

As genuine Christians, we all must realize that according to the Bible our God is a Trinity or Triune. This is a marvelous fact that real believers must never compromised on. But how do we explain it or even how do we understand it? Some said one God in three distinct and separate persons. But in fact the Bible never uses the term persons to describe the three of the Godhead. In further though it absolutely affirms that the three, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct. It never conveys the thought that they are separate. Quite a contrary the three can never be separated as we’ll see today.

The Triune God can be seen certainly through out the Bible as it is in 2 Corinthians chapter 3

You are our letter, “… a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; “

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2 Corinthians (Program #18) -Competent of Christ as the Alphabets to Write Living Letters with the Life-giving Spirit of the Living Lord (1)

Most genuine Christians in the protestant traditions owe a great debt to such courageous reformer such as as Martin Luther. Luther was used much by the Lord to recover the great truth of justification by faith, even risking his life for the sake of this foundational truth of the Christians faith. But this is not the only truth that had been lost and in need of recovery. Other reformers went even further, realizing that justification must have a result beyond the mere objective fact. The Bible reveals that the issue of justification is life. It is life, divine life, operating subjectively in the believers that constitute us members of Christ and it is the Spirit of life through the New Testament ministry that also makes us living letters of Christ. Living letters inscribe with the living Spirit of the living God. Hallelujah for the recovering of the divine life.

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2 Corinthians (Program #17) – Attached, Anointed, Sealed, Captured, Subdued, and Led to Scatter the Incense of Christ

In one short passage in 2 Corinthians chapter two, the apostle Paul uses two striking metaphors that give us a marvelous insight into his understanding of the Christina life, his service to the Lord and what it means to be a pattern to the believers.

14 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place.”

15 “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:”

The first metaphor that of a possession, of captured folks. We, who were previously God’s enemy are been captured and subdued by Him and now are following His victorious possession willingly.

The second metaphor is that of incense bearer, those who accompany such a possession, scattering the sweat fragrance of Christ. A fragrance that affects all who come in contact with it. May we all be such one, captured, subdued and led by Him and now those who even scatter His very fragrance.

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2 Corinthians (Program #16) – A Pattern of Living Christ for the Church

The apostle Paul’s two epistles or letters to the Church in Corinth are definitely related. But if we read carefully we can see that really they are in two different realms.

The first letter dealt with many major problems in the Church. Problems that are in many ways still plague the Church today. The solution that Paul presents in 1 Corinthians is for the believers to live Christ for the church. And this is the link to the other realm that is clearly presented in 2 Corinthians. For in this book more than any other in the Bible, we see the pattern of person living Christ for the church not merely spoken of but demonstrated. The apostle Paul and even other apostles with him really lived this pattern.

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