2 Corinthians 3 - Introduction

Lest their false teachers should charge him with vain glory, he sheweth the faith and graces of the Corinthians to be a sufficient commendation of his ministry. Whereupon, entering on a comparison between the ministers of the law and of the gospel, he proveth that his ministry is so far the more excellent, as the gospel of life and liberty is more glorious than the law of condemnation.

Anno Domini 58.

THE things mentioned in the beginning of this chapter shew, that the false teacher had established himself at Corinth, neither by workingmiracles, nor by communicating to the Corinthians spiritual gifts; but by producing letters of recommendation from some brethren in Judea, and by talking in a vaunting manner of his own talents. For, in allusionto these things, the Apostle asked the Corinthians ironically, whether, in order to obtain credit with them as an apostle, it was necessary that he should, a second time, prove his apostleship? or, if he needed, as some, (the false teacher) letters of recommendation, either to them or from them? 2 Corinthians 3:1.—And, to heighten the irony, he told them, that they themselves were a copy of the letter ofrecommendation which he carried about with him, not from the brethren of any church, but from Christ himself: which original letter was written on his own heart, and was known and read of all his converts, 2 Corinthians 3:2.—A copy of this letter the Apostle told the Corinthians he had ministered or furnished to them, written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone but on the fleshy tables of their own heart, 2 Corinthians 3:3.—A recommendation of this sort, he told them, was a just matter of boasting, and was afforded to him by Christ in the presence of God, 2 Corinthians 3:4.—Consequently, it was afforded to him by God's authority.

It seems the false teacher extolled the law of Moses above the gospel of Christ, and assumed to himself great authority on account of his knowledge of that law. Wherefore, in the remaining part of this chapter, the Apostle, by the strongest arguments, demonstrated to the Corinthians that the law of Moses was much inferior to the gospel of Christ. The law was a dispensation of the letter: but the gospel was a dispensation of the spirit: the law killed every sinner, whether he was penitent or not, by its dreadful curse; but the gospel gives life to all penitent believers, without exception, by its gracious promises, 2 Corinthians 3:5. The gospel therefore is a covenant of life, but the law a covenant of death.—Farther, he observed, that if the ministration of the covenant of death, engraven on stones, covered the face of Moses, its minister, with such an outward glory that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on him, after he came down from the mount—the ministration of the covenant of the Spirit which giveth life must occasion a much greater glory to them who were employed in ministering it. For the gifts of the Spirit, wherewith the Apostles, the ministers of the covenant of the Spirit, were honoured, were a much greater glory than the external splendour whichcovered Moses's face, when he appeared with the tables of the law in his hand, 2 Corinthians 3:7.—The reason is, the ministers of the Spirit had the glory of inspiration abiding with them always, so that they could use much greater clearness of speech in explaining the covenant of the gospel than Moses was able to do in explaining the covenant of the law; as was emblematically represented by Moses putting a veil upon his face while he spake to the Israelites. For he delivered to them the obscure figurative institutions of the law, together with such words as God had spoken to him; but added nothing, from himself, for explaining the meaning of these institutions. Hence, the generality of the Israelites have remained ignorant of the true nature and end of the law till this day, but partly through the wilful blindness of their own hearts, 2 Corinthians 3:12.—But when the whole nation shall turn to the Lord, the darkness of the law shall be done away, 2 Corinthians 3:16.

The expressions in this part of the chapter being obscure, the Apostle told the Corinthians that the Lord, by which he meant the gospel, of which the Lord Christ is the author, is the dispensation of the Spirit, of which he spake; and that, in delivering the gospel, there was great liberty of speech granted to its ministers, especially to the Apostles, who, by beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus while he abode on earth, and by the repeated revelations which they received from him since his ascension, were changed into the very same image, by successions of glory, that is, of illumination, coming from the Spirit of the Lord. So that in respect of the light of the gospel which they diffused through the world, they were become the images of Christ, 2 Corinthians 3:17.