2 Cor. iii, 7- by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 27, 1866

By R. F. Cottrell

In this scripture are contrasted two ministrations—the ministration of "death" or "condemnation," and the ministration of the "spirit" or of "righteousness." The former was glorious, the latter exceeds in glory; the former "is done away," the latter "remaineth."

Ministration means "The act of performing service"—a thing that cannot be written on stone or on parchment. You can write an account of service performed, but you cannot write the act of performing it. Hence the ministration—the thing that is done away—was not written on the tables of stone. What then was engraven in the stones? The law of God, the ten commandments. This law, by a figure of speech, the apostle calls condemnation and death; because it condemns the sinner to death. It can bring only condemnation and death—it cannot give righteousness to its transgressor.

When Moses performed the act of service which inaugurated the whole system of the service of the Jewish priesthood, by bringing down from the Mount the tables of the law which, placed in the ark in the most holy place of the sanctuary, constituted the very center of that system, the glory of that ministration or service was seen in the fact that Moses' face was too bright for mortal eyes without a veil to cover it. This "glory was to be done away" by the surpassing spiritual glory which is seen "in the face of Jesus Christ." The ministration of condemnation and death was to be, and has been, superseded by the ministration of righteousness and spirit or life. The ministration of the law could only acknowledge the justness of our condemnation and death, having only a shadow of the good things to come—the hope of righteousness through faith. But the ministration of the gospel of free pardon, righteousness and life. As Moses stood at the head of that ministration as its representative, and the Aaronic priesthood obtained part in that ministry, so Jesus the Christ stands at the head of this, and the apostles obtained a part in it. Says Paul, "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not." Chapter iv, 1.

Now those who can perceive no difference between the ministration—the act of performing service—and that which was written and engraven in the stones, never can understand the meaning of the apostle's language. But the great anxiety which some feel that the fourth commandment of the law should be done away, impels them to advocate the abolition of all that was engraven in the stones—the whole moral law of God. And if the chapter proves that one of those commandments is abolished, it proves them all abolished; for no one of the commandments is mentioned in the chapter. Still they hold, as I recently heard one of them say, that nine of them are moral precepts and are still binding. How is it then that these nine commandments are done away, and at the same time are not done away? And if the nine survived their abolition, who knows that the Sabbath commandment did not survive also! It may be said, The nine have been re-enacted. If they have been re-enacted, there has been a period of time, long or short, in which they were not binding. But no sane man believes that there ever was a moment when men were not bound to these moral duties. The idea that the moral government of God ever ceased for a moment to exist, is preposterous. Then the nine never were abolished—they passed over to us unharmed. Then it is possible that the fourth did the same—that the whole decalogue remains the law of God.

The view that God abolished the whole decalogue to get rid of the Sabbath commandment is extremely inconsistent. If the great Jehovah, by some mistake or oversight, placed a ceremonial Jewish precept in the midst of his moral law, he certainly could have singled out that precept and informed us that it was annulled. It would be a very unwise State Legislature that would abolish the entire code of State laws to get rid of one law, and then re-enact all but the one. It would be a ridiculously foolish surgeon that would cut off all your fingers and thumbs to get rid of one finger that was in danger of mortification, though he were able to join on the nine again very skillfully. If such things would be foolish and egregiously absurd in men, how blasphemous to impute them to the great God, whose work and whose law are perfect. It is the vilest slander imaginable! Nothing but the most invincible determination to sustain a theory, and the most alarming scarcity of proofs and arguments, would induce an honest man thus to defame the character of the Almighty. They do not realize the shameful nakedness of their position, or they would not hold it. Would to God they would open their eyes before it is too late! May the Lord save honest souls from such a delusion as this. Faithful is he that calleth them who also will do it. R. F. COTTRELL.

2 Cor. iii, 7-.