OUR QUESTION CORNER by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 25, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 46.

OUR QUESTION CORNER.

By Editor

[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries on scriptural topics or moral questions as may be sent us. Questions which minister strife to no profit to our readers will not be answered here. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. The questions will be numbered continuously.]

111. JOHN 11:26 AND 2 COR. 3:7.

Will you please explain for me the following scriptures; John 11:26; 2 Cor. 3:7. C. E. R., JR.

1. John 11:26 has such an immediate connection with the previous verse that we quote them both:—

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

The above words are a reply to Martha's remark in the twenty-fourth verse: “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus would show Martha that he who stood before her was the very One through whom the resurrection to life must come. Whosoever believes in Christ, even though he dies, yet shall he live; and whosoever is living and believing in Christ in the last day, shall never die; for we “shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” 1 Cor. 15:51. Some will be “alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:15. Such who believe in Christ will never die.

2. In 2 Cor. 3:5 the apostle declares that the “sufficiency” of him and his fellow laborers was not of themselves but of God. In verse 6 he tells us that God had made them “able ministers of the new testament [or covenant]: not of the letter [of the new testament], but of the spirit [of the new testament]; for the letter [merely of anything] killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” The letter alone is the mere outward form of the truth; and the mere outward form is of itself dead; it has no saving power. To minister that would be to compel its observance, just what many professed Christian ministers are now doing in their efforts to minister civil law for so-called Christian institutions. The apostles were ministers of the word or gospel of God (Col. 1:23; 2 Tim. 4:2), which is spirit and life (John 6:63) to all that believe (1 Thess. 2:13). The reception of this word as the word of God is the reception of Christ, the Incarnate Word, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1:27; Eph. 3:17. It places God's law, not before and apart from the believer, on tables of stone, demanding of him obedience or death, but, by the grace and power of Christ, it puts that very law in the believer's heart (Heb. 8:10), in order “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4). It was the gospel, “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,” that the apostle ministered.

The apostle then compares the ministration of the dispensation of the new covenant with that of the ministration of death or condemnation of the past dispensation. It was not the ministration or service which was written in stones, but it was the law, the transgression of which condemned to death. The sentence of death was executed by God's ministers of that dispensation. That ministration was glorious, as represented in its earthly head, Moses, but its glory was eclipsed by the power and glory which puts the law in the heart. The glory of that ministration has passed away. The glory of the apostle's ministry was the glory of Christ's character shining through his people who believed him. 1 Thess. 2:19, 20.