2122.—"Written and Engraven in Stone." "Done Away." 2 Corinthians 3.
By Editor
Kindly explain 2 Cor. 3:6-15. Does it mean that the Old Testament was entirely done away, including the Ten Commandments? S. S. B. 1. Secure of your tract society, if you can, the tract, "From Glory to Glory," which gives full explanation of that chapter. Our stock was burned, and has not been reprinted. If you will read the context carefully you will see, first, that what the apostle is speaking of is not certain laws or testimonies, but ministration—service. 2. There is a service of the letter and a service of the Spirit. 3. He declares that God had given him a service of the New Testament, which is a service of the Spirit, that the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. That is true of the Gospel, of the law, of every living truth of God; the mere letter, the mere form, kills, while the Spirit, which is always God's life, gives life. In the service of the letter men have the law of God outwardly; it is to them on tables of stone; it ministers death. Those who accept of God's plan and receive of the Spirit have that law written in the tables of their heart. The law becomes to them a law of righteousness. Rom. 8:2. 4. The children of Israel received the law of God in the letter. It was to them the ministration of death, written and engraven in stone. Moses received that law in the Spirit. It was to him life, so that he could stay in the presence of God forty days and nights, twice over, without food and not suffer; and when he came down from the mount his face was shining with the glory of God, a glory that the children of Israel could not bear. The ministration of the Spirit, as illustrated in Moses and in Paul, came with great glory, and outshone the glory of condemnation, as righteousness is more glorious than condemnation. 5. God designed that when the children of Israel saw the law and were condemned that they would still yield to Him and receive the righteousness which Moses did, so that the glory of condemnation would be done away or fade away in the greater glory of righteousness. But that was not the case. They could not even look upon Moses, so he had to put a veil upon his face. And that veil illustrates unbelief, and where there is unbelief, men serve only in the letter and not in the Spirit; so that among the unbelieving Jews or the unbelieving men of any nation who accept God's word, and do not yield to Him, the veil is upon the heart. The unbelief is there. Whenever they will turn to the Lord, unbelief will be taken away. The passage has absolutely nothing to do with the doing away of the Old Testament or one single truth of God's word. What the Lord longs shall be done away is the condemnation in the hearts of His children.