Death or Life

DEVOTION

2 CORINTHIANS

DEATH OR LIFE

2 Cor 3:4-6

4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant- — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

NIV

There are two very important points or lessons for us to learn or remember if we have forgotten here in this statement. The first if that we are absolutely without any abilities of our own when it comes to doing anything worthwhile for the Kingdom of God. That is to say we have no competence in our human efforts. All that we are, all that we do that is of value or worth, any competence we have comes directly from God. If for one minute we actually think we  are intelligent or have a great talent because of our own determination we might well be sliding down that slippery slope of pride, which is course sin. Oh sure we might have decided to go to college and learn a profession, put in the time to study and become able to secure a highly paid position. It might have even been a Bible College and our position is full time ministry. Or maybe we did not attend college and we are not in a highly paid position but work in some field of endeavor providing the best life we can, but also serving our Lord in some lay ministry. Whatever we are, whatever we do wherever we find ourselves in life, it is all because God has a plan for us and he empowers us for that plan. He gives us whatever abilities he determines for each of us. It may appear some have more than others, but it is God who makes each of us competent in what he desires for us to do. The second great truth here is this death or life situation. It is made very clear to us the law brought death. If we ever attempt to live under the law, under the rules and regulations God set out for the children of Israel we will surely die for we cannot ever be successful. That ought to teach us about establishing a bunch of man-made laws, rules and regulations, to live by. If the law of God brings death, why would not the laws of men bring it too? No, we need to live by the Spirit. We need to live in accordance with the Spirit of God, this brings life. We might even be a bit in trouble because we make the new covenant into a list of do’s and don’ts. We create checklists of how we are to act and what we can do, but especially those things we are not supposed do to. We spend some much effort in defining sin to the very exact wording. We write volumes of denominational rules defining how we believe. But which of us simply lives by the Spirit? We can be quite such Paul did not have any of the words of men to live by, but only the Spirit of God. If the Spirit is good enough for Paul, it should be good enough for us. So it comes down to death or life.