"The Ministry of the New Covenant" Page 3 of 3 (series: Lessons on 2 Cor.)

by John Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

The church—the community of believers—is awaiting Jesus’ victorious return when Satan will finally be imprisoned and Jesus will reign forever (2 Thess. 1:7-10{8]). Meanwhile, believers can be certain of Jesus’ protection by reading God’s Word and praying for His protection—“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Eph. 6:17-18). Then they will be able to feel safe from the attacks and deception of their spiritual enemies.

Instead of being blinded by Satan like unbelievers are, believers recognize that Jesus is the exact visible representation of God, “the image of God”—“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15). God the Father as spirit is invisible—“who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen” (1 Tim. 6:15). God’s Son, however, is God’s visible expression. Jesus not only reflects the Father, but as God, He reveals God to us—“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Heb. 1:1-2). Christ’s glory reflects divine glory. Jesus is not a copy but the very embodiment of God’s nature. He is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). To know Jesus is to know God: “I and My Father are one" (John 10:30).


5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

“We preach . . . Christ Jesus the Lord.” Believe me, dear reader, you and I are helpless when we give out the Word of God. There is an enemy opposed to us, and he binds the minds of people.

Paul had stuck to the essential truths of the gospel. He didn’t try to impress with great oratory, something very popular at that time, but he kept his preaching very simple and put the gospel on the lower shelves so everyone could understand it. What is the essential truth of the gospel: “Christ’s death on the cross provided salvation for all those who believe in Him” (1 Co. 2:1-2{9]). This verse underscores another central aspect of Paul’s message: Jesus is Master, or Lord, of all believers.

Since his own authority was under attack, Paul could have written that he was their God-appointed leader and teacher (as he did in 1 Tim. 2:7{10]). Instead, Paul emphasized that he and his fellow evangelists were the Corinthian’s servants. Several times in his New Testament letters, Paul wrote of himself as a servant or even a slave of Christ—“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1). Here, Paul underscored that he was also a servant of the people he ministered to—in this case the Corinthians. Throughout 2nd Corinthians, Paul reiterated that he was not trying to exercise arbitrary authority over their faith (1:24{11]). On the contrary, Paul was merely serving them as Christ’s appointed messenger, faithfully delivering the truths of the gospel to them.


6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Paul goes back to the time of creation when God created light. I don’t know when Creation took place. All I can say with reasonable assurance is that way back yonder in the beginning God created it. He did not give us a date. Our God is a god of eternity. He wasn’t just sitting around twiddling his thumbs waiting for man to appear on the scene. Man is a Johnny-come-lately, of course, but God has been here a long, long, long time. I hold the position that this universe has been here for a long time and that something happened to it. It bears evidence that some titanic convulsion took place. Something must have happened to a perfect creation. We are told in Genesis 1 that God moved in. The Spirit of God moved, or the actual word is brooded, upon the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Just as God had brought order out of the chaos of darkness by ordering, “Let there be light in the darkness,” so God was piercing the chaos of evil with the light of His truth. The light of Christ exposes falsehood and evil for what it is: a perversion of the good (Eph. 5:13-14{12]). Those who believe in Jesus become children of light. They live in the light, allowing it to judge all of their actions—“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8).

This passage emphasizes that the light is the brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. The light of Christ illuminates a believer’s understanding. Only those who allow their minds to be clouded by Satan’s dark deceptions think the message is obscure. God illuminates the minds of believers so that they know with certainty that in Jesus’ face they see the glory of God. The implication is that those who look for God’s glory only in the old covenant, in the face of Moses, are being deceived by Satan (2 Co. 3:15-17{13]).

Now Paul tells us that God “who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in Genesis 1, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Just as the Spirit of God brooded over the waters so the Spirit of God broods over a soul. He moves in to bring conviction to our hearts. Then He regenerates us. And the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, shines in. Here we are back looking at Him. As someone has said, “The look saves, but the gaze sanctifies.” We need to spend a lot of time looking at Him. But even doing this we are weak vessels.

The great thought that Paul drives home in this verse it that in Jesus Christ we see what God is like. “He who has seen Me,” said Jesus, “has seen the Father” (John 14:9). When Paul preached he did not say, “Look at me!” He said, “Look at Jesus Christ! And there you will see the glory of God come to earth in a form that a man can understand.”

If and when doubts plague you, ask the Holy Spirit to illumine your heart. Then spend time reading God’s Word and submitting your questions to God.



SCRIPTURE REFERENCE AND SPECIAL NOTES

{1] (JOHN 12:31) NOW IS THE JUDGMENT OF THIS WORLD; NOW THE RULER OF THIS WORLD WILL BE CAST OUT.

{2] (JOHN 14:30) I WILL NO LONGER TALK MUCH WITH YOU, FOR THE RULER OF THIS WORLD IS COMING, AND HE HAS NOTHING IN ME.

{3] (JOHN 16:11) OF JUDGMENT, BECAUSE THE RULER OF THIS WORLD IS JUDGED.

{4] (MATTHEW 6:13) AND DO NOT LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE. FOR YOURS IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOREVER. AMEN.

{5] (2 CO. 5:6-8) SO WE ARE ALWAYS CONFIDENT, KNOWING THAT WHILE WE ARE AT HOME IN THE BODY WE ARE ABSENT FROM THE LORD. FOR WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT. WE ARE CONFIDENT, YES, WELL PLEASED RATHER TO BE ABSENT FROM THE BODY AND TO BE PRESENT WITH THE LORD.

{6] (1 TIM 1:12-16) AND I THANK CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD WHO HAS ENABLED ME, BECAUSE HE COUNTED ME FAITHFUL, PUTTING ME INTO THE MINISTRY, ALTHOUGH I WAS FORMERLY A BLASPHEMER, A PERSECUTOR, AND AN INSOLENT MAN; BUT I OBTAINED MERCY BECAUSE I DID IT IGNORANTLY IN UNBELIEF. AND THE GRACE OF OUR LORD WAS EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANT, WITH FAITH AND LOVE WHICH ARE IN CHRIST JESUS. THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING AND WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTANCE, THAT CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS, OF WHOM I AM CHIEF. HOWEVER, FOR THIS REASON I OBTAINED MERCY, THAT IN ME FIRST JESUS CHRIST MIGHT SHOW ALL LONGSUFFERING, AS A PATTERN TO THOSE WHO ARE GOING TO BELIEVE ON HIM FOR EVERLASTING LIFE.

{7] (2 CO. 2:17) FOR WE ARE NOT, AS SO MANY, PEDDLING THE WORD OF GOD; BUT AS OF SINCERITY, BUT AS FROM GOD, WE SPEAK IN THE SIGHT OF GOD IN CHRIST.

{8] (2 THESS. 1:7-10) AND TO GIVE YOU WHO ARE TROUBLED REST WITH US WHEN THE LORD JESUS IS REVEALED FROM HEAVEN WITH HIS MIGHTY ANGELS, IN FLAMING FIRE TAKING VENGEANCE ON THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW GOD, AND ON THOSE WHO DO NOT OBEY THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. THESE SHALL BE PUNISHED WITH EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND FROM THE GLORY OF HIS POWER, WHEN HE COMES, IN THAT DAY, TO BE GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS AND TO BE ADMIRED AMONG ALL THOSE WHO BELIEVE, BECAUSE OUR TESTIMONY AMONG YOU WAS BELIEVED.

{9] (1 CO. 2:1-2) AND I, BRETHREN, WHEN I CAME TO YOU, DID NOT COME WITH EXCELLENCE OF SPEECH OR OF WISDOM DECLARING TO YOU THE TESTIMONY OF GOD. FOR I DETERMINED NOT TO KNOW ANYTHING AMONG YOU EXCEPT JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.

{10] (1 TIM. 2:7) FOR WHICH I WAS APPOINTED A PREACHER AND AN APOSTLE—I AM SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN CHRIST AND NOT LYING—A TEACHER OF THE GENTILES IN FAITH AND TRUTH.

{11] (2 CO. 1:24) NOT THAT WE HAVE DOMINION OVER YOUR FAITH, BUT ARE FELLOW WORKERS FOR YOUR JOY; FOR BY FAITH YOU STAND.

{12] (EPH. 5:13-14) BUT ALL THINGS THAT ARE EXPOSED ARE MADE MANIFEST BY THE LIGHT, FOR WHATEVER MAKES MANIFEST IS LIGHT. THEREFORE HE SAYS: "AWAKE, YOU WHO SLEEP, ARISE FROM THE DEAD, AND CHRIST WILL GIVE YOU LIGHT."

{13] (2 CO. 3:15-17) BUT EVEN TO THIS DAY, WHEN MOSES IS READ, A VEIL LIES ON THEIR HEART. NEVERTHELESS WHEN ONE TURNS TO THE LORD, THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY. NOW THE LORD IS THE SPIRIT; AND WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY.