From Gods Tables of Stone to the Fleshy Tables in our Hearts

[Gary K]

Well, I didn't answer the question yet. Let me first give you something to disagree with.

Your question: How does that song agree with the results of the NC which is knowing God which Jesus says is life eternal.

The verses (2 Cor. 3:8-10) contain some of these relevant aspects to the new covenant.

1.) A question - How shall the ministry of the Spirit not be more in glory?

The rhetorical question is answered ie. "Of course the new covenant ministry is more glorious than the old covenant ministry."
The impartation of the Spirit and the ministers of this impartation carry out a more splendid and glorious ministry
than Moses or the law teachers ever had. The old covenant came in glory. The new covenant is MORE in glory.

To know God's life by having Him imparted into us is more glorious than to only work for a God obeying commands
yet no inwrd fellowship with Him. The former is to attempt to work for God without the divine life of God indwelling us.

2.) A comparison - For if there is glory with the ministry of condemnation, much more the ministry of righteousness abounds with glory.

The old covenant and its ministry was a "ministry of condemnation". That is condemning because of the LACK of righteousness on man's part. By comparison the new covenant endows man and imparts to man righteousness which he lacked.
For this reason also it is abounding perpetually forever in surpassing glory. It is eternal impartation of divine righteousness to man.
This is because it is the dispensing of the life of the righteous God Himself in Christ as the life giving Spirit into man.

"the last Adam became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15;45b)
Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit;
for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor. 3:66)


3.) The new covenant malking the first covenant unglorified- For also that which has been glorified in this respect has not been glorified on account of the surpassing glory.

Paul goes as far to say the glory of the new covenant has "not been glortified" on account that the glory of the new covenant so surpasses the glory of the old. The "ministry of the Spirit" a Divine Person is a ministry of His LIFE into man.

The latter ministry is of divine and righteous eternal life into man. The ministry of the Spirit is also the ministry of righteousness.
The former is the ministry of condemnation exposing the unrighteous shortage in man placing him ever under God's condemning judgment.

Now if you wish you can explain how my expounding of verses 8-11 "ignores" what you call the context of the chapter described in verses 1-3.

The first three verses of chapter 3 -

Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some do, letters of commendation to you or from you?

You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men,

Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh.

You seem to have forgotten what the result of the NC is.

 

[oikonomia]

You seem to have forgotten what the result of the NC is.

There are many important results of the new covenant.
If you want to talk about what you regard is your top favorite one go ahead.

In terms of comparing verses 1 - 3 with verses 8 - 10 there the result is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit
being inscribed or "written" into human beings.

A little background to chapter three:

Paul is being pressured by certain ones in the church in Corinth to speak of the genuine apostleship of the new covenant.
Some skeptical Corinthians in the church questions the credentials of Paul and his few co-workers.

Paul is incentivized to speak of these matters in this chapter -
1.) The function and competency of the new covenant ministry.
2.) The glory and superiority of the new covenant ministry.

Verses 1-3 are not easy to understand. In essence Paul is saying something like "We need no resume or written letter of
commendation either to you in Corinth or from you. Your very existence as a vibrant Christian community is proof of
the effectiveness of our work. "

But the mysterious part is that there are two copies of this living "letter of commendation" of their very existence.
One is the church in Corinth itself. And the other is that in the hearts of the apostles all men can see how utterly
one and in kinship the apostles are with the church in Corinth they serve.

Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some do, letters of commendation to you or from you?
You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men, (vs. 1,2)

All men seeing the church in Corinth and seeing the serving workers of that church can view
their spiritual harmony, oneness, and kinsmenship. That is evidence enough of the function and competency of the
new covenant.

Then we see God is being inscribed into man. In the analogy of writing the ink is the Third Person of the Trinity, the Spirit.
The apostles are doing the writing into men and on men's hearts. What they are inscribing in the living God as the Spirit.

Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh. (v.3)

A letter of Christ is being written. The writers are the apostles of Christ. It is the life of Christ being inscribed on human hearts compared as ink staining paper. Here a word, there a word, here a sentence, there a sentence, here a paragraph, there a paragraph is being inscribed on their psychological hearts.

The "letter" being composed spells out, describes, communicates more and more that Jesus Christ lives in them.
This is similar to Paul telling the Galatian churches that he was like a mother in labor causing Christ to be formed in the believers in Galatia.

My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you, (Gal. 4:19)

Both analogies are about Paul's God ordained work to minister the living Person of Jesus Christ into Christians.
Whether it is the writing of a letter or the child labor of a mother, Paul and his co-workers' mission is to
impart thier Christ whom the live by into individuals and churches.

In Second Corinthians there is the concept that there is an identical copy of this living letter of Christ
seen on the apostles themselves. So one letter is the church in Corinth and the copy is seen in the hearts
of the apostles themselves.

This is a result of the new covenant ministry.
And this inscribing of the Spirit into men is taken up again in verses 8-10.

It is the ministry of the Spirit not of law of Moses. It is a ministry of righeousness rather than of condemnation.
It is a ministry subsisting perpetually in greater glory than that which accompanied the old covenant.
It is a ministry of the life of God into man rather than only information in letter form about commandments.
It is a unfading glory which begins inwardly and one day be manifested even physically. In other words
it will consume the whole person and swallow us up with eternal life and the glorious expression of Christ living in man.

These further matters are seen further along in Second Corinthians.

 

[Gary K]

There are many important results of the new covenant.
If you want to talk about what you regard is your top favorite one go ahead.

In terms of comparing verses 1 - 3 with verses 8 - 10 there the result is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit
being inscribed or "written" into human beings.

A little background to chapter three:

Paul is being pressured by certain ones in the church in Corinth to speak of the genuine apostleship of the new covenant.
Some skeptical Corinthians in the church questions the credentials of Paul and his few co-workers.

Paul is incentivized to speak of these matters in this chapter -
1.) The function and competency of the new covenant ministry.
2.) The glory and superiority of the new covenant ministry.

Verses 1-3 are not easy to understand. In essence Paul is saying something like "We need no resume or written letter of
commendation either to you in Corinth or from you. Your very existence as a vibrant Christian community is proof of
the effectiveness of our work. "

But the mysterious part is that there are two copies of this living "letter of commendation" of their very existence.
One is the church in Corinth itself. And the other is that in the hearts of the apostles all men can see how utterly
one and in kinship the apostles are with the church in Corinth they serve.

Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some do, letters of commendation to you or from you?
You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men, (vs. 1,2)

All men seeing the church in Corinth and seeing the serving workers of that church can view
their spiritual harmony, oneness, and kinsmenship. That is evidence enough of the function and competency of the
new covenant.

Then we see God is being inscribed into man. In the analogy of writing the ink is the Third Person of the Trinity, the Spirit.
The apostles are doing the writing into men and on men's hearts. What they are inscribing in the living God as the Spirit.

Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh. (v.3)

A letter of Christ is being written. The writers are the apostles of Christ. It is the life of Christ being inscribed on human hearts compared as ink staining paper. Here a word, there a word, here a sentence, there a sentence, here a paragraph, there a paragraph is being inscribed on their psychological hearts.

The "letter" being composed spells out, describes, communicates more and more that Jesus Christ lives in them.
This is similar to Paul telling the Galatian churches that he was like a mother in labor causing Christ to be formed in the believers in Galatia.

My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you, (Gal. 4:19)

Both analogies are about Paul's God ordained work to minister the living Person of Jesus Christ into Christians.
Whether it is the writing of a letter or the child labor of a mother, Paul and his co-workers' mission is to
impart thier Christ whom the live by into individuals and churches.

In Second Corinthians there is the concept that there is an identical copy of this living letter of Christ
seen on the apostles themselves. So one letter is the church in Corinth and the copy is seen in the hearts
of the apostles themselves.

This is a result of the new covenant ministry.
And this inscribing of the Spirit into men is taken up again in verses 8-10.

It is the ministry of the Spirit not of law of Moses. It is a ministry of righeousness rather than of condemnation.
It is a ministry subsisting perpetually in greater glory than that which accompanied the old covenant.
It is a ministry of the life of God into man rather than only information in letter form about commandments.
It is a unfading glory which begins inwardly and one day be manifested even physically. In other words
it will consume the whole person and swallow us up with eternal life and the glorious expression of Christ living in man.

These further matters are seen further along in Second Corinthians.

The result of the NC that counts is knowing God for that is eternal life. John 17: 3