Ministers of the New Covenant, Part I

2 Corinthians 3:4-6
"Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills but the Spirit gives life."

I want to have this kind of confidence toward God. I want all of my confidence, approval, and ministry to come through Christ toward God. We are not sufficient to claim anything is from us. Nothing. What a relief that is because I know that everything that comes from me is evil. So thank God for his cleansing powers of regeneration (Titus 3:5). Thank God that he has now made me competent to be a minister of His new covenant. My full dependence of knowledge and wisdom comes solely from him. It must come solely from Him. Apart from Him I am nothing and with Him I am completed. That doesnt make Him the better part of me, or the angel on my shoulder, its makes Him my everything. The new covenant is that of the Spirit and not of the letter (or law). The law brings condemnations, the law brings death because we cannot fulfill the law, but the Spirit has been brought to us and it has brought us life. Not just life everlasting but life right now.

That is where the mortification of sin comes in since we have been talking about that lately. We must remove sin so that the Spirit is thriving and sin is removed by the Spirit. So, it is completely dependent on us allowing the Spirit to work faithfully in our lives. "He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it" 1 Thessalonians 5:24. This is what it means to live right now. We must deny the flesh and live by the Spirit so that the joy of Christ is fully in us and is seen through us.