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I'm glad you joined us for day three of 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 7 to 11
today. We are talking this week about how we deal with feelings of inadequacy in
our lives. And Paul in these verses is going to talk about an old way of living
that the Corinthians were being tempted to follow after, that some people try to
use when they feel inadequate in life.

The Corinthians are struggling, obviously, as Paul talks to them in these
verses, about whether to return to Old Testament ways. Now for some of them,
they'd never followed Old Testament ways, but people were coming in and saying,
"Hey, this is the old tradition. This is where you need to go.

" Whenever you have a feeling of self-doubt or inadequacy in your life, there'll
be plenty of people who tell you how to solve that problem. Many times, though,
it's ways that have never worked for anyone and never worked to make a solution
in anybody's life. And maybe the answer they were thinking when I feel
inadequate is to return to the law.

I get a list of rules and regulations, and I depend on them to make me feel
closer to God and more adequate for the task of daily life. Because if I got a
list of rules and regulations, I can do check marks, and I can say, "Yeah, I did
that one. I did that one.

I did that one. " So now I know God has to do what I tell him to do. And what
this is called is legalism, and it doesn't work.

In fact, listen to what Paul has to say about it in these verses 7 to 11. "Now
if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved on letters of stone, came
with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses
because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit
be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much
more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness?

For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.
For if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of
that which lasts? " These are some of the clearest verses in all the New
Testament about the law in the Old Testament and the new way of the Spirit in
the New Testament.

Paul talks about the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
They wanted to look back to something that had once had glory, and it was
glorious. When God gave the law in the Old Testament, you might want to go
listen to the study of the book of Exodus.

There was great glory that was there. There was fire on the mountain. There were
miracles.

There were pillars of smoke and of fire. Paul simply asks, "If that was
glorious, and it's something that has faded away, why wouldn't you now begin to
look to something that's even more glorious? " You see, they were listening to
false teachers, and the false teachers were saying, "Let's look back to the
past, to something that once had glory.

There's always people that will do this. " And Paul is essentially saying, "When
the sun has risen, why do you need a flashlight? " Now, he doesn't say that the
law is wrong.

He doesn't say that the law is empty. He doesn't say that the law is something
that God should not have done. He recognizes the glory of the law, but he
recognizes that it's a minimal and a glory and a glory that's fading away.

The Old Covenant is the law, and the New Covenant is the promise of Jesus
Christ, the New Covenant that he spoke about at the Last Supper when he said, "A
new covenant I give to you in my blood," that he's given his life for us. How
does this work in my life? How does this work in your life?

On a personal basis for each of us, the Old Covenant is life on your own power,
a law that I can keep, a thing that I can do. The New Covenant is life under the
Spirit's power. And false teachers in Corinth were telling them to return to
this Old Covenant, life under your power, the law that you can keep.

This happens to us as servants of Christ also. We try to return to life under
our own power, and when you do that, all of a sudden you feel tremendously
inferior. In these verses, as Paul contrasts the new and the old, you see some
significant reasons for one resulting in fear and timidity, the Old Covenant,
and the other resulting in joy and boldness, the New Covenant.

Look at the contrast he draws here. He talks about death versus life. He talks
about stone written in stone versus written on hearts.

He talks about fading versus increasing. He talks about condemning versus
righteous. First he talks about death versus life.

He says the ministry that brought death versus the ministry that brings life.
The law was good, but our universal breaking of the law only proclaimed our
death. That's what it was good for, to proclaim the fact that we're separated
from God.

His spirit proclaims our life, that we can, in Christ, find new life. There's
something about knowing that you're enjoying, you're proclaiming eternal life
that adds a new sense of boldness to all of your actions, and Paul says that's
where you got to live. You got to live on the life side of this equation, not
the death side.

Then he talks about whether it's written in stone or written in your hearts. The
Old Covenant was written on Moses' stone tablets. The New Covenant, through
God's Spirit, it's written on your heart.

The New Covenant is a covenant of assurance, assurance in your own heart. Jesus
said, "Look, I'm standing at the door knocking, anyone opens the door, I will
come in and fellowship with him. " It's the heart of a relationship with Jesus
Christ.

You might remember in the story, the Chronicles of Narnia, the picture of the
Old Covenant there was that stone table. And when Aslan, the representative of
Jesus, dies, that stone table is broken, it cracks. And that's what's happened
to the law.

The law was only good to tell us why we were apart from God. We need Jesus. We
need Jesus in our lives so that our hearts can be now knit with God.

Paul continues to walk through this and he talks about the difference between
fading and increasing. He says, "From the day that Israel received the Old
Covenant, they actually began to turn away from it. " And even Moses, his face,
when it would go up in the mountain, his face would shine in a glorious way.

He would come down and they could actually see the glory of God on his face. It
was shown. But he put a veil over his face.

And some people think, "Oh, that's because they couldn't stand seeing Moses'
face. " But the real reason was it didn't shine for very long. And Moses didn't
want them to see how quickly the glory faded away.

It's hard to be bold about something. It's hard to be excited about something
that's fading away. The eternal newness of the Gospel makes us bold.

Paul says, "That's what's going to last. That's what you hold on to. " Paul
talks about death and life and written on stone versus written on hearts, fading
versus increasing.

And then he talks about what's condemning versus what's righteous. The law, he
says, is just condemning. It condemns us to death.

It can only result in showing us our guilt, showing us our need before God,
telling us what we have done wrong. Now in Old Testament times, the way that
they dealt with that was by making a sacrifice, a sacrifice in the temple. That
sacrifice looked forward to the sacrifice that Jesus one day was going to make
on the cross.

That sacrifice had no power except for the fact that Jesus one day was going to
die on the cross. And because of that sacrifice of Jesus, we are made righteous.
Paul says, "What was glorious now has no glory in comparison with the surpassing
glory.

" Because one ministry condemned men, the other brings righteousness. What does
righteousness mean? It means right relationship that results in right actions,
by the way.

Right relationship now with God through Jesus Christ. The new covenant results
in forgiveness and righteousness. So that's the side you want to live on.

You want to live on the side of life and eternal life. You want to live on the
side of heart and connection to Jesus Christ. You want to live on the side of
increasing and that which is going to last.

You want to live on the side of righteous. And then now I live in right
relationship with God. Now as I look through these contrasts, it impresses me
that a major reason for our feelings of inadequacy in Christian life, for
feelings of timidity rather than boldness, is our tendency to try to live our
spiritual life under our own power.

Your list of rules may not be the same as that in the Old Testament, but you've
got some list of rules. And if you keep that list of rules, you feel close to
God. If you don't, you don't.

You don't feel close to him. If you keep that list of rules, you think God has
to bless me and God's going to do great things. If you don't, you think he can't
bless me.

Well, God has things for you to do. There's no doubt that he has tasks. But if
you make your list of rules the standard of God's blessing, you've minimized
God's blessing in your life.

You're trying to live under Old Covenant rather than New Covenant. When you do
that, you begin to seek to try assurance in your own works rather than in God's
grace. When you do that, you begin to try to motivate yourself with a cattle
prod of guilt rather than through the forgiving love of Christ.

When you do that, you begin to wear yourself out, making veils to hide behind
rather than allowing the Spirit's work to enable you to live genuinely and
openly for the glory of God. Ray Stedman has a great picture of living life
under your own power. He talks about a man buying a car unaware of the fact that
it has a motor, as crazy as that might sound.

So he loads his whole family in and it goes okay downhill, but it sure is tough
making it uphill while pushing. A lot of us face that same feeling. In fact,
because of this, sometimes even in church we give seminars on how to push more
effectively, how to more effectively live the Christian life under your own
power.

It doesn't work. Here's what Ray Stedman says about this. This is exactly where
much of Christianity is being lived today.

We spend many hours seeking to teach people how to mobilize their human
resources and try harder to get the job done for God. This is not what authentic
Christianity is all about. God knew that we human beings aren't adequate in
ourselves to meet the demands that life places upon us.

So he supplied a power plant, the life of Jesus Christ himself. And then I love
this last sentence. We can experience the restfulness of activity in the
strength of another.

God, that's where God wants you to live, in the restfulness of activity in the
strength of another. He wants you active. He wants you working, but there's the
restfulness of knowing is done in the strength of Jesus Christ.

So let's talk to him. Jesus, it's so easy to pick it up myself and to try to do
it on my own strength. But Lord, keep reminding me.

Keep reminding me to depend on you. Keep reminding me to do it in your strength,
because then you get the glory. Then that's where the glory is.

So even today, even in this minute, even these next 10 minutes as I face
circumstances, as I face thoughts, remind me once again that I want to do this
in your strength. Let me experience the restfulness of activity in the strength
of another. I ask this in your name.

Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to take a closer look at one last contrast, the
difference between being veiled and being set free.