The Minister of the Promise

Sunday, March 9, 2025

Start with Application Testimony

[Give people an opportunity to share a testimony from last week’s exhortation]

Last lesson’s exhortation: Identify the ways in which you treat Jesus as a supplement to your life, and switch to approaching Him as the source of your life.

INTRO

We are going verse-by-verse, in a topical study through I & II Corinthians

Current Topic: Living by the Spirit - Exploring how to live as a Christian

Helpful background info before we start reading:

Covenants in the Bible are agreements that establish the terms of a relationship.

“Old Covenant” (a.k.a. the Law) - An agreement between God and his people, that established a way for them to have relationship. Because this agreement relied on the people’s faithfulness, it was never succeeded in sustaining a relationship between them and God. It only served to further highlight (a.k.a. condemn) human sin and failure.

“New Covenant” - Instead of being made between God and His people, this agreement is between God the Father and God the Son. In this Covenant, Jesus holds up the people’s end of the agreement on their behalf, providing a permanent and unbreakable way for people to have relationship with God.

READ

2 Corinthians 3 CSB

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. 6 He 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. 7 Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. 10 In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was set aside was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious. 12 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness. 13 We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside, 14 but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. 15 Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

EXAMINE

#1 | The Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus

The Holy Spirit is the one who communicates the work of Jesus to us.

Consider the powerful imagery in verse 3: if you were a letter that was written by Jesus, then the Holy Spirit would be the ink that Jesus used.

2 Corinthians 3:3 “...you are Christ’s letter… not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God… on tablets of human hearts.”

When we truly believed in Christ, it wasn’t because another person persuaded us, but because the Holy Spirit convinced us.

1 Corinthians 12:3 “...no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

#2 | The Holy Spirit secures us in Jesus

The Holy Spirit administers the work of Jesus to us.

2 Corinthians 3:7–8 “Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory… how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?”

The Holy Spirit carries the cleansing and redeeming work of Jesus directly into our soul.

Titus 3:5 “he [Jesus] saved us… through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit is God’s presence with us.

Receiving the Holy Spirit within us is the first great fulfillment of the promises of the New Covenant.

Ephesians 1:13–14 “In him [Jesus] you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.”

The Holy Spirit enacts the New Covenant promises by being the real presence of God, not just with us, but within us.

#3 | The Holy Spirit makes us like Jesus

The Holy Spirit helps us to understand Jesus

He removes the “veil” that blinds us to the truth of what God has revealed

2 Corinthians 3:15–16 “Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”

The Holy Spirit empowers life transformation

As he reveals Jesus to us, the Holy Spirit begins shaping us to be like Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

"From glory to glory” is describing a progressive process. As we walk in the Spirit we become more and more like Christ.

REFLECT

Let’s take a moment to pray

Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight and draw our attention to what He wants us to see and understand today

APPLY

Process the passage together with these questions:

[Allow the conversation to go where people take it - we want people to feel the liberty to explore the topics of the passage that stand out to them. Select the questions from below that you think are right for the conversation, or add your own. Questions should be focused, yet open-ended. Wherever the conversation goes, help your group “land the plane” on the core idea of the lesson when you wrap up.]

What do you think Paul meant when he said in verse 6 that the “letter kills, but the Spirit gives life?”

When Paul says in verse 17 that “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom,” what kind of freedom is he talking about?

Think about the implications of God placing His Spirit within you. What does that mean for you today?

Where we want to “land the plane”

All the good things that Jesus has done for us, are made real and tangible in our lives through the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Therefore the gift of the Holy Spirit is not something we should receive lightly or undervalue. Instead, we should receive the Holy Spirit as the proof of God’s love for us and the motivation to forsake sin and pursue holiness.

Exhortation for the Week

Read Psalm 139 and spend time reflecting on the reality that God has placed His Spirit within you. Then ask the Holy Spirit to shape you and direct you.

FOOTNOTES

Old and New Covenants. To underscore the superiority of the New Covenant to that of the Old, particularly as it was proclaimed by his opponents, Paul discussed Exodus 34:29–35. His point was to show that the Old Covenant, because it came from God, was glorious. But because its fulfillment was based on human initiative, it ultimately was transitory and “fading” (katargeō, 2 Cor. 3:7, 11, 13), needing to be replaced by the New Covenant and the Spirit’s ministry which is eternal (Heb. 9:14). To illustrate this, Paul contrasted the fading radiance of God’s glory on the face of Moses (2 Cor. 3:7) with the ever-increasing radiance of Christians (v. 18). The Old Covenant ministry of Moses brought death to people. It was not the fault of Moses or the Law, which was “holy, righteous, and good” (Rom. 7:12; cf. 1 Tim. 1:8). It was the fault of human sin (Rom. 7:10–11). Still even this ministry of death had a glory, though transitory and fading (cf. 2 Cor. 3:11, 13), which was visually illustrated by the Old Covenant’s intended obsolescence. David K. Lowery, “2 Corinthians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 561.