The Ministry of Righteousness

"But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory."

2 Corinthians 3:7-9

What an appreciation we should have for Jesus Christ and the new covenant made with His shed blood.  The Law of Moses is good when used lawfully, but the Gospel of grace is established on infinitely better promises.  Ministry under the Law was a ministry of death, for it required the sacrifice of animals to provide atonement for the sin of people and the nation.  The sacrifice and offering of clean beasts under the Law was a perpetual requirement with no end in sight because no one could possibly keep the Law--for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.  Paul's point in the 2 Corinthians 3 passage affirms the ministry of death and condemnation was glorious, for the face of Moses shone after communion with God, yet the ministry of righteousness through the Holy Spirit who regenerates and sanctifies Christians is far more glorious.

The book of Hebrews develops this concept further, proving the supremacy of Jesus over all angels and even the prophet Moses who was revered by the Jews.  The priesthood of Jesus Christ was not according to the Law, as He was of the tribe of Judah, but of the order of Melchizedek who was greater than Abraham!  Jesus did not enter the sanctuary with the blood of bulls and goats according to the Law but with His own blood that once for all cleansed sinners, providing eternal redemption by grace through faith.  Hebrews 9:13-14 reads, "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"  Through animals sacrificed according to the Law and the sprinkling of the water of purification that contained the ashes of the red heifer, the bodies of sinners could be cleansed.  The work that Jesus accomplished by His death and resurrection cleanses us inside and out permanently--and this includes our conscience.

People kept the Law out of fear of divine reprisal, punishment, being potentially cut off from society, family and their inheritance.  Those who feared God were subject to ordinances they kept to the best of their ability, slaves to keep a Law that could not save them but could only condemn.  Jesus ushered in a marvellous change as it is written in Romans 8:1:  "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."  The Law that condemned us was nailed to the cross with Jesus.  Instead of continuing in dead works of sacrificing animals--which cannot permanently cleanse and could never save--we are born-again, guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go beyond the Law in loving God and others, faithfully serving Him, made fruitful by the Spirit Who indwells us.  This is not "the Law plus," but the Law is out of the way:  Jesus is the Way!  Having received the Gospel, we are free of the guilt and condemnation of the Law of Moses.

Of Jews in the early church who were born again, many kept the Law of Moses as unto the LORD and to remain in good standing in the community to influence and win fellow Jews to Christ.  The Gentiles were not called to become Jews when they received Christ, but out of love were commanded to avoid doing what could stumble Jews or Gentiles.  Love goes beyond the letter of the Law to glorify Jesus and serve one another, governing our lives and hearts from within in righteousness.  Christians have a glorious ministry of righteousness by faith in Jesus; we have conscience cleansed from dead works so we can serve God free of condemnation.  The new covenant Jesus has made to redeem sinners and reconcile us to Himself makes us new creations with clean consciences--able ministers of the new covenant by His grace.

Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 is a fitting conclusion:  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Coming To Ourselves

There are a passages in scripture where people "came to themselves," and they were suddenly, even miraculously, convinced of a reality they knew was true.  This realisation is a gift of God.  One such occasion happened after Peter found himself in the street after being led out of prison, and at first he thought it was a dream or vision.  He was joyful over what had done and Acts 12:11 says, "And when Peter had come to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people."  Encouraged and excited by God's deliverance, he went to a house where he discovered Christians were literally praying for his release.

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus described what happed to a man who wasted his inheritance in a foreign land and during a famine found himself in want.  The poor man was so desperate to survive he took on a job feeding pigs and was so famished the pods he fed the swine started looking tasty.  Luke 15:17 reads, "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!"  The realisation his father's servants ate to the full, coupled with the grim reality he was starving, compelled him to humbly return to his father to beg for a hired position.  He did not only realise he was hungry and his father was generous:  he realised his grave sin and was desperate to be forgiven and accepted again.

Divine revelation and personal realisation are required to begin the process of repentance and restoration before God.  The LORD has revealed plainly many sins in the Bible of which we have been guilty, and whether by ignorance or neglect we may not realise it.  Since God has also given us the Bible and a conscience, plus parents, teachers, government authority and laws, the majority of the time it is not a lack of revelation of what is right or wrong but our unwillingness to receive personal revelation that leads to wilful blindness.  Our sin can be clear as day, yet we are insensible to it:  we deny or deflect blame, justify ourselves, point out how others are worse than us, imagine the good we have done cancels our guilt, or we just don't care.  We can pretend sin isn't there when it has us by the throat and is choking the life out of us.  It might not be until we have suffered poverty, loss and loneliness like the prodigal before we accept God's wisdom of what is sin, realise we are wrong, and desperately need to change.

When we drift from God from carelessness or stubbornness in sin, we might wonder how it all came to this.  We are overwhelmed at the prospect of retracing our steps to try to find our way back to God over the years of disobedience, rebellion and folly.  We have no clue where or when things went so wrong.  But what did the prodigal do after realising his sin?  He realised he had sinned and humbled himself and simply went by foot to his father.  He left the pigs and his boss who never gave him anything and went with a heart willing to do anything his father asked because he had nothing.  1 John 1:9 shows the way of repentance and restoration to God for believers, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  When we come to ourselves and realise we have sinned, let us confess our sin to God and repent, knowing God promises to cleanse us from sin through the Gospel.  We are also to confess our faults to those we have wronged and pray for one another.

An incident in Ephesus made a positive impact when imposter exorcists were beaten up by a demon who knew Jesus and Paul.  Acts 19:17-20 says, "This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. ¹⁸ And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. ¹⁹ Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed."  The passage tells us there were believers in Jesus who continued to practice witchcraft, and God used this situation to reveal their need to confess and repent of sin.  Part of the process of repentance was to destroy their books, and this is a good example we should follow for anything that leads us to sin.  There are a great many things we may have continued reading, viewing or following after coming to Christ that are sinful.  These sins include (but not limited to!) habits, desires, language, attitudes and thinking patterns that have no business being in our lives because we are in Christ.  The result of burning the books of magic enabled the Good Book to expand and it prevailed--to a far greater degree than the evil spirit prevailed over the sons of Sceva.

Having come to ourselves over the realisation of our sin, let us return humbly to our Saviour Jesus in repentance.  Feeling guilty or sorry for our sin is not repentance.  If our sorrow for sin is not mixed with faith in Jesus that is marked by obedience to Him, such sorrow leads to despair.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 to believers he rebuked for sin, "Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. ¹⁰ For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."  God and all heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents, and every Christian is a sinner.  God does not only rejoice the first time we repented but every successive time our coming to ourselves results in us returning to God in humble faith and repentance.

The Willing Giver

Christians who have received the Gospel can view life under the Law of Moses as a extensive list of oppressive, unwelcome demands.  While the Law did contain statutes and judgments that people who feared God submitted to best they could, people were willing to go beyond the letter of the Law to bless God by giving to Him Who had blessed them.  The almighty God heard their cries, freed them from bondage in Egypt, destroyed their enemies, and prepared a good land to enter into.  He also desired to dwell in their midst, and they were given the opportunity to give and labour to that end.

After Moses received God's plans for the tabernacle, he spoke to everyone in the Israelite community to bring an offering to the LORD of whatever they had--and the caveat is they were to be willing, for God loves a cheerful giver.  Exodus 35:20-21 says, "And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. ²¹ Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD'S offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments."  In the Old Testament we have this wonderful example of God moving in the midst of His people, stirring their hearts to willingly give.  They were not to give because the Law required them to give a particular percentage or amount, nor was a guilt trip laid on them for all God had given them and their obligation to return the favour.  The passage is marked by an incredible willingness in God's people to present offerings to God of what they had of their own free will for His service.

The people were willing to generously give offerings to God and also were willing to come and do the work, to follow the lead of Bezalel and Oholiab to construct the sanctuary.  I am reminded of what happened many years later when the ruined walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt under the leadership of Nehemiah (a cupbearer!), and a diverse group of people who were not masons or even skilled at manual labour who successfully built the wall in a matter of weeks.  The people were so willing to give it came to a point more materials than were necessary for building the tabernacle had been accumulated, and thus the people were restrained from giving.  They had to be commanded by Moses to stop bringing valuable and precious goods to the workers because there was already enough to do the work.  This passage illustrates the willingness to give that marks the people whose God is the LORD.

May the LORD stir our hearts and make us willing to offer ourselves as living sacrifices unto the LORD, and this includes our possessions, skills and abilities.  The raw materials brought to Moses were crafted into a dwelling place of the LORD, and by the work Jesus did on the cross each believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.  In light of all God has given us, we should be moved to generously give as unto Him when opportunities to meet needs arise.  2 Corinthians 9:7-8 says in the context for providing for ministry to believers, "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work."  How blessed we are by the riches of God's grace that is always sufficient in all things to give and contribute to His glorious testimony.

Learning Obedience

A child shares a unique relationship with their parents, having been conceived by them and born subject to them.  Infants and young children are completely reliant upon their parents for survival, and as they develop they learn to understand communication by tone, facial expressions and words.  Parents train their children to do basic tasks themselves, and often children learn to obey by trial and error, failing again and again until they finally succeed.  It takes a lot of effort and coordination for a child to learn to walk, to tie their shoes or dress themselves.

When it comes to obedience, to young children their parent is the authority.  While there are likely exceptions to this, should there be a conflict between what a pre-school teacher or friend says and what mum or dad says, the child will tend to side with their parents.  In that tender age they have no reason to think their parents, who have provided for them and helped them through every season of life, would deliberately mislead them.  It is when they grow older and more independent they question, doubt and even oppose what their parents said, buoyed by the pride and passion of youth.  A combination of faithful training, loving discipline, life experiences that include negative consequences, and exposure to biblical truth help guide people of all ages to mature.

The writer of Hebrews used the relationship Jesus (as the Son of God) had with His heavenly Father to instruct and encourage those who have been born-again to learn obedience.  Hebrews 5:7-10 says of Jesus, "...who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, ⁸ though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, ¹⁰ called by God as High Priest "according to the order of Melchizedek..."  Small children in trouble instinctively run to their parents for protection, and Jesus cried out to God His Father Who heard Him.  Jesus did not learn obedience by making mistakes that required correction but by the things He suffered.  Jesus learned obedience to His Father in a relationship with God, and as born-again children of God by faith in Jesus we learn to obey Him.

Salvation is not earned by obedience, but genuine faith that saves is marked by obedience.  As Jesus learned obedience, so we also are called to learn to obey God our Father.  The payment Jesus has made for our sin inspires us to walk righteously, and the negative consequences experienced for our sin provides valuable lessons that work to sanctify.  Since the righteousness of God has been imputed to us by faith in Jesus, the loving relationship we share fosters our desire is to please Him by obedience.  Our obedience to Jesus Christ is an indication we have a genuine relationship with God even as a child has with their loving parents.  We too can learn obedience by the things which we suffer, and God provides consolation for our suffering.  Obedience is not always binary but by degrees, for even our best efforts to obey often fall short of God's perfection.

If Jesus Who was without sin needed to learn obedience, it follows we need to learn to obey God as well, to learn to keep our vessels in honour.  Obedience to God may lead to temporary suffering, yet consider the eternal benefits of Christ's obedience to go to the cross to atone for lost sinners!  Death was swallowed up in victory; pain and shame was dissolved with eternal joy and perfect peace.  The benefits of obedience are glorious rewards the wise desire, and to identify with Christ through joyful obedience to God is evidence of our eternal salvation.  Because Jesus is our Saviour, we delight to learn to obey Him.  One day we will be perfected even as Jesus is, and we thus presently offer up prayers and supplications to Him who is able to save us from death and provide eternal salvation.