Ministry of the New Covenant

Back in 2 Corinthians. I hit a sweet spot in studying tonight and wanted to share a couple of paragraphs that excited me. The passage is 2 Corinthians 3:7-11. The comments are below.

Ever conscious and grateful for the Old Covenant, Paul draws a contrast between the old and new. He refers to the old covenant as a ministry of death (3:7) and condemnation (3:9), not because it was malicious, but because its express role was to identify sin in the people and their need for salvation (cf. Rom 7:7-10). It had no power in itself to give life, but it clearly identified the sickness that was causing death. It exactly served the purpose for which God created it, and He gave it with His manifest presence. Paul makes no mistake about it: the old covenant was a glorious thing.

However, if the old covenant was so glorious, even with all of its purposeful shortcomings, how much more glorious must this new covenant be? This covenant doesn’t just have the power to convict sin—it has the power to bring about righteousness. The old covenant was passing away, and the new covenant was eternally remaining. Something much more glorious had come upon the scene, and it was this covenant of which Paul and his team were made ministers.

Doesn't it just make you excited to be saved?

2 Corinthians Outline

Inspired by seeing Ron Downing's post of the outline of Matthew for his group's practicum class, I decided to unapologetically swipe the idea and do the same for my group's assignment of 2 Corinthians. Here's where we're at:


I. Greeting and prayer (1:1-5)
II. Affliction and comfort (1:6-13a)
- A. Rightly interpreting the affliction (1:6-11)
- B. Boasting in simplicity (1:12-13a)
III. Paul explains his absence (1:13b-2:13)
- A. The intention to come (1:13b-1:18)
- B. The Godhead, the pattern to follow of faithfulness and follow-through (1:19-22)
- C. Sparing the Corinthians more grief (2:1-4)
- D. Parenthesis: Forgiving the one who has caused grief (2:5-11)
- E. Divine appointment preventing Paul’s earlier arrival (2:12-13)
IV. The ministry of the New Covenant/ministry of reconciliation (2:14-6:10)
- A. Praising God for the effectiveness of the ministry (2:14-3:4)
- B. Explaining the ministry (3:5-6:11)
- - 1. The glorious new covenant of the Spirit (3:5-11)
- - 2. Veiled under Moses, unveiled in Christ (3:12-18)
- - 3. Ministers of the New Covenant (4:1-2)
- - - a. Explaining why some are still unable to receive the ministry (4:3-6)
- - - b. Explaining the apostle’s lowly state (4:7-15)
- - - c. Hope in the trial: eternal weight of glory, the resurrection (4:16-5:5)
- - - d. Confidence even in death (5:6-11)
- C. Motive and message of the ministers (5:12-18)
- - 1. Regarding no one by the flesh because of the new creation (5:12-18)
- - 2. Standing as ambassadors of Christ (5:19-6:10)
V. Appealing for purity amongst the believers (6:11-7:3)
VI. The apostle’s comfort in the report of the Corinthians (7:4-7)
- A. Godly sorrow and comfort (7:8-13a)
- B. Titus’ refreshment in the church’s repentance (7:13b-16)
VII. Generous giving (8:1-9:15)
- A. Example of giving: the generosity of the Macedonians (8:1-5)
- B. The Corinthians exhorted to give generously (8:6-9:15)
- - 1. Titus sent to complete the grace in them (8:6-7)
- - 2. Christ the example of extravagant giving (8:8-9)
- - 3. Follow through on your giving (8:10-15)
- - 4. Parenthesis: Commending Titus and his companion [who will collect the gift] (8:16-24)
- - 5. Motivating the Corinthians to give (9:1-15)
VIII. The apostle’s authority (10:1-18)
- A. Speaking in meek authority (10:1-2)
- B. The warfare is not carnal, but spiritual (10:3-6)
- C. Judging the apostle by outward appearances (10:7-11)
- D. The apostles contrasted with false apostles who commend themselves (10:12-18)
IX. Paul resorts to a little foolish boasting for the sake of the Bride of Christ (11:1-4)
- A. Paul challenges the Corinthians to find blame in him (11:5-11)
- B. The deceptive nature of false apostles (11:12-15)
- C. Countering the false apostles with a little boasting of his own (11:16-12:13)
- - 1. Boasting foolishly (11:16-21a)
- - 2. Paul’s pedigree (11:21b-22)
- - 3. Boasting in infirmities (11:23-33)
- - 4. Visions and Revelations of the Lord (12:1-5)
- - 5. The thorn in the flesh (12:6-10)
- - 6. Paul, a genuine apostle (12:11-13)
X. Paul’s upcoming visit (12:14-16)
- A. Refusing to take advantage of the church (12:17-19a)
- B. Examine yourselves (12:19b-13:5)
- C. Praying for the Corinthians to be made complete (13:6-10)
XI. Farewell (13:11-14)

Not Yes and No... Yes and Amen

For my upcoming semester at FSM (which--excitingly and frighteningly, is my last one), my class has the practicum assignment to write a commentary on the New Testament. One of the assigned books for my group is 2 Corinthians. I suggested we start with it, mostly because I'm chickening out of trying to outline Luke just yet.

Luke is a very big book.

Anyway, 2 Corinthians is only thirteen chapters long. I must admit I haven't spent too much time in it up until now. But reading through it and trying to structure it into an outline has been very eye-opening for me, and I'm happy that I'm going to be spending the next few weeks commenting on it. You can bet that most, if not all, of my next few blog posts will revolve around it.

What jumped out at me today was the context of 1:20 - "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God..." I'd always heard this verse as sort of a stand-alone, reminding us how we can completely trust God to follow-through with what He's promised. Of course that's true, and a great application, but reading it in it's context adds a whole new sobering weight to it: that's what's being upheld as a standard for faithfulness.

In this verse, Paul is explaining his absence, defending it by saying that the apostles' promise to the Corinthians was not "Yes and No." Why not? Because "the Son of God, Jesus Christ...was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes." Jesus is the pattern Paul is following for faithfulness and follow-through. Since He was unwaveringly faithful, that's how Paul and his ministry team determined to conduct themselves.

So there's one more reason to let our "yes" be "yes" and our "no" be "no"...