Be Encouraged – 2 Corinthians 3:1-3
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Be Encouraged – 2 Corinthians 3:1-3
The Difference between Law and Grace (Part One)
Turn with me to the 2 Corinthians 3:1-3; we are in the midst of our study through this letter to
the Corinthian church, a letter that is a response to how the church responded to Paul’s first
letter in 1 Corinthians.
This church had serious issues; sin, division, contention, and were even allowing a false form of
the gospel to come into their teaching. Paul writes this letter to them as one who led them to
Christ, who invested a year and a half to teach them about Jesus, who led them into what it
means to live a Spirit-filled life. His letters were evidence that he wanted this church to thrive
in their city, and not merely exist.
Yet, there was a group that always tried to undermine Paul’s ministry. This group was known as
the Judaizers; they promoted that one should live as a Jew in accordance with Jewish customs
in addition to the ways of Christ. In other words, they were teaching a mixture, a counterfeit
gospel, a combining of law and grace, a gospel of legalism, Jesus plus keeping the law, receiving
grace through the work of Jesus on the cross, plus earning approval from God through our
efforts. Paul made mention of them last week in our text in 2 Corinthians 2:17:
17 You see, we are not like the many hucksters* who preach for personal profit. We
preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is
watching us.
There were a group of people selling a different gospel that looked to Jesus, yet also put
emphasis on man’s efforts to save himself. It was a manipulative gospel that required people
to give money, to look at titles, to enforce rules, to use a worldly measurement to determine
whether or not someone was truly a legitimate recipient of God’s acceptance. So as we come
to chapter 3, Paul is going to compare his message and ministry of grace with those who
preaching this other gospel. This morning we are going to look at the first difference in 2
Corinthians 3:1-3:
Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others, who need to bring you
letters of recommendation, or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? Surely
not! 2 The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a
letter written in our* hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among
you. 3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you.
This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is
carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.
Paul has been declaring a gospel that is strictly based on the grace of God; that everything we
receive from God is based on his goodness and not ours, that our salvation is based on faith and
Be Encouraged – 2 Corinthians 3:1-3
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not on works, that our being called the children of God is based on his adoption of us and not
on our demands. His message is rooted in Jesus Christ and nothing else and it is backed and
fully endorsed by the Word of God.
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Church, what we are to be about is to declare the full gospel of Jesus Christ based on
His Word, without adding to or taking away from the power of its message.
The message of Jesus Christ is airtight, his gospel is secured by God himself, the power is found
in Jesus and not in ourselves. It is a message that is reliable, transforming, and full of power.
That is the message Paul was preaching and these Judaizers didn’t like it. When you can’t beat
the message, then what do you do? You go after the messenger. The message is bulletproof,
but the messengers are not; for we are human after all.
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Just because we are frail, sinful, inadequate human followers of Jesus doesn’t mean
that the message of Jesus has diminished by any means.
We all have our quirks and our challenges, yet the message of Jesus Christ who grants us
salvation based on faith, and able to transform us from spiritual death to life is still the same
today. And we have the privilege of declaring this life-altering gospel when we ourselves are
unworthy of such a task. But this why we are lead people to Jesus and not our own lives,
because we will let people down in their view of God.
To be a Christian is to be a Christ follower; to look to Jesus as our aim. But how many of us
know that it’s not always a good idea for people to judge Christianity based on those who say
they are Christians. Instead, they need to judge Christianity based on what it teaches; and
based on how God has transformed people’s lives.
Yet, God still chooses to use you and me to declare this good news. (it boggles the mind). That
is why Paul called us the fragrance of Christ last week, and that we are to allow our lives to
bring the smell of life to others. Any of us deserving of being the fragrance of Christ? No.
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The message of the Cross has not changed and it will not change; salvation based
solely on the finished work of Jesus on the Cross.
But the Judaizers were putting emphasis on credentials and letters of recommendations more
than on the evidence of the power of the gospel Paul preached. They had convinced the church
in Corinth to ask Paul for letters of recommendation, even after Paul led this church to Jesus,
taught them the Word of God, invested a year and a half of his life, and the processes they
experienced transformation.
Verse 1
In verse 1 of our text, Paul says, “do we need to bring you letters of recommendation?” The
word “recommendation” in the Greek means “to announce, or to sell oneself to another.” Did
Be Encouraged – 2 Corinthians 3:1-3
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Paul need to sell himself to them? No, the power of God is proof of Paul’s message. Paul told
them in 1 Corinthians 6:11:
11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you
were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God.
Why did Paul now have to come with man-made letters of approval when God had already
proven Paul to be his authentic minister to this church? Is the gospel contingent on a person’s
title, diploma, or credentials? Is a person a minister of the gospel because they have a card or
piece of paper that tells them they are? No. Jesus even said of himself in John 10:37-38:
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“Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. 38 But if I do his work, believe in
the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you
will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”
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The only endorsement a person needs for the legitimacy of their ministry is truly
transformed lives.
That is why you can have a full church building, a lot of church activities, hundreds of people
showing up week after week, and no transformation and yet the world calls it a success, when
God doesn’t.
For me, the only reason why I know I have been called to be a pastor is because I have a hunger
to learn and teach the Word, and I have seen what God has done in people’s lives as I share
Jesus with them (God does the work; yet it is addicting). We declare Jesus and God does the
work. Look at what people said about Paul and Silas’ ministry in Acts 17:3-4, 6:
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He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the
dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” 4 Some of the Jews who
listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek
men and quite a few prominent women.
“Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are
here disturbing our city, too.”
All they did was declare Jesus, and the world was changed (they caused trouble). We are an
authentic church as long as we are declaring the Word of God, being challenged, experiencing
growth in our personal lives, and people are being saved and transformed. We don’t need a
robe, or a degree, or a title in front of our names; we don’t need a building, a website, or a
worship team to be successful. All we need is to declare God’s Word and see that His power is
reaching people. Amen.
Be Encouraged – 2 Corinthians 3:1-3
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The difference between law and grace is that the law requires qualified individuals
who have endorsements and acknowledgments to do ministry, but grace uses
inadequate human vessels who are surrendered to the power of God and His Word.
Example of Moses (Hesitancy, inadequacy). That is why the Bible teaches that every person
here is a minister. We are to declare Jesus and leave the results up to him. The evidence of our
ministry is that people will be changed. Ephesians 4:11-12 tells us:
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people
to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
Verse 2-3
Paul goes on and states in verse 2 “the only letter we need is you yourselves.” “Everyone can
see that Christ has done something to you.” “Doesn’t that prove that we are divinely sent?”
In fact, Paul uses the word “epistle” here which means “a letter, a writing, a story or account.”
The lives of those in the Corinthian church was a part of a written story that continues even to
this day. The greatest epistle is still being written today. We are all part of His-story. But
unlike those who tried to impress others with their stories written with pen and ink, this story is
written on our human hearts. That is another difference between Law and Grace.
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The difference between Law and Grace is that one is focused only on what is written,
while the other is focused on Jesus Christ.
We, as human, like to put great emphasis on physical, tangible things. That is why we put
emphasis on achievements and letters of recommendations. But when it comes to our life in
Jesus, it’s not based on external things, but on the work of Jesus that is able to transform the
heart, to change the inside. You cannot change the heart from the outside. That is why we call
Christianity a relationship because it isn’t based a list of do’s and don’ts, but based on an
internal interaction with Jesus.
The Old Testament, the Law, the 10 Commandments, the list of do’s and don’ts, showed an
impersonal interaction with God based on performance. There is no way on our own that we
can come to God based on our own merits. Romans 3:19 tells us:
19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep
people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.
20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The
law simply shows us how sinful we are.
One cannot have a relationship with list of rules. However, the Law does serve a purpose; to
show us our sin, to show us our guilt that can be alleviated through Jesus Christ. Paul says in
verse three that “we are a letter that is not being carved on tablets of stone.” That was the 10
Be Encouraged – 2 Corinthians 3:1-3
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commandments given to Moses. Rules cannot change us, law cannot change us. Only a
personal encounter with God can change us; when His Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of us.
Instead, Paul says that we are a letter being written on human hearts. The prophets declared
this change from stone to hearts, from law to grace in Ezekiel 11:19-20:
19 And
I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take
away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart,* 20 so they
will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be
their God.
31 “The
day is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people
of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke
that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the LORD.
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says
the LORD. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their
hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Jeremiah 33:31-34
What the Law relationship could never do with our hearts, a loving relationship with Jesus does.
God writes his law on our fleshly soft hearts, we are born again, and a desire wells up inside us
that wants to follow God. No letter or stone can make this a reality. Jesus made all the
difference.
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The ministry of the Law only brings stubbornness and arrogance, but the ministry of
grace brings a tenderness and a responsiveness.
But there is also another possibility for what Paul says “is a letter carved on tablets of stone.” It
is know that during this time Paul is writing, there people would use a stone of approval that
was embossed with a seal, kind of like a business card, to prove that they were legitimate or
viable. Again, the focus would be on the works of men, on the endorsements of men, on the
approval of men. The law puts the emphasis on who we are, what we have accomplished, and
the endorsements of men. Is that what God calls us to look at? No, for he looks at the heart.
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To the Judaizers, being a Christian wasn’t just about Jesus and his transforming power; it
was about maintaining good standing with God based on our inadequate efforts. Who
of us can do that?
To the Judaizer, the focus was more on the world’s standard of success than on the
endorsement of the Holy Spirit to transform lives.
To the Judaizer, they were married to a tablet of stone instead of a personal Savior.
The Law is about the external, the efforts, the human accolades; Grace is about the heart where
God dwells and is able to change us and mold us and make us into who he wants us to be. One
is impersonal while the other is intimate, one is religious while the other is relational, and one is
guilt-ridden while the other is guilt-lifting. One is heartless while the other is heart-filled.