Ministry of Death

Paul calls the law "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" in chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians. I imagine that was truly a difficult thing for the Jews of his day, who had been under the law as a people for centuries, to grasp and accept. But with those words so plainly written in the New Testament scriptures, it really shouldn't be all that difficult of a thing for today's church, who have never been under God's law, even for a second, to grasp and accept.

But yet it is one of the essential truths that remains largely resisted and unaccepted in the church today. Why is this? Much of the church has sadly accepted a mixture gospel of law and grace - which is really no gospel at all - and so passages such as 2 Cor 3 don't compute. Those passages don't fit into their "gospel."

Nevertheless, it remains the truth. The law was the ministry of death and condemnation, and guilt and bondage, and was for the Jews only. Gentiles were never under the law, and the church of Christ has never and will never be under the law. We've got something far better than the ministry of death. We've got the ministry of life in the Spirit, under which there is no death or condemnation - only life, joy and peace in the Spirit!