A Spirit-Wrought Change
7/29/25 Bible Thought (2 Corinthians 3)
The born-again believer in Jesus is under a new and better covenant.
In 2 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul reflects on the glories of the new covenant—what it means for the individual believer, and what it means for him as an apostle.
He begins by again defending his apostleship. In this context, he does so with the endorsement of God’s Spirit. How? By pointing to the Spirit’s work in the believers in Corinth.
He points out, “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation” (2 Cor. 3:2). They are a letter that has been written not with ink and pen, “but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor. 3:3).
The apostle Paul needed no greater endorsement than the Spirit-wrought change in the hearts of the believers in Corinth.
Truly, this was the promised hope of the new covenant.
The Lord once spoke through Jeremiah,
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:33).
And again, through Ezekiel,
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezek. 36:26-27).
This was the experience of the Corinthians, and it is likewise the present-day experience of the believer!
What was once a promised hope has become reality through Jesus Christ. We are no longer under the covenant that administered condemnation, but a new covenant that brings life!
The Mosaic law gave a lot of instruction on how to live as God’s covenant-people, and yet it didn’t supply the necessary power for the Israelite to walk in newness of life. It would be like receiving an instruction manual for building something, and even the power tools—but no power or batteries to operate them.
They knew what to do, and they might have got it right some of the time. Yet, God knew they wouldn’t always get it right; hence the whole sacrificial system was set up!
God provided a safety net knowing that they would fall. One could be blameless under the law only through continual sacrifices that would cover over sins.
Not so under the new covenant.
We are under the once-and-for-all-time sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. With this comes a transformation. The believer in Jesus Christ is born again, brought into His Kingdom, and filled with the Spirit of God just as Ezekiel foretold.
This same Spirit is presently at work in us, giving us the desire and the power to do God’s will (Phil. 2:13).
“for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
As such we are free (from the law and its condemnation) and we are constantly being transformed more and more into the people that God desires for us to be:
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
We have unveiled access to the Creator of the universe who is at work in us to conform us to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29).
This is the hope and reality of the new covenant.
It is a hope that was promised and a reality that presently proves the authenticity of the gospel and its messengers beginning with the apostles, including Paul.
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