The Law as Ministry of Death vs the Spirit as Ministry of Life

Enduring afflictions and falling away from salvation (2 Cor 2:15–16). The idolaters, being in death to the intelligible due to the ignorance and hardness existing in them, fall a second time into death because they do not receive the evangelical preaching; but those who, having come to the beginnings of the knowledge of God through the legal instruction, have perhaps become somewhat in life, yet if they believe in Christ, they receive the fragrance of the knowledge of the Father from life unto life.

Shortly after, he interprets this passage differently. Such things are established by Christ being a fragrance, not of those happening by chance but of those serving God sincerely. And as he does not say these things about himself as a burden, but from which he proceeds, he says, 'for we are not as many as many are,' and he demonstrated himself (2 Cor 2:17).

He says that to peddle the word means to mingle with circumcision and keep Sabbaths, or to think that some consider piety to be a profit. I say, however, that he speaks from sincerity, and says that this very thing is from God, and not from a private power. He also says another thought, that because of this it is from sincerity, since we speak from God, not playing with things but preaching the revelation of God. He says this because there were also false apostles who considered the word concerning piety to be a profit. Then he proceeds from sincerity, instead of 'we do not play with things,' he says, 'but we preach the revelation from God, not peddling the word of God.' The word of God is peddled by mingling with circumcision and the Sabbath and in thinking that piety is a profit.

From here he wants to show how much the law of grace leaves behind, so that none of those from the circumcision, while hypocritically facing those from the Gentiles, might lead them into the observance of the requirement of Moses and the prophets (2 Cor 3:1). This is your faith and your life, becoming a letter to all and a recognition of our preaching (2 Cor 3:2–3). Because of saying 'stony tablets' and 'fleshy hearts,' he shows the superiority of grace over the law, in that the tablet of the soulless heart is greater. He also shows how much the grace of the Spirit remains superior to the law and the ministry of the prophets' preaching.

Higher than the apostles, from themselves rather than from one another (2 Cor 3:5). The letter says the law, but the Spirit says grace (2 Cor 3:6); for the law, while commanding, does not help, but is heavy and kills through punishment those unable to fulfill it, whereas the Spirit makes one clean from sin and provides gifts, clearly leading toward life (2 Cor 3:6). And indeed the glory did not come on tablets but on the face of Moses, as he himself says (2 Cor 3:7–9), because of the glory of his face which was fading (2 Cor 3:7–9).

But not wishing to speak against the prophet Moses, he calls the law Moses, and in this way makes the statement, showing the grace given to Moses to be lesser than the apostolic grace. If he calls the ministry of death—Moses calls it a ministry of death, calling the law death, because it brought forth death through disobedience—yet the law is not slandered by this; for even the apostles are called a stench of death unto death. He calls the apostles a ministry of the Spirit, and Moses a ministry of death. But sparing Moses, he remembers the tablets; Moses brought down tablets from the mountain, but the apostles, having been sent with the Spirit, brought it to the world.

And indeed the glory did not come on tablets but on the face of Moses. And wishing to speak here also regarding Moses, he makes Moses evident through the law. He calls the law itself a minister of death, because the law kills those not fulfilling it. And he does not say this as slandering him, for he also said the apostles are a stench of death because of those not obeying the proclamation. The stench of death is the threat of Gehenna bringing eternal death upon the unbelievers, and the stench of life is the proclamation of the kingdom sending those following the teaching into eternal life. The stench is a forerunner of the reality.

He calls Moses a minister of condemnation and death—for he condemned in the law those not obeying—and the apostles a minister of the Spirit; for Moses brought down the law, but the apostles conveyed the Spirit to the world. The letter of the law, which was glorified, has not been glorified when examined against the surpassing glory of the Spirit (2 Cor 3:10). No one could say that it was glorified in this word.