In this message we shall cover the following New Testament symbols of the believers: letters of Christ, mirrors, earthen vessels, pillars, luminaries in the world, good soldiers of Christ, and laboring husbandmen.
In 2 Corinthians 3:2 and 3 we have yet another symbol of the believers-letters of Christ. Verse 2 says, “You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men.” The believers were the fruit of the apostles’ labor, commending the apostles and their ministry to others. Thus, they became the apostles’ living letters of commendation, letters written by the apostles with the indwelling Christ as the content in every part of the believers’ inner being.
Verse 3 is the continuation of verse 2: “Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart.” In verse 2 Paul speaks of “our letter,” and in verse 3, of “a letter of Christ.” It seems that here there are two kinds of letters- the apostles’ letter and the letter of Christ. The believers, as the apostles’ letter, were a letter of Christ. But which comes first, “a letter of Christ” or “our letter?” The letter of Christ must come first. The believers are the apostles’ letter because they are first a letter of Christ.
As letters of Christ the believers are inscribed with the Spirit of the living God as the writing element. The Spirit of the living God, who is the living God Himself, is not an instrument, like a pen for writing, but the very element, like the ink, with which the apostles minister Christ as the content for the writing of living letters that convey Christ. The writer of this letter is not the Spirit of God; the writer is the apostles. The Spirit of the living God is the “ink,” the element, the essence, of the writing. This means that the Spirit of the living God is the element with which the letters of Christ are written.
The writing that takes place in our hearts has the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit as the element. This element is actually the processed Triune God. As the processed Triune God is written into us, we become letters of Christ.
In verse 3 Paul says that the letter of Christ is inscribed “not in tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart.” Our heart, as the composition of our conscience (the leading part of our spirit), mind, emotion, and will, is the tablet upon which the living letters of Christ are written with the living Spirit of God. This implies that Christ is written into every part of our inner being with the Spirit of the living God to make us His living letters so that He may be expressed in us and read by others in us.
Because this letter is written on our heart, a composition of the soul and the conscience, the leading part of our spirit, the letter of Christ is actually written on our spirit and soul. When the apostles minister Christ, they minister Him into the heart and spirit of the believers. First, Christ as the life-giving Spirit is ministered into a believer’s spirit. This means that Christ is written in the spirit of that believer. Then by further ministry Christ spreads into the mind, the emotion, and the will. Eventually, Christ will be written into every part of our inner being. In the words of Ephesians 3:17, this is Christ settling Himself, or making His home, in our heart. Christ making His home in our heart equals the writing of Christ throughout our inner being. This writing causes a believer to become a living letter of Christ. Such a person expresses Christ in whatever he says and does. He becomes a living letter for others to read.
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