As the Father dispenses Himself into the believers as grace to enable them to preach the all-inclusive Christ and to make known the mystery hidden in God, He makes them sufficient for the New Testament ministry. This sufficiency is of God the Father by His dispensing.
In 2 Corinthians 3:5 Paul says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” The Greek word rendered “sufficient” also means competent, qualified, fit, worthy. The word for “sufficiency” also means competency, qualification. Here we see that the living God Himself is the sufficiency, competency, and qualification of the ministry for God’s New Testament economy to dispense Christ into God’s chosen people for the building up of Christ’s Body. We ourselves are of no account, and what we can do is likewise of no account. Only the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit constituted into us is sufficient to carry on the ministry of the New Testament.
In 2 Corinthians 3:6 Paul, speaking of God, goes on to say, “Who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The Greek word rendered “made” also means enabled, qualified, made competent. The phrase “not of letter” modifies ministers; it does not modify covenant. By “letter” Paul means the written code of the law. The Spirit is the Spirit of the living God, with whom the apostle ministers Christ into the believers. The apostolic ministry for the New Testament is not of dead letters like the Mosaic ministry for the Old Testament but of the living Spirit, who gives life.
We should not think that only the apostles are sufficient for the New Testament ministry. We all are ministering ones, and God has made us competent to minister. God has made us competent ministers not of a covenant of letters but of a covenant of the Spirit. Therefore, we all need to have, and we all can have, a share in the New Testament ministry. In order to have this ministry, we need to have the experience of being constituted of the living Spirit. Then we shall be ministers not of letter, doctrine, or theology; instead, we shall be ministers of the living Spirit. This is a matter of the divine dispensing of the divine Trinity.
God the Father leads the believers in Christ’s triumphal procession in their ministry and manifests through them the fragrance of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 2:14 and 15 Paul says, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ, and manifests through us the savor of the knowledge of Him in every place; for we are a fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing.” Here Paul uses the metaphor of a triumphal procession. Often after a general of the Roman army had won a victory, he would march through the capital with his captives in a procession to celebrate his victory. Paul uses this metaphor to illustrate how Christ is the victorious general and how Paul and all believers are His captives. God is leading a triumphal procession of Christ’s captives to celebrate Christ’s victory.
The Greek verb rendered “leads us in triumph” as used in 2:14 means “to lead a man as a captive in a triumphal procession; the full phrase means, to lead captive in a triumph over the enemies of Christ....God is celebrating His triumph over His enemies; Paul (who had been so great an opponent of the gospel) is a captive following in the train of the triumphal procession, yet (at the same time, by a characteristic change of metaphor) an incense-bearer, scattering incense (which was always done on these occasions) as the procession moves on. Some of the conquered enemies were put to death when the procession reached the Capitol; to them the smell of incense was an odor of death unto death; to the rest who were spared, an odor of life unto life” (Conybeare). God always leads the apostles in such a triumphant way for their ministry. God’s leading is actually His dispensing of Himself into the apostles.
As Paul and his co-workers traveled in the Gentile world for the preaching of the gospel, they were moving in Christ’s triumphal procession. This was the result of the Father’s dispensing. Through the Father’s intimate dispensing, the dispensing of Himself in love, He enables the believers to preach the high gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make known the hidden mystery, which is God’s intention to have the church, He makes them sufficient for the New Testament ministry, and He leads them in Christ’s triumphal procession in their ministry.
In 2 Corinthians 2:14 Paul also likened himself and his co-workers to incense-bearers scattering the savor of the knowledge of Christ in His triumphant ministry as in a triumphal procession. The apostles are such incense-bearers in their ministry of Christ as well as captives in the train of His triumph. Concerning the phrase “the savor of the knowledge,” Vincent says, “According to the Greek usage, savor and knowledge are in apposition, so that the knowledge ”of Christ is symbolized as an odor communicating its nature and efficacy through the apostle’s work.”
In verse 15 Paul says, “We are a fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing.” The apostles, being permeated with Christ, became a fragrance of Christ. They are not merely a sweet savor produced by Christ, but Christ Himself is the savor being exhaled in their life and work to God, both in those who are being saved, as a savor of life to life, and in those who are perishing, as a savor from death to death (v. 16).
The apostles were a fragrance of Christ to God because they were saturated and permeated by Christ and with Christ. When they spoke to others, the Christ of whom they were constituted came forth out of their being as a sweet fragrance to God for His enjoyment. This should also be our experience today. While we are speaking for Christ, He should come forth as a sweet fragrance out from our being. God enjoys this fragrance. This also is a matter of the Father’s intimate dispensing.
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