Second Corinthians 3:3 says, “Since you are 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 tablets of hearts of flesh.” This verse reveals that we may express Christ as His letter. Here a letter of Christ does not mean a letter written by Christ; rather, this letter is a composition that uses Christ as the alphabet. A letter of Christ is one composed of Christ as the content to convey and express Christ. All believers of Christ should be such living letters of Christ so that others may read and know Christ in their being.
A letter of Christ is composed using Christ as the words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. From beginning to end, Christ is every part of such a letter. Therefore, a letter of Christ speaks Christ, for every part of the letter expresses Him. In order to make us the living letters of Christ, He needs to be written, wrought, into us. People should be able to read Christ on our being. We may preach about Christ, but how much of Christ can people read on us? When people observe the way that we live, they should read Christ. We need more of Christ written upon us; that is, we need more of Christ wrought into us. Christ should be wrought into our thinking, our loving, our choosing, and into our entire being. The extent to which Christ can be seen or read by others in us depends upon the extent to which Christ has been written into us. This is a matter not of doctrine but of experience.
When a man is regenerated by the Holy Spirit and his spirit is made alive, he becomes a living epistle of Christ. This living epistle is written with the Spirit of the living God. This means that God writes Christ into the believers by the Spirit, imprinting Christ into them.
By having Christ inscribed into us, we also become living letters of Christ, which can be read by others. There are many cases of young people who have been read by their parents. At first, their parents opposed them because they had turned to the Lord or had come into the church life. But even while the parents were opposing them, they were reading what had been inscribed of Christ into them. As a result, after a period of time many of these opposing parents turned to the Lord’s way. Even if your parents are opposing you, they are still watching you, reading you as a letter of Christ. Eventually, if you live and walk in the Spirit of life in your relationship with your parents, they will be convinced. Although you may not intentionally try to honor your parents, spontaneously you render them the most excellent and wonderful respect because you walk according to the spirit. Your parents will notice this, appreciate it, and eventually may be convinced and subdued by it.
In verse 3 Paul says that the Corinthian believers were a letter of Christ ministered by the apostles. This means that through their ministry the apostles “wrote” such a letter of Christ. In this verse the word ministered actually means “served.” Thus, Paul is saying that the Corinthian believers are a letter of Christ served by the apostles. However, realizing that the word serve is not adequate, Paul went on to use the word inscribed. This explains the meaning of ministered, or served. Paul’s way of ministering was by inscribing. Paul and his co-workers were writing living epistles. These epistles were their letters of commendation. The apostles were the writers, and the believers were the epistles written by them.
As one who was a pattern for living Christ for the church, Paul was competent in Christ to write these living letters with Christ Himself as the spiritual alphabet. He was qualified, and he had a mastery of the skill necessary for this. The book of Revelation says clearly that Christ is the Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and the Omega, the last letter (22:13). Surely Christ is also all the letters between alpha and omega. Anyone who lives Christ for the church knows Christ as alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and every other letter of the heavenly alphabet. We all should look to the Lord for His mercy and grace in order to carry on the work of writing Christ into the saints. Instead of merely teaching doctrines or the Bible to others, we must do the unique work of writing living letters of Christ.
The letters of Christ are written by the ministry of the apostles. The apostles are filled with Christ so that their ministry spontaneously ministers Christ to those whom they contact, inscribing Christ in their heart and making them living letters conveying Christ. As apostles, Paul and his co-workers were themselves letters of Christ, epistles written with Christ as the content (2 Cor. 3:1-3). Paul was a living letter written of Christ by the Holy Spirit with all the realities of Christ as the writing element. Today when we read 2 Corinthians, which is Paul’s autobiography, we can see Christ. We can read Christ in him. What is written in Paul’s Epistles is nothing but Christ. Christ is conveyed to the readers in every book that he wrote. Paul is always associated with Christ because Paul is Christ’s letter. When we read him, we see Christ. It is difficult not to refer to Paul when we speak about Christ. The fourteen Epistles of Paul constitute half of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. Without these fourteen Epistles, the New Testament would not be complete (Col. 1:25).
When the Corinthians were sinners, not knowing Christ, Paul came to them and brought them to Christ. He begot them in Christ through the gospel and became their spiritual father (1 Cor. 4:15). In a sense, Paul begot us also. In Paul’s fourteen Epistles we see Christ to a much greater extent than what is portrayed in the four Gospels. We see the all-inclusive, mysterious Christ, who is the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and who produces the mystery of Christ, the church (Eph. 3:4). The most striking point of Paul’s Epistles is that in them he opens up the eternal and universal mystery. God has a mystery, which He planned in eternity past, but the four Gospels do not speak much concerning God’s eternal plan as the mystery of the universe. Paul, however, unveils to us the mystery of the all-inclusive Christ as the Head for the producing of the Body.
Paul was constituted with Christ and was a living letter of Christ. Paul’s Epistles do not convey mainly himself but the Christ with whom he was constituted to such an extent that he could say, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Paul lived and did many things, yet it was no longer he but Christ. When we read Paul’s Epistles, we are reading him, yet what we see is not Paul himself but Christ as his constituent. Like Paul, we should be constituted with Christ. In a sense, the name of Christ should be a part of our name, because when people read us, they see Christ. It is no longer we but Christ who lives in us. Just as Paul says, for to us, to live is not we ourselves but Christ (Phil. 1:21). Christ is our person and the reality of our person; in this sense, we are Christ.
Paul was one who wrote living letters of Christ. Now we also must follow him to inscribe Christ into others and thereby to compose living letters of Christ. Wherever we go, we should write Christ into others. What people need is to have Christ inscribed into them. We all should go forth to write living letters with the life-giving Spirit of the living God.
Some of the saints may think that because they are not apostles, they cannot participate in writing a living letter of Christ. We should not hold this concept. Through our preaching of the gospel, we can write Christ into others. To preach the gospel is to write a living letter.
The proper preaching of the gospel depends on our measure of life and on our experience of God and Christ. A brother with considerable experience of God and Christ may speak to a fellow worker concerning God. Instead of trying to convince him of the existence of God, the brother may testify of how he came to believe in God and receive Christ as his Savior. He may testify that something living and real came into him and changed him. Such a testimony infuses others with Christ, convinces them, and subdues them. This is the experiential way to preach the gospel. This way is a matter of infusing into others what we have enjoyed of God and Christ. Even though unbelievers may not mentally accept what we tell them, through our experiential preaching of the gospel the element of God and of Christ will be infused into them.