Eventually, by drinking the Spirit we are saturated with the Spirit. Then we become ministers of a new covenant, “not of letter, but of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:6). The new covenant is not of law, but of Christ who has become the life-giving Spirit.
Christ’s becoming the life-giving Spirit implies all the steps of His process: incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. It also includes redemption. The goal of this process is not incarnation, crucifixion, or even resurrection; the goal is the life-giving Spirit. This is the new covenant. Therefore, the new covenant implies incarnation; that is, it implies God becoming a man and living as a man on earth. The new covenant also implies that this incarnated One went to the cross and died for our sins, and even for ourselves, in order to terminate the old creation. After shedding His blood on the cross and dying for us, this One was buried and then entered into resurrection. When He came into resurrection, He reached the destination—the life-giving Spirit.
In this wonderful Spirit we all have been baptized into one Body. Now as we drink this Spirit and are saturated with Him, we spontaneously become ministers of the new covenant, a covenant of the Spirit. Therefore, we should not minister mere doctrines and letters. On the contrary, we must minister the Spirit. We must serve others the heavenly drink with which we have been saturated. Let us all be ministers not of doctrines or letters, but of life and of the Spirit.
According to 2 Corinthians 3, not only should we be ministers of the Spirit, but we should also be “transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (v. 18). In all that we do in the church life—in meetings, in fellowship, in serving, in giving and receiving hospitality—we should be undergoing the process of transformation. We all are being transformed into the Lord’s image from glory to glory, from one degree of glory to another. This is from the Lord Spirit.
I deeply appreciate these four verses. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. We have been baptized in this Spirit and are now drinking the Spirit. Furthermore, as we are saturated with the Spirit, we become ministers of the Spirit. Moreover, we are in the process of being transformed from glory to glory even as from the Lord Spirit. First and 2 Corinthians certainly are books of the Spirit.
At this point it will be helpful to see the Epistle of 1 Corinthians as a whole, to have an overview, a bird’s-eye view, of the entire book. When Paul wrote this Epistle, he was deeply burdened in his spirit. This book deals with the problems among the saints in a very disturbed and disorderly church. The saints at Corinth had been misled, and there was disorder among them. Hence, Paul, the apostle, burdened for that church, wrote this Epistle to clarify the situation by dealing with the problems one by one.
After much reading and studying, I have discovered that in 1 Corinthians eleven problems are dealt with by the apostle. (Some teachers only recognize ten.) These eleven problems are in two categories. The first group is composed of the six problems covered in chapters one through ten. The first of these problems is division, caused by living in the soul. There was division among the Corinthians because they were natural and lived according to their philosophical wisdom. They lived a soulish life, and as a result they were divided.
The second problem was the gross sin of incest dealt with in chapter five. This sin involves the indulgence of the flesh. The indulgence of the flesh comes from living by the soulish life. Those who are soulish will sooner or later indulge their flesh.
The third problem, covered in chapter six, is that of lawsuits. This involves the claiming of personal rights.
Fourth, also in chapter six, we have the problem of the abuse of human rights. God in His creation ordained that man should eat in order to exist and also that he should marry in order to propagate. Thus, eating and marriage, both of which are ordained by God, are human rights. But the soulish and even fleshly saints in Corinth abused these rights. The abuse of the right of eating is excessive eating, and the abuse of the right of marriage is fornication.
Fifth, in chapter seven Paul deals with the problem of marriage. This problem is related both to the soulish life and to the flesh. The more wise and philosophical a person is, the more problems he will have in married life. Less educated people, on the contrary, seem to have fewer problems with married life.
The sixth problem, covered in chapters eight through ten, is that of the eating of idol sacrifices. Those who engaged in this practice among the Corinthians had no restriction; they did not care for others, for the Body of Christ, or for God’s testimony. They cared only for their eating. This problem of the eating of idol sacrifices is also related to the Lord’s table. One cannot have such unrestricted eating related to idols and at the same time come to the Lord’s table. This is the reason that in dealing with the eating of sacrifices to idols Paul touches the matter of the Lord’s table.
These six problems all belong to the realm of human life. Any believer who can solve these problems will truly be holy; he will certainly be sanctified. He will have no problems of division, the lusts of the flesh, the claiming of personal rights, the abuse of his rights in eating and marriage, and in married life itself. Furthermore, in his daily living, especially in the matter of eating, he will be restricted and care for others, the church, and God’s testimony.