Serving in the Oldness of the Letter or in the Newness of the Spirit

Serving in the Oldness of the Letter or in the Newness of the Spirit

“But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Here we have two ways of serving God. The ministry according to the letter was introduced when Israel received the law. “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body.” 1 Cor. 6:18. We can see that fornication is in a class by itself, and it was punishable by death. John 8:5. The ministry according to the letter is also called the “ministry of death.” It arose in glory. The law could only judge sin after it was manifested by the body in deed. The result of the ministry according to the letter was a great earthly glory. By it the flesh with its passions and desires was held in check. We can also say it with these words: The body was kept pure outwardly if they were faithful in the ministry according to the letter. Nevertheless, it was a ministry before the face of man. When the king and the priesthood became unfaithful, ungodliness was manifested, and the people ended up in corruption, with the result that they were enslaved by others.

We can also see that this is the same development in our time. Our constitution was based on the Bible. Nowadays, many people want to prohibit Christian instruction in kindergarten and in schools, with the result that lawlessness and corruption are engulfing the so-called Christian nations. The nations are maturing for the lawless one—the Antichrist. 2 Thess. 2. The things that prevent the passions and desires from being manifested are taken away, and the sinful deeds almost burst out of the body.

However, the law also required that “you shall not covet”; yet the law was powerless as long as this desire was within the body. But what the law could not do, God did by sending His Son in flesh and blood like ours (Heb. 2:14-18): He condemned sin in the flesh. It was condemned as a temptation—before it entered the heart—and if it did not enter the heart it could not be manifested by the body either, because life proceeds from the heart. Mark 7:21. This is how Christ fulfilled the law.

Jesus sacrificed Himself when God condemned sin in His flesh. He learned obedience by the things He suffered. When He was tempted, He suffered in the flesh, with the result that the sin which God condemned in the flesh was put to death. This is how He overcame Satan who had a point of contact in the flesh. This is called the sufferings of Chris, and the death of Christ. 1 Pet. 4:1-2, 12-13; Heb. 4:15-16, 5:7-10.

God did not only do this work in Jesus for Jesus’ sake alone, but “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3-4. After Jesus was perfected, He received the Holy Spirit from His Father, and He poured this Spirit out on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:33. Now the Holy Spirit is to do the same work in us that the Father did in Jesus. John 16:12-15. That is why we also need to be a sacrifice as He was. Jesus says that no one can be His disciple unless he forsakes everything and hates even his own life. Luke 14:26-27, 33. Then we are a sacrifice like Jesus was when He came into the world. “Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.” Heb. 10:7. Then we enter into “the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Phil. 3:10.

This is what it means to “serve in the newness of the Spirit.” Sin in the flesh is condemned in the light of the Spirit. Thus I learn to discern between good and evil. The death of Christ begins to work in me through obedience, with the result that it is Jesus’ life—instead of my desires—that is manifested through my body. 2 Cor. 4:10-11. Then I partake of divine nature. 2 Pet. 1:3-4. This glory excels by far the glory that resulted from the ministry of the letter. “For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.” We have entered into this liberty by the Spirit so that we who behold the glory of the Lord “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”

No one can serve in the newness of the Spirit without hating his own life. The Spirit does not put to death the deeds of the body; on the contrary, it is I who must serve the Spirit and by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body. Then I attain to life, divine nature. Rom. 8:12-13. Paul writes, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16, 24), because then I put it to death by the Spirit. No one who walks before the face of man can serve in the newness of the Spirit, because the desires are hidden. Only those who love the truth and hate their own lives according to the flesh walk before God’s face and can serve in the newness of the Spirit.

This is how we become “sufficient as ministers of the new covenant.” We can be of help to people so they can “be conformed to the image of His Son.” Rom. 8:29. This is the ministry Jesus performed for the woman who was taken in adultery, when He could say, “Go and sin no more.” How glorious it was to lead the woman to such a life in contrast to the ministry of the letter—of condemnation—which the scribes were performing.