New Covenant Illumination (2 Cor 4:1-6)

Today’s study is a short passage, but as we read it, we will want to pay attention to observe Paul’s heart and drive in ministry.

(A) Paul’s Motivation: the glory of the new covenant ministry and the mercy of God (2 Cot 4:1)

In 2 Cor 4:1, Paul references “this ministry” for the reason he doesn’t lose heart in his ministry. “This ministry” is what drives Paul to continue in what can be frustrating and unfruitful. So what is he referring to? From last week’s study, we know that he is referring to the new covenant ministry of the Spirit that gives God’s people life and righteousness. It is important for us to define this and understand it because this is what drives Paul’s ministry. This is what his ministry is all about and it is also what makes us Christians. For there to be a new covenant, there must be an old covenant. In Christ, there is a new covenant one that does not depend on us fulfilling the law, but because He has fulfilled it.

Heb 8:6-13 unpacks this new covenant ministry further. God is promising something different from the old covenant, where He will be merciful toward [His people’s] iniquities (Heb 8:13). This is the gospel message that nobody is able to earn their righteousness by themselves, yet God promises to show mercy and count them righteous.

This mercy is exactly what Paul relies on. In 2 Cor 4:1, Paul speaks of having this ministry “by the mercy of God”. Acts 9:1-9 details for us Paul’s conversion. He met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul was once a Pharisee and a slave to the old covenant but has been transformed to a humble servant of the gospel because he has been shown mercy.

We also know that Paul’s ministry has been painful, starting from accusations of his integrity, persecution from outsiders, to not being able to see fellow believers in person. From the earlier chapters, we would have caught a glimpse of his struggles in ministry. He has dealt with their sin, even personal attacks on his ministry and authority as an apostle. Paul is contrasting all this with the glorious ministry that he has received by the mercy of God! Yet, despite the circumstances, Paul relies on God’s daily mercies and does not lose heart.

Paul actively reflects on this experience, and lives out of this fact that he has received the mercy of God. And his conclusion? “We do not lose heart” (2 Cor 4:1b).

What does losing heart look like for you? Maybe you’re actively serving and actually killing yourself because you’re working and also trying to meet and love everyone. Maybe you’re doing that but people are not responding? You’re trying your best and there’s no response. They don’t reply your text, they flake on you. Maybe your name is also being dragged through the mud. Maybe you cannot help but be discouraged by the messiness and fruitlessness and even abuse in churches. Paul has a clear word for us. This ministry of grace is glorious and is ours by the mercy of God. THEREFORE WE DO NOT LOSE HEART.

When life is hard and in this time in 2020, ministry is also extra difficult. We can take heart and fall back on His mercy. Think back to how you were saved. Remember the glory of His grace. Remember how you were saved and the glory of forgiveness. And press on!

(B) Paul’s Testimony: simple and bold, grounded in God’s Word (2 Cor 4:2)

In 2 Cor 4:2, Paul renounces disgraceful underhanded ways, or to practice cunning or tampering with God’s Word. Paul may have been accused of his integrity, and he faces this by making a public declaration to the Corinthian church.

What does this look like for us? Tampering with God’s Word may take the form of more obvious ways like false teachers, televangelists or cult leaders that plague the world right now. However, it can also take the form of more subtle ways. Are there ways we tamper with God’s word in ministry? Do we obscure some truths to make the Bible more attractive? Do we embellish it also to make it more palatable? Maybe we harp on grace, love and peace and dial back on the realities of sin and the judgment against it. Are we quick to call people to serve in church but hesitate to call them to holiness because it is awkward, painful, messy and inconvenient? Do we preach and teach inconvenient truth and doctrines of the Bible – the judgment of hell, the exclusivity of Christ?

Disgraceful, underhanded ways and practicing cunning is more insidious than we think. We can easily justify it by telling ourselves that our ministry is growing in this way.

Paul renounces this and provides a different way. Paul does not hide and try to wriggle out of inconvenient truths. He, “by the open statement of the truth” would “commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor 4:2b). His ministry is one of integrity and therefore, everyone can see, judge and approve for themselves based on what he was teaching and preaching.

Paul’s ultimate concern was God’s approval. He appeals to everyone’s conscience, where God will work to unveil the truth. This emboldens Paul to preach the Word for what it is without tampering with it. When we don’t worry about the approval of man, we can preach boldly, clearly and faithfully, because we are only concerned about the approval of God.

These verses show us how Paul thinks about his new covenant ministry. How do we think about God’s word? This is a wonderful model for us as it is a great picture of faithful ministry and motivations.

(C) New Covenant Rejection: hearts veiled and minds blinded from gospel light (2 Cor 4:3-4)

In 2 Cor 4:3-4, Paul says the reason people reject the good news is because god of this world blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Notice that this is lowercase god which refers to Satan—there’s spiritual warfare at work. This challenges how we think about salvation. We think it’s because a logic isn’t clear somewhere or the presentation isn’t clear. People reject the good news of the gospel of Christ because they have been blinded. Satan is at work to keep people from seeing who Christ is! All Christians would recognise them being in their state at one point in their life, until the Spirit worked in us to help us to see. This is what we pray weekly here, that God will unveil our hearts and help us to see the glory of Christ.

In 2 Cor 4:4, “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” refers to Christ. There are specific aspects of Christ’s character and nature that is made clear in the gospel. Col 1:15 and Heb 1:3 speak of Christ as the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of God’s nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power. In John 1:18, we are told that no one has seen God, and Christ has made God the Father known, yet whoever has seen Christ, has seen the Father (c.f. Jn 14:9). Thus, Christ is the image of God! And in 2 Cor 3:18, we’ve just read about how we are being transformed into the same image, the image of the glory of the Lord, from one degree of glory to another.

To those who are perishing, this light of the gospel is veiled. People reject because their hearts have been veiled and their minds have been blinded from gospel light.

This teaches us that the acceptance of the gospel is a work of the Spirit. To be able to see that the gospel is glorious is not our own ability! Therefore, the fact that we are here reading and understanding it and seeing Christ as glorious and as our Saviour is a work of the Spirit! We struggle to come to terms with the fact that there is a realm that transcends our logic. This unveiling of hearts and opening of minds is a new covenant at work in us. How wonderful and merciful God is to allow us to see!

If we do not pray for the unveiling of hearts and minds to see the glory that is Jesus, none of our programmes will work. We can hold events but it really doesn’t amount to anything. We have to pray that more can see the light of this gospel! And this is work of the Holy Spirit. People reject the gospel because Satan is at work. In ministry, we are fighting a spiritual war, and it will be good for us to remember this!

(D) New Covenant Illumination: proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Cor 4:5-6)

Paul’s response to the rejection of the gospel is to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. Let’s break this down. Jesus means the Lord saves. Christ is the anointed and promised one. Paul upholds this glorious, anointed savior for all that He is. In doing so, he references how God supernaturally acted to create light from darkness in creation. Paul uses creation language in 2 Cor 4:6 to describe this new covenant illumination. It parallels the creation in Genesis 1.

Salvation is nothing less than God’s powerful, almighty, supernatural act of re-creation. This is Paul’s response to rejection. He recognises that God and only God can create a new and clean heart in us.

Do we see how Paul responds to the rejection of the gospel? Often, we think in terms of strategy and methods when we think about the salvation of our friends and family. Paul lays out a clear blueprint. We pray that hearts are unveiled and continue to uphold Christ in all that we do and say. He, and us, proclaim Christ and not ourselves. He sees himself as a servant for Jesus’ sake.

What does this mean for our gospel ministry? It is grace to have hearts that see Christ and desire Him. Let’s rejoice in God’s victory in our souls and go forth in preaching the Word faithfully, praying that God will unveil more people’s hearts to the glory of Jesus Christ as He did ours.