Condemnation or Righteousness?

If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

2 Corinthians 3:9-10

Here we find another mark of the old covenant in action. It inevitably produces a sense of condemnation, or to use a more modern term, guilt. But the new covenant produces quite the reverse: The feeling engendered is one of righteousness.

Unfortunately, righteousness is one of those great biblical words little understood today. Most of us think of it as doing what is right, and certainly that is part of its meaning. But the essence of the term goes much deeper. Its basic idea is being what is right. One does what is right, because one is right — that is the biblical idea of righteousness. Righteousness is the quality of being acceptable to and accepted by God — fully and without reserve.

On the other hand, how many Christians live continually under a sense of condemnation? When the basis for our Christian activity is dependence on something coming from us (our personality, will-power, gifts, money, courage), there is no escape from a sense of guilt, for we can never be certain when we have done enough! Around the world that basis of performance is driving Christians into frenetic activity that can result in nothing but sheer exhaustion.

Many churches judge their success by the number of activities they have going. For many, it comes as a great shock to learn from the Scriptures that it is possible for a church to be an utter failure before God and yet be occupied to the full every night of the week, teaching the right doctrines and doing the right things. On the other hand, a church whose people are living by the new covenant can also be fully occupied with many and varied activities. It is not the level of activity that marks the success or failure of a church, it is what the source of that activity is. Is it the flesh or the Spirit? Is it my background, my training, my education, my personality? Or is it God at work in me through Jesus Christ?

Remember, there is a certain glory about the activity of the flesh which is very attractive to people. Dedicated activity always gives one a certain sense of worth — for a while! It produces a kind of self-approval that is very pleasant to experience. Paul says, the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory (2 Corinthians 3:7), yet it is far surpassed by the glory and splendor of the ministry of righteousness. In fact, the apostle enlarges on this and says, For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

This is undoubtedly an oblique reference to Paul's own experience. The pleasure he derived from his dependence upon his ancestry, his orthodoxy, his morality, and his activity soon came to have no glory in comparison with the surpassing glory. To trust in Jesus Christ at work in him was to experience a sense of fulfillment and worth infinitely beyond anything he had ever experienced before. It was to be free! Little did he care what men thought of him, since he was so fully aware of what God thought of him—in Christ. Little did he care what appraisal men (even other Christians) might make of his ministry, since he fully understood that whatever Christ did through him would be approved in the eyes of God.

Father, teach me to trust daily in your righteousness, given to me as a gift, rather than relying on the flesh and experiencing the resulting sense of condemnation. Amen.