Life To The Full

If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!

2 Corinthians 3:9

Paul tells us that there are two glories involved here: a certain glory about the death which the old covenant produces, but a greater glory about life. Paul draws a contrast so we can distinguish the result of trusting in the flesh from the result of trusting in the Spirit. The flesh produces death, the Spirit produces life! To depend on everything coming from you, in response to the law's demands, produces death. To depend on everything coming from God produces life.

To think of death in terms of the end of existence is to miss the point. What is death? It is a negative term meaning the absence of life. When a doctor examines an injured man, he does not look for signs of death; he checks for signs of life. If he does not find them, he knows the man is dead. Life produces its own distinctive marks; death is the absence of those marks. Therefore the question we must really ask is: What is life?

Sometimes we hear a person say, Man, I'm really living! What does that mean? That he or she is experiencing great enjoyment, of course! Enjoyment is a part of life, as God intended it to be. Purpose, meaning, worth, fulfillment, these are all part of life. How about other qualities — joy, peace, love, friendship, power? Yes, that's what life is. The moment we have these qualities, we are living. Surely this is what Jesus meant when He said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10).

In contrast, death is the absence or opposite of those qualities of life. What is the absence of love? Hate, selfishness, and fear. What is the absence of joy? Misery, weariness of spirit, anger, hopelessness. Thus frustration, boredom, worry, hostility, jealousy, malice, loneliness, depression, self-pity — these are all marks of the absence of life. In short, they are forms of death. We do not need to wait till we die to experience these. For some of us, they are a major part of our experience now. They represent death in the midst of life.

Where do these attitudes come from? We think these negative qualities come from passing moods or changing circumstances, but they come from something deeper. They arise from a dependence on the old covenant. They show that we're depending on something coming from me and not everything coming from God.

These negative feelings reveal the flesh in action. Not the flesh in the blatant display of evil which we usually think of — drunkenness, rioting, adultery, thievery, murder, and the like — but the flesh in those subtler displays which we often approve and even seek after: self-sufficiency, self-pity, self-centeredness. I have learned in my own life that depression is usually caused by some form of self-pity. I become depressed because I suffer some disappointment or rejection and this causes me to feel sorry for myself. I want to be made much of, I want someone to focus attention on me, and when this doesn't happen, I become depressed.

The presence of these marks of death gives us the clue as to when the old covenant is at work. Whenever these negative qualities are there, the old covenant is working. On the other hand, whenever the qualities of joy, trust, confidence, beauty, worth, and fulfillment are present, they can only come from the new covenant and the Spirit of God who produces them.

Lord, help me identify the times when, consciously or unconsciously, I'm depending on something coming from me, rather than everything coming from you. Amen.