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Ministers of the New Covenant

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the
faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.” (2
Timothy 4:7-8)

It is no secret that the drop-out rate in the ministry is extremely high.

One of the books that I remember from my young days as a Christian
was titled: “Have you felt like giving up lately?” It was written by David
Wilkerson, and addressed the problem of backsliding. Strangely
enough, that title has never much impressed me as I never considered
giving up the Christian faith. It was only since I became a pastor that
the title began to haunt me. I have often felt like “giving up”, not as a
Christian, but as a pastor. Looking back to my fellow students in
seminary, I am sad to say that many of them have indeed given up.
Few of us who started our training are still in the ministry today.

Yet Paul “finished the race”, not only as a believer, but also as a
Christian minister. It is clear that he expects the true minister of the
gospel to do the same. What was his secret?

Paul's Letter to the church at Corinth

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The answer is provided in another of Paul's letters: His second letter to
the Corinthians. In chapter 4 verse 1 he says “We do not lose heart.”
We need to note that he is not talking about the Christian life, but
about the ministry. The whole context, starting from 2:12, deals with
the issue of “ministers of the New Covenant”. Paul is therefore saying:
“As ministers of the New Covenant, i.e. as Christian ministers, we do
not lose heart, we do not give up.”

Is there a reason behind this statement? Does Paul give us some kind
of underlying motive why he makes such a bold statement? Can we
learn something from him here that we can apply practically as
ministers of the New Covenant so that we, too, shall not lose heart?

He does indeed. If we read the sentence we shall see that it begins

with a “therefore” It is very important to note the “therefore”, as it
tells us that the reason for Paul's statement is to be found in the
preceding passage. It is as though he is saying: “In the light of what I
have just shared with you, it becomes clear why we do not lose heart.”

This observation is confirmed when we read the rest of the sentence:

“Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry…” The
preceding passage is about the nature of the New Covenant ministry,
and Paul is concluding his teaching by making a practical application: It
is as though he says: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, a
ministry that I have just explained to you, we do not lose heart.”

Our answer, then, is to be found in the particular nature of the New

Covenant ministry of which we have become ministers. If we
understand the peculiar nature of the ministry, we shall also discover
the secret of persevering in the ministry.

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1. The Nature of the Ministry

What is the nature of this ministry? The preceding passage makes it

very clear: It is a ministry that reflects the glory of Christ. Note
especially verse 18: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the
Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-
increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Paul has an interesting way of explaining this ministry of reflecting the

glory of Christ. He uses as his point of departure the great minister of
the Old Covenant: Moses. In a sense we have the same ministry as
Moses, Paul shows us, albeit with one very important difference: The
ministry of the New Covenant is much more glorious. We shall return
to this point later.

The analogy can hardly be clearer. We, like Moses, have been
somewhere. We have seen something, and we are affected. The glory
of that which we have seen has rubbed off on us, and we are now
returning to the camp as ministers of the covenant in all its glory.

We are, therefore, carriers of the glory. Like Uzza and Ahio (1

Chronicles 13) who moved the Ark of the Covenant in a cart, in all its
power and glory, we carry the New Covenant in all its power and glory
into the assembly of the people. The focus is not on us, but on the
glory of the treasure we are carrying. Our ministry can best be
described as a ministry of reflection. We are not the treasure, the glory
of God is. We are not the focus, the glory of God is.

This fact is confirmed by another verse earlier on in the same passage

(2:14). Here the New Covenant ministry is described as a “triumphal

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procession in Christ”, led by God, who through us “spreads everywhere
the fragrance of the knowledge of him”. The picture that comes to
mind is that of the priest carrying a censer and spreading the
fragrance of the incense. Once again, the minister is depicted as a
mere carrier of something extraordinary, not as one extraordinary in
and of himself.

There is an important difference between us and Moses that we need

to note at this time. In Moses’ case the radiance of the glory had to be
veiled, because it was too much to look at. In our case, there is no veil
necessary. We find the reason in 2:14: “Only in Christ is it taken away”,
and verse 15: “But whenever turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, which is why the
glory is unveiled in the New Covenant. As a minister of the Old
Covenant, Moses did not have this privilege. The glory, therefore, had
to be veiled.

2. The Source of the ministry

Yet Paul does not stop with the nature of the ministry. He goes on to
point to the source of the ministry. It is as though he anticipates the
obvious question: “If this ministry is so glorious, where can I get hold of
it? Where does it come from?”

His answer is clear: We have this ministry “through God's mercy”. It is,
in other words, not something that we have fabricated, or something
that originated because of anything we have done. We have no part in
its creation or in the fact that it has been entrusted to us. It is given to
us solely by the mercy and grace of God.

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This is a very important principle, and it is is emphasised throughout
the first few chapters of 2 Corinthians. Note the following verses which
all underline our total reliance on God as ministers of the New
Covenant, and the fact that the New Covenant ministry in all its glory is
solely “from God”:

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this

happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who
raises the dead. 1:9

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.
1:21

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in truimphal

procession in Christ and through us spread the fragrance of the
knowledge of him. 2:14

Not that we are competent to claim anything for ourselves, but

our competence comes from God. 3:5

He has made us competent as ministers of a New Covenant. 3:6

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are
being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 3:18

Therefore, since through God's ministry we have this ministry,

we do not lose heart. 4:1

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 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his
light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ. 4:6

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-
surpassing power is from God and not from us. 4:7

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ

and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 5:18

It can hardly be clearer. The acting party in each and every case is
none other than God Himself. Understanding the source of the New
Covenant ministry is essential to understanding the nature of it. It is a
ministry of reflecting the glory of God, and it is ministry designed,
sustained and given by Him and Him alone. In short, it is His ministry!

One may think that nothing remains to be said after these two very
important points have been brought to our attention. Yet Paul is not
finished. He uses the rest of chapter 4 to expound the implications of
having received this glorious ministry in the way just described.

3. The Method of the Ministry

The first implication for us, as ministers of the New Covenant, has to do
with the practical way in which we minister to other people. Our
methodology is changed once we understand the nature and the
source of the glorious ministry entrusted to us, and it can never be the
same again.

3.1 We Set Forth the Truth Plainly

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In verse 2 Paul goes on to describe exactly how the methods of our
ministry are affected. He says that instead of losing heart, “we have
renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do
we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth
plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God.”

The conclusion drawn by Paul is a very logical one. Our business is to

reflect the glory of the Lord, and this glory is unsurpassed in its
greatness. Even the most glorious appearance of God in the history of
mankind, when God descended on Mount Sinai in fire (Exodus 19:18)
to give Moses the Ten Commandments, is considered as “no glory now
in comparison with the surpassing glory” (3:10) of the New Covenant.

The message can hardly be clearer. No human being can ever imitate
what happened on Sinai, let alone add to the glory of the New
Covenant. If this is the case, then it is a futile exercise to try and do so.
There is no requirement for us to try and increase the glory or make it
more appealing. We do not have to use deceptive strategies to entice
people into the Kingdom of God. We do not have to distort the word of
God to try and make it more comprehensible. “On the contrary”, Paul
says, we set “forth the truth plainly”. Is that not what a mirror does? It
is a mere reflector of reality, and nothing more. Likewise, we are called
to merely testify to the surpassing glory. We point to it, but we do not
interfere with it. The glory is great enough to make its own impression.

3.2 We Commend Ourselves to Every Man's Conscience

Paul says something else which is noteworthy: “We commend

ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.” A man's
conscience is that part used of God to speak to him. When someone

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has lost the ability to listen to his conscience, then he has lost the
ability to listen to the Spirit of God. The world, however, does not
speak to the conscience of a person. Scripture makes it abundantly
clear that the love of the world is to be identified with the lusts of the
eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2:16).

The world appeals to that which a man can see and feel, and to that
which boosts his ego, in other words. These three components of man
constitute what we call the sinful nature. The first sin committed in
Eden, which is a prototype of all sins that were to follow, teaches us
the same lesson. Eve “saw” that the tree was good for food and
pleasing to the eye, and also “desirable” for gaining wisdom. Behind
the lusts of her eyes and her flesh, as we all know, was the boastful
pride of life: She wanted to be like God, as the serpent said she could
be.

This is how the enemy operates still to this day, and it is how he gets
to the will of a person. God never uses such shameful tactics, and
neither does he allow his servants to do so. Like God, we are called to
address the conscience of those we speak to. A sincere conscience will
detect the voice of God, whereas a hardened conscience cannot do so.
We are not called to compensate for the spiritual deafness of those we
speak to.

Oftentimes it is a great temptation for a Christian minister to use other

tactics in convincing a person whose conscience seems unable to
respond to the plain truth of the gospel. Such tactics Paul calls
deception, a secret and shameful distortion of the Word of God.
Literally, this is what Satan did in the Garden of Eden to convince his
potential converts: He distorted the word of God ("Did God really
say…?"), he deceived ("You shall surely not die…"), and all of this was

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done in a secret and shameful manner. The temptation to preach the
gospel according to the manipulative communication tactics of the
devil and the world is a great one, and prohibited by God.

3.3 A Warning to the Modern Church

This point is much more important than we may realise. We live in an

age that is highly pragmatic and results orientated. The technological,
management and motivational revolutions of the past few decades
have changed the world in an unprecedented way. It has created a
philosophy of achievement, a success mentality that has seeped into
every area of life, the church's included. According to it, there is an
answer for every problem, a way past any stumbling block. Everything
can be planned, plotted, programmed and achieved. We are masters of
our destiny and nothing can stop us from getting there.

In spite of the alleged accomplishments that this thinking has led to in

the worlds of business and economics, and even in the private lives of
individuals, it has nothing to do with the power or the methods of the
Holy Spirit. The success of the gospel does not depend on man's will or
effort, but on God's grace. God's grace is strongest when man is
weakest, a point that is clearly made in the next few verses. The
“success at all costs” mentality detracts from the great doctrine of
God's sovereignty in the work of salvation, and elevates man to the
level of God.

If we return to that initial fateful sin once more, we shall see that the
first motivational speaker in the history of humanity was a serpent. He
introduced the concept of possibility thinking into a world governed by
the providence and love of a most powerful God, and it shattered that
world forever. The great error of Adam and Eve was to think that they

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were to take responsibility for that which was, in fact, God's
responsibility. Satan might have called it the maximisation of their
potential, but God called it rebellion. The serpent has not changed his
tactics in all the millennia since then, and we, it seems, are still as
gullible as we were back then. The foolish assumption, that we can act
as though we are God, lies at the root of all sin.

3.4 Uzzah's Fatal Mistake

I mentioned earlier that the New Covenant ministry can be likened to

the ministry of Uzzah and Ahio (1 Chronicles 13) who guided the ark on
a cart. We are like them in the sense that we are carriers of the glory
for the sake of God. The story of Uzzah and Ahio teaches us something
else, though. At one point in their journey the oxen stumbled, and
Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark. We are told that the
Lord's anger burned against Uzzah, and that he struck him down
because he had put his hand on the ark. Uzzah died because he tried
to compensate for what seemed to be a threat to God's glory. In his he
has become an eternal symbol of the flesh of man trying to interfere
when the reputation of God seems to be under threat. God does not
allow this. He can protect his own glory, and he does not need our
assistance. People ask: “How can God kill a man for doing that which
was only natural and instinctive?” To this we have to answer that the
price of one life is a small price to pay for the eternal testimony of
God's transcendence and glory that need not the arm of man to
support it.

Much of the modern church has become like Uzzah, feeling that
without their assistance the glory of God is under threat. We interfere
with the majesty of God. We want to stabilise an ark that seems
wobbly to us. We do this in a multitude of ways, and we do not realise

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that we are working against ourselves and against the purposes of
God.

It is for this reason that Paul has the courage to speak the plain truth of
God's Word, and to direct himself to the conscience of each one he
speaks to. He is not deceived into thinking that he can accomplish
more than the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. He does not distort
or go beyond the word of God, and neither does he allow any minister
of the new covenant to do so.

3.5 We Do Not Preach Ourselves

In verse 5 Paul points to another way in which our methodology has

been affected by the nature and source of the New Covenant ministry:
“For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and
ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.” In the light of that which
has already been discussed above, it becomes obvious why Paul says
this. If it is true that our ministry is one of reflecting the Lord's glory
and spreading his fragrance and aroma, then we shall be foolish to
preach ourselves. It is not about us, it is about him. We do not possess
the glory, we merely carry it. We dare not preach in such a way that
the focus falls on us. It should always be on Christ.

It is told that the donkey who carried Jesus into Jerusalem went home
that night and boasted to his friends and family about what had
happened. He had never noticed who sat on his back and was
thoroughly convinced that the uproar was about him. The story might
make us smile, but the fact is that many of us are like that donkey.
When we reflect the glory of the Lord and we see the effect that it has
on people, we are tempted to think that there is something special
about us.

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4. The Effects of Our Ministry

The next point that Paul makes flows logically out of everything that
has been said thus far: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to
those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of
unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ.”

Paul answers the obvious question: “If it is not my affair to interfere

with the impact that God's glory has on people, what about those who
do not see the glory and who do not respond? Am I not to go out my
way to try and convince them? Surely I cannot just leave them?” His
answer could well have been predicted. People who are lost and
perishing are so not because they have not had the gospel explained in
a fantastic enough way, but because the veil prohibiting them from
seeing the glory has not been removed. “It has not been removed,
because only in Christ is it taken away” (3:14), Paul reminds us.

Outside of Christ, the minds of unbelievers are blinded by the god of

this age. Even religious people, such as the Jews, suffer from this
curse: “Even today, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But
when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” (3:15). The
solution for spiritual blindness, then, is to turn to Christ the Lord. It can
never be anything else. Where this has not happened, no amount of
manipulation can remove the veil. To try and do create artificial sight
by using all kinds of manipulative tactics, thinking that we are assisting
God, is carnal and foolish.

We have already referred to the next verse, but it is fitting to do so

once again after having said the above: “For we do not preach

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ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for
Jesus' sake.” Clearly this is the choice facing the preacher of God's
word. Either he can preach Christ, or himself. Preaching Christ involves
pointing people to Christ, and it happens where the preacher
understands that Christ alone can remove the veil. When a preacher is
misled to think he himself can remove the veil, his preaching will not
be Christ-focused, but self-focused. The party who is thus seen as the
revealing agent of God's light and glory will of necessity receive the
prominent place in the sermon. When we understand that Christ alone
can remove the veil, we shall never be tempted to preach ourselves.

Perhaps the best example of such preaching is to be found in the life

and ministry of John the Baptist, a man who was born to point people
to Christ. His life and reason for being was defined by one powerful
sentence: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world!” (John 1:29). The next day he saw Jesus passing by and he
repeated the words: “Look, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:35). His ministry
was the same as the ministry of every minister of the New Covenant.
He pointed Christ out to the people, he prepared the way for the Lord.
As the veil began to be removed, John purposefully began to phase
himself into the background: “He must become greater; I must become
less” (John 3:30), he said. Ministers and Christian leaders would do well
to look in the mirror from time to time and say out loud with the
prophet: “I am not the Christ but am send ahead of him.” (John 3:27).
Indeed, preparing the way for Christ is what the New Covenant
ministry is all about. We do not preach ourselves, we preach Christ.

5. The Power of our Ministry.

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“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light
shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Christ.”

In order to clearly make the point that no human mediation can

remove the veil over the gospel, and that no human being can create
spiritual sight on behalf of God, Paul points to the creation of the world,
and in particular to the creation of light.

There is only one who has the authority and power to create light in
darkness, he reminds us. It is God. The same God who said “Let there
be light” at the beginning of creation, now says “Let there be light” at
the beginning of the new creation. In the next chapter this argument is
drawn to its logical conclusion when Paul says: “Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All
this is from God…” (2 Cor 5:17)

The two covenants are therefore inaugurated by the same command:

“Let there be light!” The former was a creation of physical light, the
latter of spiritual light. The miracle of removing the veil over the
gospel, of delivering people from the god of this age who has blinded
their minds, of allowing them to see the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, is the very miracle that took place at creation. The power
needed to do so is the very power that was needed at the beginning of
time. If a preacher thinks he has the ability to remove the veil over the
gospel, then such a preacher might just as well claim that he has the
ability to create the universe. (See Addendum for further reading)

6. The Channel of the Ministry

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“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-
surpassing power is from God and not from us.” The power to create
life and light is from God, not from us. It is so vital that the distinction
remains clear, that God has designed a way for us to constantly be
reminded thereof. He does this by revealing to us that we are mere
vessels containing the treasure, and very fragile ones at that.

In the next verses Paul provides us with examples of exactly how this
message is driven home on a daily basis, and how we are constantly
reminded of our own brokenness, mortality and dependence on God:
We are hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted and struck down, and in
this way we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus. All of
this takes place to remind us that it is God’s power, not ours, and that
we merely reflect God’s glory.

In chapter 12 of Corinthians Paul repeats the same principle when he

speaks about the thorn in his flesh that was given to him to keep him
from becoming conceited about his ministry. His conclusion in verse10,
“when I am weak I am strong”, is one that runs like a golden thread
throughout the second letter to the Corinthians. We are only qualified
to be carriers of God’s glory and to reflect it to the world when we
realize exactly how weak and fragile we are. To the degree that we
experience death in ourselves the life of God will be revealed through
us.

We can summarise by saying that for the message of grace to be truly

grace, it must be evident not only in the content of the message, but
also in its delivery. It is therefore imperative that the one who brings
God’s message should not do it in a boastful way, but “in fear and
trembling”, as Paul did when he preached to the Corinthians (1 Cor

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2:3). This will reveal the true source of the power behind the message,
both to the preacher and the audience.

Conclusion

Paul concludes his teaching in verse 16 by repeating the same

statement that he made in verse one: “Therefore we do not lose
heart.” It is as though he is saying that when you understand that the
success of the gospel does not depend on you or your efforts, then you
will no longer be demotivated when you do not see the results that you
would like to see.

The main reason why we lose heart is because we do not understand

the glorious nature of the ministry, nor that we can only have it
through God's mercy. We also do not understand that we cannot do
anything to make the message more appealing to people who do not
find it appealing enough. Finally, we do not understand that if we do
not see any visible results of our ministry, we do not have to despair.

As Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians: “For when one says, “I
follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely
human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom
you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered,
but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters
is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

To elaborate on this point a meditation has been included (Addendum)

that stresses the same principle from another angle. Please read it
carefully and meditate upon the words. (You may find that you will
have to read it more than once to fully grasp the significance.)

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May the Lord bless you as you meditate on the words above and
commit yourself to becoming a true minister of the New Covenant.

ADDENDUM

The difference between the believer and the non-believer is not to be

blamed on the fact that the one had the message of eternity explained
in understandable terms and the other not. Rather it is because the
one has believed and the other has not. And belief comes from the
inside, not from the outside. We have been designed by God with
spiritual vision, which is powers of observation unlike those of the
senses, and it is this 'seeing' and 'hearing' which makes it possible for
a person to interpret spiritual truth. Where these powers are not used,
disregarded or ineffectual, such a person is called 'blind' and 'deaf' in
Scripture. To direct the message of the gospel to the senses of a
person in order to compensate for his or her spiritual inadequacy is not
helping the faith of such a person, but destroying the possibility of any
future faith.

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It is significant that Christ said 'for him who has ears to hear, let him
hear', and not 'for him who has not ears to hear, let him understand in
some other way.' Faith, which is the word describing the action of
'hearing' and 'seeing' spiritually, depends for its existence on the
absence of 'hearing' and 'seeing' non-spiritually, or sensually. Which is
why it is written: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things unseen. Also, this is why 'a wicked and adulterous
generation' asks for a sign, and why no sign shall be given them save
the sign of Jonah, namely the cross. Which is exactly the way Paul
responded to the Jews who asked for a sign, and to the Greeks who
asked for wisdom: I preach Christ crucified…for those who are being
saved (those with spiritual sight and hearing, or, in other words, those
with faith) both the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Christ and Paul shared the same understanding of truth. Truth, when
heard by the spiritual person, is recognised by an inner resonation, and
so the spiritual person is identified by his or her ability to read the
parables of Christ - parables that remain coded for the unspiritual
person. For truth to remain truth, and for the distinction between the
spiritual and the non-spiritual person to remain a distinction, truth may
never be proclaimed in any form other than that of a parable. The
parable shares its nature with that of the cross, namely hidden
treasure accessible only to those who have been given sight by God.

To try and unearth the treasure for the blind is tantamount to casting
pearls before swine. It is the cheapening of the message of grace - a
message so dear that only those who have paid with their lives are
granted access to it. And so it undermines the qualifications and
prerequisites for spiritual sight laid down by Christ in the Sermon on
the Mount: Poverty of spirit, mourning, hungering after righteousness,
meekness. Needless to say, where these virtues are absent in a

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person's life, such absence brings with it an intended and necessary
debilitation to see God, to be filled and comforted, to inheriting the
kingdom of heaven. The exclusion of those who are blind remains vital
for the health of the gospel, as their blindness is a necessary judgment
for their refusal to submit to the terms and the regulations laid down
by Christ in the beatitudes. To try and overcome these debilitating
effects in any way other than to challenge the blind with Christ's
prescription for vision, is to pervert the gospel and empty it of its
transcendence.

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