2 Corinthians 3:9, 11 “If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!… And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!”

When the children of Israel first heard God’s voice booming down the Ten Commandments behind the smoke and darkness, the fire and lightning, on Mount Sinai, they had a sense, a premonition, of what this ministry meant. “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

Here Paul calls Moses’ ministry “the ministry that condemns.” And some people might be surprised to hear it, but that is what God’s law does. It’s not because there is anything wrong with the law. It’s because there is a sinner in us, and he has to die. It works a little like antibiotics for the soul. You know what antibiotics do, right? They kill living things, the bacteria that make you sick. Pneumonia will kill you. But antibiotics will kill the pneumonia. That’s good for getting rid of the disease, but you can’t make a regular diet out of penicillin or tetracycline or cipro. That could kill you.

So the ministry of the law is good for what it does, dealing death to our sinful nature. But it doesn’t have the glory of giving us life or nourishing our faith. That belongs to another ministry, the ministry of the gospel we have been given.

Paul says it this way, “…how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!” The good news about Jesus makes us righteous. It takes his payment for the sins of the world and makes it ours. It takes his perfect life of love for friends and enemies, for public sinners and self-righteous hypocrites and makes it ours. It plants a living faith in us and presents us to God as new and holy people, stripped of guilt and clothed and covered in the kindness and mercy by which Jesus lived and walked for some thirty years. Spiritually speaking, it doesn’t just make us well. It raises the dead. To bring us the righteousness that comes from God it works the miracle of spiritual life in our souls.

So we have the glory of living in this ministry, of having this mission, of carrying around with us this message that makes sinners holy, that makes the guilty righteous, that makes the dead alive. Your church may not be the biggest or most influential in your community. But your ministry is still more glorious than you think. You raise the spiritually dead to life!

Add to that the glory of how long that ministry lasts. “And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts.”

After talking to God on Mount Sinai, Moses didn’t spend the rest of his life with his head shining like a light bulb screwed into the top of his neck. After each session with God, the glory faded, and he looked just like everybody else again.

Paul uses this as an allusion to the glory of the law, its relative importance for our lives. Yes, it exposes our sin. It leads us to repent. It prepares us for grace. But even in this life, it is not what faith lives on. And in the perfection of the life to come, the glory of the law will fade to black, no longer necessary for people who have been transformed into creatures of perfect love.

But the ministry that is all about God’s people living in his love as holy, righteous, radiant children free from sin and death–there is no end to that. That is like one of these fluorescent bulbs that starts out a little dim when it is cold. But as it warms the intensity of its light grows brighter and brighter until it reaches its full brilliance. Already now, with each new insight of faith, the glory of the gospel grows inside of us, spreading its light farther and farther into the dark recesses of our souls. And when we finally reach the other side, and we have put all sin behind us, and life is all we know, the love of God will reach its full brilliance in us. “How much greater is the glory of that which lasts!”