Trying harder won’t fix the human heart, and that’s exactly why the new covenant is such good news. In this episode, Krisan Marotta walks us through 2 Corinthians 3:1-6, where Paul defends his ministry by pointing not to his qualifications, but to the life-giving work of the Spirit. Paul’s confidence doesn’t come from his own strength. It comes from what God is doing through him.

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why Paul calls the Corinthians his letter of recommendation.
• How Paul carefully walks the line between defending his ministry and boasting.
• How Paul compares his ministry to the ministry of Moses
• How the Spirit changes hearts in a way the Law never could
• Why the “Victorious Christian Life” reading of this passage misses Paul’s point

By listening, you’ll gain a clearer understanding of the difference between law and Spirit, external obedience and inward transformation, and why the gospel offers something better than a new strategy for self-improvement.

What’s New About the New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3:1-6)

In 2 Corinthians 3:1–6, Paul continues defending his ministry to the Corinthian church. Some in the church questioned his authority and demanded proof of his legitimacy. Paul responds by pointing to the Corinthian believers themselves as the evidence of his ministry and explains how his message brings life through the Spirit in a way the Law could not.

Review: Where We Are in the Letter

Paul opened his letter by highlighting the concern he shares with the Corinthians.

As an apostle of Jesus Christ, Paul endured intense suffering. He was beaten, threatened, and even faced attempts on his life because he preached the gospel. He did not view these trials as meaningless. He saw them serving two purposes.

Paul suffered so the Corinthians could hear the good news. Just as people rejected Jesus for telling the truth, they rejected Paul for representing Him. His suffering was part of the cost of bringing the gospel to them. In the midst of those trials, God comforted Paul. The encouragement Paul received was not just for him. It was something he could pass on to the Corinthians. His suffering and his comfort strengthened their faith.

The Corinthians had a role too. By praying for Paul, they could support him and his ministry and then give thanks when God answered their prayers and rescued him.

But not everyone in Corinth shared Paul’s concern. Some rejected him altogether and refused to believe he was a true apostle.

Why Paul Changed His Plans

Almost immediately, Paul defends his ministry. His change in travel plans (1:15-17) raised doubts. Some in Corinth accused him of being unreliable. He said he would visit, and then he did not. Could they trust someone who did not follow through?

Paul explains why he changed his plans. After a painful visit that strained their relationship, he chose not to return right away. He suspected another visit so soon would only add to their grief, so he decided to spare them. His delay was not careless; it was compassionate.

He assures them his conscience is clear. He acted with integrity, sincerity, and genuine concern for their well-being.

The Fine Line He Walks

Paul describes the huge impact of the gospel he preaches, but he also wants to make clear that he is not bragging about himself.

His job is to preach the gospel, and understanding the gospel is a matter of life and death. His ministry is important, not because Paul is a big deal, but because his message is.

He is not adequate to produce such results. God works through Paul to bring them about. He will talk more explicitly about that now.

Do I Need a Letter of Recommendation

2 Cor 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 Cor 3:2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 2 Cor 3:3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Paul often refers to himself in the first person plural. He says “we” when he means “I, Paul.” This is one of those sections. When he asks, Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, he means, Am I, Paul, beginning to commend myself again, or do I need a letter of recommendation to you or from you?

Paul has been defending his integrity as a minister of the gospel. Now he speaks directly to the fact that he has been talking about himself.

I used to think Paul was asking, Am I blowing my own horn? But the word again puzzled me. Was he saying he had just bragged and now he was doing it again? That does not fit the flow of thought.

The emphasis is on beginning and again. Think of the phrase as, Are we beginning again to commend ourselves?

He is asking, Do I have to go back to square one? Must I start over as if we did not know each other? Do I need to introduce myself again and make a case for why you should listen to me?

That fits with what follows: Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

Letters of recommendation are for strangers. If he were coming to the Corinthians for the first time, someone they knew might write to say, “This is a good man. You should listen to him.”

He should not need to defend his ministry that way. They are not strangers. They know him and his ministry. He should not need a letter of recommendation.

The Corinthians are Paul’s letter of recommendation.

What Kind of Letter You Are

Paul uses the metaphor of a letter of recommendation and expands it. He is saying, Do you want to know whether I am worth hearing? Look at what has happened among you. Your lives answer the question.

But he is walking a fine line. This metaphor brings him close to bragging. So he qualifies it.

2 Cor 3:2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 2 Cor 3:3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

First, you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us. Yes, the Corinthians are his letter of recommendation. Look at how they changed and grew. You can see he taught the true gospel because their lives are changing.

But Paul did not write that letter. They are a letter of Christ. Paul delivered it. He is Christ’s servant. He introduced them to Christ and taught them about Him. Christ, not Paul, did the work.

Second, they are a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. The letter is the dynamic, life-changing work of the Holy Spirit. If the Corinthians look at themselves, they will see the Spirit at work fostering faith, understanding, and maturity.

Of course, the Corinthians are a mixed bag. Some show maturity, some do not. But anyone who takes an honest look at the church in Corinth will recognize that the Spirit of God is at work among them through Paul’s ministry.

Third, they are a letter written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. This alludes to the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets.

Exo 24:12 The LORD said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.

Exo 31:18 And he [God] gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Paul is contrasting his gospel with the law. We are not talking about words written on stone tablets. We are talking about the Spirit of God writing on human hearts.

This is a new idea in the letter. He will develop the contrast between law and gospel in the rest of the chapter.

Confidence and Sufficiency

Paul’s overall purpose remains the same. He is defending his ministry. God uses him to bring Christ to the world. Some accept Paul’s gospel and find life; others reject it and find death. He says he is not adequate to have such an effect. He speaks with sincerity and is not a peddler of the gospel. The Corinthians should see the value of his ministry by looking at the work of Christ through the Holy Spirit in their own hearts.

2 Cor 3:4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 2 Cor 3:5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 2 Cor 3:6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Remember, in this section we refers to Paul. He has just said he needs no letter of recommendation. When he says, Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, he means, I have great confidence that my ministry is what I say it is.

His confidence is not in himself. It is in God working through Christ. My confidence is through Christ toward God. My confidence is in God, not in me.

Here is the fine line he walks. He is not adequate to accomplish what has happened among them. He is weak. But God has made him adequate as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He has fulfilled his ministry because God made him adequate to proclaim the gospel with sincerity and truth.

He does not call his message the gospel here. He calls it the new covenant. He also introduces the contrast between letter and Spirit. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

A Detour: The Victorious Christian Living Debate

These verses have been at the center of a theological debate in American Christianity. An entire theology has been built on this passage. It pops up under different names: Keswick theology, Victorious Christian Living, Higher Life theology, sometimes New Covenant theology. I will call it Victorious Christian Living (VCL)

The central idea behind VCL is that if we choose to plug in to the power of the Spirit, we can experience victory over sin in the moment. The debate centers on whether we can have victory over sin now and how.

VCL says yes. We can have victory over any given sin at any given moment, and there are strategies to ensure that victory. One of the key passages they cite is this one in 2 Corinthians.

They argue Paul is teaching VCL in 2 Corinthians 3. They say Paul teaches that we are not adequate in ourselves to keep from sinning, so we must stop trying in our own strength. If we avail ourselves of the Holy Spirit’s power, God will make us powerful and successful in ministry and life. That, they say, is the new covenant.

I believe VCL is wrong in its theology and in its reading of 2 Corinthians. The context shows why.

Who Is the We

The debate turns on the pronoun we. Is Paul talking about himself and his ministry, or about all believers?

VCL reads we as all believers: We Christians have confidence in Christ toward God. We Christians are not adequate in ourselves, but God has made us all adequate ministers of the new covenant. The new covenant, they say, is God’s arrangement that if we stop trying in our own strength and instead rely on the Spirit, we will have victory over sin now.

Some background helps. John Wesley rejected the Reformed view of election. He thought God gave everyone the power to choose salvation. He believed God freed us from original sin so we could decide on our own whether to follow God. Wesley applied this to sanctification. He taught that God did what He needed to do to save us, and now we must choose to believe and choose to be sanctified. If we choose properly, we can reach perfection.

Wesley influenced the Keswick movement, which began in the 1800s in Keswick, a town in England. They held a Convention for the Promotion of Practical Holiness. Over a week, they taught Christians how to surrender to God and be sanctified. They believed we have the Holy Spirit’s power inside us, but we need to learn how to use it. God has already given us all the power necessary to avoid sin. We just need to appropriate it.

The Keswick movement was very influential in early American Christianity. The idea that the Christian life is about learning how to avail yourself of the Holy Spirit became widespread. The key idea is that the power is in my hands. God has done His part and given me all I need. The rest is up to me.

One of the passages used to support this theology is our passage today. They argue Paul is talking about all believers and is teaching us to use the Spirit’s power.

Reading in Context

Does that theology fit the context? If you start reading at 1:1 and read to this point, does it make sense that Paul would pause to say, Here is how to have a victorious Christian life. You need to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit?

Context is king. When you pull a few verses out of a chapter without the flow of the entire letter and its historical setting, you open the door to interpretive problems.

Look at the context. Paul has been defending his ministry from the start. The issue is, How should you Corinthians think about me, Paul? Some of you are ready to reject me and accuse me of lacking integrity. So let me tell you how to think about me and my ministry.

It seems unlikely that in the midst of that defense he would stop and say, Oh, and by the way, here is how you can have victory over sin. The context shows he is talking about himself. That is what he has been discussing before and after this section.

We means I, Paul. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Do we need letters of recommendation? He is explaining why he should not have to defend himself. Even though he is not adequate for the high calling of being an apostle, God has made him adequate. The Corinthians should see that by looking at the impact of his ministry.

In my view, Keswick theology makes two mistakes here.

Paul is describing his own adequacy as an apostle, not the adequacy of all believers. God did not make you and me apostles the way He made Paul. We have adequacy from God, but that is not what Paul is talking about here. The Spirit is at work in all believers, not just those who choose to plug in. The discussion about the Spirit working in our hearts is not qualified. The language does not suggest, If and only if you plug in, you will have success. It speaks of the sanctifying work the Spirit does in every child of God. The Spirit is not a power source that some Christians tap while others miss out. Why This Is Still Relevant

Some VCL proponents say that if Paul is talking about himself, this passage has no relevance to us. I would say it is absolutely relevant, but in a different way.

The adequacy of Paul as an apostle is incredibly relevant to me. If you meet someone who claims to be the best lawyer in town, you may or may not believe him, but at least you know his claim. You must decide whether to trust him.

That is Paul’s claim. He knows what he is talking about because God made him adequate. God taught him the gospel. He did not make it up. That is why we should listen to him.

We cannot treat him as just another Bible teacher. He claims to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ by the will of God. That is why we read his letters and seek to understand them.

What Is New About the New Covenant

Paul gives a series of contrasts we need to understand.

• He is a minister of a new covenant, which implies there was an old covenant.
• He contrasts writing on the heart with writing on stone tablets, which points to the law.
• He says the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. If letter refers to the law, that is a strong statement.

What is he getting at? To answer this, we need to look at some three Old Testament passages.

Old Testament Background: Deuteronomy 30

Moses laid before Israel the blessing and the curse. As they were about to enter the land, he told them that if they were faithful to God’s law, He would bless them. If they rejected His law, they would be cursed and exiled.

Moses predicted they would not keep the law and would be exiled. But someday God would restore them.

Deu 30:4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. Deu 30:5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. Deu 30:6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Why did exile come? Because they did not love the Lord their God.

One day God would circumcise their hearts. He would cut away the rebellion that turned them from Him. They would love God sincerely and live.

Moses implies the law he is giving Israel is not going to be enough. They will not be able to keep it, and they will be exiled.

In what sense is it not enough? The law is good and promises blessing, but what good is a law of blessing if your heart is hard and rebellious?

Knowing the law without being the kind of person who can obey is like having a map to a treasure but a broken compass. The map is accurate and promises great reward, but if your compass is faulty, you still wander off. The problem is not the map; the problem is your internal guide.

So too with the law. It points the way to life, but a rebellious heart cannot follow where it leads. Until the heart is fixed, the law alone will not get you there.

Old Testament Background: Ezekiel 36

Ezekiel wrote after the exile Moses predicted had come upon Israel. Babylon had conquered the nation and taken them into captivity. Ezekiel wrote from Babylon.

Eze 36:22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. Eze 36:23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. Eze 36:24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. Eze 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. Eze 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Eze 36:27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Eze 36:28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

This echoes Moses. They are in captivity, as Moses predicted. They will be regathered, as Moses predicted. They will be given a new heart. The purpose of the new heart is obedience to God.

Ezekiel implies the same thing as Moses. The law cannot bless you unless God removes the rebellion from your heart. You cannot find life unless you stop being a rebel. How do you stop? God must put a new heart within you by His Spirit.

Old Testament Background: Jeremiah 31

See What good is faith? (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Jeremiah also wrote during the Babylonian captivity. In a famous passage he says:

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, Jer 31:32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. Jer 31:33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer 31:34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Again, we see the same themes. God will make a new covenant with Israel because they broke the old one. God did amazing miracles to take them by the hand and lead them from Egypt, but they rejected Him. The old covenant, as good as it was, did not lead to life because their hearts were hard.

What is new? This time God commits to writing His law on their hearts. Like Moses and Ezekiel, Jeremiah teaches that God will change their hearts. Faithfulness will no longer be an external demand they cannot meet. It will be embedded within them so they follow God from the heart. No more curse. They will be God’s people.

Jeremiah gives the foundation for this new covenant. God will forgive their sin and change them. That is what we find in the New Testament. God forgives us because of Jesus and His death on the cross. Then God gives us His Spirit to change us from the inside out so that we seek Him and find life.

Why VCL Misses What Is New

See: Who is the Holy Spirit? in the Old Testament: A New Heart

If VCL is right, what is new about the new covenant?

The problem with the old covenant was that we could not keep the law. We had the map but a broken compass. If under the new covenant we still must choose to appropriate the Spirit’s power, how is that different? What is new and improved?

If my compass is broken, why would I choose to follow the Spirit? I need my internal guide fixed.

Maybe it is easier to follow the Spirit than the law, but the fundamental problem remains. I am a sinner, and I will fail.

Thankfully, the new covenant is truly new and better. It is not that the Spirit helps me now and then when I cooperate. God gives me a new heart. Through His Spirit, I am now the kind of person who loves God and wants to follow Him. I am no longer the kind of person who hates and rejects God. That is truly good news. God has made me new, and the promises of life will be mine.

That is what Paul claims for his ministry. His ministry proclaims that because of Christ, God will forgive us and change our hearts through His Spirit. Paul is a minister of a new covenant. He echoes Jeremiah. The promise of a changed heart in the Old Testament is brought about through Christ and the gospel Paul proclaims.

2 Cor 3:5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 2 Cor 3:6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Letter and Spirit: What Paul Means

We sometimes say, I was not following the letter of the law, but I was following the spirit of the law. That is not what Paul means.

Paul uses the same contrast we saw in Jeremiah. The letter consists of external commands and words. It is written on stone. This is the Old Testament law. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit working internally, writing the law on our hearts.

In Jeremiah, the old covenant was the law Israel broke, while the new covenant writes God’s law in their hearts. Paul makes the same distinction. The letter, the external requirements of the law, kills because it does not change us. Only the Spirit transforming our hearts can make us the sort of people who turn to God and find life. The law kills because it does not produce in us what is required to find life, but the Spirit does.

The Problem With the Law

Paul will later call the ministry of Moses a ministry of death. That sounds dismissive of the law, so remember what we saw in those Old Testament passages.

Some Christians think the entire problem with the law is that it demands perfect obedience. That is certainly a problem. But the Old Testament describes a deeper issue.

Read Exodus. We do not see Israel trying hard to follow God but failing now and then. We see them refusing to follow God. They did not trust Him. They wanted this world to pay off on their terms. They talked about killing Moses and going back to Egypt.

That is why Moses says God needs to circumcise their hearts so they will love Him. They need to be made new. It is true we cannot keep the law perfectly, so we are condemned by it. But the problem is bigger. We cannot keep it at all in any meaningful sense.

The problem with the law is that it is external. It appeals to us from the outside. Until God changes us inside, the law cannot do us good. That is the problem Paul describes, and solving it is what makes the new covenant new and improved.

There is nothing wrong with the law. The problem is with us. The law could only appeal to people who had no interest in following God. The Spirit does not have that problem. The Spirit changes us from the inside out.

Why the Gospel Is Good News

The story of humanity is that we each have turned away from God and chosen death. The gospel is the story of how God does for His people what they cannot do for themselves.

Paul proclaims Jesus, who is transforming the hearts of His people. That process has begun now. Paul says, Look at yourselves and see that the Spirit is at work among you. The Christ I proclaimed is turning hearts from death to life. That is why the gospel is good news.

Left to myself, I would fail miserably. But the gospel promises God will give me a new heart and write His law on it. The good news is not another story of try harder. It is not only a promise of forgiveness and avoiding hell. The gospel promises forgiveness and transformation so that we may become what we are not.

That begins now as we entrust ourselves to God and will be completed in our glorification when we finally become what we are not yet. That is Paul’s point here.

Let me leave you with this thought. If trying harder could fix our hearts, we would not need the gospel. We would not need a new covenant. The truly good news is that God does not hand us a better set of instructions. He gives us a new heart. He does not just point the way. He changes who we are.

through the Spirit. The Law gives good commands, but it cannot change a rebellious heart.

Further Study: Who are the Carnal Christians? (1 Corinthians 3:1-4) Who is the Holy Spirit? Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation. Next: 05 Why Paul’s Ministry Outshines Moses (2 Corinthians 3:7-18) Previous: 03 Why Paul Refused to Change to Win More Converts (2 Corinthians 2:5-17) Series: 2 Corinthians: When Church Hurts Resources to help you study: 2 Corinthians

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Podcast season 26, episode 4