The Ministry of the Letter and the Ministry of the Spirit

The ministry of the letter is also called the “ministry of death” and the “ministry of condemnation.” The ministry of the Spirit is also called the “ministry of righteousness.” It may seem as if these two ministries oppose each other; on the contrary, the ministry of the Spirit fulfills the ministry of the letter, and both ministries were glorious. Nevertheless, the ministry of the letter has no glory when compared to the exceeding glory of the ministry of the Spirit. The ministry of the letter vanished in and through Christ. The ministry of the Spirit began by Jesus fulfilling the law and the prophets and sending the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. John 16:8-15.

What was the ministry of the letter? It was to condemn the sinner and to eradicate him. If Israel was faithful in this ministry, according to the law on tablets of stone, this resulted in a great earthly glory in the land. Great fear came over the people, and God could bless them. Deut. 11:26-28, 13:1-11.

What, then, is the ministry of the Spirit? It is to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, leading those who are disciples into all the truth. This means being conformed to the image of Jesus so that we become brethren of Him who is the truth. Rom. 8:29.

“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh . . . .” Rom. 8:3. Then we can ask, “What was possible for the law?” What was possible for the law was to condemn sin after it was manifested in deed, and then to eradicate the sinner. What was impossible for the law? It was what God did in and through His Son whom He had sent, and who, according to the flesh, was of the seed of David. Rom. 1:3. He condemned sin in the flesh. Ch. 8:3. Thus the law which said “You shall not covet” was fulfilled. Covetousness did not enter the heart when it was condemned in the flesh, and consequently it could not be manifested in deed. Therefore Jesus could abolish the law that came with commandments contained in ordinances. Eph. 2:14-16. Jesus consecrated a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh. Heb. 10:19-20. The law became superfluous when sin in the flesh was condemned. Jesus did this on the cross. There the enmity—sin in the flesh—was put to death, and so He could “create in Himself one new man from the two [Jew and Gentile].”

This finished work was effected for “the two”—for all those who believe—“that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Rom. 8:4. The requirement of the law was: “You shall not covet.” Covetousness is hidden. This is where the law was powerless, but the Spirit is not powerless. The work was finished in Jesus through the Spirit. Heb. 9:14. By the Spirit we who love the truth are led into all truth, and by Him we have power to follow Jesus on the new and living way—putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Rom. 8:13. This is “salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” 2 Thess. 2:13.

When sin comes out of the body, the person falls under the ministry of the letter—the ministry of death. Such people are in bondage—they fear; but he who has received the “Spirit of adoption” has entered into the new covenant which Jesus established with His Father when He came into the world. “Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.” Heb. 10:7. This is the hidden life with Christ in God. Col. 3:3. Then the Spirit leads us into all truth; and covetousness in the flesh, which is hidden to men, is put to death and the “Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

Jesus began this ministry of a new covenant, the ministry of the Spirit, and we read in the Sermon on the Mount how He shines light on the hidden things in man, so that the vessel can be cleansed on the inside and all things can be clean. Luke 11:39.

Convinced of success, the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus in order to uphold the ministry of the letter, saying, “Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” “But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger.” They continued asking Him, likely believing that He didn’t know how to answer them, but in all probability Jesus wrote what Moses said further in the law, “You shall not covet.” Then He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Then He again stooped down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it they were convicted by their own conscience. In all probability Jesus continued to write what Moses had prescribed: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” Gal. 3:10. “Then those who heard it . . . went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.” Here we see how much more power there is in the ministry of the Spirit compared to the ministry of the letter. “And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” John 8:3-12.

“Sin no more!” That is the hope we have received through the ministry of the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there we enter into this liberty. We behold the glory of the Lord, and we all “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”