Hidden Secret for Competence

“And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  2 Corinthians 3:4-6 NKJV

We're now under the new covenant of God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ the Lord. Under the old covenant, we tried our best to keep the commandment, but failed miserably all the time. However, the good news has been delivered to us that we now can keep the commandments of God since we’re under the new arrangement of the new covenant. Our confidence no longer rests on our flesh but solely on the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Way to God.

We were not adequate at all to handle our lives since the fall of man. However, our adequate competence is flowing from God who made us confident and sufficient as the servants of new covenant. As Paul confessed, we can do everything in Christ because everything is coming from God and nothing coming from us. This is a Spirit-filled life. We’re in the total communion with God the Father through the Son Jesus Christ. So, we’re God’s treasured possessions and what God has is our inheritance in Jesus Christ the Lord. 

And, don’t be surprised at this. Every Christian is a minister of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. Yes, every believer in Christ! The letter means the Ten Commandments. Once we were defeated all the time due to insufficiency to meet the demand of the law. As a matter of fact, we were killed by the ever mounting mandate of the law. That was what was happening to us before we come to the Lord Jesus Christ who paid the ransom to free and liberate us from the law requirements.

So now, we are liberated by the grace and through the faith in Jesus Christ. As promised even before the creation of the world, God has poured out the Spirit into our hearts since we accepted Jesus as Lord. We live not by the law any longer since we are in Christ Jesus. The life in Adam was terminated for Christ Jesus came into our hearts. Thus, we live by the Spirit now and forevermore. 

However, the Scripture warns us not to go back under the law. In fact, as Galatians tells us, so many Christians are trying to live up to meet the law requirements as best as they could, completely ignoring the fact that they are not under the law but in the Spirit. Inevitably it causes them to experience serious defeat, depression, and shame, despair and guilt because they cannot meet the law requirements.

Since we are freed and liberated from the law requirements, we shall not go back under the law again. If so, it is like denouncing the work of Christ Jesus on the cross. Rather, we can choose to live in the Spirit continually in the midst of this adulterous and perverse generation. For we have the Lord Jesus Christ in us, the way to the Eternal Father. Jesus Christ is compassionate and merciful that he remembers not our wrongs and failures when we confess them to Him (Hebrews 8:12). Remember our sufficiency is coming from God!