2 Corinthians 3:6(NKJV)
6who 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.
I've been reading
Leviticus lately and that really brings this bit of Scripture to life for
me. Let me explain.
Leviticus lays out
all of the sacrifices. What you
sacrifice for a sin offering, a wave offering, a thanks offering, a heave
offering, etc. It lays out which
offerings the priests get to eat and where they can eat them. It is very detailed. In other words there are a lot of letters to
the law.
Leviticus 10:1-2(NKJV)
1Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron,
each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane
fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.
2So fire went out from
the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.
Leviticus 10:16-18(NKJV)
16Then Moses made careful inquiry about the
goat of the sin offering, and there it was—burned up. And he was angry with
Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who
were left, saying,
17“Why have you not eaten the sin offering in a holy place,
since it is most holy, and God has given it to you to bear the guilt of the
congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord?
18See! Its blood was not brought
inside £the holy place; indeed you should have eaten it in a holy place, as I commanded.”
As you can see from the preceding two passages
it was real easy to get confused and mess it up. And sometimes the penalty was quite
severe! In other words, the letter of
the law kills.
Because man is
sinful and the letter of the law is quite broad and complex, man was doomed to
die. No matter how hard he tried, man
could not satisfy the letter of the law for his whole life. But Jesus changed all of that. The only way to avoid that death is through
accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Through acceptance of Christ we receive the
Holy Spirit. And as the passage from II
Corinthians says "the Spirit gives life"!
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