Are we ministers of the new testament
Are we ministers of the new testament

Are we ministers of the new testament
By: Dov Avnon
3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2_CORINTHIANS Chapter 3
Are we ministers of the new testament? The answer is very simple, YES! Why because Paul through the authority of Christ writes this to the CHURCHES of the body of Christ. Everything will be easy to understand if we will just read “as it is written”. The problem start when people are coming with their own man-made teaching. (dividing Paul letters etc)
My belief and understanding of the dispensation of Grace is based on what Paul received from the lord and told us so we will receive it too. Already in Paul's days, some brethren rejected his authority or part of the teaching:
2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
The letter to the Corinthians is part of the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. All the things that Paul was teaching the Corinthians, he teaches also the other churches.
17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. 1 Cor. 4:17
Do you believe that Paul received the authority directly from the Lord?
1 Corinthians 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
Romans 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Galatians 1:12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Those verses and others show us very clear that Paul received his authority directly from the Lord Jesus Christ
If you believe that Paul received the dispensation of grace! why not received it too?
1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 Thessalonians 3:6 …..and not after the tradition which he received of us. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 ……ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
Why is Paul using especially in his letters to the ROMANS, CORINTHIANS, GALATIAN, Expressions from the so-called Old Testament?
4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans chapter 15 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 1 Cor. 10:6 11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1 Cor. 10:11
Paul is using those verses simply because it is part of his teaching to the church “the body of Christ”. Some like to teach that there are two bodies of believers in Paul's letters. But as we can read Paul, in all his letters, writes to the same church: the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 1 Tim. 3:15
Paul is teaching us about Abraham, Galatians chapter 3 Romans 4 or about the new testament in 2_CORINTHIANS Chapter 3 simply because it is part of the gospel of God’s grace and the dispensation of Grace that Christ gave him by different revelations.
11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1
If we will understand why Christ saved Paul and for which purpose, we will understand that members of the body of Christ under the dispensation of Grace are also ministers of the New Testament.
Paul's teaching of justification by faith is not based on the fantasy of one man but on the written word of God. as it is written
Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Before we going to compare the new testament as Paul was preaching and what the Prophet Jeremiah was writing. It is important to know that what Paul writes in his letters is part of a new gospel/revelation that he received from the Lord. There is nothing in his letters that were written especially for Jewish people or to the nation of Israel and not to the member of Christ's body.
4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans chapter 15
I mention the above verse very often because I came to the understanding, that whenever Paul uses verses from the Old Testament it is not because he writes especially to a JEW in the synagogue but to you and me: for our learning.
the new covenant with the house of Israel -I will make a new covenant
Let's examine first what Jeremiah the prophet says to the nation of Israel. Jeremiah chapter 31
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: We learn clearly with whom God going to make this covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD:
From reading this verse, we understand that it is a different covenant, not the same as it was in the days of Moses
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD,
After those days, - We know now that the days of the first covenant were over when Christ was on the cross. We know that on the day of Pentecost God was fulfilling to Israel the prophecy of Joel. But all that was a temporary stop with the coming of the dispensation of God’s grace.
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? Hebrew 2
The writer to the Hebrews under the gospel to the circumcision (Hebrew – a revelation) shows us that what already began will continue in the future after the dispensation of Grace will come to the end.
I will put my law in their inward parts
1- I will put my law in their inward parts,
2- and write it in their hearts;
3- and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
4- And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
5 -Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD:
6 -for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
The main purpose of that testament with Israel in the future is like he says:
1- I will put my law in their inward parts,
2- and write it in their hearts;
This means that the first covenant was just a letter – through the law there is the knowledge of sin and not more. Another important point is that the new covenant with Israel is based on the blood of Christ and not the blood of animals.
God intends in the future to continue his covenant with the nation Israel on a different base that it was with MOSES.
11:18 And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: 11:20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 11:21 But [as for them] whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD. EZEKIEL Chapter 11
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament;
In the dispensation of Grace
Let’s go now back to what Paul is writing to members of the body of Christ as part of the revelation of the mystery. His letter to the Corinthians is long. This letter addressed members of the body of Christ at all times.
3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
made us - US - members of the Body of Christ. The purpose to which Christ saved Paul was:
15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings and the children of Israel:16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Act 9:15-16
Gentiles = Nations
Children of Israel – in Paul’s days until the distraction of the temple they could prove that they were from the nation ISRAEL from which tribe. Today there are only NATIONS no one can say to which tribe he belongs.
There is now a New Testament with a new group of believers – the body of Christ. This testament is of the spirit is called also the ministration of righteousness. We find in Paul's letters many verses that deal with the work of the indwelling spirit in the believers.
We see how things were written aforetime were written for our learning.
We speak only on the same principle but not the same group of people.
What God is doing today is Giving His spirit to members of Christ's body based on GRACE and FAITH. You need God's spirit not only to be saved. Remember Paul writes to the Corinthians to believers that need to know and learn about the working of God's spirit in their life to know how to overcome sin.
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:14
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7
for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
The letter is the LAW of Moses the spirit is the new testament according to the revelation of the mystery. (See Romans chapter 8)
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that, ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Eph 1:13
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Romans 8:9
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Romans 8:11
So if you are a saved person and God's Spirit dwells in you by faith. You are a member of the church the body of Christ and therefore: able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life
to testify the gospel of the grace of God acts 20:24



