FollowWe are Servants of the New Testament
© 2026 by C. O. Bishop
2nd Corinthians 2:14-3:6
14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: 16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
Introduction:
We have often seen Paul presenting himself as a servant of the gospel. Romans 1:1 says “I am consecrated unto the Gospel of God.” Now, we might interpret this passage also, as Paul explaining the life of the apostles.
However, if we consider the parallel passages, where he also says we are Ambassadors of Christ (2nd Corinthians 5:20.) In the Great Commission itself, Jesus commanded the apostles to make disciples in all nations. Furthermore, it said, teach those disciples to do everything Jesus assigned to the Apostles. Then we have to slow down and consider, “How much of this applies to me directly?”
Does God Cause Us to Triumph in Christ?
Against Satan:
Where is the battle? Who is the enemy? Against whom do we put on the whole armor of God, so as to withstand the attacks of the Enemy? Satan is a defeated enemy, but he still attacks us: and God gives us victory.
Against the World:
When God calls us to “overcome the World,” what does He mean? Where do we find the answer to that question? 1st John 5:4, 5 says it means you have placed your faith in Jesus, as the Son of God. If you have trusted in His blood as full payment for your sins, then YOU have overcome the World!
Against the Flesh:
Is there more? Yes, of course there is! He calls us to walk with Him and to allow Him to increase our faith. He wants to increase our strength and stability in Him. (We can’t lose! God says nothing in the universe can separate you from His love! Romans 8:38, 39)
As we walk with Him, we find that we are also victorious over our old sin nature. We can’t get rid of it entirely, but God says we can continually set it aside. As believers, we can submit our new nature to the holiness of God. We can’t eradicate our old nature in this life, but we can starve it, and have daily victory. Galatians 5:16 promises that IF we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the Flesh.
So, yes! God does cause us to triumph in Christ!
What Is The Result Of That Spiritual Triumph?
He says that, due to that triumph, God causes us to “Smell like Jesus,” for better or worse. To those who are responsive to God’s call, we smell like eternal life. To those who habitually reject Him, we smell like judgment, and death.
We do not cause that aroma. God causes the fragrance of Christ as the result of His Grace manifested itself in our lives. Look at 2:14 again: He says God causes us to triumph, and God makes known the savour (aroma, or fragrance) of His knowledge by us in every place.
But, since that is the standard, if we see that we are not “smelling like Jesus” then the lack is in our response to Him. God does not fail, but we frequently fail to cooperate with His Grace. So, to the question, “Who is sufficient for these things?” we reply, “Only God!”
What Does it Mean, to “Corrupt the Word of God?”
The word translated as “corrupt” in verse 17 can also be translated as, “peddle,” or “make merchandise of.” When a band sells “merchandise” at a concert, it includes all sorts of “I was there” memorabilia. (Junk, really, but to those who want to advertise a favorite band, it may seem desirable.) And the band frequently makes more from the merchandise sales than they do the ticket sales.
There are preachers who are “in the ministry” for money, and they have an agenda to sell. They use God’s Word as merchandise, and they hope to gain great financial support from people who “like their message.” One problem with that approach is that they tend to modify the content to some degree, in an effort to make their message more popular. In doing so, they are corrupting God’s Word.
We have nothing to sell! We preach the Good News of Salvation through the Cross, but we also preach the bad news: “The necessity of the Cross: Why did Jesus have to die for us?”
Obviously, we cannot afford to “make God’s Word more palatable.” If we were to do so, we would be corrupting the Word, which Paul specifically warns against, here.
We choose to tell people the truth about Jesus: That He is God in the Flesh. That He hates sin just as much as ever, but He chose to become a man and to die in place of the entire Human Race. We teach that He calls us to place our trust in His completed Work, and to abandon our attempts to please Him with our own works. He asks us to allow Him to work through us. And He has given us a job, which He will accomplish through us, as we walk with Him by faith.
2nd Corinthians Chapter 3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? 2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 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.
No Self-Commendation, and No Self Condemnation:
Paul cautions the Corinthian believers to understand that he is not “commending himself:” He says if anyone wants a “letter of recommendation” regarding his work, they should read the lives of the people who have believed the Gospel and who are being set free from sin!
He says that the believers who have benefitted in one way or another by Paul’s teaching are the only letter of recommendation He can ask for. Either God has been working via the Gospel, and the message Paul has preached is sound teaching, or He has not, and Paul’s ministry is flawed.
God’s Word transforms lives! He works from the inside out, to renew our minds and to strengthen our walk with Him. Paul faithfully transmitted the true Gospel of Christ, and everywhere Paul went and shared the message of the Gospel, there was either a riot, a revival, or both! Why? Because he was telling the truth!
The message can be clearly read in the changed hearts and lives of the believers. No one has to go to a temple and read the commandments written in the stone. They can see the living Word of God shining in the changed lives of His saints.
Why is that happening? Because of the triumph we saw in chapter 2. God “has (past tense) made us able ministers (servants) of the New Testament…the New Covenant.”
What Gospel do We Preach?
We do not “preach the Law,” though it is Holy and unchanging: We preach the Righteousness of Christ, which now is available to all. Romans 3:21 says, “But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets.”
We no longer condemn ourselves for failing to “keep the Law:” No one but Jesus ever succeeded in keeping the Law. Acts 15:7-11 says that none of the Jews, who were raised up from infancy under the Law were ever able to keep it. It goes on to say that the Gentiles are not responsible to “keep the Law.”
They (and all believers, Jew or Gentile) are offered the Gift of Eternal life through the finished work of Jesus at the Cross. The Law, thereafter, sees the believer as “Dead in Christ!” ( Galatians 2:19-21) And the Law has no effect on “dead people”…it warns the living of the Holiness of God, and the coming judgment. But our judgment was carried out and finished at the Cross.
What did John the Baptist and Jesus preach?
John the Baptist preached the coming Judgment and the promise of God. Jesus pointed out that as natural humans, we are already under the condemnation of God for our sin. But He presented His life as the sacrifice for our sins, and promised that we can have eternal life immediately, if we believe His Word, and trust in His shed blood for our salvation.
We do not have to wait until we die to know that we have eternal life. He gives it immediately when we place our faith in Him, and He says that He wants us to know that we have eternal life. Romans 8:2 says that “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of Sin and Death!”
That is Good News!
So, What is Our Job?
We know that our job is to be ambassadors for Christ. So, we want to learn how to do our job effectively. When I worked as a welder, I wanted to learn to do my job well, with top quality welds and high productivity. I wanted to be effective at my job.
Here at True Hope Christian Fellowship, we are attempting to equip the saints for the work of ministry, as we are told to do in Ephesians 4:11-17. We hope to see all the believers grow to be highly functional as ambassadors of Christ.
That involves thorough, serious teaching of the Written Word, and constant encouragement for all of us to “get out of our comfort zone,” as they say.
But the fact remains, for all of us: We have a job to do! Let’s get on with it!
Lord Jesus, grip our hearts with the honor You have conferred upon us, that we are allowed to go to work with You, every day, and see Your hand changing the world around us, and offering life to the hopeless. Teach us to be devoted to Your service, so that it is no longer a matter of convenience, but of true commitment.