2 Corinthians 3:6

Who also made us as sufficient ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Having acknowledged God as the all-sufficient, Paul at once reemphasizes his own apostolic sufficiency for the preaching of God's new covenant.

LETTER AND SPIRIT

Not of the letter, but of the spirit ... Both in this and in the final clause of this verse, the RSV has perpetrated a gross error in capitalizing "Spirit" in order to make it mean "Holy Spirit" in both clauses, an error slavishly followed in Good News for Modern Man, Phillips New Testament, The New English Bible (1961), and others. While it is true, of course, that the blessings of the new covenant may be enjoyed only by those who have received the blessed Holy Spirit, there is no reference to that here. As Hughes said, "It is unlikely that a direct reference to the Spirit is intended."[14] "The contrast in 2 Corinthians 3:6 is not between the outward and inward sense of scripture, but between the outward and inward power of the Jewish and Christian dispensations."[15] As Tasker put it, "Paul is distinguishing the new covenant from the old by using the contrasted categories of spirit and letter, life and death."[16] Farrar gave the meaning as "Not of the law, but of the gospel."[17] Paul's usage of this same expression in Romans 2:28f speaks of a true Jew as one who is a Jew in heart, IN THE SPIRIT; NOT IN THE LETTER. There is no need to multiply evidence that Paul used the same expression here exactly as he used it there.

It is equally evident, as Hughes noted, that "This verse is not concerned with any supposed distinction between two different senses of scripture, the literal and the spiritual."[18] It is precisely in such a supposed distinction that much error flourishes, and has flourished for centuries. William Tyndale mentioned it in his day:

Some preach Christ, and prove whatsoever point of faith thou wilt, as well out of a fable of Ovid or any other poet, as out of St. John's gospel or Paul's epistles. Yea, they are come to such blindness, that they not only say that the literal sense profiteth not, but also that it is hurtful and noisome, and killeth the soul.[19]

Hughes added that such erroneous ideas were always supported by people quoting this very passage.[20]

Any persons denying a Christian duty or rejecting an ordinance of God, such as baptism, on the premise that "spiritual" baptism is meant, etc., etc., are finding in Paul's remark here something that was never in it.

[14] Philip E. Hughes, op. cit., p. 101.

[15] J. W. McGarvey, Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (Cincinnati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company, 1916), p. 184.

[16] R. V. G. Tasker, op. cit., p. 62.

[17] F. W. Farrar, op. cit., p. 58.

[18] Philip E. Hughes, op. cit, p. 99.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Ibid.