You guys ready for story time?   

2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
2Co 3:6  Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be more glorious?
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels.  
2Co 3:11  For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious.
2Co 3:12  Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
2Co 3:13  And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
2Co 3:14  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We can read Paul say the letter kills, and we can see Paul calls the law the ministry of death, and the ministry of condemnation, and we can be easily confused, thinking the law is opposed to the promise of life.  

The children of israel couldnt see the glory the law prophesied of.  They saw the glory that shined in Moses face on account of what he saw in the law, and their hearts condemned them.  There was a veil over their hearts when they read Moses just as there was a vail covering Moses face.  They didnt see the law was prophesying that God would bring forth the glory that shined in Moses face in their physical bodies.  

For a lot of years I saw the law, and what is contained there, with a veil over my heart, thinking the law is what was condemning me.  I saw the law as if it were against me having life.  I was reading the law with a vail over my heart, not looking upon the glory it prophesied of, but interpreting it as if it was against us having life. 

Now Paul knowing it would be easy for people to be confused by what he said about the law, when he was explaining that righteousness doesnt come through the works of the law.  

Asks this question, what shall we say then?  Is the law sin?  In another place he asks the question is the law that which was working death in me?  His answer is Certainly not.  GOD forbid.  Let it never be said.  

I know we read some of the things Paul says about the law and interpret them to mean the law is the source of condemnation and death.   But Paul says in Romans 5 death reigned over man from Adam to Moses.  Romans 5 says death was already reigning over all people before the law was ever given.  Paul says all people were already standing in condemnation on account of sin.  He says where all people were already standing in the condemnation of death, the law was given to make sin abound.  

When we think of what it means for sin to abound.  We can say it this way.  The law was given to make sin known to mankind.  

Paul says in romans 3 the knowledge of sin came by the law.  Within the law is the knowledge of what was causing mankind not to be a partaker with God in His life.  Paul said he would not have known sin had the law not said thou shalt not covet.  Paul would not have known sin had the law not revealed to him that lusting after life through the strength of the flesh was causing him to miss the mark of eternal life God had for him.

Rom 7:13 says  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid.  But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Paul says here let it never be said that its the law that was the source of the death that was killing me.  He says the law put on display the strength contained in the flesh so mankind could see it was exceedingly sinful.  The law put sin on display so mankind can see that looking to the strength contained in the world and the strength contained in our hand was causing us to miss the mark of eternal life God has always dreamt for us.  

God saw mankind was all the time lusting after life through the world and through their flesh.  He saw we thought it was the right way.  He said you guys are looking to something for life that is stealing from you, and killing you, and destroying you.  I will give you this law to prove to you the wisdom you are busy with is from belove not above.

Let us put the wisdom you have adopted as the way unto life on display in your midst so you can see what it is really all about.  So that when it can appear as that which is ministering death to you, you will receive strength to turn away from worshipping the works of your hands. 

The Ministration of death does not mean the law is what ministers death to people.  It means its the law that ministers the knowledge of what is causing mankind to miss out on Gods life.  The law is called the ministry of condemnation because it showed mankind that looking to the strength contained in the world and the strength contained in their hand for life was producing the fruit of death in them. 

Why does Paul say there is a glory in the law?

When Moses climbed up Mt. Sinai to get the law.  It’s like with Humpty Dumpty.  Humpty Dumpty climbed up the wall and Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.  

Moses climbed up the mountain to receive the law.  He received the law through the hands of a mediator, which is the angels.  Moses received the law through a mediator because if he would have seen God face to face at that time, his heart would have worked fear and death in him.  

Now when Moses came back down the mountain with the law, there was a great fall.  While Moses was off beholding the glory of God from afar.  The children of Israel were busy making themselves a golden calf; they were busy worshipping the works of their own hands; they were busy looking to the strength in their own hand as the power unto having life.  

Yes 3000 people died that day, and yes 3000 people received eternal life on the day of Pentecost.  But, it’s not the law that was the source of the death that came upon the 3000 at Horeb.  The law just revealed that worshipping the works of your hands for life ministers death to people.  

What we’ve done in our ignorance is placed those peoples blood on the law instead of sin.  In the book of Leviticus when a person was put to death under the law it says their blood is on their own hands.  Meaning its by looking to the strength contained in their own hands for life that death has come upon them. Not the law and not GOD.  

So Moses went up Mt Sinai to get the law.  When he was on Mt. Sinai he saw into the heavenly throne room.  He saw the eternal purpose of God.  He saw the prophetic picture.  He saw what God would do to manifest eternal life in the earth and glorify mankind with His immortality.  Hebrews 11 says Moses saw the promise from afar. 

Hebrews 8 says the earthly tabernacle was fashioned according to the pattern of what Moses saw in the heavenly tabernacle.  Hebrews 10 says while the law was not the very image of the good thing God promised it was the shadow of the good thing God promised.  

Moses fashioned the earthly tabernacle according to the prophetic picture he saw in the throne room so it would prophesy of the work God would do to cleanse mankind and the earth from death.  The earthly tabernacle is God prophesying of His eternal purpose in Christ.  We can even say the earthly tabernacle was a prophecy concerning alpha and omega.  

Now the reason Moses face shined with the glory of God when he came back down the mountain is he saw the promise of immortality in the law.  Moses faced shined with the glory of God because the law was a shadow of the glorification that would come to mankind through the resurrection of Jesus.  

Moses looked at the law and saw GOD was going to overcome the death that manifested in our flesh.  It wasnt just that Moses saw what was causing death to reign over mankind.  He saw in the law that God would provide Himself a lamb that would cleanse mankind from death, and that God would manifest His life and immortality inside of our physical bodies.  Moses looked into the law and said my goodness not even the death in the world can do away with Gods promise to decorate us with His life.  

I can imagine there was a glory that shined in Adams face when he saw Eve.  I mean there’s a glory that shines in my face when I see Beckie.  Ladies no disrespect intended but can you imagine the glory that shined in Moses face when he saw God was going to glorify our physical bodies with His immortality.  

Now what shall we say in light of all these things?  Shall we continue our lives with God as if it’s all about observing days and weeks and moons and feast days and carnal ordinances and ritualistic washings?  Certainly Not.     

How shall we who have seen the promised glory manifested in Jesus, continue in the glory that was already fading away, and ready to vanish when it was given.  How shall we continue in something that even prophesied of itself passing away?  

You know we can even see God prophesying to us that the glory in the letter of the law was fading, and ready to vanish by looking at the face of Moses and seeing the glory that shined on his face was fading away.

Yes there was glory in the works of the law because they prophesied of the work of God.  But, as the apostle Paul says, if we compare the glory contained in the letter of the law with the glory that manifested in the flesh of Jesus, when the Father raised Jesus from the dead by the power of His Holy Spirit.  The glory that is contained in the works of the law is nothing. 

When we think of something that only prophesys of the glory that will come, and we compare it to the manifestation of the glory itself, man the thing that talks about the glory has no glory at all.  Its lost its luster.  I can say it like this, The glory of thinking of dating Beckie was nothing in comparison to the glory of actually dating her. 

Now that Christ is come, and the glorification the law prophesied of is manifested in our midst.  We are no longer ministering the letter of the law to people, we are ministering the Spirit.  

The reason is the letter can’t minister life to people.  The letter reveals what kills, but the Spirit is the manifestation of the life that saves us.  The letter shows us the wage sin has in itself to pay is death, but the Spirit manifests the gift of eternal life God has in Himself to give.  The ministering of the letter shows what condemns people with death, but the ministering of the Spirit is God serving us with His life.  

The life and immortality God manifested in Jesus is the Spirit we preach.  So that in people beholding the glory of what God has done in the face of Jesus, they can be transformed into the very same image.  From his glory to their glory.