Letter and Spirit

Scott Hafemann has characteristically thoughtful comments about Paul’s contrast of letter and Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3: “Paul’s contrast is not an abstract one between ‘outward’ and ‘inward,’ between ‘externality’ and ‘internality,’ between ‘ritualism’ and ‘a living experience fo the Spirit,’ or between ‘rigidity’ and ‘spontaneity,’ etc., as is often suggested. Nor is Paul making a negative statement about the nature or content o fthe law by asociating it with ‘stone,’ which seems to be the common denominator undergirding these interpretations. The reference in 3:3 to the ‘tablets of stone’ is part of a long tradition in which this designation is at least a normal, neutral way of referring to the law, and more likely functions to emphasize its permanence, divine authority, honor, and glory (cf. 3:7, 9, 11!) . . . . The fact that the law was engraved on stone is not associated in Ezekiel or anywhere else with ‘stone hearts’ as something to be done away with under the new covenant.” He concludes that the contrast is a redemptive historical one, with “letter” referring not to a particular interpretation or approach to the law, or to some Jewish perversion of the law, but to “the law without the Spirit”: “Devoid of God’s Spirit, the law remains to those who encounter it merely a rejected declaration of God’s saving purposes and promises, including its corresponding calls for repentance and the obedience of faith. Although the law declares God’s will, it is powerless to enable people to keep it. Only the Spirit ‘gives life’ by changing the human heart.”

To elaborate a bit: Without the Spirit who writes the law on tablets of the human heart, the law cannot change persons. The aim of the law is not to produce a particular set of actions, abstracted from the desires, will, goals, intentions, etc., of the person doing the actions. The law calls for a particular kind of person, whose desires, will, goals, intentions, etc. express themselves in external actions that conform to the law. The law calls for a people with a particular orientation of “heart,” but cannot provide that orientation itself. That is the work of the Spirit. Of course, the Spirit uses the words of Scripture and preaching, the fellowship of other believers, the rites of the church, etc., to shape the heart, but the Spirit is the effective agent. Through the Spirit, Word and Sacrament and other means become effectual for salvation – that is, for producing persons who perform the obedience of faith, for forming a people living truly human lives with one another before God.