What is the Administration of Death?

What did God say concerning the commandments of God? What did He tell Moses to tell the people? When He gave them the laws and commandments He said, ‘You shall not add to, you shall not take away from. You shall not go to other gods and say how did they worship their gods and we’ll do the same thing.’ That’s what they have ended up with, with all the holidays of this world. They went to the religions of the world to see how they worship their gods and then incorporated that into what they call Catholicism; and Protestantism followed right along with it. So there’s the key. If they don’t believe Moses, they can’t believe Jesus Christ.

Let’s carry this a little bit further and see what else Jesus said about them. Let’s come to John 7:19. This verifies what I just said concerning their traditions. “Did not Moses give you the law… [And they had the law—didn’t they? Yes, indeed!] …and not one of you is practicing the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” The law says you shall not kill, you shall not murder. What does it also say? It says you shall not hate your brother or your neighbor in your heart. That’s New Testament doctrine, too—isn’t it? If you hate your brother, how can you love God? Very clear!] …not one of you is practicing the law…. [What were they practicing? Their traditions. We’ve gone over that in Mark 7 many times and also in Matt. 23 where Jesus called them all a pack of hypocrites. So this becomes a very important thing to really understand concerning Moses and understanding Jesus Christ.

Let’s come to 2-Corinthians 3 and let’s look at a section of Scripture, which looks like on the surface that it does do away with Moses. So let’s read it; let’s study it, and let’s see what it really says. Let’s go through this. It has to do what is called, the ministry or the administration of death, which was part of the covenant that God gave to Israel. We’ll explain all of that later.

Let’s go to 2-Corinthians 2:17: “For we are not like the many, who for their own profit are corrupting the Word of God… [That’s what happens when they say all of these things about God and His commandments and Christ and Apostle Paul.] …but we speak with sincerity, as from God, and before God, and in Christ.”

2-Corinthians 3:1: “Do we again begin to commend ourselves? Or do we, as some, need epistles of commendation to you, or epistles of commendation from you? You are our epistle, and are inscribed in our hearts, being known and read by all men; for it is manifest that you are Christ’s epistle, ministered by us; you were not inscribed with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God…” (vs 1-3). Let’s stop here for just a minute. How do you receive the Spirit of God?

• repentance
• baptism
• keeping the commandments of God.

The apostles told the Sanhedrin when they were arrested that God gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. So it is the Spirit of the Living God. What does that do? That gives you the mind of Christ and the begettal of the Father—correct? Yes!

Hold your place here and come to Hebrews 10 and let’s see the whole purpose of having the Spirit of God, because far from doing away with the laws of God, it’s just the opposite of what is claimed.

Hebrews 10:15: “And the Holy Spirit also bears witnesses to us; for after He had previously said, ‘This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days,’ says the Lord… [Remember a covenant—if we could put it in today’s terminology—is a super-strong contract; an agreement that is made with God, by God to you, and you to God.] …‘This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days,’ says the Lord… [That is after the days of the law and prophets.] …‘will give My laws into their hearts, and I will inscribe them in their minds’” (vs 15-16). This is called by Paul ‘he mind of Christ.’

Now when I was in Arcadia I talked to a woman whose goal is to memorize all of Psalm 119. Now that Psalm has a 172 verses in it and it’s called a Psalm of Degrees, because there are 22 degrees in it. That extols and praises the laws and commandments of God.

Now notice in exchange for repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit of God, because that has to come first: “‘And their sins and lawlessness I will not remember ever again’” (v 17). Now under the law of Moses, they could bring an animal sacrifice to the temple and they would be forgiven to the temple. But now we are forgiven directly by God in the presence of God, as it were, through coming to Him and praying to Him, and so forth.

So let’s come back here to 2-Corinthians 3:3: “…but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart…. [To actually have your hearts and minds be inscribed. And that’s what it means back there in Heb. 10, to inscribe them, to write them. That’s how God really made our minds and our hearts that they become a part of us.] …Now we have this confidence through Christ toward God; not that we are competent of ourselves, or credit anything to our own abilities: rather, our competency is from God” (vs 3-5).

That’s what everyone who teaches needs to learn. It comes only from God. It’s not who you are. It’s not your speaking techniques. It’s Christ in you and the competency that comes from God. Notice, v 6: “Who also made us competent as ministers of the New Covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but Spirit gives life.” Now what does that mean? The letter of the law means only outward activity here. The spirit of the law means from the inside out, and there is forgiveness under the New Covenant in a way that there was not forgiveness under the Old Covenant. A lot of people say, ‘Well, if you keep the commandments, then the letter of the commandments says it kills, but the spirit gives life, so therefore, we have no laws to keep.’ We’ll clarify that as we go along here. Then he begins to explain the principle behind it.

Verse 7: “Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in stones, came into being with glory… [And that’s what happened with the giving of the Old Covenant and all the laws that were there.] …so that the children of Israel were not able to gaze upon Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, which glory is being set aside.” Now the King James says ‘done away’ and so people think, ‘Well, that means that everything that was written there was abolished—it means set aside. ‘The glory is being set aside’ and replaced with something else.

“Shall not the ministry of the Spirit be far more glorious?.... [Because of what it does. It converts the heart. It converts the mind. It writes the laws and commandments in your hearts and in your minds, gives you the Spirit of life, the promise of eternal life at the resurrection, which is far more glorious than living in the country of Israel in a physical nation on earth. So that’s the comparison that its drawing here.] …For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, to a much greater degree the ministry of righteousness overflows with glory” (vs 8-9)—because of the ultimate reward.

You could live in Israel, keep the commandments in the letter. You could be blameless, but what was the end of that, since there was no promise of eternal life? Was death; that ended it. Nothing to look forward to beyond that because the New Covenant had not been given and only those of the patriarchs of the fathers and those who had the Spirit of Christ, very few were those, could they look forward to eternal life. So that’s why it’s so much more glorious.

“And even the ministry of condemnation, which had glory, was not glorious in this respect, because of the surpassing glory of the ministry of life. For if that which is being set aside came into being through glory… [Didn’t that happen? God came down on top of Mount Sinai, there was fire and smoke and thunder and lightning, and glory of God.] …to a much greater degree that which remains is glorious…. [that is the New Covenant] …Now then, because we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech” (vs 10-12).

Then he begins to explain what he was talking about here. “For we are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not gaze to the end upon the glory that is now being set aside. But their minds were blinded… [Happened right after the giving of the Ten Commandments. What did they tell Moses? ‘Oh, Moses, you speak to us. Don’t let us hear the voice of God any more lest we die.’ Rather than say, ‘Man, that was tremendous! We’re right here and we heard the voice of God.’ Their minds were blinded.] …for to the present hour the same veil has not been removed… [the veil of blindness] …but remains at the reading of the Old Covenant; which veil is removed in Christ” (vs 13-14).

Not the laws, not the commandments, but the veil of blindness is removed. From what? From the reading of the Old Covenant or the reading of Moses. That’s why Jesus said, ‘If you do not believe Moses, how shall you believe Me?’—which veil is removed in Christ. How is that removed? We’ll see that in just a bit.

“For to this day, when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their hearts” (v 15). That’s exactly how it is with the Protestants. That veil is upon their minds and their hearts and they can’t understand Moses and if you can’t understand Moses, you cannot understand Christ. They want to have eternal life, but they really don’t know the way to it. They don’t understand the nature of God. They believe in a trinity. They don’t understand really the full nature of Christ. They do not understand about the Sabbath, because the veil is there. They do not understand about the Holy Days. They do not understand about clean and unclean meats. They do not understand about the nature of man.

Some of them believe that instead of man having a spirit of man, man is literally a spirit in a body. That goes back to the old Gnostic belief which the Mormons incorporate and the Mormons actually believe that we were spirit beings in heaven. And therefore, Adam and Eve had to sin so they could have children and that God would put that spirit into the child. Whereas the Bible says: the spirit that is in man, God formed in it to unite with his mind to give him intellect, intelligence, and so forth. So ‘when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their hearts.’ They can’t understand Moses and they can’t believe.

Let’s talk about the administration or ministration of death. What was that? Let’s go back to Genesis 9 and we’ll begin to explain it. This is right after the Flood, right after they got out of the ark. Let’s see what God told Noah. We know from the children of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Gen. 10), all the earth and the nations that came from them, God gave them their set place. Let’s see what God told them to do concerning the administration of death.

Genesis 9:1: “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and He said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon all that moves on the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered…. [Same thing that He gave to Adam and Eve, told them the same thing. So here’s a fresh start.] …Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, even as the green herb I have given you all things’” (vs 1-3).

Every living thing has to do with what? The foods that are clean, not the unclean, because He offered the clean animals for sacrifice. “‘But you shall not eat of flesh with the life in it—which is its blood…. [In other words, a lot of people, especially the primitive people, they believe in strangling whatever animal that they’re going to eat, so that the blood will fuse into the meat. Of course, in the blood then that contains, as it says that’s the life of it, but it also contains all of the toxins and all of the waste from the body so those clean animals when they are killed, slit the throat, you drain the blood out of it. Then all of the meat does not have any blood in it. So that’s merely what it’s saying here. But some like to drink blood. I remember when we were out on the farm we went down to see some men kill a big hog. And you know what their practice was? They hung it up by its feet after they got a hold of it, when they slit the throat they put a cup right under where the blood was coming out and they would all drink the blood from the cup.] …And surely the blood of your lives will I require’” (vs 4-5).

Now remember what happened when Cain killed Abel. God did not execute the death penalty against Cain—did He? What did He do? He exiled him. Before the Flood, apparently God was the One who would execute the death penalty, if required. Now here is a change. Let’s read it.

“‘At the hand of every animal will I require it, and at the hand of man. At the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood shall be shed by man—for He made man in the image of God’” (v 6). So God gave them what? Capital-punishment authority to take the life of someone who committed murder. This is the ministry of death or the administration of death. God gave this jurisdiction to all nations, all sovereign nations have the right to execute the death penalty against those who do things worthy of death. That was from the time of Noah forward. When God brought the children of Israel to Mount Sinai to give them His covenant—they were what? They were a nation. He was going to give them geographical territory, which they would be the sovereign rulers over under God. Likewise, God has set all the nations in the world, in their sovereign territories, under Him.

Let’s come to Exodus 21 and let’s see how He defines the death penalty. This He gave the leaders and the priests and Levites the authority to execute the death penalty in the letter of the law. The letter of the law had no mercy, whereas the New Covenant, the spirit of the law, has mercy and forgiveness.

Exodus 21:12: “‘He that strikes a man, so that he dies, shall be surely put to death…. [That’s the administration of death, that is the ministry of death.] …And if a man does not lie in wait, but God delivers him into his hand, then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee…. [Because God also gave the right of vengeance murder against someone who killed someone in your family and you knew who it was. You could do that, but if you did you would have to flee to one of the sanctuary cities and they would have an inquiry. They would investigate the whole matter to see: did God really deliver him into your hands or did you lie in wait and did you use this as an excuse to come after the man. If he did lie in wait and used it as an excuse to come after him, then he would also forfeit his life.] …But if a man comes presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, you shall take him from My altar so that he may die’” (vs 12-14).

No forgiveness! The letter of the law kills. The Spirit gives life! That’s why Paul was an example. Was he accomplished at killing Christians? Yes, he was! He was right there when Stephen was stoned. Was he forgiven? Yes, he was!

Now v 15: “‘And he that strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. And he that steals a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death…. [get rid of all kidnappers] …And he that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death…. [That was to uphold ‘honor your father and your mother.’] …And if men strive together, and one strikes another with a stone, or with his fist, and he does not die, but is confined to his bed; if he rises again and walks abroad upon his staff, then he that struck him shall be set free…. [no administration of death] …Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be completely healed’” (vs 15-19). Compensation, not thrown in jail for years and years at the expense of the state.

In Israel God did not want to have any jails. They either did a crime unto death and were executed, or it was a crime of compensation. Because of this principle, what do we have in our world today so that people who are injured will receive compensation? We have insurance—correct? Based right upon this. We have auto insurance, we have home insurance, we have personal insurance, and all of that. If you have lots of insurance, you know how expensive it can be.

Now continuing: “‘And if a man strikes his servant or his maidservant with a rod and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. But if he continues a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money…. [So there was an allowance to do that.] …If men strive and strike a pregnant woman, so that there is a miscarriage, and no harm follows, he shall surely be punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him. And he shall pay as the judges determine’” (vs 20-22). So all of these cases would come before judges, and they had to compensate. How would they compensate? So he declares it here:

Verse 23: “‘And if any injury occurs, then you shall give life for life… [death penalty] ...Eye for eye… [Not that doesn’t mean you gouge out his eye, that means you pay him compensation for the loss of eye, exactly what we have in insurance today—don’t we? If you have an accidental insurance policy, so much for an eye, so much for an arm, so much for a hand, so much a leg.] …Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. And if a man strike the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, so that it perishes, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. And if he strikes out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth’” (vs 23-27). So God compensated for the violence. Today what would they do? They would throw them in jail for three or five years.

Now here’s another one for insurance. “‘If an ox gores a man or woman so that they die, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall be clear…. [But he has to compensate.] …But if the ox was known to gore in time past, and his owner has been warned, but he did not keep it in, so that it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death…. [Full liability! That shows you’re going to be very careful what you do.] (Now notice the summary of it): …If there is laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatever is laid upon him” (vs 28-30). This means that if he says, ‘No, don’t kill me, I’ll pay,’ then the judge says, ‘All right, pay thus and such.’] …Whether it has gored a son, or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him’” (vs 28-31).

And did you know that I was watching on the History Channel about cowboys. You know what the leading death among cowboys was? Falling off a horse. So you have a wild horse. What if you get on a horse that’s wild, runs off, and takes you under a limb and knocks your head off, and it was known that he was wild and it was told the owner. That would apply here in this case, too.

Verse 32: “‘If the ox shall gore a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver… [Now that’s where you get the price of a dead slave—thirty pieces of silver. What was paid for Christ? Thirty pieces of silver.] …and the ox shall be stoned. And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it, the owner of the pit shall make it good and give silver to its owner. And the dead beast shall be his’” (vs 32-34). Apply that to a car. You’re driving down the road and the guy dug a hole in the pavement, didn’t cover it up, and you hit it and fall into it. You’re going to go after him—right? Yes! Well, it’s the same thing here.

“‘And in the event the ox of a man damages the ox of a neighbor… [an ox fight] …so that it dies, then they shall sell the living ox, and they shall divide the money of it. And they shall also divide the dead ox…. [because they were both involved] …Or if it is known that the ox has been known to gore in time past, and his owner has not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox. And the dead ox shall be his own’” (vs 35-36). He’s going to have to dispose of the body of it.

The question was asked, what would happen in the case of, like up in San Francisco a dog mauled a woman and killed her. I don’t know if he ate her or stripped out her throat, or whatever. What would be the case then? Well, exactly like this. Was he known to do that? Yes, he was! What was he sentenced to, eight years, something like that. Well, here he would have given his life. Quite a different thing! And if the judge said, ‘Okay, I’m not going to have you give your life, but you are going to pay the family $100,000 for the death of this woman.’ That then would be the judgment, but that’s the administration of death.

Let’s come down to Exodus 22:1. We’ll read just a couple verses here. “‘If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep…. [Now that’s a hefty return—isn’t it? You think you’re going to go around stealing ox, stealing sheep. Cattle rustling today is really a big business.] …If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, no blood shall be shed for him’” (vs 1-2). In other words, if he’s in the house taking your stuff, and you strike him and he dies, you’re off the hook. What do they do today? ‘Oh, let’s prosecute the man, he shot him.’ Except in Texas, they let them off. You can read the rest of it. That’s the administration of death and the letter which kills. That helps you understand that.

Now let’s understand something. Let’s come back here to Matthew 28 and even though we’ve covered this recently, let’s use this Scripture again. Let’s talk about the Church.

Question number one: Is the Church a separate sovereign nation? Meaning that it has to have territory, a population, a monetary system, a civil law system. You have to have those four things in order to be sovereign. The answer is NO. God is the One Who gave the administration of death to the nations, beginning with Noah. So, what about the Church? The Church was to what? Let’s read it:

Matthew 28:19: “Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations…” So they were to go in every nation of the world. These were the sovereign nations. This is why God did not make the Church a sovereign state. This is where the Catholic Church is entirely wrong. It has its sovereign state at the Vatican and it executed the death penalty against everyone that they didn’t like—called martyrdom. They had no right to do so, if they were administering the spirit of the law as given through the New Testament. God gave no one in what we could say a priestly or ministerial order the right or the authority to execute the death penalty. That was reserved for states.

So the Church goes into any nation and it cannot, when someone does something of a violent nature or so forth, it cannot execute the death penalty. What is the greatest means of punishment that the Church has? Disfellowshipment! If there is to be a death penalty executed against someone who is attending Church, who happens to murder someone and that has happened on occasion or two even in our time in the Church. They face what? They face the civil authorities who have the authority for the judgment, whether unto death or not unto death. God never gave that to the Church.

So this is what Paul was talking about here in 2-Corinthians 3. Let’s go back there. Was God’s system of justice glorious? Yes, indeed! Was it fair? Yes, indeed! Much more so than most of the laws of the nations today. Now what do we have as a Church? We preach repentance, forgiveness, the receiving of the Holy Spirit, the keeping of the commandments of God, being subject to the authorities that are in the sovereign nations because God has put them there.

That’s why what we do in preaching these things is far more glorious, because it’s working toward eternal life. It’s working toward, even in the land, a better citizen, one who’s going to obey the laws, one who’s going to love God, love his neighbor, even love his enemy. So this is what he is talking about here concerning the ministration of death.

2-Corinthians 3:14: “But their minds were blinded; for to the present hour the same veil has not been removed, but remains at the reading of the Old Covenant… [And that’s exactly fits Protestantism to a ‘t’, because if you do not believe Moses, you can’t believe Christ.] …which veil is removed in Christ…. [Now we’ll see how that is removed.] …For to this day, when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their hearts. But when their hearts turn to the Lord… [How do they turn to the Lord? In repentance.] …the veil is taken away” (vs 14-16).

Now when the veil is taken away, what happens when you read Moses? You understand it, and you not only understand the prophecies concerning Christ, but you understand the meaning of the law and the reason for it. You can understand why, with the death penalty, the Church does not administer it. But nevertheless, the laws and commandments of God continue in the spirit of the law, not in the letter, so we are to keep the commandments that way. And that takes away the veil from our hearts.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit… [It comes from the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ.] …and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom…. [Freedom from what? The veil! not freedom from the law. There is freedom from the veil.] …But we all, with uncovered faces beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (vs 17-18). That’s another way of talking about the process of conversion—

• growing
• overcoming
• receiving the mind of Christ
• living under the grace of God
• walking in the good works that God has given to us.
• And this glory, we are developing, as it were, for the resurrection.

Now how is the veil taken away? Through repentance! Let’s see how Paul defines it here, Romans 2:23, Speaking to the Jews, he says: “You who boast in law… [That is, the letter of the law.] …are you dishonoring God through your transgression of the law?.... [And, of course, how would the Jews do it? With their traditions and also violating commandments of God.] …For through you the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles, exactly as it is written. For on the one hand, circumcision profits if you are observing the law… [That is, the law of God, not the traditions of Judaism.] …on the other hand, if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision” (vs 23-25). Now that’s going to be a key for us to understand how the veil is removed.

“Therefore, if the uncircumcised is keeping the requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? And shall not the uncircumcised, who by nature is fulfilling the law, judge you, who, with the letter and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?.... [So then here becomes the key]: …For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is external in the flesh; rather, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (vs 26-29). So here we have another way of expressing it right here.

So to take away the veil is the circumcision of the heart. Now, let’s come to Colossians 2, and see how that is accomplished. So this will give us a good understanding of the ministration of death or the ministry of death. Unfortunately this is one of those areas in the King James that is really very poorly translated and leads to a lot of difficulties and problems in understanding it. This is another area where the Protestants go to thinking that it does away with the laws and commandments of God by having them nailed to the cross. That’s because of the poor translation in the King James. So lets read it without that poor translation.

Colossians 2:6. This is what we are to be doing in the spirit, glory unto glory, the Spirit of Christ in us. “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, be walking in Him… [Keeping the sounds words of Christ.] …Being rooted and built up in Him, and being confirmed in the faith, exactly as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving….” So this shows

• how to grow
• how to change
• how to overcome
• how to use the Spirit of God right here.

Then he gives a warning: “…Be on guard so that no one takes you captive through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (vs 6-8). So this is a substitute way of man. This is what we see today. This is why we have all the so-called ‘Christian’ religions in the world that are just merely practicing Christianized-pagan practices.

“For in Him [Christ]… [You don’t need any other way of man to try and make the way of God complete.] ...For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; And you are complete in Him... [So I do not know how the Protestants can say that Paul did away with the laws and commandments of God when right here he’s preaching what? ‘You are in Christ.’] ...And you are complete in Him, Who is the Head of all principality and power... [You don’t need to go out to the Greeks to find out how they worship their gods. You don’t need to go to the Mithrasites to find out how they worship their gods. You don’t need to go to the Egyptians and study their philosophy, find out how they worship their gods. In Christ and the Word of God, the New Testament, you are complete in Him.] ...In Whom you have also been circumcised with the circumcision not made by hands... [not in the flesh] ...in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (vs 9-11).

How is that done? By the circumcision of Christ, the veil is removed, having been buried with Him in baptism. So it requires repentance and baptism, receiving of the Holy Spirit. That is the circumcision of Christ. That removes the veil so you can understand Moses. As Jesus said, ‘If you believe Moses, you would have believed Me.’ So if you don’t believe Moses or you reject Moses, you don’t believe Christ and that’s why you have all the traditions of men.

“Having been buried with Him in baptism, by which you have also been raised with Him through the inner working of God, Who raised Him from the dead. For you, who were once dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has now made alive... [with the Spirit of God] ...with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses?…. [Just what we’ve covered.] …He has blotted out the note of debt against us with the decrees of our sins, which was contrary to us; and He had taken it away, having nailed it to the cross” (vs 12-14). And that is the true translation and explanation of it. Did not nail the commandments to the cross. This is one of those terrible translations of the King James. This is the correct translation and I’ve got a footnote explaining it there.

That’s what the ‘ministration of death’ vs the ‘ministration of Spirit’ really is. What is removed is not the law of Moses, but the veil over the hearts and minds of those who are not converted when they read Moses. When there is conversion and the circumcision of the heart, that takes away the veil so when you read Moses

• you can understand it
• you can see the prophecies relating to Christ
• you can understand the Word of God in the correct way.

Has nothing to do whatsoever with doing away with the laws and commandments of God and getting rid of the law of Moses as one man said, ‘All 613 laws in Moses have no forensic value to Christians.’ He’s got a big veil over his eyes—doesn’t he? So that’s the heart and core of the ministration of death.

Scriptural References:

1. John 7:19
2. 2-Corinthians 2:17
3. 2-Corinthians 3:1-3
4. Hebrews 10:15-17
5. 2-Corinthians 3:3-15
6. Genesis 9:1-6
7. Exodus 21:12-36
8. Exodus 22:1-2
9. Matthew 28:19
10. 2-Corinthians 3:14-18
11. Romans 2:23-29
12. Colossians 2:6-14

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Mark 7
• Matthew 23
• Genesis 10