Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Corinthians 3:6

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 .

This verse plainly openeth what he had said before, and lets us know what Sufficiency of God that was, of which he here spake. He hath (saith the Apostle) not found, but made us sufficient. We were men before, and through the creating Power and Providence of God, we had an ability to think and to speak; but God hath made us sufficient, by a supervening act and influence of his Grace, to be Ministers of the New Testament, that is, of the Gospel; which being the new Revelation of the Divine Will, and confirmed by the Death of Christ, is called New Testament.

By the Letter here, the Apostle understandeth the Law; or the Law is called the Letter, Rom. 2.27. & 7.6. Who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the Law; that is, while th[illegible: 1 letter]u, by some external acts, professest a subjection to the Law (particularly by Circumcision) in a multitude of other actions, (which are more valuable in the fight of God, than those external acts) thou transgressest the Law. The L[illegible: 1 letter]w, in opposition to the Gospel, is called the Letter, sometimes a dead Letter; because it was only a Revelation of the Will of God concerning mans Duty, no Revelation of Gods Grace, either in pardoning men their omissions of Duty, and doing acts contrary to Duty, or assisting men to the performance of their Duty.

As the Gospel is also called the Spirit, both in opposition to the carnal Ordinances of the Law, and because Christ is the Matter, Subject, and Argument of it: and chiefly because, that the preaching of it is so far attended by the Spirit of Grace, that where men do not turn their ears from the hearing of it, nor shut their eyes against the light of it, nor harden their hearts against the Precepts and Rule of it, it becomes (through the free Grace of God) effectual to change their hearts, and to turn them from the power of Satan unto God; and to make them truly spiritual and holy.

For the Letter, (that is, the Law) killeth; the Law sheweth men their Duty, accuseth, condemneth, and denounceth the Wrath of God against men, for not doing their Duty, but gives no strength for the doing of it.

But the Gospel giveth life: The Gospel, in the letter of it, sheweth the way to Life; and the Gospel, in the hand of the Spirit, or with the Spirit, working together with it, (the holy Spirit using it as its Instrument) giveth life; both that Life which is spiritual, and that which is Eternal, as it prepareth the Soul for Life and Immortality.

Marginal references: Chap. 5.18.; Jer. 31.31. Matt. 26.28.; Rom. 2.28, 29.; Or, quickneth.