good. He had no power of himself to accomplish any thing. His iitness for his work, whether consisting in knowledge, or grace, or fidelity, or efficiency, did not arise out of any thing he was in or of himself The word XoyCi^aa^ai docs not here mean to judge^ or to tliinh out or determbie. The idea is not that Paul was of himself unable to judge what Avas best and right, i. e. to think out the means of rendering his ministry successful. The word is to be taken in its simplest sense, to think. Thought is the lowest form of our efficiency, in so far as it is much easier to think good, than either to will or to do it. Paul means to say that s© far as the subject in hand is concerned, he could do nothing, not even think. He was in himself absolutely empty and powerless. Ow sufficiency is of God. All our fitness for our work — all our knowledge, holiness and power are of God. They are neither self-acquired nor self-sustained. I am nothing, the apostle would say ; God in me is every thing. The same truth and feeling are ex- j)ressed in 1 Cor. 15, 10.
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 hfe.
This verse is a confirmation of the preceding. The relative OS is here used as in Luke 8, 13, and elsewhere, as implying the cause or reason. Our sufficiency is of God, loho ; equiva- lent to /or he hath made us able ministers. The same radical word is retained, tKaycocre, hath rendered us iKavoi;?, sufficient^ able, well qualified, ministers of the new testament., Kati/^s Sta^^^KT/ff, of the new covenant., as the word Sca-h^Kr) always means in the New Testament, unless Ileb 9, 16 be an excep- tion. The covenant formed between God and the Hebrews at Mount Sinai is called the Old Covenant ; the gospel dis- pensation as distinguished from the Mosaic is called the New Covenant. Matt. 26, 28. 1 Cor. 11, 25. Heb. 8, 8. 9, 15. &c. As, however, the promises of the gospel, and especially the great promise of redemption by the blood of Christ, underlay both the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, the plan of salvation or the covenant of grace, is also called the New Covenant, although older than the Mosaic covenant, to dis- tinguish it i'rom the covenant of works formed with Adam. This gives rise to no little obscurity. It is not always easy to