"The Letter Kills, But the Spirit Gives Life"
A simple answer to a common error.
This error is based on Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 3:
… the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6)
This axiom is particularly popular in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. Any time someone wants to declare that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is preferable to the ministry of the Word of God, he proclaims, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Of course, this becomes a convenient way to avoid the discipline and hard work of diligently studying the Bible. Moreover, this axiom is particularly useful when someone quotes a Scripture that we do not like. We simply declare that we have chosen the higher and “living” road of being “led by the Spirit” rather than being slaves merely to the written “dead” Word!
But that was obviously not Paul’s intention when he wrote those words. Even a superficial study of 2 Corinthians 3 reveals Paul’s meaning: he is contrasting the old covenant with the new – the ministry of the law with the ministry of grace. He is not contrasting the Spirit of God with the Word of God and belittling the Word.
Elsewhere, both Jesus and Paul honored the Word of God and affirmed that rather than being “dead,” the Word of God is quite alive by the power of the Holy Spirit:
… The Words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. (John 6:63)
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
In 2 Corinthians 3, the “letter” is synonymous with the old covenant of law, and the “Spirit” is synonymous with the new covenant of grace:
… who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. (2 Corinthians 3:6-9)
Another statement by Paul in Romans 7 uses similar language:
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6)
Thus, Paul’s contrast is between the old covenant of law, letters written in stone bringing condemnation and death, and the new covenant of grace, the work of the Spirit bringing righteousness and life.