2 Corinthians 3:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Not of the letter, &c.— By expressing himself as he does here, St. Paul may be understood to intimate, that the New Testament, or Covenant, was also, though obscurely, held forth in the law; for he says he was constituted a minister of the Spirit, or spiritual meaning of the law, which was Christ, (as he tells us himself, 2 Corinthians 3:17.) and giveth life, while the letter killeth. But both letter and Spirit must be understood of the same thing,—viz. the letter of the law, and the spirit of the law: and, in fact, we find St. Paul truly a minister of the spirit of the law, especially in his epistle to the Hebrews, where he shews what a spiritual sense ran through the Mosaical institutionandwritings.Theletter killeth by pronouncing death, without any way of remission, on all transgressors; it leaves them under an irrevocable sentence of death: but the Spirit, that is Christ, (2 Corinthians 3:17.) who is a quickening Spirit, (1 Corinthians 15:45.) giveth life.