2 Corinthians 3:6 - Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new covenant — Of the new, evangelical dispensation. Not of the law, fitly called the letter, from God's literally writing it on the two tables. But of the Spirit — Of the gospel dispensation, which is written on the tables of our hearts by the Spirit. For the letter — The law, the Mosaic dispensation. Killeth — Seals in death those who still cleave to it. But the Spirit — The gospel, conveying the Spirit to those who receive it. Giveth life — Both spiritual and eternal: yea, if we adhere to the literal sense even of the moral law, if we regard only the precept and the sanction as they stand in themselves, not as they lead us to Christ, they are doubtless a killing ordinance, and bind us down under the sentence of death.