ot whether you hear them,
read them, or reproduce them mentally. For instance, when I sit down
to meditate upon the first commandment: "Thou shalt have no other
gods before me," or the second, or the third, and so forth, I have
something which I can read, write, discuss, and aim to fulfil with
all my might. The process is quite similar when the emperor or prince
gives a command and says: "This you shall do, that you shall eschew."
This is what the apostle calls "the letter," or, as we have called it
on another occasion, the written sense.

22. Now, as opposed to "the letter," there is another doctrine or
message, which he terms the "ministration of a New Covenant" and "of
the Spirit." This doctrine does not teach what works are required of
man, for that man has already heard; but it makes known to him what
God would do for him and bestow upon him, indeed what he has already
done: he has given his Son Christ for us; because, for our
disobedience to the Law, which no man fulfils, we were under God's
wrath and condemnation. Christ made satisfaction for our sins,
effected a reconciliation with God and gave to us his own
righteousness. Nothing is said in this ministration of man's deeds;
it tells rather of the works of Christ, who is unique in that he was
born of a virgin, died for sin and rose from the dead, something no
other man has been able to do. This doctrine is revealed through none
but the Holy Spirit, and none other confers the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit works in the hearts of them who hear and accept the doctrine.
Therefore, this ministration is termed a ministration "of the
Spirit."

23. The apostle employs the words "letter" and "spirit," to contrast
the two doctrines; to emphasize his office and show its advantage
over all others, however eminent the teachers whom they boast, and
however great the spiritual unction which they vaunt. It is of design
that he does not term the two dispensations "Law" and "Gospel," but
names them according to the respective effects produced. He honors
the Gospel with a superior term--"ministration of the spirit." Of the
Law, on the contrary, he speaks almost contemptuously, as if he would
not honor it with the title of God's commandment, which in reality it
is, according to his own admission later on that its deliverance to
Moses and its injunction upon the children of Israel was an occasion
of surpassing glory.

24. Why does Paul choose this method? Is it right for one to de