The Tables of Stone and the Tables of Fleshy
Hearts
In defending himself against the
charge of self-praise Paul responds that his commendation and letters of recommendation
are found in the lives of the converts at Corinth; they are letters known and
read by all men since they were written by the Spirit of the living God, not in
an external fashion (“on the tables of stone”), but internally on the heart as
promised in Jer 31:33; Ezek 11:19; 36:26).
This is precisely the argument of the
whole Bible. In accordance with God’s ancient promise, God would write the same
law (for he has no other law) on their hearts; he would “be their God, and
they [would] be [his] people.” Thus enabled, they (and we) would walk in God’s
statutes, keep his judgments and fear him forever (cf. Jer 32:29; 24:7).
Now this was the heart of New Covenant Theology.
But can anyone fail to see at least some OT intimations of this provision in
Deut 30:6: “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of
your seed to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
that you may live”? Was not this the weightiest matter of the law according to
Moses? Without faith, without an internal operation by the living God and a
turning to the Lord, it would be impossible to keep the law in any genuine
matter.
The contrasts between “ink” and “Spirit,”
“stones” and “heart” must not be pressed too sharply. Since Paul is using the
metaphor to refer to the Corinthian believers as letters written on his [or “their”;
cf. textual variations here] heart, it was altogether consistent for him to
continue that same figure of speech to describe himself as a minister of the
Spirit. Exod says nothing about “ink,” but it does say that the “tables of
stone” were “the work of God” in Exod 31:18; 32:16. The contrast, then, appears
to be motivated more by a desire to highlight the emphasis found in the New Ten
Commandments of God’s previous work in (ink or) stone. After all, it was not
the mode of revelation that was under judgment in this passage; rather it was
the blinded response of the people themselves which came under God’s
indictment. (Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., “The Weightier and Lighter Matters of the
Law: Moses, Jesus and Paul,” in Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation:
Studies in Honor of Merrill C. Tenney Presented By His Former Students, ed.
Gerald F. Hawthorne [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1975], 186-87)