But How Does the Letter Kill?

“Now what does he mean when he says the ‘letter kills’? Paul is clearly not arguing against ever writing things down, for his argument that the letter kills and the Spirit gives life is an argument that he himself wrote down. The issue is therefore not ‘the letters’ in themselves. The issue is not paper and ink. Paul is addressing a hermeneutical issue — do we interpret words in the power of hte Spirit, or do we just blunder clunkily through the literal meanings of some of the words, sharping and flatting as we go?  . . .  Wrongly understood, the higher the letters go, the great the fall when the Spirit of God does not give understanding” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. xv).