Lowell's Notes - 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

"But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom!"  (II Corinthians 3:16-17)
 
So, where are we in our study of II Corinthians?  Well, last week (in our lesson on II Corinthians 3:1-11) we found the apostle Paul continuing to defend his apostleship and ministry for Christ to believers in the church of Corinth.  "You!" (You, Corinthian believers, he wrote!), are "a letter of Christ, cared for by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts"!  His confidence and his adequacy, he declared, was "not in himself but came from God who made him adequate as a servant of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"!
 
And so, as we saw, the apostle was a stanch preacher of the "new covenant" and proclaimed that contrary to the false belief and teaching of someone who had made his way into the Corinthian church (and held to the old covenant, and of a salvation of works!), the new covenant was far better than the "old covenant," established by the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai!  A covenant which was given only to show how impossible it was for anyone to live up to the requirements of God's law, and therefore "only kills" --and one which necessitated, and paved the way for the new covenant; a covenant prophesied by the prophets and inaugurated by Christ with His death on the cross!  A covenant which gives life, produces righteousness, is permanent and glorious to behold!  More glorious than the glory that appeared on the face of Moses as he descended from Sinai, but which gradually faded away; in contrast with the glory of God through the new covenant which  manifests His glory in a new-age when His life-giving Spirit inhabits His people, and "lights up" their lives--and lives on, lasting for all eternity!
 
And all that set the tone for our lesson last night (on II Corinthians 3:12-18) where the apostle Paul writes that "therefore having such a hope (as a recipient and preacher of the new covenant!), we use great boldness in our speech"!   A boldness that was exhibited throughout his whole ministry!  
To the Thessalonians, he wrote (in I Thessalonians 2:2) that despite the suffering he endured in Philippi (before going to Thessalonica), he "had boldness in God to speak to them the gospel of God amid much opposition"!   To the Romans (in Romans 1:16), he wrote, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek!" He wrote to the Ephesians (in Ephesians 1:18-19), "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe!" And in Hebrews 6:19, "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, and one that enters within the veil!"  (And we're reminded of how, in Matthew 27:50-51, at Calvary, when Jesus "cried our with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit, behold, the veil of the temple was split in two from top to bottom and the earth shook..."!  Opening up access, not just for the priests but to all into the Holy of Holies and the mercy seat of Christ!) And in verse 13 of our text, Paul writes that "we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently on at the end of what was fading away"!  To keep them from becoming discouraged, perhaps?  Or maybe as Constable writes, "in order to teach them about their unworthiness to behold God's glory"?  Or, as he further writes, "to symbolize the separation the Israelites wanted between themselves and the glory of God"?
 
Constable also notes that "the Israelites' inability to see the glory  shining from the face of Moses, fading as it was, is treated as a metaphor for their descendants' inability to recognize to this day the unfading glory of the gospel dispensation--and that this is always the result of refusing and suppressing the revelation of divine truth!  A veil of intellectual darkness hiding the glory which has been deliberately rejected"!  Wow!  A  veil of unbelief!  And of hardened hearts!  And so, for many to this day!  How sad!
 
Verse 16 says, "But whenever a person (including any Jew!) turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away," meaning that a person can see the glory of God revealed, and understand God's purpose in establishing the new covenant, and be saved!  Constable writes that "it's only when the light of the glory of God from Jesus Christ shines on a person that he (or she!) can comprehend that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Mosaic covenant, and understand that the dispensation of grace has superceded the dispensation of the law"!
 
Romans 10:4 says, "For Christ is the end of the law of righteousness to everyone who believes!"
 
John 1:14-17 says, "And the Word of God (speaking of Christ) dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory; as of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth.  John (the Baptist!) testified about Him and cried out, saying, 'This is the One of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me!  For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace; for the Law was given through Moses; (but) grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ!"
 
It's the work of the Holy Spirit that enables a person to understand and believe that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and to receive Christ as Savior and Lord!  And verse 17 says that, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty"!  Galatians 5:1 says that, "It was for freedonm that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery!" 
 
How fitting that great old hymn, "Free from the Law, O happy condition, Jesus has bled, and there is remission; cursed by the Law and bruised by the fall; Christ has redeemed us, once for all!  Once for all, all sinner receive it; once for all, O doubter, believe it; cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ has redeemed us, once for all!"   Wow!
 
And with that new freedom, and the veil lifted, and through the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives, as MacArthur notes, there's nothing obstructing us from the vision of Christ and His glory as revealed in the Scripture!  Verse 18 adds the beautiful  metaphor of us believers, "with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and being transformed into the same image (of Christ) from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit"!  (Realizing that the ultimate goal for us as Christians is to be "conformed to the image of Christ"!)
 
And so, when the veil is removed, we receive the light of the glory of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ and are being transformed (as part of the process of the believers' progressive sanctification!) into the same image of Christ "from glory to glory" (and from strength to strength!), as we're into the Word (as MOBsters!) and advance in Christ-likeness and reflect His glory to those with whom we come into contact in this troubled world!
 
II Corinthians 4:6 says, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shown in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!"  
 
Paul, speaking of himself, writes (in Philippians 3:12-14, "Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus! Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press toward the goal for prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ!"
 
Then in Philippians 3:20-21--"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself!"
 
I Corinthians 13:12 says, "For now we see in a mirrow dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known (by Him!)  Wow!
 
Peter adds an appropriate closing charge, in II Peter 3:18, "But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity! Amen!"  And amen!
 
A fitting old hymn to complement this wonderful passage, and all the related verses, is the one that speaks of that day when we (believers!) shall see Him face to face (and with the veil lifted)!
 
"Face to face with Christ my Savior, face to face, what will it be!  When with rapture I behold HIm, Jesus Christ, Who died for me!  Face to face I shall behold Him, far beyond the stary sky; face to face in all His glory, I shall see Him by and by!  Only faintly now I see Him, with the darkling veil between; but a blessed day is comig, when His glory shall be seen"!  But there's more!  (Check it out, and sing it!)
 
Until we meet again!
 
Lowell